![]() With a new playground and outdoor basketball court at East Asheville Community Center, neighbors also placed a heavy focus on ensuring the new park would be a place to connect with nature.ĪPR’s period of expansion that started in the 1970s met reality in the 1990s: existing facilities needed major repairs and accessibility upgrades – and more funding. From its earliest meetings, a jogging and biking path, covered picnic area, restrooms, and play area were named as top priorities. Haw Creek Community Association created the Haw Creek Park task force to help guide creation of the new park. When the largest apartment development planned to expand by an additional 89 additional units in 1995, neighbors organized to prevent high density, large scale apartment complexes and campaign for sidewalks, greenways, and parks.Īs a result of their efforts, the apartment complex did not expand and APR negotiated to purchase the proposed construction site from its owner, Duke Energy (then Carolina Power & Light). The influx of construction and renters concerned long-time residents. In 1977, much of Haw Creek’s center was rezoned to allow large apartment complexes. As the neighborhood grew to include more than 10% of Asheville’s population, so did the need for additional parks and recreation spaces. Ballfields adjacent to that pool are now Charlie Bullman Park. ![]() Asheville Parks & Recreation (APR) opened East Asheville Community Center in the mid-1960s with programs for teens, kids, and older adults, while a membership club opened a private pool around the same time. Two of Asheville’s oldest public recreation areas, Asheville Municipal Golf Course and Recreation Park, are located close to Haw Creek in the adjacent Beverly Hills neighborhood. The creek flows south to the mouth of the valley and westward into Swannanoa River. Water running down these ridges meet on the valley floor and flow into Haw Creek. ![]() While the boundaries of Haw Creek historically referred to a much larger area, it is today bound by Bull Mountain to the east and Peach Knob on the north. While the tunnel made travel to and from the east side of Asheville much easier, construction of I-240 in the 1970s via an open cut through the mountain accelerated growth in Haw Creek by rezoning the neighborhood to admit high density development. Prior to its construction, the only routes into downtown were over Beaucatcher Mountain or along Swannanoa River to Biltmore Avenue. Haw Creek remained a rural community of farms surrounded by hills until Beaucatcher Tunnel opened in 1929. Once prolific in the area, their edible berries progress from a pinkish rose to a bluish black. The neighborhood is named for blackhaws, small trees with short crooked trunks and stout spreading branches. The modern Haw Creek community developed around a stagecoach stop on the way to Asheville. It’s likely that their trails along waterways, valleys, and ridges became Cherokee hunting and trading trails, then stagecoach routes, and eventually today’s road system. Numerous spear points and stone tools found throughout the Haw Creek neighborhood indicate small semi-permanent villages of hunter-gatherers existed in the area thousands of years ago. Haw Creek and Masters parks are largely the result of one neighborhood’s determination, organizing, and sweat equity. The best public parks are shaped by the neighbors that surround them, reflecting their sense of pride in building a unique social community. This entry is part of Park Views, an Asheville Parks & Recreation series that explores the history of the city’s public parks and community centers – and the mountain spirit that helped make them the unique spaces they are today.
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