Image description: Andrea Clark - Photographer, Self-portrait , 1968 - Asheville, NC.
Source: Collection of The Buncombe County Special Collections at Pack Memorial Library
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Andrea grew up in Cambridge, MA. She came to Asheville in her 20s to live on Valley Street with her father James Howard Clark, son of James Vester Miller who was a Black brick mason and contractor whose construction company built many Asheville churches, homes and public buildings.

Andrea began taking photographs of the segregated neighborhood known as East End. Her subjects, accepting her as one of their own, allowed her to look unblinking into their faces and their homes.

See another entry about Andrea Clark in our Communities Collection here: https://www.irememberourhistory.org/communities/east-end-community%2C-asheville
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BIO
Andrea Clark (March 19, 1945 – October 29, 2025) was an African American photographer living in Asheville, North Carolina. She is best known for her black and white photographs that document Asheville's East End community taken circa 1968-1972.[1]

Early Life and Family
Andrea Elizabeth Clarke was born to James Howard Clarke and Mildred Rae Johnson Clarke in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her education included Cambridge Rindge and Latin School and nursing school before she moved to Asheville in 1965.[2]

Her paternal family had roots in Asheville. Her father was the son of master mason James Vester Miller, who had been born into slavery in 1858 in Rutherford County, N.C, and moved with his family to Asheville soon after the Civil War.[3]

In his youth, Miller developed an interest in construction and architecture through observation and working on job sites, eventually honing his craft as an apprentice under the city’s premier brick masons. His superior skills garnered the attention of prominent local architects, most notably Richard Sharp Smith, who oversaw the Biltmore Estate construction.

Miller eventually established his own firm, Miller & Sons, successfully securing contracts within a construction industry that was largely controlled by White competitors.[4] Miller’s work includes some of Asheville’s most iconic structures, including St. Matthias Episcopal Church (Asheville, North Carolina), Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church, the Young Men's Institute Building (currently known as the YMI Cultural Center), and the Asheville Municipal Building, among others.

Later in the 1930s Miller founded Violet Hill Cemetery in West Asheville, named in honor of his wife. He was laid to rest there upon his death in 1940, leaving behind a legacy that continues to shape Asheville’s cultural and physical landscape.[5]

One of Andrea's passions was working on documenting her family heritage and creating the James Vester Miller Walking Trail.[6]

Career
Andrea Clark is best known for her career as a photographer, particularly a series of hundreds of black and white photographs that provide some of the only documentation of Black neighborhoods that were destroyed as part of Asheville's urban renewal efforts.[7] The East End had been a vibrant Black community since the 1880s, but by 1978, the City of Asheville had razed much of it, and families were relocated to other neighborhoods.[8]

These photos were a central part of the project "Twilight of a Neighborhood: Asheville's East End, 1970," funded by the North Carolina Humanities Council in 2008.[8][9] As part of the project, Clark and others also recorded oral history interviews with residents impacted by the destruction of the East End.[10]

"Andrea Clark's photographs capture the full spectrum of community life in Asheville's East End in 1970. The images portray a neighborhood with bustling business and street life, gardens where people grew their own food, and sidewalks on which children played under the watchful eyes of elders."[8]

Clark's East End photos have been displayed at the YMI Cultural Center,[11] the Asheville Museum of History,[12] and Pack Memorial Library.[13] The Andrea Clark Collection is part of Buncombe County Special Collections at Pack Memorial Library.[14]

Legacy and Death
In 2020 Clark was awarded the Sondley Award by the Historic Resources Commission of Asheville and Buncombe County.[15] While Clark was honored to have been given the award, she was quick to point out that it was named for Foster Alexander Sondley and as such rooted in institutional racism.[16]

When Sondley bequeathed his extensive personal library to the City of Asheville upon his death in 1931, it was under the strict caveat in his will that the books were to be viewed by “well-conducted white people” only.[17] Later in 1943, Sondley's collection became the reference section of the Pack Memorial Library, and during conversations around desegregation of the library system, administrators frequently cited Sondley's will as a justification for denying access to the historical archives and refusing service to Black residents in Buncombe County.[18]

As a result of Clark initiating and facilitating important conversations around inclusivity and honoring collective community history, the following year the Historic Resources Commission elected to change the name of the award to the Historic Resources Champion Award, and honored Andrea Clark again with the new distinction in 2021.[19]

On October 29, 2025, Ms. Clark passed away at the age of 80.[20]

Source: Wikipedia
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From: The Buncombe Co. Special Collections at Pack Memorial Library

Title: Andrea Clark Photograph Collection
ID: ACC
Record Level Name: Collection
Dates: Late 1960's - 1970s

Description
Item Count: 500+ negatives
Format: Digital Scan , Negative

Scope and Content:
This collection consists of more than 500 black and white negatives taken by Andrea Clark around 1970. Most are of the Valley/Eagle Street neighborhood, a traditionally Black community also known as East End. Included are photographs of schools, churches, and interiors and exteriors of businesses and homes. Many informal portraits of residents of the neighborhood. Also included in the collection are photographs of downtown Asheville scenes, Tunnel Road, Biltmore Village and the stockyards.

The 1970s were a time of great change in Asheville. Attempting to integrate social and cultural institutions and to improve living conditions in the Black community, the City of Asheville, with Federal assistance, began an ambitious program of Urban Renewal. Hundreds of homes in the Black community around Valley Street were removed, and residents of that area were scattered across the city. Sadly, along with deteriorating houses, the East End community also lost beloved neighborhood schools, Black-owned businesses, and a nurturing sense of community. Andrea Clark's powerful images document that African-American community and preserve a place and way of life that no longer exists. Before acquiring these photographs, the Pack Library NC Collection included only a few photographs of the vibrant Valley Street neighborhood, now just a fading memory. Thanks to Andrea Clark's photographs, the people and places of that community live again.

Related Individuals & Organizations - Names : Photographer, Clark, Andrea
Andrea's grandfather James Vester Miller was a Black brick mason and contractor whose construction company built many Asheville churches, homes and public buildings. Andrea grew up in Cambridge, MA. She came to Asheville in her 20s to live on Valley Street with her father James Howard Clark, son of James Miller. Andrea began taking photographs of the segregated neighborhood known as East End. Her subjects, accepting her as one of their own, allowed her to look unblinking into their faces and their homes.

Related Places - Geographic Locations:
Asheville--East End
Asheville--North Asheville

Streets and Addresses:
Eagle Street
Pine Street
Valley Street

Subjects:
African Americans
Portraits
Neighborhoods
Commercial buildings
Public buildings
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Link to view collection: https://7039.sydneyplus.com/archive/final/Portal.aspx?lang=en-US
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Article in The Laurel Of Asheville - History Feature: Andrea Clark Honored for Photos of Urban Renewal in Asheville: https://thelaurelofasheville.com/communities/history-feature-andrea-clark-honored-for-photos-of-urban-renewal-in-asheville/