A Southern City Rolls Out Its Welcome Mat
Chris Keane for The New York Times
Residents of Asheville, N.C., are typically drawn to the stunning mountain views and vibrant downtown, but the city is also attracting an increasing number of same-sex couples who find the community open and welcoming.
By GAY JERVEY
Published: August 28, 2005
IN 1998, Clayton Byers and his partner, Chris Heppe, who lived in suburban Washington, vacationed in Asheville, N.C. The two had never visited the city before, but they quickly fell in love with it.Among other things, they were enchanted with Asheville’s mountain air, beautiful views, vibrant art scene and singular karma. “It was like a calling,” Mr. Heppe said. “We knew that eventually we wanted to make Asheville home.”
Mr. Byers added: “It was so beautiful, and everyone was so friendly. It’s just a nice, relaxed, easy going place.”
In addition, the couple quickly appreciated that Asheville was welcoming to all people. “And that is what we were looking for – a place where your sexuality didn’t matter, where you were just accepted for who you were,” Mr. Byers said. Before the couple returned to Washington, they placed a bid on a house, but another buyer beat them to it. Nonetheless, they never lost their yearning to move to Asheville, and recently, they achieved their dream.Indeed, tales of love at first sight with Asheville are common, particularly among gays and lesbians who are attracted to the city’s famous tolerance. “It is like the perfect pair of shoes,” said Ira Schultz, the publisher of the monthly publication Out In Asheville, who on a whim moved to the city from Florida in 2000. “You aren’t in the market for it, but you see it and you know you have to have it. And you do it. I didn’t know anything about Asheville, but then I came here when visiting North Carolina and knew it was where I had to be. I went back to Florida a week later, closed up my house and moved up here.”
Likewise, after attending the city’s second Gay Pride celebration in the summer of 1998, Frank Salvo and his partner, Ralph Coffey, decided Asheville was their destiny. In March of 1999, the couple, who had lived in Charlotte, about 120 miles from Asheville, bought a bed-and-breakfast business, now named the 1889 WhiteGate Inn and Cottage. The inn is not far from the boyhood home of the author Thomas Wolfe, who was born and raised in Asheville and used his mother’s boarding house as the setting for the novel “Look Homeward, Angel.”
“We love it here,” Mr. Salvo said. “People come here to the inn just to visit and say: ‘Oh, what a great place this is. It is so beautiful and accepting.’ And, even though they might not have planned to, they start looking for property to buy.”
It’s not surprising then that Asheville’s appeal to the gay world has led many to dub it the “San Francisco of the South.” Indeed, according to the 2000 census report, the city ranked 14th nationwide in the percentage of same-sex couples.
Asheville’s popularity among the homosexual community has helped to fuel a bustling real estate market.
Michael Zullo, the team leader at Keller Williams Realty office in Asheville, said: “In 2004, we had an appreciation of 15 percent in residential real estate values. And, as of the first six months of 2005, we were up 9 percent. That is the highest growth rate of any metropolitan area in North Carolina. And there is no doubt that the influx of the gay community, from all over the country, has helped to drive this growth.” The average house price in Asheville, he said, is $210,000.
There are historical explanations for the tolerance. For nearly 200 years, Asheville has made at least part of its income from tourists, according to Dan Pierce, an associate professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. That has forced it to accept outsiders, and intensified their influences. Over time, he said, there have been influxes of many different kinds of people. “In the latter part of the 19th century, that meant toleration of Yankees, who brought a lot to Asheville, including the Vanderbilts when they built the Biltmore estate,” he said.
In addition to restaurants, stores and coffee shops, downtown Asheville has 33 art galleries, and residents are moving there in increasing numbers as well. There are about 200 units, mostly condos, under construction downtown, with another 160 in the pipeline, according to Sasha Vrtunski, development director for the city of Asheville.
“The downtown area is booming,” said Jerri Goldberg, a delicatessen owner who moved to Asheville in 1998 after 13 years in South Florida. “When I moved here, there was no real residential area in downtown, and now there are a lot of condos going up.”
“The only cautionary word I have is that you need to come here with a job or be self-employed,” she said. “It’s difficult to find good-paying positions in this area.” According to the Chamber of Commerce, health care, manufacturing and tourism are the largest industries.
Meg Reilley, a photographer who had lived in San Francisco and Baton Rouge, La., and moved to Asheville in June 2001, compares the city to Berkeley, Calif. “Real hippie, gay – open,” she said.
Ms. Reilley was also initially surprised that such openness could thrive in North Carolina, a state known for its conservatism. “Having lived in San Francisco, I thought: ‘Oh my God, there must be so much friction. At the Gay Pride parade, there must be people spitting on you all.’ And people would say: ‘No, you just don’t get it yet. When you live here, you’ll understand. It’s just not like that here.’ ”
The Very Rev. Todd M. Donatelli, dean of the Cathedral of All Souls, an Episcopal Church, attributes some of the ability of disparate people to live together well to the area’s old mountain spirit of live and let live. “People here are used to kind of agreeing to disagree,” he said. “It’s not that we don’t care how people live, it’s not like ‘hey, anything goes.’ It is more that because I want to be respected, I know that I have to respect you, even if that means that at times we’re going to be tense with each other in our disagreements.”
Some of that is made easier by the fact that it’s not a really large city. “None of us is too far removed from people that are very different from us,” he added. “So it’s not like all of the Baptists hang together and all of the Episcopalians hang together and the Jewish congregation hangs together. There is a lot of cross-pollination.”
Five years after moving to Asheville from Atlanta, Harry Brown and David Kanis are still smitten with its charms. At the time, the couple paid $300,000 for a 2,500-square-foot ranch house. “When we first came here, David said, ‘Smell that mountain air,’ ” Mr. Brown said. “We just fell in love with the place.”
Mr. Byers and Mr. Heppe are also happy to have made their move. After Mr. Heppe retired in January, they moved to Asheville where several months earlier they had bought a 1,700-square-foot house in Asheville with a mountain view for $275,000. While they are renovating that house, they are living in a house they bought for $165,000 and will rent out when they move.
As he was closing the deal on his first house in Asheville, Mr. Byers knew that the move was meant to be. “I was meeting with the seller,” he said. “She was not gay, but she had this mug on her shelf that said, ‘Hate is not a family virtue.’ And I said to myself: ‘I think this is the place for us. Life is too short.’ “