The original Battery Park Hotel was built in 1886 by Colonel Frank Coxe. It was designed by Philadelphia architect
Edward Hazlehurst (1853-1915) in "spectacular"
Queen Anne style. It was the first hotel in the
South with an electric
elevator, and one of the first with electric lighting. Once the
railroad reached Asheville in 1880, the mountain town attracted twenty
passenger trains a day from the nation's largest cities, and people found out what a wonderful place the community was to visit. One reason for visiting Asheville was the clean mountain air, which helped problems such as
tuberculosis. Fine hotels were built, and Coxe's Battery Park Hotel was the best of these. For one thing, its location on Asheville's tallest hill provided magnificent views. The
Rockefeller and
Lorillard families were among those who stayed in the Battery Park. Another notable guest was
George Vanderbilt, who from his window could see the land that would one day become
Biltmore Estate. By 1920, the
Asheville Citizen reported the Battery Park had changed management three times. Edwin Wiley Grove bought the Battery Park in 1921. In 1922 he announced that it would remain a resort hotel for winter and summer, while he would add a second year-round hotel nearby. Plans changed later, however. People hated to see the old Battery Park Hotel torn down, but Grove, known also for the
Grove Park Inn, built a fine hotel in the same location. Despite its architectural value, which Grove acknowledged, the old building was "rapidly outgrowing its period of usefulness". Some sources say it was damaged by a fire before being torn down, but newspapers do not appear to support this. The new hotel would be first-class, for industry, and not a resort. Architect
William Lee Stoddart of
New York City designed the 220-room Battery Park Hotel that stands today. The modern building was built of
reinforced concrete with
brick,
limestone, and
terra cotta, with a
Mission Revival roof that offered a dining area. The architectural style was a mix of
Neoclassical and
"Spanish romanticism".
Helen Clevenger, a 19-year-old college student, was found dead in Room 224 on July 17, 1936, having died the night before. She had been shot in the chest, and slashed in the face with a sharp instrument. A hall boy at the hotel, 22-year-old Martin Moore, confessed to the murder (although he later recanted), and was executed on December 11 of the same year. On September 4, 1943, a U.S. Government Official, Clifton Alheit, jumped to his death off the roof of the Battery Park Hotel in an apparent suicide. The hotel closed October 30, 1972 and Billy Shadrick of Housing Projects, Inc. took it over in 1979, keeping the historic exterior with the help of preservation
tax credits, and converting the building into apartments for senior citizens. and businesses operate on the first floor. It is located in the
Downtown Asheville Historic District. ==References==