On the west, Asheville, with her railroad depot and cotton mills, reaches to the banks of the French Broad River, renowned for its placid beauty in parts, its saults and leaps through the rugged hills above and below Hot Springs, and skirted all along by the Southern Railway. No more charming ride can be had anywhere than the few hours' trip along the French Broad, one romantic view chasing another, and like links of a chain tying the memory forever to this one of the pleasantest spots on earth.

Soft and romantic as the name, Swannanoa, two miles south of Asheville, is a truly Southern river embowered in dense verdure, full of witchery and quiet charm. As an oriental bride, it is guarded from unbidden eyes, until it meets and merges into the French Broad, a short distance below Connally's.

To your left is Biltmore, the princely manor of Mr. Geo. W. Vanderbilt of New York. He has selected this section of the Western North  Carolina mountains to create the lordly domain. It is the grandest private residence in the United States and rivals the palaces of the old world, apart from the perfection of modern appointment, the variety of the domain and its incomparable situation. To visit the estate, a permit is necessary. It may be obtained by applying by post or in person to the office of the Biltmore Estate at Biltmore Station.

There are fifteen hotels and many boarding houses to receive the stranger, twenty-five churches, four public and a number of private schools and higher institutions of learning ; a Young Men's Christian Association and numerous societies with church affiliation, also a public library. There are water works, a good sewer system, gas and electric lighting, electric street railways, telephone exchange, fire department and fire alarm, telegraph, six miles of brick paved streets and a multitude of good drives.

The native people are kind to the stranger and will greatly interest him by their unspoiled simplicity of speech and person ; the shaggy mountaineer with his tiny wood-cart, the oxen-span, or the cow paired with a mule, measuredly tugging away at the canvas-thatched family wagon. On the other hand, the cultivated Southern families will hospitably receive the stranger within their circle, and there are many other residents of refinement hailing from all parts of the country.

Vance Monument, ,Court House, City Hall, Palmetto Building, Asheville Library. 

Post Office and U.S. Courts.

Patton Avenue, looking East.

Manor House

Kenilworth Inn

Swannanoa Hotel

Oaks Hotel

Oakland Heights. 

[Composite view]

First Presbyterian Church

Trinity, Episcopal Church

Methodist Church

First Baptist Church.

Bingham Military Institute, Barracks

Normal and Collegiate Institute

Asheville College for Young Women. 

Pisgah and the Rat from Battery Park Hotel

North-West from Battery Park Hotel

Asheville from Battery Park Hotel (bottom, center) ;Asheville from Battery Park Hotel.

Office of the Biltmore Estate. [top]

Nurseries of the Biltmore Estate. [bottom]

Lover's Leap - Hot Springs. [left]

Mountain Park Hotel - Hot Springs. [right]

A Cabin on the Mountain Side. [left]

Blondin Donkey. [middle] A Mountain Team. [right]

[no image]

Along the Swannanoa. [top two images] 

Drive Along the Swannanoa River. [center picture]

Thousand Islands of the French Broad. [bottom, left]

County Bridge Across the French Broad. [bottom, right]

Asheville Residences: George W. Pack [top left].

J.E. Rumbaugh [top right].

Connally Residence [bottom left].

The Bungalow [bottom right].

Mitchell's Monument. [bottom left]

Mount Mitchell, the highest Peak east of the Rockies.