Since the mid-19th century, Church Street has been home to a number of congregations that chose to locate south of Patton Avenue. The Central United Methodist Church met in a frame building beginning in 1837, but the current building was not erected until 1902. Designed by Richard H. Hunt of Tennessee and built by James Madison Westall, the imposing limestone church presents Romanesque Revival style massing and forms, but the detailing more closely reflects the Gothic Revival style. A five-bay loggia, set between two pinnacled towers, fronts the large, gable-roofed auditorium. A Sunday School building was added in 1968 in a complementary style.

Trinity Episcopal Church stands on the southeastern corner of Church and Aston streets. Nationally known architect Bertram Goodhue of the New York-based firm of Cram, Goodhue and Ferguson designed the building in 1912. The Tudor Gothic Revival style brick building with granite trim features a simple, gable-roofed sanctuary with transepts and a short corner tower. The interior opens to an attractive hammer beam ceiling and panel tracery fills the stained glass windows. A compatible parish house and hall were added later around the church.

In 1884, the leaders of First Presbyterian Church commissioned a new building to serve the growing congregation and to provide space for the increasing number of tourists who visited Asheville each summer. The Gothic Revival style brick nave and tower feature deep-corbelled cornices, hood-molded windows and blind arcading at the eaves. Built at a cost of $8,000, the new church could accommodate 600 worshipers. As the congregation has continued to grow steadily, so has the church building been renovated and enlarged over the years.

The cross-plan Christian Church, whose tin-shingled roof is still visible from the street, is now enclosed within the walls of the Swannanoa Cleaners, located at 22 Church Street. The church building was converted to a laundry in 1891, and architect William Dodge designed the current façade, which was added c. 1940.

Information and photos courtesy of the National Register for Historic Places Asheville, NC Travel Itinerary, a subsidiary of the National Park Service.