A Historic Arts And Crafts Destination In Asheville Offers A Fascinating Place To Shop

When it comes to hotels in Asheville, North Carolina, two properties serve as luxury bookends — The Biltmore Estate to the south of downtown and the Omni Grove Park Inn to the north. Both come with interwoven histories, high reputations, and expansive estates full of far more than beds and breakfasts. In fact, both contain entire villages. At Grove Park, it's called Grovewood Village and boasts two museums, eight artist studios, an art gallery, and an outdoor sculpture garden. All are framed by Blue Ridge pine forest and bathed in the cool, clean mountain air that has made Asheville a wellness center since the 19^th century and attracted health seekers to places like this underrated forest near Asheville.

While each venue in Grovewood Village charms, the most oohs and aahs come in the Estes-Winn Antique Car Museum — especially from children. Inside the long, open space, nearly the entire early history of automobiles is on display in a high polish. This includes makes and models like 1914 Ford Model T Touring Car, 1928 Pontiac Sedan, 1940 Packard Coupe, and a rare 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham, not to mention a 1922 American LaFrance fire truck used in Asheville. All belonged to Asheville-born Harry D. Blomberg, who rose from tinkerer to tycoon, eventually purchasing famed textile manufacturer, Biltmore Industries. Indeed, the space the cars are now in was once filled with more than 40 looms spinning fine, handwoven wool for customers like Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Helen Keller, and U.S. presidents.

Textiles get the focus at Grovewood's second museum: Biltmore Industries Homespun Museum. Grown with the patronage of the Vanderbilts — who built the Biltmore Estate in the late 1800s — Biltmore Industries produced fine textiles and woodwork. In 1914, Grove Park Inn's architect and manager, Fred Loring Seely, purchased the business and moved it to the hotel, where weaving and woodworking continued until 1981. The museum tells this story and illustrates it with an antique four-harness loom and other artifacts, as well as letters and photographs of its heyday. Private tours dig even deeper, with a visit to the historic Dye House to view the original looms, carding machines, spinning mule, and dye vats.

While warps, wefts, and weaves have long left the building, creativity remains alive and strong in eight working artist studios at Grovewood. Here — in the same workshops that once worked fabric — resident artists produce everything from hand-blown art glass and wood sculptures to jewelry, flutes and whistles, and ceramics. Visit Grovewood during the bi-annual tours in May and September, and witness the creation in person. Otherwise, pop into Grovewood Gallery next door to see their work, along with pieces by more than 350 artists from across the country. Just outside, find more artwork in the Sculpture Garden, including kinetic, copper and steel "wind sculptures" by Lyman Whitaker. Discover more at the Folk Art Center steeped in Appalachian tradition, just 20 miles away, or head into downtown to enjoy a different kind of art at a one-of-a-kind arcade in Asheville, the Pinball Museum.