“…Second Floor, Men’s Wear…”
That’s how the elevator voice of Haywood Park Hotel announces the floor of our room and reminds us of the history in its halls. As we leave the elevator, glass cases enclosing fashion mannikins sporting finery from flapper to depression eras catch our eye. Plush oversized plants and comfy couches from another time invite us to sit down. Instead we make our way to our room in one corner off this lobby space.
Our spacious suite is adorned in early 20th century muted colors that relax. We feel the quiet. Rugless floors seem to announce with Jeeves-like authority that everything around us is super-clean.
This is Asheville North Carolina’s Haywood Park Hotel that wraps you in an oldie time feel of a department store you’d see in a black and white news reel. As you enter the lobby, you walk past the Model A car en route to the hotel registration desk. Archival black and white photos tell the history of this most centrally located hotel of Asheville.
Asheville North Carolina Time Capsule
Haywood Park Hotel owes its central location to its original purpose as a department store—first named Bon Marché and then later renamed by a new owner as Ivey’s. It does not surprise to learn that the hotel hosts a monthly big band swing dancing event. You too might be hard pressed to think of surrounds better suited for a Lindy Hop.
If you too adore the way in which Asheville as a whole is a strip-mall-NOT, nostalgia-rich Hayword Park Hotel is perhaps its crowning jewel. Asheville’s downtown is adorned with mid-century font signage that speak to nostalgia for other times, much as the fashions on display in the Haywood Park Hotel lobby do.
Haywood Park Hotel Has Many Assets of Note
History buffs will likely adore the step back in time feel of Haywood Park Hotel. Indeed, Asheville’s most famous son, writer Thomas Wolfe, is quoted as talking about how unimaginable it would be for his hometown to not have Bon Marché’s fashion finery at its center.
Location-location-location—-you are in the very center of Asheville’s quaint feeling downtown, in steps from restaurants at all price points as well as many of the music and art venues for which the mountain city is known.
Haywood Park Hotel has few rugs and is promoted as pet-friendly. This is great news for those of us who appreciate that no carpet means fewer allergens. Hallelujah—an oldie time feel without any mold or mildew!
Space-space-space—-every suite comes with a generous floor plan.
The luxury touches one expects at a posh resort such as a jacuzzi bath are all there, but at a very value-oriented price point.
For location and comfort in historic Asheville North Carolina, Haywood Park Hotel is a top pick.
One note of caution—- prime time for Haywood Park and all Asheville hotels is during the months of Blue Ridge Mountain’s autumnal splendor and bookings for that window might be sold out before the prior Easter.
For bookings and more information, visit the Haywood Park Hotel website.
Photos by Peter Kachergis, unless otherwise indicated.
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