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Rice-White Furniture Store Building
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Initial Condition |
Constructed in 1890 by the prominent Hilliard family, 19-21 Biltmore Avenue was a mixed-use structure with two retail stores on the street level, doctors' offices serving two generations of Hilliard physicians and an undertaker's business on the second floor, and assembly halls serving local fraternal lodges on the third floor. In addition to the Knights of Pythias and Loyal Order of Moose, the building also housed the Central Labor Union offices and the Socialist Reading Room in the 1910's. Beginning in 1930 the second and third floor were transformed into a small downtown hotel through extensive partitioning of the original large open rooms. Consistent with the national trends transforming downtown commercial properties, the building was converted in the early 1950's to a single retail furniture store with the upper floors turned over to warehousing for the business. A major fire damaged portions of the upper floors, but a remarkable amount of original woodwork and detailing survives.
PIP is currently rehabilitating the building for two retail spaces on the Biltmore Avenue level, reproducing the 1920's facade featuring projecting storefront display bays, and adapting the remainder of the building for ten residential units. Two units have two-story configurations, and five of the units feature loft mezzanines that open to the living areas below.
Rowhouse Architects (Jeff Dalton and Robin Raines) are the project architects, and Heartwood Renovation and Building is the general contractor.
Rice-White Furniture
Store Building
19-21 Biltmore Avenue
Asheville, NC 28801