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History of the Grove Park Inn
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When the Grove Park Inn opened in the summer of 1913, newspapers across the country christened her "the finest resort hotel in the world." Through the efforts of owner Edwin W. Grove and architect Fred L. Seely, the Grove Park Inn drew the rich and famous to Asheville, North Carolina, where they basked amid the panoramic views and soothing climate of the Blue Ridge Mountains. In her early years, the Grove Park Inn served as a summer retreat for Presidents Woodrow Wilson, Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover, along with such noted personalities as Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, Thomas Edison, Will Rogers and John D. Rockefeller, Jr.After struggling through the Great Depression and serving her country during World War II, when the United States government utilized it as an internment center for Axis diplomats, the Grove Park Inn teetered on the brink of obscurity. In 1955, Texas businessman Charles A. Sammons purchased the fort-two-year-old hotel and instituted a restoration and expansion program designed to both preserve the aura of the grand old inn and accommodate future generations of guests. When the Grove Park Inn celebrated her seventy-fifth birthday in 1988, she had risen once again to join the ranks of the finest resort hotels in the country. In doing so, she fulfilled the prophecy of William Jennings Bryan, who, during the inn's opening on July 12, 1913, had declared that the Grove Park Inn was "built for the ages."For a more detailed look into the Grove Park Inn's history please visit their website by clicking here.
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