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Asheville, United States
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Attraction
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38 S Market St, Asheville, NC 28801, USA
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N35° 35' 38" W82° 33' 1"
(35.593888888889, -82.550277777778)
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Young Men's Institute Building, also known as the YMI Building, is a historic meeting hall located at Asheville, Buncombe County, North Carolina. It was designed by architect Richard Sharp Smith and built in 1892-1893. It is a 2 1/2-story, pebbledash coated masonry building with brick, stone, and wood accents. The YMI building housed shops, residence rooms, meeting rooms, and a wide variety of functions that served the African-American community of Asheville. University of North Carolina at Asheville's Executive Director of the Office of Community Engagement, Darin J. Waters, Ph.D., includes the history of the YMI Cultural Center in his doctoral dissertation, Life Beneath The Veneer: The Black Community in Asheville, North Carolina from 1793 to 1900.The YMI was built after African American leader Mr. Isaac Dickson and Dr. Stephens originally approached George Vanderbilt in 1892 to commission the building for the African American men whom help build the Biltmore Estate. Although originally intended to be paid for by membership, as work at the estate slowed down, the board of directors finally decided to purchase the building for $10,000 in 1905. Throughout the years, the building was used for a verity of events and purposes including but not limited to offices, a public library, art installations, and an Orchestras. Some of these art exhibits include African masks and sculpture always on display, and drawings by the African-American artist Charles W. White, and a photographs that highlight the history of the YMI and its ties to the building and history of Biltmore Estate as it relates to the African American community in Asheville. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. It is located in the Downtown Asheville Historic District.
