It was during the 1880s that Edwin W. Grove, owner and founder of Grove’s Pharmacy and Paris Medicine Company of St. Louis, Mo., began spending his summers in Asheville. A frequent sufferer of bronchitis, Grove’s doctor had advised that the mountain climate might prove soothing and beneficial. He came to love the area after spending more and more of his time in Asheville and became quite involved in the growth and development of the small city.

Grove dreamed of building a resort hotel as early as 1909, but it wasn’t until 1912 that his dream began to take shape. Workers from all over the South converged on a grassy mountain slope overlooking the city and the construction of The Grove Park Inn was under way. Hundreds of mules, wagons, pulleys and ropes were used to move the massive granite stones, some weighing as much as 10,000 pounds, into place.

Since that time, thousands of visitors have passed through the resort’s majestic lobby, drawing inspiration from the numerous quotes by authors, famous and unknown, that adorn its distinctive stone architecture.