Up the hill from Memorial Stadium, Mountainside Park features a playground, lighted walking path, and benches.
Features
- Benches
- Off-street parking lot
- Paved walking path
- Playground
Parties and Rentals
History
Asheville Housing Authority (AHA) approved construction of single family homes and duplexes for medium-to-low income community members at the base of Beaucatcher Mountain in 1971. Plans for Mountainside Apartments changed substantially by the time they opened several months later as a collection of apartment buildings. Though APR advised community partners on a children’s playground for apartment residents as early as 1972, development of nearby Mountainside Park began a few years later.
The City of Asheville acquired property at the northern end of Memorial Stadium on Hunt Hill Place in the 1940s, leaving in place a substantial natural area between the stadium’s end zone and the Hunt Hill property that housed various government offices over the years. In 1975, APR began working with groups to use federal Community Development Block Grant (CBDG) funds to improve and develop parks throughout the city including a new park next to the stadium’s ballfield.
The new park opened in 1978 as Mountainside Park with a diamond ballfield, playground, picnic tables, and open 
shelter that was mostly used by neighborhood families. It quickly became a supervised summer playground site, the precursor program to APR summer day camps. When City Council discussed the possible sale of Memorial Stadium in the 1990s, the Mountainside Park site was excluded from negotiations with a portion of potential profits from the sale earmarked for improvements to the playground. Following the decision to keep Memorial Stadium, Asheville GreenWorks built a new playground in the park.
The Mountainside Apartments property changed hands many times over the years. AHA eventually bought and renovated the apartments, but found it hard to attract tenants. Deed restrictions were blamed for blocking redevelopment and they were torn down in 2006 and 2007 after rebranding as McCormick Heights. A private developer later secured the property for construction of the Retreat at Hunt Hill.
Since 2020, Mountainside Park has received many improvements including playground updates and new swings, trike track, redesigned entry plaza, benches, paved walking paths, more lighting, trees for natural shade, and drainage improvements.
Do you have photos or stories to share about Mountainside Park? Please send them to cbubenik@ashevillenc.gov so the City of Asheville can be inspired by the past as we plan our future.
Photo and Image Credits
- This aerial view from November 18, 1998 shows Memorial Stadium with Mountainside Park to the north. McCormick Field received a major renovation in 1992 and many thought it was time to do the same with the stadium. Courtesy of Buncombe County Special Collections, Pack Memorial Public Library, Asheville, North Carolina.
- Asheville GreenWorks’ predecessor Quality Forward worked closely with APR for many years to improve access to recreation spaces including Mountainside Park, highlighted by Asheville Citizen-Times on October 30, 2004.