Formerly: The Grove Park Inn
Asheville, North Carolina · Founded 1913 · Building: 1912–1913
Asheville's 1913 granite Arts and Crafts resort remains active because it has repeatedly been reinvested in and reimagined as a modern destination hotel.
The Grove Park Inn opened on July 12, 1913, after Edwin Wiley Grove commissioned his son-in-law, Fred Loring Seely, to design a mountain resort in Asheville. Seely's design used native granite excavated from the mountain site and made the inn an enduring example of Arts and Crafts-era resort architecture. The property was reflagged as The Omni Grove Park Inn after Omni Hotels & Resorts acquired and assumed operation of it in 2013.
Construction begins on the Grove Park Inn at Sunset Mountain in Asheville.
Source: Omni Grove Park Inn historical material
The Grove Park Inn opens to guests.
Source: Omni Grove Park Inn historical material; Historic Hotels of America, "History of The Omni Grove Park Inn & Spa"
F. Scott Fitzgerald begins spending summers at the inn; Omni identifies his stays as occurring in 1935 and 1936.
Source: Omni Grove Park Inn historical material
The federal government uses the inn as a detention site for diplomats, consular staff, families, and other nationals held pending exchange during the Second World War.
Source: Densho Encyclopedia, "Grove Park Inn, North Carolina (detention facility)"
The inn serves as an Army Redistribution Station for U.S. servicemen.
Source: Historic Hotels of America, "History of The Omni Grove Park Inn & Spa"
The Grove Park Inn is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, reference no. 73001295.
Source: National Park Service, National Register listing; Omni Grove Park Inn historical material
KSL Capital Partners completes its acquisition of the Grove Park Inn from an affiliate of Sammons Enterprises.
Source: KSL Capital Partners, May 1, 2012
Omni Hotels & Resorts announces its agreement to purchase and operate the property and reflags it as The Omni Grove Park Inn.
Source: Omni Hotels & Resorts, June 12, 2013
Every claim gets rated. A business's own website can never earn "documented."
Omni historical material says Fitzgerald stayed at the inn for two summers, 1935 and 1936, partly to be near Zelda Fitzgerald while she was at nearby Highland Hospital. The inn identifies rooms 451 and 453 as associated with him, but this audit did not inspect the claimed correspondence, receipts, or original guest-register evidence.
Fred Loring Seely designed the inn with native granite from the mountain site, and the property is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Its surviving main lodge is widely recognized as an important Arts and Crafts-era resort building.
The story is a well-established modern legend associated with Room 545 and the Palm Court Atrium. Accounts differ over whether the woman fell, jumped, or was pushed, and this audit found no independently verified contemporaneous death record identifying the person or confirming the incident.
The Pink Lady is a documented part of the inn's present-day ghost folklore, including reported experiences in and around Room 545. The existence of the legend does not verify a paranormal cause for those reports.
In 1942 the inn was used as a federal detention site for people awaiting wartime exchange, including Axis diplomatic and consular personnel and their families. Historic hotel history also identifies a later Army Redistribution Station use for U.S. servicemen.
Everything below has been reported by two or more independent sources — this is an informational record of what's said about this place, not a verified account of paranormal activity. Still Open America doesn't certify hauntings as real.
Guests and employees have repeatedly reported a young woman in a pink gown or a floating pink glow or mist in hotel corridors, rooms, and public areas. The figure is commonly known as the Pink Lady and is particularly associated with Room 545 and the fifth floor.
No contemporaneous death, police, or hotel record reviewed for the main entry confirms the story that the Pink Lady died after falling from a fifth-floor balcony in the 1920s.
Reports associated with Room 545 include televisions, lights, faucets, air conditioners, and other devices switching on or off without an apparent cause. Guests also describe makeup items or small belongings moving or being found in a different place.
Guests describe sudden cold drafts or cold spots in rooms and hallways, along with the sensation of someone touching their hair, hands, or feet. The reports are usually framed as playful activity attributed to the Pink Lady, especially around sleeping guests and children.
Guests in and around Room 545 have reported knocks at the door without anyone outside, telephones ringing with no caller, and moaning or unexplained sounds from inside the walls. These reports are often grouped with the room's broader Pink Lady folklore.
The Pink Lady's 1920s death at the Grove Park Inn is established historical fact.
The Pink Lady is a well-known modern ghost legend, but the alleged woman's identity, the exact circumstances of a purported fall, and a contemporaneous record of the death were not independently verified in this audit.
Source: WRAL, "Night with a ghost: Staying in the Pink Lady's room at Grove Park Inn," 2022
Omni Hotels has operated the Grove Park Inn continuously since its opening.
The inn opened as the Grove Park Inn in 1913 and passed through multiple ownership and operating eras. KSL Capital Partners acquired it in 2012; Omni Hotels & Resorts announced its purchase-and-operation agreement in 2013, when the property was reflagged as The Omni Grove Park Inn.
Source: KSL Capital Partners, May 1, 2012; Omni Hotels & Resorts, June 12, 2013
The inn survived because it evolved from a grand early-twentieth-century mountain retreat into a full-service destination resort without abandoning the historic main lodge that defines it. Its wartime government uses, postwar ownership changes, and modern resort expansion show that its continuity has depended on adaptation rather than stasis. KSL Capital Partners acquired the property in 2012, and Omni Hotels & Resorts purchased and reflagged it in 2013 while undertaking a major renovation timed to its centennial.
Edwin Wiley Grove commissioned the Grove Park Inn, and his son-in-law Fred Loring Seely designed it. Construction began in 1912, and the inn opened on July 12, 1913.
Yes. Omni historical material says F. Scott Fitzgerald stayed at the Grove Park Inn during the summers of 1935 and 1936, when he was also seeking to be close to his wife Zelda at nearby Highland Hospital. The property associates rooms 451 and 453 with his stay.
Omni Hotels & Resorts announced in 2013 that it would purchase and operate the Grove Park Inn as part of a five-resort transaction involving KSL Capital Partners affiliates. The property was then reflagged as The Omni Grove Park Inn.
The Pink Lady is a longstanding Grove Park Inn ghost legend associated with Room 545 and the Palm Court Atrium. The story says a young woman in pink died after falling from an upper floor in the 1920s, but no independently verified contemporaneous record was identified in this audit to establish her identity or the alleged death.
290 Macon Avenue, Asheville, NC 28804
(800) 438-5800
Check the official resort site before visiting for current public-space access, parking, dining, spa, and event policies.