Spatial Interaction
Spatial interaction is the flow of products, people, services, or information among places, in response to localized supply and demand, expressed over a geographical space. Spatial interactions usually include a variety of movements such as travel, migration, transmission of information, journeys to work or shopping, retailing activities, or freight distribution.
Constructed for pedestrian interactions and constrained by them, the historic city was compact and limited in size. The emergence of Asheville’s first urban transit systems in the 19th century permitted the extension of the city into new neighborhoods. However, pedestrian movements still accounted for the great majority of movements and the local spatial organization remained compact. The 1920s marked even stronger growth of Asheville as an urban center of government, commerce and tourism in Western North Carolina.
The advent of more efficient urban transit systems and later of the automobile permitted an increased separation between basic urban functions (residential, industrial and commercial) and their spatial specialization. Additional improvements in mobility favored urban expansion into Asheville’s countryside, where urban and rural activities are somewhat intermixed.
Constructed for pedestrian interactions and constrained by them, the historic city was compact and limited in size. The emergence of Asheville’s first urban transit systems in the 19th century permitted the extension of the city into new neighborhoods. However, pedestrian movements still accounted for the great majority of movements and the local spatial organization remained compact. The 1920s marked even stronger growth of Asheville as an urban center of government, commerce and tourism in Western North Carolina.
The advent of more efficient urban transit systems and later of the automobile permitted an increased separation between basic urban functions (residential, industrial and commercial) and their spatial specialization. Additional improvements in mobility favored urban expansion into Asheville’s countryside, where urban and rural activities are somewhat intermixed.
Complementarity, Transferability and Lack of Intervening Opportunities
Edward Ullman, perhaps the leading transportation geographer of the twentieth century, more formally addressed interaction as complementarity (a deficit of a good or product in one place and a surplus in another), transferability (possibility of transport of the good or product at a cost that the market will bear), and lack of intervening opportunities (where a similar good or product that is not available at a closer distance). The development of the area directly surrounding the Buncombe Turnpike, now known as Broadway Street, demonstrates Ullman’s themes.
Finished in 1828, the Buncombe Turnpike was promoted by western legislators as a link between their constituents and eastern markets. The Turnpike ran north and west from Greenville, South Carolina to Greenville, Tennessee by way of Asheville, and as a link in the Dixie Highway, it also connected the northern states with the tip of Florida.
The Buncombe Turnpike promptly became an artery of trade and change, and a great deal of traffic came in the form of drovers herding horses, mules, cattle, hogs, geese, ducks, and turkeys from North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky down the trail to markets southward. Settlements sprang up to house the drovers and feed animals en route, providing a ready market for farmers and boosting corn production along the way.
Another type of traffic came up the turnpike from the low country: summer visitors. Previously a few South Carolinians had made the onerous journey to the cool North Carolina mountains, but the Buncombe Turnpike sped the transformation of the mountains into a summer resort area. With visitors arriving in the relative comfort of a carriage instead of a wagon, various points along the way developed into popular destinations.
In the years after the turnpike opened, businesses were established along the roadside. The arrival of wealthy vacationing visitors brought more extravagant tastes and the ability to afford them. Summer tourists, especially landowners from South Carolina and Georgia, began to build their vacation homes in Western North Carolina.
Finished in 1828, the Buncombe Turnpike was promoted by western legislators as a link between their constituents and eastern markets. The Turnpike ran north and west from Greenville, South Carolina to Greenville, Tennessee by way of Asheville, and as a link in the Dixie Highway, it also connected the northern states with the tip of Florida.
The Buncombe Turnpike promptly became an artery of trade and change, and a great deal of traffic came in the form of drovers herding horses, mules, cattle, hogs, geese, ducks, and turkeys from North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky down the trail to markets southward. Settlements sprang up to house the drovers and feed animals en route, providing a ready market for farmers and boosting corn production along the way.
Another type of traffic came up the turnpike from the low country: summer visitors. Previously a few South Carolinians had made the onerous journey to the cool North Carolina mountains, but the Buncombe Turnpike sped the transformation of the mountains into a summer resort area. With visitors arriving in the relative comfort of a carriage instead of a wagon, various points along the way developed into popular destinations.
In the years after the turnpike opened, businesses were established along the roadside. The arrival of wealthy vacationing visitors brought more extravagant tastes and the ability to afford them. Summer tourists, especially landowners from South Carolina and Georgia, began to build their vacation homes in Western North Carolina.
Gravity
Attraction zones are areas to which a majority of the population travels for varied reasons such as shopping, professional services, education and leisure.
Asheville has developed through a history of migration to the mountains of Western North Carolina. The Buncombe Turnpike and Western North Carolina Railroad paved the way for a new stream of visitors to Western North Carolina and with them came a new definition of style, fashion, quality and worldliness. In the late 19th century Asheville boomed as a new destination for well-to-do tourists who preferred modern style to rusticity.
When George W. Vanderbilt arrived in the city in the late half of the 1880s, Asheville had already made a name for itself as one of the South’s most premier vacation spots. Vanderbilt moved from New York to start a new and flourishing life in the South where lifestyles were consistently growing to be quite rich and immaculate. In 1889, architect Richard Morris Hunt and landscape architect Fredrick Law Olmstead teamed up to design and construct Vanderbilt’s home, the Biltmore Estate, and grounds to rival any of the great French Chateaux that inspired it. The legacy of the Biltmore Estate and its construction was the international attention it focused on Asheville and Buncombe County. Artisans and craftsmen from all over the United States and Europe came to Asheville to work for Vanderbilt, many of whom stayed and contributed their skills to other projects.
Asheville has developed through a history of migration to the mountains of Western North Carolina. The Buncombe Turnpike and Western North Carolina Railroad paved the way for a new stream of visitors to Western North Carolina and with them came a new definition of style, fashion, quality and worldliness. In the late 19th century Asheville boomed as a new destination for well-to-do tourists who preferred modern style to rusticity.
When George W. Vanderbilt arrived in the city in the late half of the 1880s, Asheville had already made a name for itself as one of the South’s most premier vacation spots. Vanderbilt moved from New York to start a new and flourishing life in the South where lifestyles were consistently growing to be quite rich and immaculate. In 1889, architect Richard Morris Hunt and landscape architect Fredrick Law Olmstead teamed up to design and construct Vanderbilt’s home, the Biltmore Estate, and grounds to rival any of the great French Chateaux that inspired it. The legacy of the Biltmore Estate and its construction was the international attention it focused on Asheville and Buncombe County. Artisans and craftsmen from all over the United States and Europe came to Asheville to work for Vanderbilt, many of whom stayed and contributed their skills to other projects.
Since its opening to the public in 1930, the Biltmore has remained a powerful force in the economy of Asheville. Over one million people visit the estate every year. That is one million people that walk Asheville’s streets, shop in their stores, and eat at their restaurants. If the beauty of the home is not enough to attract visitors, the Estate has gained even more attention through the opening of shops of its own, a luxury hotel, a winery, a dairy, and holds festivals of varying types every year. The Biltmore Estate aided in the popularity of Asheville in two crucial ways: the Estate draws tourists and created a large land and property boom. This land and property that visitors were first attracted to now form the modern streets covered in both historic and modern buildings.