Visit the Historic Grove Arcade
Few know that the very first indoor shopping mall in the USA was built around the beginning of the 1900s, by one of the most ambitious developers in the tourist town of Asheville, North Carolina. Mr. E. W. Grove built inns, hotels, and invested heavily in real estate, around the same time that Biltmore Estate was being created by George Vanderbilt, another super wealthy gentleman with a penchant for building large and comfortable dwellings. One of Grove’s largest hotels burned to the ground in a mysterious fire, and he decided to dismantle an entire two story hill - a favorite place for locals to go hunting and hiking - in order to build a 14 story high-rise to replace the old hotel. At first he built a two-story shopping center, and before he could complete the rest of the project, he died. His son finished the Grove Arcade, which existed for some time as an indoor and outdoor market, mostly for farmers to sell vegetables. But the plan for a skyscraper hotel never materialized, and the Arcade later closed due to a poor local economy.
But in the late part of the 20th century, interest in the historic Arcade led developers to renovate it and create a shopping plaza complete with stores, restaurants, and bars, topped off by luxury condos. Today the Grove Arcade is a magnet for those throngs of tourists who flock to Asheville to enjoy the mountain scenery but also get in some serious shopping time, and on weekends it is jammed with customers who can stroll through the Arcade and entertain themselves all day long.