The majestic Blue Ridge Mountains have always hovered just beyond the horizon of our farm growing up. From the peaks of some of the most beautiful green meadows in Pickens, South Carolina, you could see the blue mountains with their varying heights and shades of blue in the distance. On occasion, we would go for a ride on winding curvy roads to explore what was nestled in those beautiful blue ridges. Small towns like Brevard, Cashiers, and Hendersonville were like new territory to us. Often, as a young newly married couple, we would pack a picnic and head to the Blue Ridge Parkway to spend the day riding near the clouds. Those were long car rides that usually ended up with us coming back home late in the evening. I have always loved the mountains.
My first time staying at the Grove Park Inn was as an employee of a company that liked to have a conference there every couple of years. Even though I thought I knew everything about the mountains, I had never seen the Grove Park Inn before that spring trip in the mid-1990s.
Driving up to the grand old hotel was like driving into a storybook setting. The rock structure with the red tile roof gave it a storybook feeling to me. It didn’t feel quite real, and at that time, I had no idea what I was really looking at that moment. I remember walking around the hotel in between meetings, looking at the displays of historical pictures and artifacts. I sat before the fireplaces that were so big, you could stand up in them. I marveled at the piano music playing and the way people lounged in rocking chairs or sat resting in the grand hall. The Sunset Terrace was my favorite gathering spot after our busy meetings previewing new lines of wallcovering that would be rolled out by many international manufacturers. It truly is a grand hotel, so much so that, according to Joy Callaway, locals called it The Eighth Wonder of the World during the construction.
It has been many years since I visited, so my memories of Grove Park are a bit fuzzy. However, recently I read a book that reminded me of that great hotel. The book was What the Mountains Remember by Joy Callaway. In this delightful story, Callaway provides much of the background for the building of the Grove Park Inn. Although the story is fiction, it does contain characters and a love story in the plot, with the action all centered around the construction of the inn. Callaway does a great job of weaving details about the building of the grand hotel into the mix of the difficulty and differences of the class system of that era. For example, much of the story focuses on the craftsmen who were the actual builders. She goes into detail about how they mined the rock locally for the construction. Callaway also provides historical context about Asheville and how the area, due to favorable climate and conditions, was home to many sanitariums to treat tuberculosis. Then she details how very wealthy business leaders were instrumental in the construction and funded much of it. Names like Firestone, Ford, and Edison play a role in the story as well.
Reading this story is like stepping back in time to the early 1900s. Women were treated differently, societal rules were different, and the language and customs were more formal. Callaway’s prose does a great job of capturing the language style of that era, which makes the reading a little more deliberate and intentional. This is not a book you can speed through without thought. Which leads me to the main character, Belle, who shows how some rules must be broken to move forward. Belle is enduring and learns that she has to break a few rules in life to be happy.
There is nothing I love more than a good book. Especially one that I have a personal connection to or know the setting so well. Joy Callaway has hit a home run with her book, What The Mountains Remember. Reading this story is like getting lost in the past while exploring the land of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Soon, I hope to splurge on a night or two at the Grove Park again. It really is the Eighth Wonder!