Asheville’s Historic Montford District is one of the city’s defining neighborhoods, full of Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, and Arts and Crafts bungalows built between the 1890s and the 1920s, many perched on corner lots above street level with multiple stories connected only by an original staircase. Outside the historic core, Asheville’s mountain terrain shapes homes across the city, with many properties built on sloped lots where a main living level sits above a lower level or a walkout basement, and where digging a pit for a traditional elevator can be both costly and disruptive to the surrounding grade.

That’s exactly the kind of home a PVE elevator was built for. Because the unit is self-supporting and needs no pit, shaft, or machine room, it can go into a Montford Craftsman bungalow or a hillside home elsewhere in Asheville without a major structural rework. Most installations are done in two to three days, which matters in a city where projects in a historic district can face additional design review, and where a hillside lot can already complicate any construction project.

For homeowners planning to stay in their Asheville home long term, a PVE elevator means the stairs stop being the reason to move. It connects a main floor to an upstairs bedroom or a lower level without reworking the home’s historic character or its relationship to the surrounding grade. And because the system draws minimal power and pairs easily with solar, it fits naturally alongside the growing interest in energy-efficient upgrades for Asheville’s older and mountain homes alike.