Grove Park Inn
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Grove Park Inn
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| Location | Asheville, Buncombe County, North Carolina |
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| Coordinates | 35°37′14″N 82°32′32″W / 35.62056°N 82.54222°WCoordinates: 35°37′14″N 82°32′32″W / 35.62056°N 82.54222°W |
| Built | 1913 |
| Architect | Fred Loring Seely |
| Architectural style | Arts and Crafts |
| NRHP Reference # | 73001295 |
| Added to NRHP | April 3, 1973 |
The Grove Park Inn is an historic resort hotel on the western-facing slope of Sunset Mountain within the Blue Ridge Mountains, in Asheville, North Carolina. It is a AAA Four-Diamond Hotel and has been since 2001. It has been visited by many United States' presidents and many other notable personages. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the hotel is an example of the Arts and Crafts style. It also features a $44 million, 40,000-square-foot (3,700 m2), modern subterranean spa, which placed #13 worldwide in Travel + Leisure's World's Best Hotel Spas in 2008. The Grove Park Inn is a member of the Historic Hotel of America, the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
The Grove Park Inn was conceptualized by Edwin Wiley Grove (1850–1927) with the help of his son-in-law Fred Loring Seely (1871–1942). Edwin Wiley Grove, known as the “Father of Modern Asheville” was born in 1850 on a small farm in Tennessee. After serving in the Civil War he had a very definite plan for his life and career – the pharmaceutical business and the determination to rise from his early poverty to great wealth and success. While in his mid-twenties, Grove purchased Paris Medicine Company. Originally based in Paris, Tennessee, the firm was moved to St. Louis. Its primary money-making product was Grove's Chill Tonic, which was a tasty syrup elixir containing quinine. This formula would help tame the raging chills brought on by malaria. While still pursuing new pharmaceutical inventions, Grove met Fred Seely in Detroit, who was making a name for himself in the pharmaceutical business. While working together in Detroit, the two sparked a friendship and mutual admiration. Grove invited Seely to his summer home in Asheville. One week later he left his position in Detroit to work for Grove and his Paris Medicine Company. But business was not the only thing that interested Seely. When Grove introduced his daughter, Evelyn, to the bachelor, within 24 hours Grove had given Seely permission to wed her. Seely was married to Evelyn Grove (1877-1953), Edwin's daughter with his first wife Mary Louisa (Lou) Moore Grove. Lou died in 1878 when her daughter, Evelyn, was only one year old. Grove's second wife, Gertrude, was to bear Mr. Grove a son, fondly known as Eddie. After Grove died on January 27, 1927 his second wife and Eddie and Evelyn inherited the income from a trust Mr. Grove had set up. Gertrude sued for widow's rights and busted the trust, but then died in 1928 which allowed Eddie to inherit his mother's share of the Grove fortune. Eddie died six years later in 1934. Most of the fortune was exhausted according to historian Bruce Johnson. In the late 1890s, Grove’s Tasteless Chill Tonic, which had become a household staple, sold more bottles than Coca-Cola. After 20 years on the market, Grove has sold over 1.5 million bottles of his Tonic and surpassed his dreams by making millions of dollars.
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