Chapter 70

After church, Charles guided me up the street that ran from St. Mary’s to the Grove Park Inn.

This was an immense old stone building that had been built by a patent medicine millionaire named Dr. Grove, who’d settled in Asheville at the turn of the twentieth century. The center portion of the structure was made of rounded stones that had obviously been taken from streams and rivers, and was flanked by two wings of newer brick construction. I’d heard of it, of course, but had never been there. In fact, I’d spent most of my time in the mountains relaxing and/or working in my retreat and had never spent any significant time elsewhere in the area. As it turned out, Charles had vacationed in the area regularly.