The Cat Walk

The Asheville Urban Trail is a self-guided trail that runs 1.7 miles through the heart of downtown Asheville. Featuring plaques, sculptures, interpretive signs, granite etchings, and other artistic expressions, the trail captures the pulse of the city through five distinct eras: the Gilded Age, the Frontier Period, the Times of Thomas Wolfe, the Era of Civic Pride, and the Era of Diversity.

Each era is represented by a symbol that can be found carved into large pink granite blocks laid into the sidewalk near each of the 30 stations that make up the trail. While some stations are larger than life (e.g., The Flat Iron), there is one treasure for cat lovers that might never be seen by folks unless they are following the trail or simply happen upon it.

Wall Street snakes its way between Otis Street and Battery Park Avenue, tucked away behind the hustle and bustle of Patton Avenue. Initially, access to the second-story doorways for buildings along Wall Street was limited to footbridges or catwalks. In the mid-1920s, it was paved and a sidewalk was laid, making deliveries much simpler.

Three cats adorn the Cat Walk display—one atop a ledge looking down on the actual wall for which Wall Street is named, another crouching at the base of the brick wall upon which the first cat is perched, and a third clinging to a nearby lamppost. Eagle-eyed viewers will notice that the first cat (atop the ledge), is not just eyeing the wall, but gazing at a mouse and a rat underneath the green fencing that sits on top of the wall.

The cat climbing the pole was stolen in 2018, but reforged in 2021, making the Cat Walk whole again.