Smith McDowell House Museum

The Smith-McDowell House is the oldest surviving house in Asheville and the oldest brick house in Buncombe County, North Carolina. The house was built by James McConnell Smith (1787-1856) and his wife Mary “Polly” Patton (1794-1853) on land that Smith's father Colonel Daniel Smith (1757-1824) acquired via a land grant for Revolutionary War soldiers. Smith's parents were among the earliest settlers to the region and James is said to have been the first white child born west of the mountains in North Carolina.