Stories from the
Gray Rock Inn
1928: The Doll Sanatorium, Part 4
The year 1928 was momentous for Asheville and surrounding areas. Asheville High School was being built, Beaucatcher Tunnel was being blasted into the city’s downtown mountain, and an hour and more further west, the first phases of the Great Smoky Mountains National...
1962 Maria Fletcher’s Parade
Maria Fletcher was crowned Miss America in 1962, after becoming Miss Asheville 1961 and Miss North Carolina 1961. A parade was given in her honor in November of 1962, featuring local organizations and beauty queens from the WNC region.
1928: The Doll Sanatorium, part 3
In the summer of 1928, teenager Catesby Eleanor Wythe moves to Flora Sorrell’s Boarding House with her mother.
1935: Hemingway’s Typewriter
A writer battling creative block comes to Asheville hoping for inspiration for a new book. Could a discarded typewriter by the key?
1928: Elroy’s Legacy
In 1928, a young woman staying at a boarding house befriends a mysterious cat named Elroy who plays a hand in her fate.
1984: Coming home to Asheville
In 1984, Diana Brittain Thompson and her mother visited Asheville thanks to the Genealogical Study of James Brittain of Buncombe County.