The Omni Grove Park Inn

North Carolina's 100 year-old Omni Grove Park Inn has not only played host to ten United States Presidents, it's also a historical time-capsule. Built by E.W. Grove, owner of the Grove's Chill Tonic empire, construction on the impressive inn began in 1912 and took only 11 months and 27 days to complete. E.W. Grove was so obsessed with changing the face of Asheville that he bought several farms and leveled a handful of tuberculosis sanitariums just to secure the land for the Grove. The inn officially opened its doors on July 12, 1913, to 400 of the "most distinguished men of the South".  The enormous granite lobby has not one, but two 14-foot tall fireplaces, and hidden inside each of the chimney stacks are elevators that take guest to their desired floors. The entire hotel was furnished with Roycroffers of East Aurora, NY, one of the finest designers of metal work furniture at the time. Omni Grove Park Inn has hosted its fair share of celebrity guests throughout the years, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, who stayed at the hotel in room 441 so he could remain closer to his wife Zelda, after she was committed to an asylum. Other notable guests included Thomas Edison, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Henry Ford, and Harry Houdini just to name a few. Of course, some of the guests liked the Omni so much they have yet to check-out, the mysterious Pink Lady ghost, for example. Legend says that the Pink Lady was once a young woman, dressed all in pink, who fell to her death from the Palm Court atrium in 1920. In 1996, the inn began research on the strange phenomenon, and much of the findings led the investigators to room 545, located two stories above the atrium. Many guests and staff members who stay in room 545 report experiencing, "a real dense smoke - a pinkish pastel that just flows...a real gentle spirit." Today the Omni Grove Park Inn is still one of the most visited inns in the world, partly thanks to the 300-seat restaurant, lounges, golf course, six tennis courts, and the 43,000 square-foot spa that offers guest over 60 treatments. Whether you visit for the ghost or the massages, the Omni Grove Park Inn is an amazingly luxurious piece of American history, and (if you can afford it) an awesome weekend getaway. - Roadtrippers