Western Carolina Democrat and French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1913-1915, 1913-05-08

sive aut0Way of 3 IL miles to the summit of
Sunset Mountain, constructed and opened
to the automobile public latter part of 1911,
is being widened into a boulevard IS feet
in width and surfaced with asphalt binder.
This will be completed during the fall of
1913. /
Street Railway, Light and Power.
The Asheville Power & Light Company
owns and operates 17miIesof street railway,
with a z IL and 15-minute schedule to the
passenger station, Biltmore, Sunset Noun
tain, Grace, West Asheville, the Asheville
Cotton Mills and Winyah Sanitarium.
Transfers are issued from and to all lines,
and six tickets sold for a quarter. This com
pany also has 20 miles of gas mains, furn-
ishes the city with electric light and serves
the public with light and power at attrac-
tive rates.
Vanderbilt Estate.
Mr.. George w. Vanderbilt, custodian Of
one of the country s great fortunes, with all
the world to choose from selected the Land
of the Sky as the most desirable spot in the
world in which to found a great estate. On.
a 10000 acre track adjoining Asheville he
has built a model village which he calls Bit
more, laid off a great park by the same name,
through which he has built nearly forty
miles of macadam roads that are a lasting
delight, and a striking object lesson in good
roads building, and has erected therein a
specious chateau where he makes his home a
large part of each year. Adjacent to this
tract is a 10000 acre hunting preserve call
ed Pisgah Forest. An interesting story is
told of his selection of AsheYille as the place
to create this great estate, in which it is said
be appointed a commission to ascertain
where in al 1.-The world would grow the great
est number Of trees and shrubs in the tenn
perate zone, and was as much surprised as
was the commission when that commission
reported It's location Of such a place to be in
the Land Of the Sky, and but a little ways
from the center of Asheville. !,
A Hotel That's Different.
Because of the natural beauty and the IN
approachable climatic conditions, another
very rich man with a hobby, decided to ride
the hobby at Asheville. Mr.. E w. Grove,
the Asheville-St. Louis millionaire, decided
he would build a tourist hotel that was en-
tirely different from any other hotel in
the world, and one that should also~be, while
not the largest, the finest hotel in the world.
Its name is to be Grove Park Inn, and it will
open July L, 1913. Construction was first
started in September 1911. It's walls are of
granite quarried on the mountain side near
by, while the outer face of the walls is COW
cred with the rough mountain boulders pick
ed up on the mountain sides nearby, hauled
down the mountains in motor trains, slid
into place and fastened in unseen beds of
cement. No work of hammer or trowel is to
be seen on these stones, and the whole forms
a picture of rugged picturesqueness that is
altogether charming and novel. There is no
wood in the structure a v the doors and
door frames, windows and window frames.
The thousands of electric lights and all wires
will be hidden from view,-the indirect
lighting system is used throughout All
rooms are equipped with large closets and
the opening of a door will automatically
flood the closet with light, turning it off as
the doors are closed. ALL steam and water
pipes are concealed in the walls, and the
radiators are also concealed beneath the I
windows. The Big Room, or lobby, will be
80 by 12O feet, and at each end will be great
fire places that viii require logs II feet in
length. The elevators are n~oiseless and are
placed one at each end In the jamb of the
chimney.
The Battery Park Hotel, famous every
where, has just completed an expenditure of
$4,000 relaying every floor in the great
structure with the finest quartered oak
replacing every window frame,
dOor and door frame with the finest quarter
ID oak, repapering every room, placing rum
ing water and baths In all rooms, making
additional ladies parlors on each floor. and