A hotel "built not for the present alone, but for ages to come, and the admiration of generations yet unborn." This was the dream of Edwin Wiley Grove (1850-1927) of Tennessee, owner of a pharmaceutical firm in St. Louis which produced Grove's Bromo-Quinine and Grove's Tasteless Chill Tonic. He came to Asheville as a summer resident and found the climate to be so beneficial to his health that he bought land here, including a large acreage on Sunset Mountain. The idea of building a unique resort overlooking the mountains he had come to love soon became a reality. He consulted many architects, but none could grasp his idea, so he turned to Fred Seeley, his son-in-law. Without an architect or a contractor, this remarkable man built an edifice that came to be known as the "finest resort hotel in the world."

The Grove Park Inn (http://www.groveparkinn.com) was built of granite boulders taken from Sunset Mountain, hauled to the site by wagon trains, and fitted into place by Italian stonemasons and hundreds of local laborers. Built in just over a year, the opening date was July 12, 1913, with William Jennings Bryan delivering the official address. The lobby, or "Big Room," was 120 feet long and 80 feet wide, was constructed with elevators running through the chimney rockwork, and massive fireplaces large enough to burn 12-foot logs. A superb orchestral organ, with 7,000 pipes, was built for the Inn by Ernest Skinner of Boston. It was sold in 1927 for $75,000.

Mr. Grove leased his hotel from 1914 to 1927 to his manager, Fred Seeley, whose policies, though appreciated by his conservative clientele at the time, would seem a bit austere now. Children were discouraged, pets forbidden; only low tones and whispers were permitted after 10:30 pm; and slamming of doors was not allowed. As the hotel literature states, this was all necessary "to maintain a place where tired, busy people can get away from all annoyances and rest their nerves." Many famous names appeared on the early guest registers, including Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone, Henry Ford, Woodrow Wilson, the Roosevelts, General Dwight Eisenhower, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, who spent the summers of 1935 and 1936 at the Inn, while his wife Zelda was in Asheville's Highland Hospital.

During World War II, the Inn was leased by the U.S. Government. In 1942, Axis diplomats were interned here while awaiting repatriation. Though completely cut off from the outside world and their families, they were treated as ordinary guests, paying their own expenses. At the end of 1942, the Navy Department converted the Inn to a rest center for Navy personnel. From 1944 until the end of the war, the hotel was part of an Army Redistribution Station where soldiers back from overseas service rested before being reassigned to further duty.

The Inn changed hands many times until 1955 when it was purchased by Dallas entrepreneur Charles A. Sammons. The Fairway Lodge and North Wing were added in 1958 and 1964 (since removed), and in 1976, the adjoining Country Club of Asheville with its 18-hole golf course, pool, and clubhouse was purchased. The Inn was enrolled in the National Historic Register of Historic Places in 1973.

A new era began in 1982, when a multi-million dollar expansion program was launched. The Main Inn was renovated, the Sammons Wing added, and the Country Club remodeled. In 1984, the once-seasonal resort opened year-round. Further expansion has included the addition of an Indoor Sports Complex and the luxurious 10-story Vanderbilt Wing, which opened in 1988, the year the Inn celebrated its 75th Anniversary. The 202-room Sammons Wing was refurbished in 1994 and the Historic Main Inn in 1995. In 1999, the resort embarked on a two-year, $60 million property improvement project that had at its centerpiece a 40,000-square-foot spa. Located largely underground in the center of the hotel complex, the Spa is designed to be the finest on the continent. When the project was completed in 2001, the hotel became the Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa.

Because of the vision and efforts of Charles Sammons (1898-1988) and his wife, Elaine, who served as Chairman of the Board until January 2009, Dr. Grove's dream has become a reality. Now restored and expanded, The Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa has entered the 21st century even more deserving of the "admiration of generations yet unborn."