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granite boulders from the mountains,
it took 400 men, working 10-hour
shifts, six days a week, to complete
the construction of the Inn just
three days shy of one year. The
Grove Park Inn officially opened July
12, 1913, with Secretary of State
William Jennings Bryan, delivering
the keynote address and proclaiming
that the Inn “was built for the ages.”
Since that time, The Grove Park Inn has
hosted a long list of celebrities,
inventors and ten US presidents. The
distinguished guest list has included:
John D. Rockefeller, Harry Houdini,
Thomas Edison, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Will
Rogers, William Shatner and President
Barack Obama, among others.
Other holiday specials include visits
from Santa, holiday and history
tours, holiday movies and The Omni
Grove Park Inn’s very own Employee
Christmas Choir, which has been
offering daily holiday carols for the
past twenty years. The Holiday
Chorus performs each weekday at 1
p.m. beginning December 1st.
History of The Grove Park Inn
In 1909, Edwin Wiley Grove, known
as the “Father of Modern Asheville,”
purchased 408 acres in north
Asheville, North Carolina, including
what would become The Grove Park
Inn’s location. With only mules,
wagons and ropes to haul giant
Just before the Inn’s centennial
celebration in 2013, it underwent a
major $25,000,000 renovation that
included a complete redesign of the
Great Hall, a renovation of all guest
rooms in the Vanderbilt wing and
new dining outlets including the
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