Formerly: Ray's Hotel · The Old Ray · Nu-Wray Hotel · NuWray Inn
Burnsville, North Carolina · Founded 1833 · Building: 1833 original log section; expanded in later periods
Burnsville's restored NuWray Hotel traces its site history to an 1833 log tavern and trading post, with later additions shaping the hotel seen today.
The NuWray Hotel in Burnsville, North Carolina, traces its origin to an eight-room log tavern and trading post built in 1833. The property became Ray's Hotel in the later 19th century and took the Nu-Wray name after Julia Ray and William Brian Wray renovated it in the early 1900s. James and Amanda Keith bought the deteriorated hotel in 2021 and completed a major restoration before reopening it.
Bacchus Smith established an eight-room log tavern and trading post at the site that would become the NuWray Hotel.
Source: Our State, 'A New Day for The NuWray,' April 29, 2025; NuWray Hotel history page.
Burnsville was founded after the original tavern and trading-post structure had begun serving travelers at the town-square site.
Source: Our State, 'A New Day for The NuWray,' April 29, 2025.
Garrett Ray acquired the property, expanded it with an east wing, and operated it as Ray's Hotel, locally called The Old Ray.
Source: Our State, 'A New Day for The NuWray,' April 29, 2025.
Julia Ray and William Brian Wray inherited and renovated the hotel, adding a west wing, larger kitchen and dining room, running water, and electricity; they adopted the Nu-Wray Hotel name.
Source: Our State, 'A New Day for The NuWray,' April 29, 2025; NuWray Hotel history page.
The hotel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places during the Wray family's stewardship.
Source: NuWray Hotel history page; Our State, 'A New Day for The NuWray,' April 29, 2025.
The Wray family sold the property after four generations of family involvement.
Source: Our State, 'A New Day for The NuWray,' April 29, 2025.
James and Amanda Keith purchased the nearly derelict hotel and began planning its restoration.
Source: Our State, 'A New Day for The NuWray,' April 29, 2025; National Trust for Historic Preservation, April 9, 2025.
The completed restoration returned the NuWray to guest service and added a full-service restaurant; the restaurant's opening was reported for May 31, 2025.
Source: National Trust for Historic Preservation, April 9, 2025; Carolina Epicurean, May 31, 2025.
Every claim gets rated. A business's own website can never earn "documented."
The title is repeated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Our State, Spectrum News, and the hotel itself. The reviewed sources establish a long lodging lineage dating to 1833, but they do not supply a complete independent continuity record through every ownership change, decline period, foreclosure, and restoration interval.
Independent modern accounts and the hotel's history page agree on an 1833 origin associated with Bacchus Smith and an eight-room log structure. The current hotel incorporates later additions and later hotel identities, so the claim should describe the site's early lodging lineage rather than imply the entire present structure dates unchanged to 1833.
A local-history feature reports the story, but the sources reviewed do not provide hotel-register evidence, trial reporting, or another contemporary record that independently places Wolfe at the hotel.
Recent feature stories list Carter among past guests, but no independent contemporary account, guest register, campaign record, or archival documentation was identified in the reviewed material.
The story is explicitly presented as legend in a 2022 account. No primary source was found confirming either Presley's stay or the late-night kitchen episode.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation and Our State both report that James and Amanda Keith purchased the hotel in October 2021 and undertook the restoration. The available sources support describing them as the owners who led the project, while the operating entity remains unverified here.
The entire NuWray Hotel dates unchanged to 1833.
The 1833 date refers to the original eight-room log tavern and trading post at the site. The property was later enlarged and substantially altered through Ray and Wray-era additions and renovations.
Source: Our State, 'A New Day for The NuWray,' April 29, 2025; NuWray Hotel history page.
Elvis Presley definitely slipped into the NuWray kitchen for a late-night snack.
A published 2022 account presents the peanut butter and banana sandwich episode as legend, and no contemporary documentation confirming it was identified.
Source: The Laurel of Asheville, 'History: New Owners, a New Future for Burnsville's NuWray Inn,' April 21, 2022.
The NuWray survived because it remained central to Burnsville's town square and because new owners undertook a full restoration after decades of deterioration. During Hurricane Helene's aftermath, the property also became a community gathering and relief point, reinforcing its role as more than a historic lodging house.
The NuWray Hotel began at its Burnsville town-square site in 1833 as Bacchus Smith's eight-room log tavern and trading post. Garrett Ray later expanded it as Ray's Hotel, and Julia Ray and William Brian Wray renamed it Nu-Wray after an early-20th-century renovation. James and Amanda Keith purchased the property in 2021 and restored it for renewed guest service.
The NuWray is widely described as North Carolina's oldest continuously operating hotel, with a lodging lineage traced to 1833. The National Trust for Historic Preservation, Our State, and other recent reporting repeat the title, but a complete independent statewide comparison and continuity record has not yet been assembled for this register.
The NuWray's restoration was completed after James and Amanda Keith bought the property in 2021. It reopened after restoration activity in 2024 and resumed full hotel-and-restaurant operations in 2025, when its restaurant was reported to open on May 31.
Stories say Elvis Presley stayed at the NuWray and once went to the kitchen for a peanut butter and banana sandwich, but the account reviewed describes that episode as legend. No contemporary record confirming the visit or the kitchen story was identified.
102 Town Square, Burnsville, NC 28714
(828) 678-7070
The restored hotel has guest rooms, a full-service restaurant, and event space; verify current lodging and dining availability directly before traveling.