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Asheville, North Carolina (U.S.)

Buncombe County

image by Masao Okazaki, 3 June 2020

Description of the flag
Local flag competition
No flag?
Seal
Biltmore Park

See also:

Description of the flag

The City of Asheville is the largest city in Western North Carolina and the county seat of Buncombe County. The city is located in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains and is known for its natural beauty."
www.ashevillenc.gov - City of Asheville official website
Ivan Sache, 24 November 2007

The building featured on the town's flag and seal is Asheville City Hall, constructed from 1926 to 1928 in Art Deco style by the noted architect Douglas Ellington.

"An Art Deco masterpiece, the City Building sprung from Douglas Ellington's imagination and desire to reflect the contours and textures of the city's mountain backdrop. A ziggurat roof covered with red tiles splits into layers through the use of interrupting green and gold feather motifs. Overall, Ellington chose materials "paralleling the natural clay-pink shades" of Asheville's soil. Council chambers features murals by New York artist Clifford Addams portraying stories of Native Americans and early white settlers in the region. The fanciful nature and embellishments of the City Building (including Art Deco lanterns on either side of the main entrance) incline the building toward iconic status in the hearts of Asheville residents and visitors."
https://www.exploreasheville.com/architecture-trail/asheville-city-hall/
Asheville Architecture Trail

"Douglas D. Ellington (1886-1960), architect, a North Carolina native trained at the École des Beaux Arts, is best known for designing Asheville’s outstanding Art Deco buildings of the 1920s. One of the most important architects practicing in North Carolina during the mid-20th century, Ellington developed a unique synthesis of Beaux Arts classicism, modern functionalism, and Art Deco styling that capped Asheville’s pre-Depression boom."
https://ncarchitects.lib.ncsu.edu/people/P000010
Complete biography, North Carolina Architects and Builders
Ivan Sache, 3 June 2020

A photo of the City Council shown at www.stopasheville.com/citycouncil.htm confirms that the official flag is still in current use. Incidentally it also seems to show that the purple of the flag is much more reddish than the shade used in the Wikipedia graphic.
Ned Smith, 24 November 2007

The relative widths of the stripes seem to be 9+22+9 and the ratio about 3:5 - the overall specs hence are 24:(9+22+9).
António Martins-Tuválkin, 5 December 2009

I agree with Ned that the shade of the folded flag there shows much redder than our version and Wikimedia's commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:City_of_Asheville_North_Carolina_Flag.jpg, used at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asheville,_North_Carolina. The "building" is actually the roof of city hall, a local landmark, which does have a purplish hue over it, but not as strong as we have on our flag drawing.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 17 June 2010

Clear but partial images of the flag can be seen in these photos
https://www.gannett-cdn.com/
https://www.gannett-cdn.com/
Masao Okazaki, 3 June 2020

Local flag competition

image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 4 December 2009

A vote for the unofficial Asheville flag was organized online by Asheville Pizza and Brewing and WWNC Radio. More than 27,000 online were cast in the contest to determine six finalists, with another 2,000 or so choosing the winner. The six finalists' proposals can be seen on the multimedia gallery attached to the article by Tony Kiss, "Asheville Citizen-Times", 19 November 2007:
www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071119/NEWS01/71118013/1250

As announced by "Asheville Citizen-Times", 22 November 2007, the winner is Jack Moon, of Fairview, whose design is "featuring a view of both the city's skyline and mountains".
www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200771121172
Ivan Sache, 24 November 2007

I think the key word is "unofficial"; the new design was the winner of a contest held by a pub and a radio station; I'm not sure I'd treat it as anything more than an advertising poster (which it resembles) for the time being.
Albert S. Kirsch, 24 November 2007

Rangel plans to put the flag into production, and offer it for sale. He dreamed up the idea in hopes that area residents would raise the flag at out-of-town festivals and concerts to promote the city. Rangel is the co-owner of the pizzeria co-organizing the contest.
Ivan Sache, 24 November 2007

The flag shows a mountain slope and landscape view in stylized triangle and diamond shapes, complete with white-outline city contour and the name "asheville" in black smoke trail script letters and a tree (?) outline.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 4 December 2009

No Flag?

This flag shouldn't be official. I have emailed the city administration, and they have told me there is no official flag for the city. In fact there have been entities within the city that have sparked several flag contests in Asheville, but to no avail.
John Johnson, 17 June 2010

Seal

image located by Paul Bassinson, 17 October 2019

Source: https://simplicity.ashevillenc.gov
Paul Bassinson, 17 October 2019

Biltmore Park

image by David Sigley, 20 October 2024
based on photo

Biltmore Park is a mixed-used neighborhood development located in the far southern panhandle of Asheville. It's home to a shopping district known as the Biltmore Park Town Center, and is governed by a community board.

The flag is a white field with the community logo in the center.

Photo of the flag: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php

David Sigley, 20 October 2024