From Asheville’s early days as a destination for patients seeking healing in the mountains to the period when we almost lost our downtown to a massive mall in the 1980s, our history writes our future, and we need your help telling it.

Introducing the #AVLYearbookChallenge. We want to play a game of show and tell to highlight what our city used to look like. They say a picture is worth a 1,000 words + we’re giving $100 (plus a AVLtoday feature) to the winner of our readers’ favorite historic photo.

Are you a longtime local, or do your parents/grandparents have an amazing scrapbook laying around that's full of AVL gold? What do you remember about Asheville of late? Maybe you were there when the Grove Arcade closed or when the River Arts District became a haven for makers.

In 2019 we want to publish more memories of our city’s history. Here’s how to get involved in our 2019 throwback articles here at AVLtoday + enter our first annual #AVLScrapbookChallenge.

Dust off those old photo albums. What photos do you review and say “wow, I can’t believe how much the city has changed”? We're looking for reader photos of our city from years past. Whether they’re from 50 or 10 years ago – We want to see them.

- Post your photo on social media using both #AVLYearbookChallenge and #AVLtoday.
- Or, send photos to hello@AVLtoday.com (or reply to this email) with the subject line “AVLtoday Scrapbook Challenge photos.”
- Include 1 - 6 sentences of what the photos are, and what the photo means to you.
- Let us know when + where the photo was taken.
- Include photo credit. Even if you took the photo, please include your name so we can properly attribute you.
- By sending us photos, you have given us permission to publish across AVLtoday including our newsletter, website + social media platforms.

After you send us photos (please send by Jan. 30), we’ll put together a collage of our favorites. Then, we’ll bring it to you, our readers, to vote. Once you decide on the winning photo, we’ll contact the winner + feature them here in AVLtoday.

Plus, throughout 2019, we’ll repost photos from the #AVLYearbookChallenge, so keep tagging us in your favorite throwback images of our city. We can’t wait to explore historic Asheville with you.

Questions about our #AVLYearbookChallenge? Comment below + let us know.

Here at the office, we’re always amazed at the passion our readers have about where the city has been + where it’s going.

We could spend hours browsing the online archives at the North Carolina Room at Pack Library + scrolling through the You know you grew up in Asheville, N.C. if... Facebook group. And now we’re excited to invite you to be in on the discussion.

We can’t wait to explore your memories of our wonderful city with you.

– The AVLtoday team