Location: SR 1781 (Broadway Street) at Weaver Boulevard in Asheville
County: Buncombe
Original Date Cast: 1976
The University of North Carolina at Asheville was established in 1927 as Buncombe County Junior College, under the auspices of the Buncombe County Board of Education. The college operated separately as a free public institution until 1930, when financial difficulties compelled administrators to begin charging tuition. The name of the school was changed to Biltmore Junior College. In 1934 the Board of Education relinquished its authority to a board of trustees, who obtained a charter under the name of Biltmore College. Control was passed again in 1936, this time to the Asheville City School Board. The institution then became Asheville-Biltmore College, although the name was not widely used for several years.
The General Assembly approved state support for the college in 1955, and when the same body provided for the community college system in 1957, Asheville-Biltmore College was the first institution to qualify as a state supported community college. By 1958 the college, with the help of community leaders, launched a development campaign that eventually gave the institution the financial backing to purchase a 157-acre tract of land on the north side of town and to construct seven buildings there. The campus officially moved to the site in 1961. At the recommendation of the Governor’s Commission on Education Beyond High School, Asheville-Biltmore College became a four-year state college on July 1, 1963. Exactly six years later, the college became a part of the Consolidated University of North Carolina, adopting its current name, the University of North Carolina at Asheville. The campus, still in its scenic North Asheville location, now encompasses 265 acres.
References:
University of North Carolina at Asheville, Catalog, 1975-1976
University of North Carolina at Asheville, North Carolina’s Public Liberal Arts University (1998)
UNC-Asheville website: http://www.unca.edu