Grove Park Inn is located in Ashville NC and opened in 1913. Four hundred men worked 10-hour shifts six days a week for $1 a day. Everything had to be hauled up the mountain either by mule train or by car train (for the heavier boulders some weighing as much as 10,000 pounds). The roof is 5 1/2 inch poured concrete yet gives a thatched roof appearance. Inside is the largest collection of Mission style furniture in the country. Many famous people have stayed here including Houdini, Will Rogers Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and 10 Presidents. F. Scott Fitzgerald spent the summers of 1935 and 36 at the Inn to be near Zelda, who was in a nearby sanitarium. Deemed too costly to tear down, it was renovated, including the addition of a 40,000 sq. ft. spa, and then another $25,000,000 was spent in 2012. The first two photos show a mule train and a car train in 1912 (click to enlarge). The third photo shows the Inn’s setting in 1913 just before it opened. Harvey Firestone, Thomas Edison and Henry Ford appear in the 1918 photo. The next photo is undated.
