River Arts District

The French Broad crested at 24.67 feet in September 2024 — Hurricane Helene — surpassing the 1916 flood's 23.1-foot mark that had driven industry away from this stretch of river permanently. Local reports put the damage at roughly 80 percent of the district's studios and buildings. Volunteers converged to salvage artworks and clean out studios. By autumn 2025, most of the galleries, studios, restaurants, and breweries had reopened. They call it the RAD Renaissance. In February 2026, USA Today readers voted it the No. 1 Best Arts District in the United States.

The warehouses had been emptying since the 1940s, when repeated flooding finally broke the economics of manufacturing on the French Broad. Artists moved into the abandoned buildings in the 1970s. The Cotton Mill went up in 1887, making denim and flannel — the fifth large factory on the river. Moses and Caesar Cone took it over in 1893 and renamed it Asheville Cotton Mills. Cone closed the complex in 1953. It sat empty for forty years. Most of it burned in April 1995 — arson. The Preservation Society called it "the key structure in the area's redevelopment." Eileen and Marty Black bought what remained in 2002, renovated it, and moved in with other artists as Cotton Mill Studios.

In 1987, Karen Cragnolin started RiverLink, a nonprofit aimed at reclaiming the riverfront from its decades as an unregulated dumping site. The 1989 Asheville Riverfront Plan — a joint effort by architects, landscape architects, and local conservation advocates — won the American Planning Association's Large Scale Planning Award and set the formal course: greenways, mixed-use corridors, artist studios in former industrial shells. Over 500 working artists are here now.

The district runs along the east side of the French Broad from the Lyman Street Curve north to the Jeff Bowen Bridge, and along Depot and Roberts streets from Clingman Avenue. Come to watch work happening — doors open, process visible. Come because it took the flood and came back.