The Grove Park Inn Resort and Spa in Asheville is one of the most beloved hotels in the south. The grand hotel was built in 1913 with granite stones mined from Sunset Mountain. The resort has majestic views of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The hotel, with red clay roof captures the essence of the Arts and Crafts Movement. The Pink Lady is a mysterious guest who does not leave the resort.
A mysterious Pink Lady has been reportedly haunting the Grove Park Inn Resort for over half a century. Hotel employees and guests have reported sightings of an aura of pink and other experiences at the hotel.
Little is known about the Pink Lady. There are stories about a young woman wearing pink who fell to her death in the Palm Court atrium around 1920. In 1996 the Grove Park Inn researched the Pink Lady phenomenon and the evidence focused upon room 545, which is two stories above the Palm Court atrium floor.
There have been similar reports about room 545 on two separate occurrences. In the late 1950’s or early 1960’s a painter got cold chills on his way into the room that were so severe that he never attempted to enter again. The current facilities manager reported a similar tale. A different employee claims to have seen the Pink Lady several times over the past five years. The employee describes the apparition as a “real dense smoke”, a flowing pinkish pastel.
Hotel guests have also reported encounters with the Pink Lady. One woman reported hearing guests checking into the adjoining room at about midnight and realized that someone was holding her hand. Her husband was on the opposite side, so it wasn’t him. She turned and looked and the sensation of the warm hand disappeared. The next morning she mentioned this to the front desk clerk, who told her no one was in the adjoining room.He recommended a book about the history of the hotel. The woman read the book and concluded that she must have held the hand of the Pink Lady.
People who believe they have encountered the spirit desribe her as gentle and playful
History of The Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa
The founder of the Grove Park Inn was Edwin W. Grove, who was the founder and owner of Grove’s Pharmacy and Paris Medicine Company of St. Louis Missouri. Grove made millions of dollars by peddling an elixir called Grove’s Tasteless Chill Tonic. Grove started to spend summers in Asheville in the 1880’s for health reasons. Grove’s doctor recommended that Grove might benefit from the mountain climate for his bronchitis. Grove started to dream of building a resort hotel and in 1912 his dream began to take shape.
Grove envisioned a hotel that would be like a big home where every modern convenience could be found. The stone hotel was modeled after the grand old railway hotels of the West. The The grassy mountain slop filled with worked hauling the massive granite stones with mules, wagons, pulleys and ropes. Some of the granite stones weighed as much as 10,000 pounds. It took a crew of 400 men only 12 months to building majestic landmark dragging tons of boulders. Today, guests marvel at the stone work construction of the grand resort.
A number of famous people stayed at the hotel, including Harry Houdini, George Gershwin, Will Rogers, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and Eleanor Roosevelt. Eight presidents have been guests of the hotel, including: Woodrow Wilson, Herbert Hoover, Calvin Coolidge, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and George Bush, Sr.
There was a time, after World War Ii, when the only thing that kept the inn standing was the high cost of tearing it down. In 1955 the hotel caught the eye of a Dallas businessman by the name of Charles Sammons. Sammons and his wife restored the inn. In 1973 the inn was named to the National Register of Historic Places.
Guest today find a number of fine amenities at Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa.The $40 million, 40,000 square foot subterranean spa has been declared by Travel and Leisure Magazine as one of “the world’s best spas. The acclaimed spa features stone-surround waterfall pools, a mineral pool with underwater speakers and a lap pool. Fireplaces warm the air if you get a chill. Visitors to the hotel can enjoy the beautiful spa offerings and the fine dining offered at the restaurants. The Great Hall has a reception area along one wall, arts-and-crafts style furnishings, leather seats and stained glass lamp. A cozy bar and the entrance to the Sunset Terrace await
The Grove Park Inn Resort and Spa is a hotel with a past that has a eye to the future.While there have been numerous reports of sightings of the Pink Lady, most guests never encounter the spirit.
