There’s a distinct difference between North Carolina’s Fryemont Inn and just about any modern hotel. The run-of-the-mill hotel, regardless of its glamour, brand or rate, will never exhibit a “Book of Memories” on the coffee table in front of the fireplace. But Fryemont’s grateful innkeepers have memorialized visits dating back a century. And why do the innkeepers chronicle these memories? Because they view their guests as significant connections to their own lives and, perhaps, as extended family.
Cindy and I count ourselves among those who cherish the wonderful charm and character historic inns like the Fryemont offer, where well-worn books are displayed for children of guests who read them when their parents brought them here. We love the ginormous wooden table strewn with cards, games and puzzles that await families in the large gathering room. We love the smell of old wood harvested from mountains a century ago. We love the stone fireplace that burns eight-foot logs. What we don’t miss is the TV, spewing its usual cacophony of strife and garbage. Fryemont rooms don’t have them. (The great room does.) We do notice the fresh mountain breeze through large open windows—a breeze that airs the soul and transports one’s mind back to a bygone era. And we love relaxing on Fryemont’s spacious porch overlooking the great Smoky Mountains.
The Fryemont is a well-preserved example of a period vacation hotel, a stark contrast to modern-day hurry-in-hurry-out brick and mortar high-rises that, more often than not, fall short of true hospitality.
Through the years, three families have preserved the Fryemont’s heritage of warmth that has kept guests returning for generations. It all started with an intrepid young lawyer named Amos Frye, who hiked 175 miles over the Smokies to Bryson City from Statesville, North Carolina. He specialized in land titles and insisted his clients pay him in land. Frye accumulated thousands of acres at about .50 cents per acre in the early 1900’s, becoming a timber and sawmill baron.
When the timber industry hit hard times, Frye set his crews and local craftsmen to work building an inn which he fondly called the Fryemont. He and his wife, Lillian, also an attorney, spared no expense, hiring architect Richard Sharp Smith, who had supervised the construction of Asheville’s Biltmore House. Before chestnut blight wiped out the species, Frye harvested chestnut trees from the mountains and used the wood for roofing and wall paneling. In the rooms, you find smooth chestnut, not the “wormy” variety from reclaimed diseased wood. American smooth chestnut is impossible to find these days, making the inn a magnificent architectural antique.
The Frye’s gained a reputation for entertaining, as evidenced by the following words from a letter dated July 7, 1930 from W. T. Galbreath of Chase Securities Corporation in Cincinnati:
Dear Madam: My wife and I contemplate spending the week of August 25 in the “Smokies” and your hotel has been highly recommended to us.
When Amos Frye died in 1935, Lillian operated the inn with the help of family until her death in 1957. The Fryemont languished for a period. It was renovated and reopened by the W.B. Dillard family, who ran the inn until Sue and George Brown of Atlanta discovered it while on a motorcycle ride up the Blue Ridge Parkway. Since 1982, the Brown’s, their children and grandchildren have owned and operated the Fryemont with the help of longtime, faithful employees. They continue a tradition of capturing the essence of living life well, the unpretentious hallmark of this masterpiece inn.
The Brown’s son, George Jr., is the chef, assisted by his son, Tyler. It’s the best food in town. (Full breakfast and dinner are included in the price of a room!) George’s wife, Monica, manages the inn. Their daughter works there when not at college. “Just about everybody in Swain County has worked here or taken swimming lessons in the pool. There are a lot of stories here. It’s a true family thing,” Monica said. The Browns are careful about who they hire because they don’t desire people who don’t love the inn, love the guests, or fit in with the inn’s unique culture. “We’ve been so determined not to sell to a corporation.”
She explained that so many historic inns have sold out, only to find that most of their guests get priced out. That happened to the Barganier’s when our favorite High Hampton Inn in Cashiers was purchased. The cost of staying there has since about quadrupled in price. “We have people who come every year. We know their situation. We know their lives. Some of these people have been staying with us for forty years. Some come twice a year,” Monica added. She said that one guest, in particular, has celebrated every birthday at the Fryemont. He’s now thirty-five.
One of his parents is a hairdresser, the other a missionary. “I know what it takes for them to get here and how important it is to them.” Monica teared up. Another couple “… recently came with their grandsons who are twelve, sixteen and eighteen—they also brought their daughters here—and he has stage four cancer, is in a wheelchair, and has oxygen. He was, like, a mechanic. But it means so much for them to get here. People say this is like coming home,” she said.
The Barganier’s will be back. I want to sit on the wide porch, feel the mountain breeze on my face, and listen to the horn blowing down in Bryson City as the train leaves the station. It’s a grand spot to anticipate a shout and blast of another horn, and followers of Jesus will depart this Earth depot in the twinkling of an eye. Don’t you be left behind.
Visit the Fryemont soon. They close after Thanksgiving and won’t open again until April. Tell them Jeff and Cindy sent you. For more information, visit: www.Fryemontinn.com
Jeff Barganier is a novelist, travel writer and speaker. He travels far and wide upon the slightest excuse for something interesting to write about. His novels include Lawson’s Bluff (2021); The Slash Brokers (1998). He also manages Cindy Barganier Interiors LLC (www.cindybarganier.com) at The Waters in Pike Road, Alabama. Contact Jeff at Jeffbarganier@knology.net. You may print out his features at www.jeffbarganier.com and take them with you when you travel!