User:Firc.avl.nc/The Bon Marché Building of Asheville, North Carolina

The Bon Marché Building of Asheville, North Carolina was built in 1923 by E.W. Grove for the store's owner, Solomon Lipinsky. This was several years before Grove began construction on nearby Grove Arcade, one of Asheville’s most famous architectural landmarks. The Bon Marché building was designed by W.L. Stoddart, a hotel architect who also designed the Battery Park Hotel and Vanderbilt Hotel. It is an example of the Classical Revival architecture style.

This new building served as a larger location for the Bon Marché, originally called Lipinsky and Ellick, which was founded in downtown Asheville in the 1890’s. The owner, Solomon Lipinsky, was a prominent Jewish businessman and community leader in Asheville. from the 1890’s to 1978, nearly 90 years, the Bon Marché became the longest running department store in Asheville’s history. The name Bon Marché, meaning “the good deal” or “the good market” in French, came from Le Bon Marché, one of the world’s first department stores located in Paris.

In a 1938 letter to Solomon Lipinsky’s son, Lewis Lipinsky, in preparation for the store’s 50th anniversary, Asheville author Thomas Wolfe says “…Bon Marché is such a landmark in Asheville life that if I ever heard anything had happened to it I think I should feel almost as if Beaucatcher Mountain had been violently removed from the landscape by some force of nature. I know that as long as I can remember, at any rate, it has always stood with the women folk at home for the best in merchandise and fashion…”

After The Bon Marché Store moved across the street in 1937, Ivey’s Department Store took over the Bon Marché building. Ivey’s Department Store became a staple in downtown Asheville during the mid- 20th century.

1985 saw the renovation of the Bon Marché building, which restored it to a more historically accurate condition. This renovation removed some changes made during the 1950s and 1960s, such as a semi-circular awning, which was incompatible with the building’s original style. In that same year, the Bon Marché building became the Haywood Park Hotel.