The Grove Park Inn opened on July 12, 1913. It took 400 men working ten hour shifts six days a week to build the hotel, using mules, wagons, and ropes to haul granite boulders, some weighing as much as 10,000 pounds, from Sunset Mountain. Since its opening, ten U.S Presidents have vacationed at the hotel including President Obama in 2009.

I grew up in Asheville and every year my family would visit the hotel during the Christmas season to see their Gingerbread House Competition Winners. However, I never saw a President while I was there.