Pisgah Inn: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Blue Ridge Parkway - Pisgah District, National Park Service
The Jaeger Company, Contractor and Pond and Company, Contractor. 2011. Pisgah Inn: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Blue Ridge Parkway - Pisgah District, National Park Service. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 550221. NPS Southeast Regional Office. Southeast Regional Office/CLI Database
The Pisgah Inn is a fifteen-acre component landscape located at Milepost 408.6 along the North Carolina portion of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The Pisgah Inn landscape is set on a ridgeline on the south side of the roadway. The site contains eleven buildings, including a lodge, restaurant, gas station, camp store and parking area, as well as remnant buildings and landscape features from the Pisgah Forest Inn (1919). The landscape employs a designed planting plan within the developed area and retains the natural forest on the periphery. Buildings and structures date to one of the two periods of significance, with the exception of the employee dorms and a maintenance building that were built in 1990 and 2000, respectively. The Pisgah Inn landscape has two periods of significance. The first, 1919-1963, marks the operation of the Pisgah Forest Inn, which was the first inn to operate on the property. The second period of significance dates to the 1960s and covers the Blue Ridge Parkway development that occurred on the site at that time. This period of development is responsible for most of the current features and design of the contemporary landscape. The Blue Ridge Parkway through the Mount Pisgah region opened to visitors in 1955 with the Pisgah Inn operating through a concessions lease from the National Park Service. During this period, the campsite was expanded, a picnic area was developed, and a new inn was constructed (1965). The original inn was closed to the public in 1963, and the building was demolished in 1986. Two cabins remain from this time period, but several designed landscape features including a large wildflower garden no longer exist. The Pisgah Inn landscape is currently in good condition. Although it does not retain the integrity of the earlier Pisgah Forest Inn landscape due to loss or removal or many significant features, what the presently existing site essentially follows the original planting plan and design for the area dating to the 1960s. Its current recreational use aligns with its historical use, and the landscape has changed little since the Parkway developments. Overall, the Pisgah Inn landscape retains integrity as a contributing component landscape of the Mount Pisgah Recreation Area landscape.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- The Jaeger Company, Contractor; Pond and Company, Contractor
- Date of Issue
- 2011-09-22
- Publisher
- NPS Southeast Regional Office
- Units
- BLRI , SER
- Keywords
- Automobile Age, cabins, Carriage Road, Conservation, dormitory, George Vanderbilt, Haywood County, Historic Designed Landscape, Historic Preservation, Historic Vernacular Landscape, inn, Interpretive Landscape, Landscape architecture, Lodge, Mission 66, National Forest, North Carolina, parkway, Protection of Natural and Cultural Resources, Recreation, Restaurant, Scenic Preservation, Touring Road, Transportation, Transylvania County, Vista