In today’s edition of Appalachian Moments, we check in with the rich and famous at one of the few remaining grand manor hotels in the North Carolina High Country, the Green Park Inn.
Opened in 1891 by a group of 3 businessmen from Lenoir, including a Civil War Veteran Major George Washington Finley Harper (yes, he had four names) on extensive Blowing Rock, North Carolina acreage known as Green Park.
Harper, born in Wilkes County, led the Carolina 58th Regiment…as a captain he fought at Chickamauga, and Bentonville. After the war he was the Mayor of Lenoir.
In the hotel’s bar, called The Divide, if you spill a drink on one side of the bar it would flow toward the Mississippi, on the other side to the Atlantic Ocean.
When new owners bought the Green Park in 2010 and begin renovating, they discovered it was possibly worth more dead than alive because it had highly valued solid chestnut timbers running floor to ceiling throughout the hotel!
This enduring Grand Dame of the High Country has hosted historic and memorable figures from history including America’s first Billionaire, JD Rockefeller. He foresaw the growing need for oil in the United States in the late 1800s and dominated the industry and he became the world’s richest man.
When adjusted for inflation, Rockefeller’s net worth makes him arguably the richest person in recorded history. Sorry Jeff Bezos!
Eleanor Roosevelt also stayed at the Green Park…married to the longest serving president in our country’s history, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, she toured extensively. In fact, Harry Truman called Eleanor the “First Lady to the World” because of her outspokenness and desire to better humanity.
Speaking of Presidents, Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover, numbers 30 and 31, also stayed at the Green Park.
American legend and sharpshooter Annie Oakley spent a summer at the hotel and gave shooting lessons. We have featured Annie in an earlier Appalachian Moments blog from 2019.
American icon…model, singer and actress Marilyn Monroe also stayed at the Green Park…and to make the segue way work, Monroe starred in The Misfits with Clark Gable…Why do I bring up Gable, well, frankly Scarlett, I don’t give a…
Did you know THAT famous line, delivered by Gable in the movie version of Gone with the Wind might have been written in a room at the Green Park Inn? It’s true, Margaret Mitchell penned part of her famous book while staying as a guest at the hotel.
The hotel is not without a touch of tragedy…Laura Green, of the founding family, killed herself there allegedly because her fiancé did not show up on her wedding day. The staff won’t say if she still roams the halls seeking her beloved.
Please share any of your Green Park Inn stories here and thanks as always for liking, commenting and sharing this post!