0.12-acre park proposed for an undeveloped site on Church Street in downtown Asheville

ASHEVILLE - A pocket park is proposed for a small lot on Church Street, what Rev. Luke Lingle imagines as a "little oasis" in downtown Asheville, a new life for the parcel that was once home to the Swannanoa Cleaners building and is still marked by the ghostly outline of an old church.

Located at 22 Church St., the 0.12-acre property is owned by Central United Methodist Church, which sits just across the street. The church submitted a permit application for the park to the city on July 11, with plans to convert the existing gravel lot into a public green space, replete with terraced gardens, a water feature, trees and benches.

“One of the things you’ll notice if you walk down Church Street is it feels different than the rest of downtown. There’s tree canopy, it’s a serene place," Lingle, an executive pastor with Central United, told the Citizen Times July 12.

Plans for the park have been in the works for a few years, he said, chasing a way to utilize the space after the Swannanoa Cleaners building was demolished in 2013.

The church bought the property in the early 2000s, according to past Citizen Times reporting, now valued at $313,600.

Believed to be the site of the First Christian Church, which the National Register of Historic Places nomination form for Asheville's downtown historic district dates to 1844, the two-story brick laundry plant was built around it. Enclosed within the laundry's walls, the church's gabled slate roof, which made the shape of the cross when viewed from above, was still visible from the street.

When the building was torn down, the outline of its bricks and mortar remained behind on the wall of the Altamont building, which borders the property. Lingle said it is one of the most interesting features of the property, and another motivation behind the pocket park.

“We didn’t really want to put a building back on there because we love the historicity of having the first church outlined, from here in Asheville, to be available for people to see,” he said. In his 11 years with Central Methodist, it's commonplace to see people take photos in front of the outline, even wedding photoshoots. "Anyone that walks down Church Street will take a look for sure.”

For the past 10 years, the site has been used predominately for parking, Lingle said. On a July afternoon, the lot was mostly empty, a low brick wall at its perimeter and a small step-up to a grassy area at its edge, daylilies in bloom inside a handful of overgrown wooden flowerboxes.

Lingle said the park will be named for Rob Blackburn, who recently retired as a senior pastor at Central Methodist after 25 years.

“Part of the vision for the pocket park was Rob’s long tenure here and his vision for this oasis on Church Street," Lingle said. The park is intended to be fully accessible to the public, though it will likely be fenced, with delineated hours of operation, what he described as “a place for folks to have lunch on their lunch hour or to enjoy on an afternoon ... our hope is that people find some respite there."

Chris Smith, chair of the church's Board of Trustees, a member of Central United since 2004, said one of the things that has always been part of Blackburn's vision is to have Church Street be preserved as one of the last remaining, "if not the last remaining," true, tree-lined streets in the center of downtown Asheville, and the pocket park as an extension of that.

"The intent is for it, in perpetuity, to be a green space in downtown Asheville," Smith said.

Lingle said they anticipate breaking ground sometime this year.

According to Smith, the back half of the parcel, a 0.48-acre property fronting South Lexington Avenue, was part of a property swap between the church and Philip Woollcott, the Asheville developer behind the Flatiron building renovation into a boutique hotel.

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In exchange for the entire Swannanoa Laundry property, the church clinched ownership of the three parking lots behind its building, said Smith, and then paid $250,000 to maintain ownership of the 0.12 acre parcel on Church Street for use as the pocket park.

Buncombe County property records show a transfer of the property from Central United Methodist Church to WRW Holdings LLC in February 2020.

As part of the same permit application, the church also plans main entrance and walkway improvements to its 1903 sanctuary at 27 Church St, plus landscape planting updates and a perimeter fence. The church was formed in 1837 in a small, white-framed structure on the current property.

Sarah Honosky is the city government reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. News Tips? Email shonosky@citizentimes.com or message on Twitter at @slhonosky. Please support local, daily journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Small public park proposed on Church St. in downtown Asheville