Monday, October 22, 2012

Grove Park Inn of Asheville, Beyond the 53%


The Grove Park Inn, Asheville, North Carolina, created by Edwin Wiley Grove.

I think the title of this is misleading.  I think only the top 2 or 3% can afford thlis kind of living as a daily routine..

One of the windows you see in the below photograph is probably where F. Scott Fitzgerald's room was when he lived here. It has been said by a tour guilde that Fitzgerald was always looking for babes (aka chicks) to go through those doors below to check in.   When they did he rushed right down and introduced himself (while his wife was an inmate in a local asylum).

Edwin Wiley Grove (1850-1927) made his fortune as an uneducated pharmacist in Paris, Tennessee, by patienting a preventive medicine for marlaria.  At one time his medicine was selling more than bottles of Coca-Cola.

Not only did Grove start the huge luxury resort on a side of a mountain in 1913 but he also develeoped a subdivision next door.  The subdivision was unique because the streets were not laid our in grid fashion like most subdivisions but every street was curved.  Just within a year ago an architectual organization spoke how well planned it was.

It also should be noted that William Jennings Bryan lived just around the corner from the resort and became close friends with Grove.  Bryan's claim to fame was being a lawyer opposing Darwin's theory in the Scope's Monkey Trial in Tennessee, but also was at one time Secretary of State.*

* Sources - The Tourguides and Google.





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