Omni Grove Park Inn

Edwin Wiley Grove bought four hundred acres near Sunset Mountain in 1909, but after rejecting proposals from trained architects, his son-in-law Fred Seely — who had no formal training in construction or architecture — sketched the design himself. They built it from rough granite boulders, advertising walls five feet thick. Workers housed in tents on site finished the job in less than a year. The hotel opened July 12, 1913, with acting U.S. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan delivering the keynote address.

The original inn had 156 guest rooms furnished with Arts and Crafts pieces from the Roycrofters of East Aurora, New York — work meant to match the stone. The resort's golf course predates the inn; built in 1899, redesigned by Donald Ross in 1924. Local tradition holds that the inn is famed for its two-story stone fireplaces.

Ten U.S. presidents have stayed. William Howard Taft resigned from the Supreme Court in the Great Hall in 1930. F. Scott Fitzgerald lived here for about a year in the mid-1930s while Zelda received care in Asheville — he was dealing with his own mental health, heavy drinking, and tuberculosis. In the 1920s, so they say, a young woman fell from a fifth-floor balcony 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 served as an internment center for Axis diplomats — who were allowed guarded trips to town, a boon to the strapped local economy. Then it became a Navy rest center for returning sailors, then an Army redistribution station. The Philippine government functioned in exile from a cottage on the grounds during the war. In the mid-1950s the location was considered as a bunker site for the Supreme Court; as of 2013, Court plans still call for relocation here in the event of nuclear attack.

Since 1992 the inn has hosted the National Gingerbread House Competition each November and December, finalists' creations on display in the halls. Hurricane Helene forced cancellation in 2024, but the competition returned in 2025. Go in late November or early January if you want to see the work — though access is restricted to certain days and times. Go any time if you want to understand what it means to build something that feels older than it is.