Asheville, North Carolina

Asheville is a mid-sized city in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina with an unusually dense concentration of Art Deco architecture in its downtown, built during a 1920s building boom fueled by tourism and speculation. The city is also adjacent to Biltmore Estate and at the center of a regional arts scene that includes numerous craft studios working in the Appalachian folk art tradition. The city's elevation of roughly 2,200 feet moderates summer temperatures compared to the piedmont and coastal plain, making it a historical summer retreat.