Where the wild roasters were in Asheville
The Harkins Bldg, at 28 Patton Ave and home of coffee roaster Revell & Wagner, is in the block of buildings to the right of the Buncombe Courthouse seen in the distance in this 1895 photo. The first tall building on the right is an early incarnation of the Drhumor Building which stands to this day.
This photo was taken from the intersection of Patton and Haywood, nearly in front of where the Crystal Dairy Lunch would be ten years later.
South Main Street became Biltmore Avenue. The hotel at the right of this 1920 photo looking up Biltmore toward Pack Sq, is at 52 S Main where the early coffee roaster Union Tea Company was located. There have been a number of hotels on this site that is now an art gallery at street level and condominiums upstairs.
By 1927 when this photo was taken, Efird's Department store has taken over the Harkins Bldg where once roasted Mssrs. Revell & Wagner, The Man Store is now on the corner of Lexington, and the Imperial movie theatre can be seen to the right of Efird's.
By 1964, a lot of the charm of Patton has been lost with modern facades covering the earlier architecture. Efird's is still in a mostly intact Harkins Bldg at 28 Patton and the Man Store is still in business selling Hart Schaffner Marx suits. As downtown continued to deteriorate over the next fifteen years and the people fled to the Asheville mall, it didn't seem such a great loss at the time to raze the block for a parking lot. At least in 1964 there was still a nighttime Christmas Parade along this street each year.