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State DirectoryGrand Old Lady Hotel
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Where History, Tradition and Excellence Meet!
- HoursOPEN NOW
- Regular Hours:
Mon - Sun - Categories
- Hotels, Lodging, Restaurants
- Services / Products
- Hospitality
- Payment Options
- Amenities
- Air Conditioning,Private Bath,In Room Coffee Pot,In Room Hair Dryer,Wi Fi,A La Carte Breakfast
- AKA
Former Balsam Mountain Inn
General Info
The Grand Old Lady Hotel is perched at 3,500 ft. elevation in the community of Balsam, NC, in a gap dividing the towering Plott Balsam and Richland Balsam mountain ranges. Balsam Gap was once home to the highest passenger rail station in the east, and guests at the inn – then called the Balsam Mountain Springs Hotel – took day trips to nearby peaks, some of which rise to over 6,000 feet. Our guests still enjoy such trips – even more so perhaps – by hiking the nearby North Carolina Mountains-to-Sea Trail, or by driving the spectacular Blue Ridge Parkway, which has an entrance a half-mile from the inn and reaches some of its highest, wildest and most beautiful points nearby. With its 100-foot porches, spectacular views and hearty, abundant cuisine, the inn soon came to be known as the “Grand Old Lady of Balsam”. There were many similar resort hotels in the North Carolina mountains 100 years ago, but by the middle of the 20th century many had succumbed to fire or disrepair. The roadside motels of that era have a charm all their own, but their appearance made life hard for grand inns like ours. Somehow, the Grand Old Lady Hotel survived.