North Carolina Inn To Be Sold
By Lauren Mayer | Online Only | Mar. 25, 2010
For the second time within a year, a historic hotel in Blowing Rock, N.C. will be offered for sale at a public auction.
Some residents in the Blue Ridge Mountain town of 1,400 are concerned that a new owner could demolish the Green Park Inn or sell it to the state Department of Transportation as part of a plan to expand a nearby highway. "We are always optimistic, and we hope it's saved," says Joann Mitchell, director of the Blowing Rock Art and History Museum. "It would be tragically sad to lose it."
The auction is scheduled to take place on Mar. 31—unless another buyer comes forward before then, according to Bracky Rogers of Mount Airy-based Rogers Realty and Auction Co., Inc.
The Green Park Inn was built in the 1880s and closed last May due to economic problems. It was first put on the auction block last July, but its owner did not accept the highest bid of $825,000. A month later, it was sold at a foreclosure auction to Green Park Inn, Inc., its current owner. (Tony di Santi, the owner's lawyer, declined to comment for this article.) Two years ago Preservation North Carolina tried to obtain an option to buy the property through its Endangered Properties Program, but "the owner was not willing to cooperate," according to Mike Stout, director of the group's northwest regional office.
As the next auction approaches, a few interested parties have surfaced.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Green Park Inn is one of the first sights that welcomes visitors to Blowing Rock and has housed guests such as John D. Rockefeller and Eleanor Roosevelt. In recent years, however, guests complained that the hotel needed repairs and updates.
The 73,000-square-foot Green Park Inn is among the last of the town's Victorian-era hotels. "Part of maintaining town character is wrapped up in preservation and historic legacy," says Ginny Stevens, president of the Blowing Rock Historical Society. "Keeping our buildings is extremely important."
The inn also served a significant economic purpose, as the town of Blowing Rock has attracted tourists for more than a century. "This town has a storied past, and people come here to enjoy the beauty of the surroundings," Mitchell says. "It has always been a place that people come to feel refreshed and inspired by the beauty of the mountains and scenery."
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