ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Priscilla Ndiaye Robinson’s first job was at Walton Street Pool.

“It was an awesome experience, and it prepared me to work in the future on other jobs,” Robinson said.

What You Need To Know

  • Walton Street Pool used to be the only municipal pool for Black residents in Asheville

  • In October, the Asheville City Council unanimously voted to make the park and pool a historic landmark

  • A community survey will determine the updates for the park

The municipal pool, once the only one for Black Americans in Asheville, was built in the 1940s. In October, Asheville’s City Council unanimously voted to make the park and pool a historic landmark.

It was a victory for residents who want to preserve the Black history in Asheville.

“Well, this week it was a victory, somewhat,” Robinson said.

Ten years ago, Robinson started a petition to preserve its history. 

The pool was shut down in the past decade, and a community survey was created to determine the future. 

Robinson petition’s ended up with 900 signatures, but after many community surveys and meetings over the last few years, the fate of the park and pool was finally determined last October.

“It’s like all of the life is gone. It’s dead, it’s dirty, it’s blighted. And unfortunately, it’s due to not being maintained,” Robinson said.

This isn’t just a pool to the Southside, it’s one of the only pieces left of this community that wasn’t destroyed by urban renewal.

“Whereas I’m elated because what has been lost here and what we’ve prayed for, in Asheville, North Carolina is culture. We have no culture,” Robert Louis Hardy, an Asheville native, said. “This is the last of the landmarks that we would have to hold onto.”

According to the city of Asheville, an estimated 1,600 Black residents were displaced from the East Riverside or “Southside” from the 1960s to the '80s during urban renewal, including businesses and homes that were deemed blighted. Many residents haven’t forgotten the lasting impacts of urban renewal.

“You don’t take everything away from me, you don’t ignore your own survey, and you don’t ignore petitions, and do what you want in an antebellum mystique of we know what’s best for y’all,” Hardy said.

Asheville has designated half a million dollars to update the park area. A community survey will determine the Walton Street Pool and Park remodeling.