1926 Beaux-Arts wedge-shaped Battery Park Avenue landmark converted to a 71-room boutique hotel in 2024; ghost lore from its TB-era doctors' offices
20 Battery Park Avenue, Asheville, NC 28801
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Boutique hotel rates from the 2024 conversion; restaurant, rooftop bar, and underground speakeasy are open to the public at varying tiers.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Restored 1926 building with elevators and accessible rooms; the historic marble staircase is preserved.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1926 · Beaux-Arts wedge-shaped office building · Part of Grove's Battery Park Hill redevelopment · WWNC radio and Jimmie Rodgers's first broadcast (1927) · Restored as the 71-room Flat Iron Hotel (2024)
The Flatiron Building was announced in 1925 and took its first tenants in January 1926. The nine-story, 52,000-square-foot Beaux-Arts office tower was designed by New York architect Albert C. Wirth for developer Lynwood B. Jackson — the same Jackson who developed the 1924 Jackson Building two blocks away. The Flatiron sits at the wedge-shaped intersection of Battery Park Avenue and Wall Street, and was constructed as part of pharmaceutical magnate Edwin W. Grove's Battery Park Hill redevelopment project, which also included the nearby Grove Arcade.
Early tenants included physicians, dentists, attorneys, and other professionals. The building housed WWNC, Asheville's oldest radio station, from which country music pioneer Jimmie Rodgers made his first broadcast in 1927 from the 8th floor. In 1997, artist Reed Todd installed an 8-foot cast iron flat-iron sculpture across the street that became a downtown landmark.
Midtown Development Associates purchased the building in 1985 for $440,000. Developer Philip Woollcott later proposed converting the building to a boutique hotel, and the conversion took about five years, delayed in part by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Flat Iron Hotel officially opened on May 15, 2024 with 71 rooms, an Italian-Appalachian restaurant called Luminosa, a rooftop bar, an underground speakeasy, and co-working space.
During the 1920s and 1930s the building was home to multiple physicians' offices, coinciding with Asheville's role as a regional tuberculosis-treatment hub. Patients from across the South traveled to Asheville for the mountain climate, and the Flatiron's doctor-tenants treated TB cases as part of routine practice.
Sources
The principal Flatiron Building ghost story is told by US Ghost Adventures, Asheville Terrors, and 828 News NOW. According to the legend, during the 1920s — when Asheville's tuberculosis-treatment industry brought hundreds of TB patients to the city — a man stumbled into the Flatiron and climbed the marble staircase seeking help from doctors who kept private offices in the building. He had lived on the streets after losing everything in the Depression and was unaware of the severity of his illness.
The man is said to have slipped on the second-to-last set of stairs, struck his head against the marble, and died on the staircase, already weakened by tuberculosis. The legend does not name him or provide a date, and contemporary press records confirming the specific death have not been located in the regional press write-ups.
Visitors over the decades have reported a disembodied cough echoing through the stairwells — described as ragged and persistent — and the reflection of a man drifting past the building's tall windows. Tour-operator material describes the staircase as the focal point of the haunting, and the 2024 hotel conversion preserved the historic marble stair.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Book a room at the restored 71-room boutique hotel that opened May 15, 2024 in the 1926 Beaux-Arts Flatiron Building. The conversion preserves the marble staircase tied to the building's TB-era ghost story.
Eat at the hotel's Italian-Appalachian restaurant Luminosa on the ground floor of the converted Flatiron Building, or visit the rooftop bar and underground speakeasy added during the 2024 renovation.
The Flatiron is a stop on multiple downtown ghost tours; guides recount the staircase legend tied to Asheville's 1920s tuberculosis-treatment era.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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