Entry No. 28 — the Asheville file — filed under: outsider-art
Burton Street Community Peace Gardens (Peace Gardens & Market)
Burton Street was founded by E.W. Pearson in 1912 and has spent decades resisting what highway expansion and some of the fastest gentrification in the country have done to it; in 2003 artist and activist DeWayne Barton co-founded these gardens on an overgrown lot full of discarded bottles as the neighborhood's answer. What grew is an outdoor museum built from salvage: sculptures and paintings where key figures of Black history look out from corners, plus two vegetable plots, a performance stage, a pizza oven, a greenhouse, a fire pit, and a pavilion. It is volunteer-run and working — greenhouse seed starts go to neighbors, peak-season produce gets bagged for the neighborhood's elders, and since 2020 an artist residency has kept new work arriving. Barton's tour company, Hood Huggers International, walks visitors through it with the history attached, which is the way to see it.
→ Three at a time, never the same twice — explore weird Asheville
The story
Burton Street exists because Edward W. Pearson Sr. decided it should. Pearson (1872-1946) reached Asheville in 1906 and from 1912 built out the West Asheville land he called Pearson Park into one of the city's oldest African American neighborhoods. He ran a general store that headquartered an insurance company and a mail-order shoe business, founded the Buncombe County and District Colored Agricultural Fair in 1914, and organized Asheville's NAACP branch in 1933. People called him the Black Mayor of West Asheville, and the title was only half a joke.
DeWayne Barton came home to that neighborhood in 2001, four generations of his family already in it, and in 2003 he and Safi Martin planted a few garden beds as a response to the war on drugs and the second Iraq war. Those beds are now Peace Gardens & Market: by Hood Huggers' own count more than fifty art pieces and installations, plus meditation areas, a performance stage, a library and classroom, a greenhouse, a wood-fired oven, a farmstand, a community toolshed, and a composting toilet. Part outdoor museum, part working farm - since 2019 it has delivered over 1,500 pounds of produce to neighborhood elders, and in 2020 it added the Peace Garden Retreat & Residency so visiting artists leave something behind.
The gardens are also infrastructure policy, which is the least romantic and most important thing about them. The Burton Street Neighborhood Plan was written in 2010 with the Asheville Design Center and MountainTrue, updated in 2018 as part of NC DOT's I-26 Connector project, and adopted by the city as a Small Area Plan that leans hard on community greenspace. Barton launched Hood Huggers International in 2015; his outfit runs the walking tour that is the sanctioned way in.
What it's like
There is no ticket booth and no gate, because this is a working community space on a residential street: the visit is a Hood Huggers walking tour or nothing. Book the Burton Street walk online and the confirmation email carries the meeting point, which is the only place it is published. Ninety minutes on foot covers the neighborhood, the Burton Street Community Center - a former segregated elementary school - and the gardens, with the art explained by people who know which neighbor made what and why. Check-in is by name; no printed ticket needed. Gratuities are explicitly welcomed. Treat the beds as somebody's groceries rather than a photo set, and ask before you pick anything up.
The move: Book the 1 p.m. or 4 p.m. Burton Street walking tour (Tue–Sat, 90 minutes, via Hood Huggers' FareHarbor page or 828-275-5305), let Barton's crew connect the sculptures to the neighborhood that made them, then drive five minutes to Haywood Road and put your tour money where West Asheville actually eats.
📍 Before you go This is a working community space in a residential neighborhood, not a staffed attraction — go with a Hood Huggers tour rather than wandering in. Tours run Tuesday–Saturday at 10 a.m., 1 p.m., and 4 p.m., 90 minutes, booked online through FareHarbor or by calling 828-275-5305; the exact meeting spot comes in your confirmation email. No discounts offered; private group tours (15+) cost extra.
- 📍 Asheville
- 💸 $$
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 47 Bryant St, Asheville, NC 28806
Hours: Added 2026-08-25 — confirm current hours before you go.
⚠ Seasonal or scheduled — always check before you go.
Pair it with
- Fleetwood's Rock-n-Roll Wedding Chapel — Just over a mile east on Haywood Road, and the natural place to put your money after the tour: vintage shop, cocktail bar, and a working wedding chapel in one storefront.
- Asheville Retrocade — Opens at noon daily on the same Haywood Road strip, so a 10 a.m. tour ends right about when a $12 all-day arcade wristband starts making sense.
- House of Black Cat Magic — Five minutes away at 841 Haywood, and a deliberate tonal swerve from the gardens - just note it is closed Tuesdays, which is a tour day.
More weird in Asheville
Good to know
Can I just walk in and look around?
Better not. It is an active community garden in a residential neighborhood with nobody on gate duty. Hood Huggers runs the Burton Street walking tour Tuesday through Saturday at 10 a.m., 1 p.m., and 4 p.m., 90 minutes each, booked online or at 828-275-5305. The meeting point arrives in your confirmation email rather than being posted publicly.
Can two of us book it?
Not this walk - the booking system sets a three-person minimum on the Burton Street tour (25 maximum). A couple that cannot recruit a third can take the East End-Valley Street walking tour instead, which accepts parties of two, or ask about a customized private tour; private group rates apply to groups of 15 and up, with additional fees.
What does it cost, and what if plans change?
Rates are set at booking by category - adult, youth, senior, infant - and Hood Huggers states flatly that it offers no discounts. Cancel more than 48 hours out for a full refund. Arrive late and you get a gift card or a reschedule, not your money back. Severe thunderstorms or unsafe snow trigger a reschedule or gift card, and they will text, email, or call before tour time.
Dogs and accessibility?
ADA service dogs are permitted on all tours; therapy animals and emotional support animals do not qualify. On walking tours, pet dogs are fine on leash if you clean up, one dog per tour, with advance contact. The vehicles used for driving tours are not wheelchair accessible, though staff will accommodate where they can and can stow a walker.
Can I buy plants or produce there?
The site includes a farmstand and a store, and through the year the gardens host plant and vegetable sales, classes, live music, and volunteer days - the events calendar on hoodhuggers.com is where those land. Peak-season produce goes to neighborhood elders first; that has been more than 1,500 pounds of it since 2019.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: hoodhuggers.com · Atlas Obscura
last checked: 2026-08-25