New Asheville hotel focusing on Zelda Fitzgerald selected as national award finalist

ASHEVILLE - A downtown hotel inspired by the life, works and romance of Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, who spent time in the area during the early 1940's, is now a finalist for a national hotel design award.

Zelda Dearest is a 20-room boutique hotel located off of South Lexington Avenue in South Slope. The hotel designers and developers worked with the estate of Lost Generation writers to design the Fitzgerald-inspired hotel.

The hotel is primarily inspired by Zelda Fitzgerald, who spent the last several years of her life in Asheville until her death in a tragic fire at Highland Hospital in Montford on March 10, 1948.

The hotel is one of just five in the country selected from 930 submissions as a finalist for the Small Hotel category in the annual Hospitality Design Magazine awards in Las Vegas.

Opened in October, the hotel consists of three turn-of-the-century homes that were converted into a 20-room hotel. Currently, a king room at the hotel goes for $305 a night before taxes.

The hotel is the work of Atlanta-based commercial real estate firm Hatteras Sky and is managed by Lark Hotels. The companies have also recently worked together on the Chestnut Hill Neighborhood boutique hotel Blind Tiger Asheville and The Radical in the River Arts District. Lark Hotels manages more than 30 boutique hotels across the nation.

The architectural design and structural, mechanical, plumbing and electrical systems for the historical homes were the work of the Asheville-based architectural firm Rowhouse Architects, Gillam Engineering and Civil Design Concepts, according to development documents. Asheville-based Sitework Studios were the landscape architects for the project.

The interior of hotel, designed by Nashville-based Anderson Design Studio, pulls from "Zelda's romantic perspective and artistic character by mixing soft, feminine pink tones with bold worldly accents," according to a March 28 news release from Hatteras Sky.

“Once we started to explore, the connection between Asheville and the Fitzgeralds, we became moved by Zelda and her story and experience,” Amy Kelly, founding principal of Hatteras Sky, told the Citizen Times in August.

Zelda Fitzgerald was known for writing "Save Me a Waltz," a semi-autobiographical novel that mirrored parts of her life and marriage to renowned author F. Scott Fitzgerald, whose book "The Great Gatsby" is widely regarded as an American classic.

The three homes located off of Biltmore Avenue have entries in the National Register of Historic Places.

The oldest building, the George A. Mears House, was built in 1885, according to the Preservation Society of Asheville and Buncombe County. The other two homes, the Carmichael-Leonard House and the Snider-Sawyer-Leonard House, were both built around 1890.

The homes have exterior protective historical easements on them, meaning their interiors can be renovated, but their exteriors must remain true to their original designs.

The developers are also designing the Zelda Salon, a 35-room hotel that is soon to begin construction at 15 Broadway St.

On March 11, a permit for the renovation of the downtown Star Building was submitted to the city of Asheville. The project, dubbed "Zelda Salon," is another Zelda Fitzgerald-themed hotel developed by Hatteras and Lark. The new hotel had been approved by the city of Asheville in early 2022.

More: Downtown Asheville condo owners file lawsuit after illegal Airbnbs play 'hide and seek'

More: Project Aspire, the largest project in downtown Asheville, aims to find its footing

Will Hofmann is the Growth and Development Reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Got a tip? Email him at WHofmann@citizentimes.com. Please help support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Asheville Zelda Fitzgerald hotel selected as a national award finalist