GEORGE WILLIS PACK & the Development of Asheville's Pack Square
In recent years, there has been a great deal of talk about redesigning Asheville's Pack Square. If the proposed changes are implemented, this will not be the first time that the Square has undergone significant changes. Called Public Square in 1793, this was the original center of Asheville and included the jail and stocks. Later, a log courthouse was added. The second courthouse was also a log building, but was replaced by a brick courthouse around 1825. After a fire in 1848, a fourth courthouse was built, only to burn 1865. Bricks from that building were used to construct a small courthouse until money for a new brick courthouse was secured in 1876. The 1876 Courthouse was designed by J.A. Tennent and was located on the Square approximately where the fountain is today. Photographs show that this handsome structure dominated the Square. The courthouse had an amazing view and its third floor housed the city's first public library.
In 1880, the railroad came to Asheville and brought many new residents. One new arrival was George Willis Pack, a lumberman from Cleveland, Ohio who came to Asheville with hopes that the mountain air would cure his wife's throat ailment. Previously, Asheville's climate had cured his mother. However, it is clear that Pack was less than enthralled with Asheville of 1880. He stayed at the Swannanoa Hotel, then considered to be the City's best, but was offended by the Swannanoa's lack of “sanitary facilities.” Pack demanded that a bathroom be installed. An entire room was remodeled for Pack, including an imported tub and a reservoir to supply water. When Pack's bathroom was completed, he held what he called a “public toilet” for Asheville's business and social leaders so that they could see this newest idea in “progressive living and comfort.”
Pack purchased land on what is now Merrimon Avenue and built Manyoaks, his family's home. This large house was a landmark for years until it was demolished in 1969 and replaced by Deal Buick. Next, Pack focused his attention on the Public Square area. In the 1880s, the roads that served the Square were dirt and were usually full of mud and refuse. Farmers came to the Square several days a week to sell their goods to the people who lived downtown. The farmers' ox carts added to the squalid state of Public Square. In addition, the Square was filled with people who came to the courthouse.
Pack successfully lobbied the city fathers to light the Square with electric bulbs, pave the road with bricks, and to add sidewalks and benches for pedestrians. By 1888, Asheville had four 125-feet tall iron towers with carbon lights, including one to light the fountain at Public Square. A power plant on Valley Street generated electricity for the lights and for the electric Asheville Street Railway. Despite these changes, Pack was still not happy with the Public Square. Pack also found the presence of “ragamuffin” gangs of children in the Square undesirable. He also started Asheville's first kindergarten and paid half of the teachers' salaries. In 1888, he paid the full salaries for two teachers for the City's first black public school located on Beaumont Street. In 1892 he purchased land on South French Broad Avenue and donated it for the creation of Aston Park. Pack also donated land for Montford Park. In 1892, Pack got the City to authorize a market in the basement of city hall and to prohibit unlicensed vendors from the Square. This angered the farmers who moved their market to Lexington Avenue.
As these changes were made, Pack's political savvy shows through. He offered to provide half of the $3,000 necessary to erect a monument in honor of Zebulon Vance. Vance, who died in 1894, was a Buncombe County native who had served as governor of North Carolina during the Civil War. Built in 1896 and dedicated in 1898, the granite Vance Monument replaced the tiered fountain and was the tallest structure on the Square. In 1899, Pack purchased the First National Bank building, which was located on the Square, and gave it to the Asheville Library Association. His only stipulation was that the Association agree to furnish and equip the building for use as a public library. A grateful city named the library in honor of Pack.
At the turn-of-the-century, Pack Square was small, but striking with the obelisk Vance Monument, the 1876 Courthouse, and the castle-like tower of Pack Library. Pack Square was clearly the center of Asheville and bustled as the nexus of the streetcar lines. A streetcar from each route in the city would arrive every fifteen minutes, transferring passagers and picking up new ones.
Just as his vision of Asheville was beginning to be realized, Pack developed a heart condition and moved to Long Island, New York to be closer to his son. Before he moved, Pack purchased land for a new courthouse. Today, if someone suggested not only replacing the courthouse, but also moving it to a new location, they would probably be laughed out of town. But Pack not only suggested this change, he made it happed. He donated this land to the County with the stipulation that the Public Square courthouse property would become a park to be used for the public “forever.”
On January 8, 1901, the commissioners voted to accept Pack's offer. The new courthouse was completed in 1903, away from the symbolic center of Asheville for the first time since 1793. A fountain was placed at the old courthouse site and the area was renamed Pack Square. Pack Square was enlarged in 1928 when a new courthouse and city building were constructed.
George Willis Pack died in 1906 and was buried in Cleveland. A memorial service was held for him in Asheville's courthouse. Asheville's fire bell tolled from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m., the time of his funeral in Cleveland. As to his service to Asheville, Pack wrote, “I have done in Asheville only what seemed to be my proper part as a citizen and neighbor among the people who welcomed me to Western North Carolina.”
By Rebecca Lamb, Executive Director, Western North Carolina Historical Association (2002)