Grove Park Inn & Resort – “Built for the Ages” In Ashville, North Carolina

On that stellar occasion in 1913 when The Grove Park Inn opened, William Jennings Bryan observed its granite construction and grandly proclaimed that it had been “built for the ages.” Setting aside the bombast, it seems to famed orator was right. In the ensuing decades The Grove Park Inn has earned a much deserved reputation as the the most famous and venerable resorts in the Southern Appalachians.
Just check out the guest list
In the thirties author F. Scott Fitzgerald resided for a time in Room 441. The list of guests includes Harry Houdini, Will Rogers, George Gershwin, Thomas Edison, Eleanor Roosevelt and Henry Ford. Not to mention presidents — William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard M. Nixon, George H. W. Bush, William J. Clinton and most recently President Barack H. Obama.
The Grove’s Park’s history is very much part of its charm. The hotel was the vision of a St. Louis entrepreneur, E.W. Grove, who made millions in the 1890s with his elixir “Grove’s Tasteless Chill Tonic”. He envisioned a hotel that would be “a big home where every modern convenience could be found, but with all the old-fashioned qualities of genuineness with no sham.”
Grove then proceeded to model his hotel after the grand railway hotels of the West. The Inn was actually created from a sketch made by Grove’s son-in-law, Fred Seely, who later became the hotel’s first general manager. Records indicate it took 400 men 12 months to build this majestic landmark using hundreds of tons of boulders pulled up the mountainside by teams of mules and a steam shovel.
 
 The hotel’s famous lobby is called “The Great Hall” It is a vast open area measuring 120 feet across, 24-foot ceilings, and two huge and imposing 14-foot stone fireplaces. Most famous of all are the elevators which are hidden from view in the chimneys of the stone fireplaces. They are in full operation to this day.

In 1955 Dallas businessman, Charles Sammons, bought and restored the inn and in 1973 it was named to the National Register of Historic Places. Enter a new era for the grand old hotel – updated to suit the modern traveler. The contemporary wings of the hotel were added, and beginning in 1998, a period of intensive renovation and expansion occurred, culminating in the creation of the resort’s $42 million Spa.
 
From yesterday to today, The Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa has remained a place dedicated to providing its guests with comfort — and genuine delight.

Services include:

• World-Class Spa
• Sports Complex
• Stunning golf course with a view of the Blue Ridge mountains
• Absolutely the finest dinning options from the casual to the sumptuous
quizine emanating from the celebrated Horizons Dining Room

800-438-5800
http://www.groveparkinn.com