Battery Park Hotel (Battery Park Apartments)
Built in 1924 by Edwin Wiley Grove, this Beaux-Arts high-rise became the scene of one of Asheville's most notorious crimes. On July 16, 1936, New York University student Helen Clevenger, visiting with her uncle, was found shot and beaten to death in her room, killed by a .32-caliber bullet.
Hotel night janitor Martin Moore, a young Black man, was arrested, signed a confession he later said was beaten out of him, and was executed in the gas chamber that December, a case shadowed by doubts about his guilt and examined in a 2021 book. The building later became senior apartments, yet its haunted reputation lingers.
Around the mid-July anniversary, residents say Helen's old window glows an eerie red, and an elevator runs on its own at night.
📍 1 Battle Square, Asheville, NC 28801, Asheville, NC · Get directions