Riverside Cemetery's Stone Walls Are Waiting on a Mason: Where Montford's Two Historic Parks Stand After Helene

If you've walked the terraces at Riverside Cemetery lately, you've seen the sections that are still off limits, the bare spots along the top of the old retaining wall, and the perimeter fence that never quite got fixed after Helene. At Montford Park on Montford Avenue, you've seen fenced-off areas too. They look like two separate leftovers from the storm. The City treats them as one job. The approvals, engineering and federal sign-off are all finished. What both parks are still waiting on is a crew that can rebuild historic stone walls.

Two Parks, One Repair Job

Asheville Parks & Recreation put the repairs at Riverside Cemetery and Montford Park into a single project, the Riverside Cemetery & Montford Park Historic Parks Recovery. The project page gives the reason: both sites sit inside the Montford Historic District, so repairs to their roads, stormwater pipes, fencing, gates and retaining walls "were combined due to historic district requirements."

The damage lists differ. At Riverside, the City names the historic entry gate, the roadways, the perimeter fencing, damaged stormwater pipes, sinkholes that caused the asphalt to fail, and granite retaining walls. At Montford Park, Helene caused a slope failure and damaged a stone retaining wall. The state bid listing places the park work at the Montford Park Tennis Complex.

Every one of those repairs has to meet the same standards. The work must follow the Montford Historic District Design Review Standards and the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation, which is why granite walls in a cemetery and a failed slope by the tennis courts ended up under one contract.

Why the Walls Matter So Much at Riverside

The cemetery was always going to be a hard place to rebuild. After incorporating in August 1885, the Asheville Cemetery Company bought 35 acres of steep hillside overlooking the French Broad River for $2,576.25. It hired English landscape architect C.T. Colyer, who laid the ground out as five terraces with three miles of winding white gravel carriageways that followed the contours of the hill. He designed the roads so that visitors would come around blind curves onto new, unexpected views.

Those curving terraces stay in place because of the retaining walls. Below them, the stormwater pipes keep water from eating away at the hill. When the pipes fail, you get sinkholes, and sinkholes are what broke up the asphalt on Riverside's roads. The grounds now cover more than 87 acres, and the City paved more than 3.5 miles of road inside the gates after buying the cemetery in 1952.

The work also has to protect what's buried there. The cemetery holds Thomas Wolfe, O. Henry, Gov. Zebulon Vance, Gov. Locke Craig, Lillian Exum Clement Stafford and Tempie Avery. Beth Ha Tephila Cemetery sits within its boundaries. Because of that, the project requires archaeological monitoring at Riverside to protect gravesites and other cultural resources.

How Far the Recovery Has Come

Debris removal wrapped up in 2025, and the approvals followed in 2026. Here is the sequence the City and local reporters have laid out:

1. October 14, 2024. After being closed for unsafe debris, Riverside reopened by appointment only. Fifty-three trees had to come down, and fallen trees had damaged 132 headstones.
2. March 2025. 828 News NOW reported that Western Carolina University students were assessing damage among the cemetery's more than 11,000 graves and mapping where stump removal needed archaeological care. The City says FEMA and the North Carolina Historic Preservation Office worked on that assessment too.
3. August 18, 2025. WLOS reported that debris removal, which began July 22, was finished. Regular hours resumed, and an engineering assessment of the roads, stormwater, fence, entry gate and retaining walls came next.
4. March 2026. Crews removed trees from the top of the cemetery retaining wall.
5. April 2026. The repairs received a certificate of appropriateness from the Historic Resources Commission and the Planning & Urban Design Department.
6. August 17, 2026. The City posted the construction bid.
7. September 24, 2026. The City posted a rebid, now titled "Federally Funded," with responses due October 1.

Local engineering firm RVE, Inc. was hired to assess the damage, estimate costs, design the repairs and oversee construction. FEMA has approved the entry gate, roadway, stormwater, perimeter fence and retaining wall repairs for mitigation. That means they are designed to hold up better in the next big storm, not just to put back what was there.

The Missing Piece Is a Contractor

Here's where the project stood in late October 2026:

The bid called for historic stone masonry along with the other trades. On the state's eVP procurement site, the rebid is closed to responses and marked Pending Selection, with no award posted. The original solicitation shows the same status. No award for the project appeared on City Council's action agendas for September 8, September 22 or October 13.

The City still projects construction starting by the end of 2026. It also says plainly that "no timeline or budget can be established until a contractor is on board." The money is expected to come in full or in part from FEMA Public Assistance grants. FEMA reimburses eligible costs of repairing public property, and the City estimates Helene caused about $1 billion in damage to City-owned property and assets.

So the partitions inside Riverside and around Montford Park aren't waiting on permission or a design. They'll stay up until the City picks a contractor who can rebuild granite walls to historic preservation standards.

Walking Both Parks While You Wait

Both places are open. Montford Park reopened with some areas partitioned because of storm damage. Riverside reopened to the public with some areas partitioned for safety and archaeological reasons.

At Riverside:

• The City currently lists hours as 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. every day, at 53 Birch Street. WLOS reported 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. when hours resumed in August 2025, so go by the City's listing, which is newer.
• Dogs and other pets aren't allowed. Service animals assisting people with sight, hearing or mobility impairments are the exception.
• The City's self-guided Historic Tour map works on a phone. Walking tours are also offered through the cemetery office, which you can reach at (828) 259-5800. More than 4,000 visitors tour the cemetery each year.
• Riverside isn't selling or transferring new lots right now.

Montford Park, at 345 Montford Avenue, has basketball, lighted tennis and pickleball courts, an open lawn, benches and restrooms. The City accepted the park's deed on May 1, 1894, and the 1924 additions included a tennis court, pergolas, horseshoe courts, fountains and swings. The stone retaining wall now on the repair list is part of that history.

The trees taken off the top of the cemetery wall will be replaced. The City has committed to planting suitable species in suitable spots once construction is done. To hear when a contractor is chosen and work starts, sign up for email updates on the project page, which also lists City project manager Tracy Wyman as the contact.

Our family has watched Montford's stone walls and old parks through several decades of change, and we'll be glad to see the masons finally get to work at Riverside. If you have questions about the historic district or what its design standards mean for an old house of your own, The Mike Miller Team is happy to talk it over. Start Your Buying or Selling Journey with neighbors who know these streets.