31-822: The Grove Park Inn is a historic resort hotel on the western-facing slope of Sunset Mountain within the Blue Ridge Mountains , in Asheville, North Carolina . The hotel has been visited by various Presidents of the United States. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places , the hotel was built in the Arts and Crafts style. The inn's 140 acres includes 513 guest rooms, 10 restaurants and bars, an 18-hole golf course, subterranean spa, 42 meeting rooms, two ballrooms, two swimming pools, and nine tennis courts. The Grove Park Inn
62-542: A physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Highlands range. The mountain range is located in the Eastern United States and extends 550 miles southwest from southern Pennsylvania through Maryland , West Virginia , Virginia , North Carolina , South Carolina , Tennessee , and Georgia . The province consists of northern and southern physiographic regions, which divide near the Roanoke River gap. To
93-462: A massive texture and missed the main episode of Mesoproterozoic compression. At the time of their emergence, the Blue Ridge were among the highest mountains in the world and reached heights comparable to the much younger Alps . Weathering , erosion , and mass wasting over hundreds of millions of years has resulted in much shorter peaks. At the foot of the Blue Ridge, various tribes including
124-422: A professor and geologist at George Washington University , provide greater insight into the petrologic and geochronologic history of the Blue Ridge basement suites. Modern studies have found that the basement geology of the Blue Ridge is made of compositionally unique gneisses and granitoids , including orthopyroxene-bearing charnockites. Analysis of zircon minerals in the granite completed by John Aleinikoff at
155-607: Is a member of the Historic Hotels of America program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation . In 1909, Edwin Wiley Grove and his son-in-law Fred Seely bought approximately 400 acres near Sunset Mountain to build a grand hotel. After rejecting plans from several prominent architects, Seely (who had no formal training in construction or architecture) made his own sketch of the hotel, which Grove approved of. The hotel
186-677: Is about Zelda Fitzgerald and published in 2013), the central character often makes references to the Omni Grove Inn as the novel takes place in Asheville, North Carolina. In Cormac McCarthy 's 1979 novel Suttree (set in Knoxville), the title character and his girlfriend spend four days at the inn, staying in what McCarthy described as "a cool room high in the old rough pile of rocks." Even as We Breathe by Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle . Blue Ridge Mountains The Blue Ridge Mountains are
217-693: The National Gingerbread House Competition began at the Grove Park Inn. The event continues to be hosted at the resort annually with finalists on display to the public in the halls each November and December. The event has been canceled just one year, in 2024, due to the effects of Hurricane Helene . The resort closed for a month and a half in October 2024 due to flooding in Asheville from the hurricane. The property lost power and water and experienced minor flooding. In 1917, four years after
248-478: The New York–New Jersey Highlands . The petrologic and geochronologic data suggest that the Blue Ridge basement is a composite orogenic crust that was emplaced during several episodes from a crustal magma source. Field relationships further illustrate that rocks emplaced prior to 1.078–1.064 billion years ago preserve deformational features. Those emplaced post-1.064 billion years ago generally have
279-729: The Siouan Manahoacs , the Iroquois , and the Shawnee hunted and fished. A German physician-explorer, John Lederer , first reached the crest of the Blue Ridge in 1669 and again the following year; he also recorded the Virginia Siouan name for the Blue Ridge ( Ahkonshuck ). At the Treaty of Albany negotiated by Virginia Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood with the Iroquois between 1718 and 1722,
310-499: The U.S. Geological Survey has provided more detailed emplacement ages. Many of the features found in the Blue Ridge and documented by Tollo and others have confirmed that the rocks exhibit many similar features in other North American Grenville-age terranes . The lack of a calc-alkaline affinity and zircon ages less than 1.2 billion years old suggest that the Blue Ridge is distinct from the Adirondacks , Green Mountains, and possibly
341-674: The Blue Ridge Mountains is Roanoke , located in Southwest Virginia , while the largest Metropolitan Statistical Area is the Greenville metropolitan area in Upstate, South Carolina . Other notable cities in the Blue Ridge Mountains include Charlottesville , Frederick , Hagerstown , Chambersburg , Asheville , Johnson City , and Lynchburg . National Gingerbread House Competition Too Many Requests If you report this error to
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#1732856215382372-691: The Blue Ridge: the Brushy Mountains and the South Mountains . In Virginia the Southwest Mountains are an anticlinal range that similarly parallels the Blue Ridge. The Blue Ridge extends as far south as Mount Oglethorpe in Georgia and as far north into Pennsylvania as South Mountain . While South Mountain dwindles to hills between Gettysburg and Harrisburg , the band of ancient rocks that form
403-684: The Iroquois ceded lands they had conquered south of the Potomac River and east of the Blue Ridge to the Virginia Colony . This treaty made the Blue Ridge the new demarcation point between the areas and tribes subject to the Six Nations, and those tributaries to the colony. When colonists began to disregard this by crossing the Blue Ridge and settling in the Shenandoah Valley in the 1730s, the Iroquois began to object, finally selling their rights to
434-414: The building. He instead leased the hotel to Seely to manage and he did so until 1927, the year of Grove's death and the year Seely lost his legal bid to own the hotel. Grove left his hotel to his wife, son and daughter. Though Seely was married to his daughter, Grove made no concessions to Seely, and the inn passed into the hands of what one advertisement described as "more liberal management." Helen Keller
465-544: The classic book, The Great Gatsby . Zelda was a creative person in her own right, including being a painter of note. In the mid-1950s, during the Cold War era, the location was seriously considered as a bunker site for the U.S. Supreme Court. As of 2013, Supreme Court plans call for relocation to the Grove Park Inn in the event of a nuclear attack. The Grove Park Inn became part of Sammons Enterprises in 1955. New owner Charles A. Sammons invested $ 100,000 in restoration work and
496-407: The completion of the inn's construction, Fred L. Seely purchased Biltmore Estate Industries from Edith Vanderbilt , wife of George Washington Vanderbilt II . The new venture came in addition to his responsibilities as the manager of the Grove Park Inn. E.W. Grove, his father-in-law and owner of the Grove Park Inn, had refused to sell the hotel to Seely, though he had eagerly allowed him to construct
527-613: The core of the Blue Ridge continues northeast through the New Jersey and Hudson River highlands, eventually reaching the Berkshires of Massachusetts and the Green Mountains of Vermont . The Blue Ridge contains the highest mountains in eastern North America south of Baffin Island . About 125 peaks exceed 5,000 feet (1,500 m) in elevation. The highest peak in the Blue Ridge (and in
558-654: The entire Appalachian chain) is Mount Mitchell in North Carolina at 6,684 feet (2,037 m). There are 39 peaks in North Carolina and Tennessee higher than 6,000 feet (1,800 m); by comparison, in the northern portion of the Appalachian chain only New Hampshire 's Mount Washington rises above 6,000 feet (1,800 m). Southern Sixers is a term used by peak baggers for this group of mountains. The Blue Ridge Parkway runs 469 miles (755 km) along crests of
589-480: The grounds during the war. William Howard Taft resigned from the United States Supreme Court in the resort's Great Hall in 1930. In the mid-1930s, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Fitzgerald moved to Asheville. Zelda would receive more formal care for her mental health while Scott lived at the inn for about a year, dealing with his mental health issues, heavy drinking, and tuberculosis. Scott penned
620-437: The inn. It was built in 1899 and redesigned by Donald Ross in 1924. In the 1920s a young lady fell from a fifth story balcony at the inn and died on the palm court floor. The "Pink Lady" is the most notable of the hotel's ghost stories. During World War II , the inn was first used as an internment center for Axis diplomats. The diplomats and their staff were allowed guarded trips to town, where they would purchase goods from
651-531: The local merchants. This was a boon to the strapped local economy. The Inn was then used by the Navy as a rest and rehabilitation center for returning sailors. From 1944 to 1945, the hotel was an Army Redistribution Station where soldiers rested and relaxed before being assigned to other duties. The Philippine government functioned in exile from the Presidential Cottage (a replica of Anne Hathaway's Cottage ) on
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#1732856215382682-731: The mountains and their perceived color. Within the Blue Ridge province are two major national parks: the Shenandoah National Park in the northern section and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the southern section. The Blue Ridge Parkway , a 469-mile (755 km) long scenic highway, connects the two parks and runs along the ridge crest-lines, as does the Appalachian Trail . Eight national forests include George Washington and Jefferson , Cherokee , Pisgah , Nantahala and Chattahoochee . Although
713-456: The range lacks the tree line found at lower elevations in the northern half of the Appalachian range. Statistical modelling predicts that the alpine tree line would exist at above 7,985 feet (2434 m) in the climate zone and latitude of the southern Appalachians. The highest parts of the Blue Ridge are generally vegetated in dense Southern Appalachian spruce-fir forests . The area is host to many animals, including: The largest city located in
744-453: The resort was expanded in 1958 and 1963. Sammons' wife Elaine occasionally snuck her dog into the hotel undercover in a baby carriage. Between 1982 and 1988, $ 65 million was spent to build a 50,000-square-foot sports center and the Sammons and Vanderbilt wings. The new wings more than tripled the amount of guest rooms at the property. A $ 44 million, 3,700-square-metre (40,000 sq ft) spa
775-490: The southern Appalachians and links two national parks: Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains . In many places along the parkway, there are metamorphic rocks ( gneiss ) with folded bands of light-and dark-colored minerals, which sometimes look like the folds and swirls in a marble cake. Most of the rocks that form the Blue Ridge Mountains are ancient granitic charnockites , metamorphosed volcanic formations, and sedimentary limestone. Recent studies completed by Richard Tollo,
806-787: The term "Blue Ridge" is sometimes applied exclusively to the eastern edge or front range of the Appalachian Mountains, the geological definition of the Blue Ridge province extends westward to the Ridge and Valley area, encompassing the Great Smoky Mountains , the Great Balsams , the Roans , the Blacks , and other mountain ranges. In North Carolina, two lower elevation ranges to the east, referred to as foothills , are also often included as "spurs" of
837-455: The valley, on the west side of the Blue Ridge, at the Treaty of Lancaster in 1744. The Blue Ridge Mountains have stunted oak and oak-hickory forest habitats , which comprise most of the Appalachian slope forests. Flora also includes grass, shrubs, hemlock and mixed-oak pine forests. While the Blue Ridge range includes the highest summits in the eastern United States, the climate is nevertheless too warm to support an alpine zone , and thus
868-536: The west of the Blue Ridge, between it and the bulk of the Appalachians, lies the Great Appalachian Valley , bordered on the west by the Ridge and Valley province of the Appalachian range. The Blue Ridge Mountains are known for having a bluish color when seen from a distance. Trees put the "blue" in Blue Ridge, from the isoprene released into the atmosphere. This contributes to the characteristic haze on
899-570: Was added to the property in 2001. The resort had 900 employees as of 2009. KSL Resorts acquired the Grove Park Inn in 2012 for $ 120 million and spent $ 25 million on renovation work. They resold it to Omni Hotels in 2013. Omni spent $ 25 million to rehabilitate the property and renamed it the Omni Grove Park Inn . In 2018, the Inn opened the Seely Pavilion, a 10,000-square-foot event venue. In 1992,
930-511: Was built in less than a year by workers housed in tents on the job site. It opened on July 12, 1913. Acting U.S. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan gave the keynote speech. The original inn had 156 guest rooms. The hotel was outfitted with furnishings from the Roycrofters of East Aurora, New York , and built of rough granite stones. It was advertised as having "walls five feet thick of granite boulders". The resort’s golf course predates
961-406: Was one of the inn’s first guests. Other notable visitors include Henry Ford , Thomas Edison , Eleanor Roosevelt , John D. Rockefeller , Jerry Seinfeld , Sanjay Gupta , Harry Houdini , Will Rogers , Jack Nicklaus , George Gershwin , Margaret Mitchell , Billy Graham , Jennifer Lopez , Michael Jordan , William Shatner , and Don Cheadle . In Lee Smith 's Guests on Earth: A Novel (which