West Asheville building added to historic district

The Mardis Building has come out of its shell and extended West Asheville's historic downtown district.

Built in 1925 as West Asheville's largest commercial structure, the 15,200-square-foot building at 444 Haywood Road has been named to the National Register of Historic Places.

The brick facade was covered sometime in the 1960s, and the structure was somewhat overlooked as a historic building when the neighboring West Asheville-Aycock School Historic District was formed in 2006, said Jack W.L. Thomson, executive director of the Preservation Society of Asheville and Buncombe County.

"The owners did some investigation and peeked behind the curtain, so to speak," Thomson said. Peeling away that facade to reveal the original brick adds more authenticity.

"The main thing is that building didn't wind up in the landfill," Thomson said. "We like to talk about sustainability in Asheville. The greenest building is the one that's already built."

The merchant J.F. Mardis partnered with James G. Anderson of the Bank of West Asheville to build the structure in 1925 at Haywood Road and what was then Westwood Place, long before the construction of Interstate 240. The building housed a real estate office, a shoe store and other small businesses.

In 1974, the Smith family purchased the building in 1974 to house their business, Ace Appliance Co. The appliance store remained in this location until the business closed in 2008.

Now the renovated building hosts the Second Gear outdoor gear store as well as newer tenants, King Daddy's Chicken & Waffle and a clothing store, Rhetorical Factory.

North Carolina recently added 17 properties for inclusion in the National Register, including Sylva's historic downtown.

The district in Sylva stretches along 13 acres and 44 buildings along Main, Mill, Landis and Jackson streets. The Sylva Pharmacy at 596-600 West Main Street was built in 1900, and the Modernist United States Post Office building was completed in 1964.

"The National Register is a vital tool in the preservation of North Carolina's historic resources," said Susan Kluttz, Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources.

When all of the buildings in historic districts classified as contributing to the districts' significance are counted, North Carolina has about 73,300 National Register properties, Kluttz said.