On the left, built in 1924-1928, this Classical Revival-style building was designed by Frank Pierce Milburn to serve as the Buncombe County Courthouse, replacing a previous courthouse that stood immediately in front of the present building, which was built in 1903. The building stands 17 stories and 230 feet (71 meters) tall, and is the eighth courthouse to have served Buncombe County, and was the second courthouse built to the east of Pack Square, which was the original courthouse location. The building is clad in buff brick with a granite base, a recessed doric portico at the main entrance with doric columns, a stone trim surround, a cornice with dentils and modillions, and a large cartouche above the cornice, one-over-one windows, rusticated brickwork at the base of the building and on the side wings on the sixth through eighth floors, which flanks bays with ionic pilasters and small windows, a cornice with modillions and dentils above the base section of the building, with cartouches above the central bays of the side wings, a tower with rusticated brickwork at the corners at the ninth, tenth, and eleventh floors, four-story engaged corinthian columns and stone balustrades at the twelfth floor, roman lattice motif screens at the stone-clad sixteenth floor, below a cornice with modillions, dentils, and acroterions, roman lattice motif screens at the seventeenth floor, ionic columns at the central bays of the side facades on the sixth through eighth floors, and two contemporary rear additions, one of which, built in 2012-2014, houses courtrooms and offices, and the other, built in 1995, housing the Buncombe County Jail. The building originally housed courtrooms and offices in the lower portion, with the Buncombe County Jail in the tower. However, upon the completion of the present jail building in 1995. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. Between 2012 and 2014, the building was heavily renovated and rehabilitated, with the addition of a new wing to the rear, and renovation of the interior, including the conversion of the former jail facilities in the tower into offices, and the addition of green trim to the windows and doors, adding more contrast to the building’s facade. The building remains in use as offices and courtrooms for the Buncombe County courts and government offices.
On the right, built in 1926-1928, this Art Deco-style building was designed by Douglas Ellington to serve as the City Hall for Asheville, North Carolina, replacing a previous city hall, which stood from 1892 until 1928 where Reuter Terrace of Pack Square Park is located today. City Hall stands alongside the Classical Revival-style Buncombe County Courthouse, which was built at the same time, and was originally proposed by Ellington to be a similar structure to City Hall, but the proposal was rejected by the relatively more conservative Buncombe County Commissioners, whom saw the proposed design as garish and too radical for the county. A bus station, which was to be located in a wing connecting the two buildings, was also never built. The building features an orange brick exterior, a marble-clad base, marble trim, metal frame windows, an arcade at the entrance with arched openings and a vaulted tile ceiling, Art Deco-style copper lanterns flanking the entrance, decorative trim surrounds at the windows at the central bays of the second floor of the front facade with pediments, engaged columns, and decorative sculptural reliefs, brick pilasters flanking the windows at the central bays of the building’s facades, windows in pentagon-shaped bays with pointed tops flanking decorative stone fins and pinnacles at the central bays of the sixth floor, setbacks at the corners of the sixth floor, an octagonal seventh floor, an octagonal polychromatic terra cotta roof above the seventh floor, with floral motifs and ribs, and an octagonal lantern at the top of the building’s roof. Inside, the building features a lobby with Art Deco-style pendants, decorative Art Deco-style trim, entrance doors with arched transoms, elevators with bronze doors, original operator levers, a stone trim surround, and bronze dial-style position indicators, a marble floor, a bronze letterbox, and marble wainscoting. The other areas of the building, besides the elevator lobbies and main lobby, have been modernized and updated to accommodate modern office needs. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, and remains in use as Asheville City Hall, with the building’s most recent change being the elimination of the staff positions of manual elevator operators in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, with the elevators being shifted to automatic operation.
The buildings anchor the east side of Pack Square Park, built as an extension of the historic Pack Square in 1928-1929 to create a well-defined Civic Center for the City of Asheville.