Family Feud: The Bitter Battle Between E.W. Grove and Fred Seely For the Grove Park Inn
Speaker: Bruce Johnson
Date: Wednesday, June 28th
Time: 12:00 to 1:00
Brown Bag Lunch: bring a lunch and enjoy some local history!
Pack Memorial Library, Lord Auditorium lower level
Refreshments will be served.
All events are free and open to the public.
East entrance [rear/main] entrance of the Grove Park Inn with many open touring cars parked and a jitney at the entrance.
“Asheville Citizen-Times” October 26, 1898
The Seely’s moved to Asheville in 1912 where Seely soon set about planning the design of the Grove Park Inn and managed its construction for his father-in-law. Seely took over operation of the inn in 1914 but around 1921 problems arose between Grove and Seely. Grove re-wrote his will in 1921, “and in doing so nullified an earlier agreement he had made with Seely.” [“The Man Who Built, Loved, and Lost the Grove Park Inn” by Bruce Johnson, 1991.]
No one can tell the story better than Bruce Johnson.
Bruce Johnson has been researching and writing about the Grove Park Inn since first coming to Asheville in 1986. In 1988 he founded the National Arts and Crafts Conference at the Grove Park Inn and continues to direct that today. He has written several books on the American Arts and Crafts movement, as well as on the Grove Park Inn, including Built For the Ages: A History of the Grove Park Inn and Tales of the Grove Park Inn.
Post by Zoe Rhine Librarian
