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Green Park Inn
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| Location: | U.S. 321, Blowing Rock, North Carolina |
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| Area: | 8.7 acres (3.5 ha) |
| Built: | 1882 |
| Architectural style: | Colonial Revival, Queen Anne |
| Governing body: | Private |
| NRHP Reference#: | 82004637[1] |
| Added to NRHP: | June 03, 1982 |
The Green Park Inn is a historic hotel located on the Eastern Continental Divide in Blowing Rock, North Carolina. The hotel was built in the 1880s and operated continuously until May 24, 2009.
Past guests of the hotel have included John D. Rockefeller, Herbert Hoover, Annie Oakley, Calvin Coolidge, Eleanor Roosevelt and Margaret Mitchell among others. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 3, 1982.
In the latter part of the Civil War a small fortification was built on the site of the Green Park by Federal Troops.
The hotel is widely purported to be haunted, and has played host over the years to several conventions of ghost hunters.
In the face of a difficult economy, the Green Park Inn was closed seeking a new buyer in 2009, and foreclosed later that year.
On March 31, 2010, The Green Park Inn was purchased by Eugene and Steven Irace, two New York real estate investors who are already the owners of a number of other hotel properties. Their intent is to renovate the hotel, and restore it to its former glory, perhaps opening a small number of rooms as early as the summer of 2010. As far as possible, the new owners intend to work with the Blowing Rock Historical Society in attempting to replace a number of antique and historic items formerly owned by and located within the hotel, but purchased by the Society in the fall of 2009, when the entire property failed to sell at a previous foreclosure auction.
Following an aggressive renovation of the property, The Green Park Inn reopened to the public on October 29, 2010.
On July 1, 2011 the Green Park Inn reopened the Laurel Room Restaurant and the Divide Bar. The restaurant is headed by Chef James Welch.
On October 29, 2011 the Green Park Inn celebrated its first anniversary of reopening after having a progressively successful year. The hotel hopes to have nearly all eigty rooms completely renovated and available to guests before the second anniversary.
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