In 2004, Carolyn Bradfield and Bruce Ahern founded Phoenix Outdoor, www.phoenixoutdoor.com , a licensed adolescent wilderness therapy program near Asheville, North Carolina. 

After working with several hundred families whose adolescents attended Phoenix Outdoor, it became clear that there was a need for a short-term residential program to provide additional support, treatment, and education for students who were not yet ready to go home, but were not candidates for longer-term boarding school or residential programs.

It was also clear that adolescents attending short-term drug and alcohol treatment or coming out of longer programs were also in need of support and guidance to successfully transition back to their homes, schools, and families. 

When Carolyn’s daughter left wilderness therapy, there were no short-term programs available that provided the range of services her daughter needed.  After a year and a half in a long-term boarding school, her daughter’s transition from boarding school to college met with disastrous results. 

The opportunity to create Asheville House arose when the Flynn Homes, a recovery community for homeless men, sold their property and elected to move to other locations.  The property has two Victorian homes and two carriage houses that sit overlook Cumberland Avenue in the historic Montford District of Asheville. The hilltop lot is surrounded by century-old cedar trees providing shade and serenity.

Renovation began in September 2006 preparing the four structures on the property for a March 2007 opening.