by Dale Wayne Slusser – December 10, 2024
O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name.
Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love
And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.
‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy.
In her above soliloquy from Shakespeare’s magnificent play Romeo & Juliet, Romeo’s lover, Juliet, attempting to persuade Romeo that their family names (Montague and Capulet-notorious feuding families) are of no significance, further implores her lover, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, By any other name would smell as sweet!” Although Juliet’s dramatic statement is philosophically correct, that our names are not who we ARE, we do use names to give or take away significance to each other, from gaining “endorsements” for products or candidates to the naming of buildings, streets, and places. But let me argue that “What’s NOT in a name!” can be equally significant—hence the modern movement to remove “Confederate” place names. However, this story is NOT about this modern movement; rather, I’m merely setting the stage (pun implied) for my story, which is not only a true-life Romeo and Juliet tale, but one which has more drama than any bard could ever imagine!
Edwin Wiley Grove was born in Whiteville, Hardeman County, Tennessee, on December 27, 1850. As a young man, in 1874, Grove moved to Paris, TN and got a job as a clerk in a local drug store. Being ambitious, three years later, in 1877 he formulated Ferrine, a quinine product used to fight malaria. A year later Grove developed Febriline, a tasteless quinine remedy, which masked the bitter taste of quinine. Then in 1880, with the success of his new formulas, Grove bought out Dr. Caldwell’s drug store (where he had started as a clerk) and established Grove’s Pharmacy in downtown Paris, TN.[1] As would become a life-long habit, E. W. Grove was not satisfied with his success, and strove for more. In 1885, Grove came out with what would become his major money-making venture, “Grove’s Tasteless Chill Tonic”, an over-the-counter formulation with half the strength of Febriline. The following year, 1886, Grove formed the Paris Medicine Company to manufacture his new formula. Struggling with distribution difficulties, in 1889 Grove moved the Paris Medicine Company to St. Louis, Missouri. It was also in 1886 that Grove married his second wife Alice Gertrude Matthewson Grove. Grove’s first wife, Mary Louisia Moore Grove had passed away in 1884, leaving Grove with a seven-year-old daughter, Evelyn.
OTC preparation, Grove’s Tasteless Chill Tonic. 2008.0018.231.
In 1897, now pharmaceutical magnate and millionaire, E. W. Grove, came to Asheville seeking healing from bronchitis and a chronic case of hiccups. Asheville was then known for its fresh air and acclaimed health-restoring climate. Just as George Vanderbilt had done, just a decade earlier, Grove and his second-wife Gertrude, shortly decided to make Asheville their permanent residence (albeit just their summer residence). The Groves first leased A. J. Lyman’s house on Merrimon Avenue, [2] and a few months later, in January of 1898, Grove made it public that he had also leased a building at 48 S. Main Street, in which he intended to soon begin the manufacturing of “tasteless quinine”.[3]
Now enters, stage right, the “Romeo” of our drama—F. L. Seely. Frederick Loring Seely was a young, energetic 26-year-old mechanical engineer, working for pharmaceutical manufacturer Parke-Davis & Company when he first met Edwin Wiley Grove. Seeking to turn his liquid anti-malarial formula into a tablet, in 1897 Grove contacted Parke-Davis & Company for assistance. William Warren, general manager of Parke-Davis invited Grove to visit their facilities in Detroit, MI. As was his general practice, manager Warren assigned one of his department executives to host Grove and show him around the factory. As fate would have it, Warren chose Fred Seely, head of Parke-Davis’s Experimental Department, to be Grove’s host. Although almost half the age of Grove, Seely managed to impress Grove and seemed to develop an instant rapport with him.[4]
A few weeks after Grove’s visit to Parke-Davis, Seely wrote a letter to Grove, offering to visit Grove and inspect his new tablet-making operations that Grove had recently established in Asheville. On February 14, 1888, ironically Valentine’s Day, Fred Seely arrived in Asheville and was immediately escorted to Grove’s residence on Liberty Street for dinner. It was then that Fred Seely first met his “Juliet”, Evelyn Grove. Evelyn was the daughter (and only surviving child) of E. W. Grove and his first wife, Mary Louisa Moore Grove, who had died when Evelyn was only seven years old. Also at that dinner was Grove’s second wife, Gertrude (who is the primary antagonist of our tale) and their son Edwin W. Grove, Jr.[5] It was love at first sight for Fred Seely and Evelyn Grove, as just a few weeks later (February 25th), in reply to an apparent letter from Seely who had made his “intentions” known, E. W. Grove, as a protecting father, writes a long letter back to Seely being “frank to say” that although Seely’s “Christian character” and “high ideal” as a “perfect man before God”, has met with his approval, he informed Seely that he had advised his daughter “that I did not think you had seen enough of her and that she has not seen enough of you to come to a definite conclusion on so important a matter on such a short acquaintance.”[6]
Despite his reservations regarding the potential matrimony between Fred Seely and his daughter Evelyn, E. W. Grove facilitated the romance by soon stealing Seely from Parke-Davis and hiring him to oversee the implementation of Seely’s tablet-making recommendations and to manage Grove’s Paris Medicine Company’s new tablet-making venture in Asheville. Seeley arrived in Asheville to start his new job in June of 1898. In July of 1898, with Seely now onboard, Grove announced that operations at his newest “Bromo Quinine Manufactory”, which he had set up in the former National Cigar building on the southeast corner of S. Main (Biltmore Avenue) and Atkins Street, would begin in a matter of weeks.[7]
Now being close to his beloved, it was not surprising that romance blossomed quickly between Fred and Evelyn, resulting in their marriage in St. Louis on October 25, 1898. However, the young couple returned to Asheville the following day and moved into the Lyman cottage on Merrimon Avenue which Grove had been leasing. No honeymoon for the couple, as Fred and his bride had to accompany his step-mother-in-law, Gertrude Grove, back to Asheville for a scheduled surgery to correct a bowel obstruction. Of course, E. W. Grove could have accompanied his wife to Asheville for the surgery, and allowed the newlyweds to go on a honeymoon, but instead he sent Gertrude with the newlyweds while he decided to take a business trip to Texas. As author and Grove biographer Bruce E. Johnson so aptly writes: “… this was just a taste of what lay ahead for Fred Seely and his life with Edwin Wiley Grove.”[8] And I may add, with his mother-in-law Gertrude!
Following his marriage, Seely went right back to work managing the Paris Medicine Company’s Asheville operations. Seely, being an engineer and problem solver, also took an active role in the design of the machinery and factory systems. In 1899, Seely took out a patent for “improvements in apparatus for measuring, delivering and wrapping powders”.[9] Soon after production and experimentation began, it was discovered that the new anti-malarial tablet also relieved many of the symptoms of the common “cold”. With refocused marketing, demand and production of Grove’s new “cold tablet” skyrocketed.[10] However, although production at the new tablet factory seemed to be going well, even with talk of moving all the Paris Medicine Company’s operations (from St. Louis) to Asheville, by the following year, 1900, Seely would discover that when it came to his father-in-law’s business and development plans, all was fluid and could be changed in an instant at the discretion (or indiscretion) of Edwin Wiley Grove. Citing failure to “secure desired freight concessions from Southern railway”[11], in September 1900, barely two years after its establishment, Grove closed the Asheville branch, and moved his tablet-making operations, along with its manager, Fred Seely, back to St. Louis. Back in St. Louis, Grove made Seely operations manager of the entire Paris Medicine Company. Another employee of the Bromo Quinine Manufactory that relocated to St. Louis with Seely was a young man named George A. Randolph, the son of W. F. Randolph who was then owner and publisher of the Asheville Citizen-Times.
Despite appearances, E. W. Grove was not finished with Asheville, as by February of 1901, not only had he and Gertrude, along with their young son Edwin, Jr, retreated back to Asheville, but Grove had purchased a lot at the corner of Liberty and Broad streets and announced that he was going to build a permanent residence. Grove chose local architect and builder, J. A. Tennent, to design and build an 11-room, two-story “imposing and extensive colonial residence”[12] to front on Liberty Street.
While E. W. Grove was building his new residence in Asheville in 1901, Fred Seely was busy in St. Louis “directing” the Paris Medicine Company (Seely was officially the secretary-treasurer). However, Seely’s personality and management style did not fare well with the employees of the Paris Medicine Company. To restore a semblance of order, Grove decided to resume his leadership of the company, and send Seely on a long business trip to Java. Using the guise of sending Fred and Evelyn on their long-awaited honeymoon, Grove sent Seely to Java to negotiate a large deal with a Java producer of quinine. Upon his return from Java, Seely expected to step back into his position as operations manager of the Paris Medicine Company; however, his father-in-law would not agree to it, resulting in Fred Seely tendering his resignation from the company and removing to Atlanta, GA.[13] After trying his hands at a few projects, Seely eventually decided (with investment help from his father-in-law) to start publishing a newspaper. The “Atlanta Georgian” began publication in 1906.
While Seely was settling in Atlanta, E. W. Grove decided to begin reinvesting his wealth by investing in numerous property development projects in St. Louis, Atlanta, and Asheville. In September of 1904, E. W. Grove announced that he had purchased a 45-acre property (the Murdock family’s Annandale Farm) on the west side of Charlotte Street in Asheville, where he intended on building a high-end residential park. Although the stone walls and stone bus shelters on the east side (Charlotte Street entrance) of the park have a datestone of 1904, it was not until a year later, in September of 1905, that lots were first advertised for sale. Grove had hired the real estate firm of H. F. Grant & Son to be the “sole agents” to sell lots in his new development, to be called “Grove Park”.[14] However, the development of the residential park lagged in those first few years, and the laying out of the streets and staking of the lots did not officially begin until 1908 as reported in December of that year:
Dr. Grove’s plans for a residential park similar to those he inaugurated in St. Louis and Atlanta have greatly developed since he bought the first tract from the Murdocks on the west side of the Charlotte street terminus. Since then, he has acquired the Deake place and a considerable area adjoining it and the original plans have given way to far more extensive ones. For three months Mr. Beadle of the Biltmore nurseries has been at work designing and creating parks and streets in the original tract, whose main entrance, with its fountains and cemented pools, grass tracts and trees, attracts attention from the passerby….[15]
Despite having yet made little progress on actually developing the original portion of his residential park, in July of 1908, Grove purchased the “Deake place”, on the east side of Charlotte Street for an extension to Grove Park.[16] However, Grove did prioritize finishing the development of the original tract first, which is why in addition to hiring landscape architect and nursery manager, Chauncey Beadle of the Biltmore Nursery to layout the streets and parks, Grove also hired a young civil engineer, Charles Folsom to draw up the first recorded plat for Grove Park in December of 1908.[17]
On the 1908 plat and Beadle’s landscape place, we see that in the original section of Grove Park, E. W. Grove, as he had previously done in his earlier Atlanta development (also named Grove Park)[18], named the primary streets after his immediate family members. Gertrude Place was named for his wife (second/current wife), Evelyn Place for his only surviving daughter, and Edwin Place for his son, Edwin, Jr. However, the three remaining streets were named: Seely Place (obviously for his son-in-law); Lawrence Place, for the street’s first homeowner, Thomas H. Lawrence; and then Randolph Place, named for W. F. Randolph. And so here enters another main character of our drama, William Franklin Randolph.
William Franklin Randolph was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in 1854 to Abraham & Mary Randolph. William F. Randolph was 30 years old when he moved his wife, Mary Virginia Killmon Randolph, and his children to Asheville from Washington, DC in 1884. Randolph had moved his family to Asheville for the sake of his wife, Mary who was suffering from “consumption” (tuberculosis). Having been a printer in Washington, DC, Randolph immediately set up a job-printers business, first called Randolph & Hunt, and later Randolph & Kerr. Besides printing his own small weekly newspaper called Town Topics, Randolph’s firm also printed two daily newspapers, the Asheville Advance, and the Asheville Daily Citizen. In July of 1888, Randolph & Kerr purchased The Daily Sun, which they published for only five weeks before they announced that after its September 1, 1888 issue it would “cease its existence”![19]
In 1885, W. F. Randolph built a new residence for his growing family on a three-acre lot on Beaumont Street (addressed as “60 Beaumont Street”) in East Asheville.[20] Setting on the western slope of Beaucatcher Mountain, just below John Evans Brown’s “Zealandia”, the new house had a stunning view west, across Asheville to the western mountains. It was in this house, just four years later, in 1889, that W. F. Randolph suffered a double tragedy. In July of 1889, Randolph’s twenty-two-month-old infant son, Paul Kellogg Randolph, died suddenly from a brief illness.[21] To add grief upon grief, two months later Randolph’s wife, at the young age of 33 years-old, passed away, finally succumbing to that terrible disease, tuberculosis,[22] leaving her widower husband and four surviving children.
W. F. Randolph remarried to Eleanor Atkinson Carraway on April 15, 1891 in New Bern, NC. The newlyweds immediately settled in Asheville where Randolph continued in his job-printing and newspaper businesses, as well as in his civic affairs, as Secretary of the Asheville School Committee, and as an official in the local Masonic Order. In 1900, Randolph’s love for Asheville, which had turned him into an active “booster”, was recognized as he was then hired as the new Secretary of the Asheville Board of Trade and Secretary/General manager of the new Asheville Auditorium Company. Also in 1900, Randolph hired local architect Richard Sharp Smith to design a large home to house his growing household, which by then included eight children and his widowed mother, Mary Randolph. Randolph built his handsome pebble dashed “cottage” at 110 Montford Avenue.
The beginning of the Grove-Randolph-Seely relationship began in 1900 when Grove hired Randolph’s oldest son, George A. Randolph to manage the Paris Medicine Company’s Asheville branch office, to replace Fred Seely who had been sent to St. Louis to manage the entire company. In 1901, when Grove decided to close the Asheville branch, George Randolph retained his position with the company and moved to St. Louis.[23] But it was in 1908, the same year that the first Grove Park plat was made, that William F. Randolph decided to join with E. W. Grove in developing Grove Park.
In the summer of 1908, the Randolph family decided to lease out their Montford house for the summer to John C. Arbogast of St. Charles, LA. The Randolph family spent the summer managing and living at the “Portman Villa” (formerly Enthoffer’s Inn) in Black Mountain. In the Fall of 1908, the Randolph family returned to Asheville, but instead of moving back into their Montford home (still being leased to the Arbogast family), they moved into the former Deake family home at 289 Charlotte Street. The Deake property had just been purchased in July by E. W. Grove for his Grove Park Extension project. It was at this time that W. F. Randolph became the secretary/manager of the Grove Park developments.
Randolph, in 1908, while living in the Deake house, purchased a nine-acre lot on Sunset Mountain from R. S. Howland on which to build a new house for his family. To finance the new house, the Randolphs sold their Montford home to the Arbogast family (the then current lessees) in the Spring of 1909.[24] . Randolph’s site was on the west slope of Sunset Park, between the Asheville Rapid Transit car shed/barn (on the south) and Sunset Drive (on the north). R. S. Howland owned the Asheville Rapid Transit line which ran from the Charlotte Street terminus of the Asheville trolley system to the top of Sunset Mountain to Asheville Rapid Transit’s “Overlook Park”. The Randolph family moved into their new two-story house, which they named “Blue Briar”, in the Fall of 1909. I suspect, because of its diamond-paned casement windows, that Blue Briar was designed by Richard Sharp Smith, who had designed the Randolphs’ previous house in Montford. A unique feature of the house, which foreshadowed the building of the Grove Park Inn, was the use of rustic stone on the foundation, porch rails and posts, and the fireplace and chimney. The stone no doubt came from the nearby quarry on Sunset Mountain.
In his new position, W. F. Randolph worked from the new stone Grove Park office, just being completed, at the corner of Seely Place and Charlotte Street.[25] Just after moving into his new home on Sunset Mountain, Randolph’s managerial role suddenly increased, as in October of 1909, it was announced that “Dr. Grove”, in addition to the Deake property, had purchased an additional “378 acres on the side and top of Sunset Mountain”[26] in which to expand his Grove Park residential development. The newly acquired lands included land from Proximity Park Company, between it and the Deake property (now the development along Macon Avenue) and a sizeable chunk of the R. S. Howland property, which included the Asheville Rapid Transit lines and Overlook Park. The newly purchased lands brought Grove’s “holdings” up to 450 acres. Announcement of the new land purchases was also accompanied by the announcement that on the land, in addition to new residential lots, Grove was also going to install a “counterweight railway” and “automobile route” from Charlotte Street to Overlook Park at the top of Sunset Mountain.[27] The carrying out of all these new plans was the responsibility of Grove Park’s manager, W. F. Randolph.
William F. Randolph was not just Grove’s sales manager, in fact he was Grove’s “boots-on-the-ground”, responsible for directing all the engineers and laborers who were laying out and building the new lots and streets. Randolph was also Grove’s representative both to the news media, as well as to the governmental authorities, coordinating with city officials to get water and sewer services to the new development.
As early as February 1910, just a few months after the announcement of Grove’s extensive land purchases and his plans for the extension of Grove Park, Grove had given his first public hint to the eventual building of the Grove Park Inn. In reporting that Grove was finalizing his purchase of the former Asheville Rapid Transit lines and Overlook Park (for which, at the previous October land sale, a price had not been agreed upon for these entities), the Asheville Citizen noted that with the land purchase Grove had “contemplated the erection of a superb hotel on the mountain top and had some plans made looking to the building of such a house”.[28] Initially, it would also be W. F. Randolph who would act as Grove’s point man for the building of the hotel.
In March of 1911, as Grove Park was developing and expanding, E. W. Grove sent W. F. Randolph and his son Donald W. Randolph on a month-long “business trip” to the “Pacific coast” where they were sent on “business connected with E. W. Grove park”.[29] Yes, working for Grove and the building of Grove Park and the “new hotel” had become a family affair for the Randolphs. W. F. Randolph was the manager/supervisor of Grove Park, but also Grove hired his son Donald W. Randolph to be the “assistant foreman” for the development, and Randolph’s other son R. Bennett Randolph was hired as the bookkeeper. I suspect that Grove sent the Randolphs to the “Pacific coast” to observe the new Arts & Crafts homes and buildings which were flourishing in California, Oregon, and Washington State, and perhaps also to consult about the building of the new hotel.
On November 15, 1911, the news broke that Dr. E. W. Grove had sent letters to the major banks of Asheville asking them “to have representatives meet him at St. Louis at an early date for the purpose of discussing plans for the erection of the new hotel at the summit of Sunset mountain,” as it was further reported that “Dr. Grove wishes the banks of the city to subscribe $100,00 worth of stock to the enterprise.”[30] Grove’s proposition was that he would “float a bond issue of $250,000” to finance the building of the new hotel if the banks “would take over $100,000” of the bonds.[31] The bankers were so interested in Grove’s proposal that they quickly formed a committee and set off that very afternoon for St. Louis. The committee was composed of Dr. Carl V. Reynolds, J. G. Merrimon, H. W. Plummer, and E. L. Ray.[32] The committee returned to Asheville on November 20th, along with W. F. Randolph, who had “proceeded them to St. Louis”.[33] The committee announced that no agreement was signed or could be signed until the committee members made their reports back to institutions which they were representing.[34] However, within the month, on December 12, 1911, the response to Grove’s proposal, both by banking institutions and individual businessman buying bonds, was so great that E. W. Grove sent a telegram to the Asheville committee stating that he was so pleased with the response that he told the committee that he did not “wish the citizens to be further solicited for subscriptions”.[35]
Now having the money secured to build his new hotel, in December of 1911, E. W. Grove sent W. F. Randolph on another trip across the country “viewing tourist hotels in various parts of the United States with the end in view of having plans drawn for one for this city which will be as “good as the best.”[36] One of the places Randolph visited was Yellowstone National Park, where he no doubt visited the Old Faithful Inn (supposedly E. W. Grove’s favorite), and the Canyon Hotel, both of which were designed by the premier architect of “park architecture”, Robert C. Reamer.
In January of 1912, less than a month after Grove announced that enough bonds had been sold to begin the new hotel, he sent W. F. Randolph, and his son Donald, on another business trip. This time the father-son team was sent to the New York with the purpose of “looking over hotel, bungalow, and suburban properties and in consulting architects”.[37] Not surprisingly, by the end of the month, W. F. Randolph, representing Grove, announced that “Six architects are at work on plans for the new hotel”. [38] Of course, “the plans” being prepared were preliminary design proposals in competition with each other, with the eventual design contract being awarded to the winner of the competition.
Eventually, more than six architects sent proposals for the design of the new hotel. W. F. Randolph’s trip to New York certainly paid off, as at least four New York architects submitted proposals: James Brite; Louis Jallade; Augusta D. Shepard; and W. L. Stoddard. Also, the following out-of-state architects also submitted proposals: Price & McLanahan (Philadelphia); A. Ten Eyck Brown (Atlanta); J. K. Peebles (Norfolk); Mariner & Labeaume (St. Louis); R. H. Wells (Los Angeles); and R. H. Hunt (Chattanooga) and Robert C. Reamer (Cleveland), the architect of the Yellowstone hotels.[39] In addition, two local Asheville architects also submitted proposals: Smith & Carrier and W. H. Lord. Judging from the submittals, it’s clear that Grove and Randolph had solicited the topmost architects in the country to give them plans for a hotel that would be as they desired, to be as “good as the best”!
The architects’ proposals for the design of the Grove Park Inn were due to be submitted to W. F. Randolph by February 15, 1912, with an anticipated date of March 1st for construction to begin.[40] However, behind the scenes, events and changes were brewing in the Grove family that would eventually undermine the diligent efforts of W. F. Randolph to get the new hotel built and kept on schedule. On February 2, 1912, it was announced that Fred Seely had sold the Atlantan Georgian, a daily newspaper that he had founded in 1906, to newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst.[41] It was further reported what to W. F. Randolph was to be a foreboding omen—that Seely was planning to “leave the newspaper publishing business, going abroad for a year, and afterward associating himself in business with his father-in-law, Mr. Grove, the millionaire medicine manufacturer.”[42]
In addition to supervising the Grove Park residential development and soliciting an architect and an appropriate design for the new hotel, W. F. Randolph was also involved in the formation of two companies formed to facilitate E. W. Grove’s Asheville ventures. In February of 1912, both the E. W. Grove Park Company and the Grove Park Motor Car Company were formed and chartered. The E. W. Grove Park Company was formed as a development company to manage the Grove Park development and the building of the new hotel. The Grove Park Motor Car Company was a unique entity formed “to engage in the business of designing, manufacturing, repairing, rebuilding, adopting, buying, selling, hiring, leasing, operating and trading in automobiles, motor cars, motor trucks, and all other vehicles of every description.”[43] Both companies’ incorporators were E. W. Grove, W. F. Randolph, and John S. Adams, with Randolph and Adams each having just one share and Grove holding the majority shares. However, when the first organizational meeting occurred, Randolph found out that these companies were more of a family affair, as the selected Board of Directors included, in addition to the three incorporators, Edwin W. Grove, Jr. and F. L. Seely, with the officers being E. W. Grove, president; Edwin W. Grove Jr., vice-president; Randolph, secretary; and F. L. Seely as treasurer.
Although Grove, through W. F. Randolph, had solicited the architects’ proposals (due by February 15th) and had promised to begin construction of the Grove Park Inn by March 1st, by the middle of March all went quiet. People began to wonder what was happening. On April 9th, 1912 a correspondent from the Wilmington Morning Star, reported that work on the new “Grove Hotel” had started, with a large workforce of men “getting out stone” for its construction.[44] The correspondent, noting that although construction seemed to have begun, people were wondering what the new hotel was going to look like, as “for some reason, the architects’ plans, the preparation of which has been going on for the past several months, have not been formally accepted.”[45] Three months later, at the end of June, it was further reported that despite the continued construction that was ongoing that, “As yet, no plans have been adopted for the construction of the hotel, although it is understood that several prominent architects have submitted plans for the inspection of E. W. Grove and W. F. Randolph, the former’s manager”.[46] The reason “for the delay which is being experienced now,” it was reported, “is due to the fact that the man who proposed to build the hostelry is determined that it shall be just as he desires it”.[47]
What was happening behind the scenes? It turns out that “the man who proposed to build the hostelry”, E. W. Grove, was not satisfied with any of the submitted architects’ plans and was even contemplating not building the hotel.[48] In steps our Romeo, Fred Seely, offered to review the architects’ submittals for his father-in-law. Instead of choosing one of the submittals, Seely decided to make his own proposal. Borrowing elements from the various plans, and understanding what Grove was wanting, Seely produced a sketch of a rustic stone lodge, which incorporated the rusticity and ruggedness of the Old Faithful Inn at Yellowstone National Park with the American Arts & Crafts idioms and design concepts. Grove was so pleased with Seely’s proposal that he hired Seely to oversee the construction of the hotel. Seely accepted Grove’s offer, which included not only overseeing the construction, but also overseeing the design and preparation of architectural drawings. To that end, and no doubt to the chagrin of W. F. Randolph who had solicited the architects’ proposals, in May of 1912, Seely took it upon his self to notify the architects that none of their submittals were chosen as, “We did not succeed in getting a satisfactory plan from any of the architects”.[49]
On July 9th, 1912, a ground-breaking ceremony was held at 10:00 am where E. W. Grove turned over the first shovelful of dirt to begin the construction of the new hotel. And then “At 12:30 about 50 workmen began in earnest the excavations for the foundations for the structure”.[50] Fred Seely was not at the ground-breaking ceremony, only Mr. & Mrs. Grove and W. F. Randolph. Randolph, still officially the manager of Grove’s developments, acted as the spokesman at the ceremony. Randolph informed the reporters that they were hoping to complete the construction in 15 months, by July 1st, 1913, yet they also “felt that there should be no unnecessary push of time at the expense of something else”.[51]
To get the hotel project back on schedule, Seely decided to “fast-track” the project. Fast tracking is a project management technique which involves rearranging a project’s schedule to complete tasks simultaneously instead of sequentially. In other words, the architectural and engineering drawings are prepared as construction is happening. This is why it was puzzling to outsiders to see the construction of the hotel beginning, knowing that no architectural drawings had yet been approved, let alone completed! Grove and Seely chose architect and engineer, G. W. McKibben, to prepare the architectural drawings based on Seely’s design sketches. At the same time they also hired contractor J. Oscar Mills of Atlanta to begin the construction.[52] In fact, G. W. McKibben had arrived on site and set up his office on June 28th, a week or so before the ground-breaking ceremony (mentioned above),[53] no doubt to complete the foundation plans prior to the start of the excavation.
On August 28, 1912, almost two months after the start of construction, the public finally got to see its first glimpse of what the Grove Park Inn would look like when it was completed. A full-page advertisement with a large-scale artist’s rendering of the hotel was published in the local newspapers. Despite W. F. Randolph’s previous caution on rushing the project, the advertisement boldly declared: “GROVE PARK INN TO OPEN JULY 1ST, 1913”.[54] By then, Fred Seely had moved permanently to Asheville to his new castle residence, “Overlook”, and was not only directing the construction of the hotel, but he was also taking a more prominent role as spokesman and manager of E. W. Grove’s interests. In the ensuing months, Seely would share the role with W. F. Randolph, such as at the conclusion of the Asheville Board of Trade’s four-day capital campaign in September, where they both gave speeches as representing Grove.[55] Except for his advocating with the city for a new water line and sewer line to be installed by the city to the new hotel[56], (November and December 1912), W. F. Randolph seemed to be taking a backseat as Grove’s manager.
January of 1913 was the climax to our drama. There was a publicly quiet shake-up in the ranks of the Grove interests. At first it was difficult to know who was in charge of what. On January 4, 1913, the Asheville Gazette-News interviewed F. L. Seely, who it reported “has the general management of the property of E. W. Grove in and around Asheville and the construction of the new Grove inn”.[57] Seely told the reporter about the activity in Grove Park where four lots had been sold and one residence was under construction. In the same article, it was also reported that W. R. Campbell, “of the real estate firm of Forbes & Campbell has been given the active management of the sale of this property [that mentioned by Fred Seely] and in future will be located in the office of the park.”[58] Yet, five days later, W. F. Randolph who was attending a banquet at the Greater Hendersonville Club, was described as, “manager of the E. W. Grove estate”.[59]
A hint of the shake-up appeared four days later, on January 8, 1913, when a small article in the local newspaper announced that W. F. Randolph’s son, R. Bennett Randolph, who it reported had “previously been connected with the Grove Park office”, had accepted a position with the firm of Moales, Chiles, & Redwood.[60] Clearly the relationship with the Randolph family (W. F. and sons Donald and Bennett all had been working in the Grove office) and E. W. Grove had been severed. W. F. Randolph, though continuing to be active in the Asheville Board of Trade, in May of 1913, let out his home on Sunset Mountain, and moved his family to the “Portman Villa” in Black Mountain for “the season”. The Randolphs had again assumed the management of the small hotel. Although the Randolph family returned to Asheville in September of 1913, two months later in November, perhaps symbolic of his severance from the Grove interests, Randolph sold his home, “Blue Briar”, to E. W. Grove for $5,000 and moved to a house he had purchased in Montford at the corner of Cumberland Avenue and Magnolia Street (153 Cumberland Avenue).[61]
I suspect that the friction which caused the severance was between W. F. Randolph and Fred Seely, as after January of 1913, neither of the men acted as the representative or manager of Grove’s residential development projects. This position was given to W. R. Campbell, who had been hired as the sales manager of Grove Park. Seely continued to manage the construction of the Grove Park Inn, and after its opening, he persuaded his father-in-law to lease the hotel to him so that he could manage its operation. However, Seely would never again be the manager of Grove’s affairs, and in fact their business and personal relationship would continue to deteriorate to the point that just before E. W. Grove’s death in 1927, Seely sued his father-in-law for breach of promise.
To add insult to injury, E. W. Grove through his new manager W. R. Campbell, had the original Grove Park plat of 1908 re-surveyed and “revised” in February 1913[62], in which both Randolph’s and Seely’s names were replaced. “Randolph Place” was changed to “Katherine Place” and “Seely Place” was changed to “Celia Place”. Who were Katherine and Celia? Still keeping the theme of naming the streets after Grove family members, Grove, no doubt at the suggestion and/or persuasion of his wife Gertrude Matthewson Grove, named the two streets after Gertrude’s two sisters: Emily Katherine Matthewson Wrather and Celia K. Matthewson Harding.
Interestingly, both name changes were not immediately adopted in the city directories nor in the newspapers. “Katherine Place” does not show up in the city directories until 1917, and even then “Randolph Place” is also listed. It was not until the 1918 city directory that “Randolph Place” was removed from the directory. Oddly, “Seely Place” never showed in the city directories, but beginning in 1910, it was listed as “Shelly Place” or “Shelley Place”, and continued to be each year until 1926, when it first appeared as “Celia Place”. Although I have no idea why it was continually called “Shelly Place”, I do know that “Seely (Celia) Place” was not developed until 1925, when developer E. A. Jackson purchased three lots along Celia Place, just across from the Grove Office. A circa 1920 photograph of Grove Park[63], shows that until 1925, Seely (Celia) Place remained an unpaved dirt road. By that time the other streets in Grove Park had already been paved and lined with curbs and guttering.
Our true-life drama ends quite differently from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, as our lovers, Fred Seely and Evelyn Grove Seely, did not die young, but lived happily (except for those few years when Fred sued his wife’s father) forever after. “‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy…”, was Juliet’s cry to her lover, bemoaning that they could not be together because she was a Capulet, and he a Montague. However, in our drama, although Evelyn Grove Seely could have bemoaned, “‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy”, in our drama it mattered not whether the lovers were Capulet, or Montague, Grove or Seely (or Randolph), but that they were NOT Matthewson!
Photo/Image Credits: Note: All cropping, labeling, and captions by Dale Wayne Slusser
Photo-Celia Place Sign post– 2024 photo by Dale Wayne Slusser, Asheville, NC
Grove’s Tasteless Chill Tonic– National Museum of American History https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_1351278
Alice Gertrude & Edwin Wiley Grove-“The Mystery of Mr. Grove’s Daughter”, by Ruth Elizabeth Wats Wood. https://www.genealogygeek.net/post/the-mystery-of-mr-grove-s-daughter
Fred Loring Seely– File:Fred L. Seely.jpg. (2023, January 5). Wikimedia Commons. Retrieved 01:36, November 25, 2024 from https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Fred_L._Seely.jpg&oldid=723087614.
Grove home at 43 N. Liberty St.–The Asheville Times, January 28, 1927, pg. 9.
Postcard View of E. W. Grove Park-Image #AD620- Panorama from Sunset Mountain- Buncombe County Special Collections, Pack Memorial Library, Asheville, NC.
1908 Grove Park Plat-12/01/1908 E. W. Grove PLAT GROVE PARK WEST OF C HARLOTTE STREET Db. 154, p. 71 – Buncombe County Register of Deeds.
- F. Randolph Portrait– Oasis Shriners Past Potentates, 1895 – 1920. – https://oasisshriners.org/past-potentates-1895-1920
Randolph House-Beaucatcher- Ruger & Stoner, and Burleigh Litho. Bird’s-eye View of the City of Asheville, North Carolina. [Madison, Wis, 1891] Map. https://www.loc.gov/item/75694894/
Front Elevation-Randolph house-Montford– RS0236.1 Cottage- Montford Ave.- Wm. F. Randolph–Front Elevation (Pack Exhibit #38). The Richard Sharp Smith Architectural Drawing Collection is owned by and housed at the Asheville Art Museum.- accessed- Buncombe County Special Collections, Pack Memorial Library, Asheville, NC.
Photo of 110 Montford Avenue-2024 photo by Dale Wayne Slusser, Asheville, NC
Randolph/Arbogast House-Image #C763-8 -Randolph-Arbogast House, at 110 Montford Ave. – Buncombe County Special Collections, Pack Memorial Library, Asheville, NC.
Blue Briar vintage photo-Image # A446-5- Blue Briar Cottage, on the western slope of Sunset Mountain.- Buncombe County Special Collections, Pack Memorial Library, Asheville, NC.
Modern-day Blue Briar photo– Photo by Roger Foley, American Bungalow, Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153057251696697&id=183463931696&set=a.183467716696
Grove Park Office– Postcard from the collection of Joe & Mary Standaert, Montreat, NC
Grove Park on Howland Map– MAP206- Map of the City of Asheville, N.C. for the Howland Improvement Co., circa 1905-1906. – Buncombe County Special Collections, Pack Memorial Library, Asheville, NC.
Old Faithful Inn– Yellowstone National Park from Yellowstone NP, USA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Canyon Hotel-Canyon_Hotel,_Yellowstone.jpg: J.P. Clum lantern slidederivative work: Acroterion, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. via Wikimedia Commons
Robert C. Reamer at Canyon Hotel-Robert Reamer and foreman Mr. George at the Canyon Hotel under construction in Yellowstone National Park, October 1910, http://www.nps.gov/features/yell/slidefile/history/1872_1918/peopleevents/Images/18182d.jpg
Price & McLanahan Proposal for New Grove Hotel– 27-P-B30-004.04 Thomas/Price Collection, The Athenaeum of Philadelphia.
W. H. Lord Proposal for New Grove Hotel– “Built Without an Architect: Architectural Inspirations for the Grove Park Inn”, by Bruce E. Johnson. May We All Remember Well, Volume 1., edited by Robert S. Brunk. (Asheville, NC: Robert S. Brunk Auction Services, 1997), pp.218-219.
Grove’s Automobile Route-Image # AC752- Divided-back, colored photo-offset of a touring car coming down a dirt road on Sunset Mtn. – Buncombe County Special Collections, Pack Memorial Library, Asheville, NC.
Seely’s Sketch of Proposed Grove Park Inn-GROVE PARK INN – PHOTOGRAPH ALBUM #2, GPI- I.D.PN:1_E.0; UNCA- I.D.# gpi0232 — Special Collections & University Archives, Ramsey Library, University of North Carolia Asheville, Asheville, NC.
http://toto.lib.unca.edu/findingaids/photo/grove_park_inn/gpi_album_2.htm
“GROVE PARK INN TO OPEN”– “GROVE PARK INN TO OPEN JULY 1ST, 1913”, Asheville Gazette-News, August 28, 1912, pg. 7.
1913 Revised Grove Park Plat-02/01/1913 E. W. Grove Park PLAT GROVE PARK REVISION Db. 154 pg. 171.- Buncombe County Register of Deeds.
Grove Park-Seely Place Photo– Image # F315-8- Grove Park residential section. -Buncombe County Special Collections, Pack Memorial Library, Asheville, NC.
[1] Info from: EDWIN WILEY GROVE TIMELINE, Prepared by David W. Webb, Henry County Tennessee historian. https://clear.ewgrove.com/groveleg/grotime.htm
[2] “May Make Asheville His Home”, Asheville Weekly Citizen, Asheville, NC, October 26, 1897, pg. 4.
[3] Asheville Citizen-Times, January 6, 1898, page 4.
[4] Information from: Tales of the Grove Park Inn, Bruce E. Johnson. (Fletcher, NC: Knock On Wood Publications, 2013), pg., 24.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
[7] “Bromo-Quinine Manufactory.”, Asheville Citizen-Times, July 14, 1898, page 4.
[8] Tales of the Grove Park Inn, pg., 30.
[9] “PATENT OBTAINED”, Asheville Citizen-Times, October 16, 1899, page 1.
[10] Information from: Tales of the Grove Park Inn, pg., 29.
[11] “DR. GROVE’S FAMILY REMOVE TO ST. LOUIS”, Asheville Citizen-Times, September 20, 1900, page 8.
[12] “COLONIAL RESIDENCE, TO BE ERECTED HERE FOR DR. E. W. GROVE.”, Asheville Citizen-Times, February 9, 1901, pg. 1.
[13] Tales of the Grove Park Inn, pg., 31.
[14] “Have You Seen Grove Park”, Advertisement, Asheville Citizen -Times, September 6, 1905, pg. 5.
[15] “PLANS FOR 100 STONE RESIDENCES FOR GROVE RESIDENTIAL PARK”, Asheville Citizen -Times, December 15, 1908, pg. 5.
[16] 07/24/1908 (rec’d 0/31/1908) Marcus Erwin, Trustee (for the Deake family) to E. W. Grove CHARLOTTE STREET Db. 157, p. 326. -Buncombe County Register of Deeds.
[17] 12/01/1908 E. W. Grove PLAT GROVE PARK WEST OF C HARLOTTE STREET Db. 154, p. 71 – Buncombe County Register of Deeds.
[18] Grove Park in Atlanta also has streets named: Gertrude Place, Evelyn Place, and Edwin Place!
[19] “Announcement”, The Daily Sun, Asheville, NC, September 1, 1888, pg. 1.
[20] Asheville Citizen-Times, November 21, 1885, pg. 1.
[21] “Of Such Is the Kingdom of Heaven”, Asheville Citizen-Times, July 26, 1889, pg. 1.
[22] “A Desolate Home- Death of Mrs. W. F. Randolph Yesterday Afternoon”, Asheville Citizen-Times, September 1, 1889, pg. 1.
[23] “GOES TO ST. LOUIS”, Asheville Citizen-Times, Jue 29, 1901, pg. 1.
[24] “MR. ARBOGAST BUYS ON MONTFORD AVE”, Asheville Citizen-Times, March 13,1909, pg. 8.
[25] The stone office, designed by architect Richard Sharp Smith, was completed in 1909.
[26] “EXTENSIVE PLANS FOR GROVE PARK ARE ANNOUNCED”, Asheville Citizen-Times, October 29, 1909, pg. 1.
[27] “EXTENSIVE PLANS FOR GROVE PARK ARE ANNOUNCED”, Asheville Citizen-Times, October 29, 1909, pg. 3.
[28] ‘DR. GROVE MAY GET OVERLOOK PARK RY.”, Asheville Citizen-Times, February 17, 1910, pg. 8.
[29] The Asheville Times, March 6, 1911, pg. 5; and The Asheville Times, April 10, 1911, pg. 5
[30] “WANTS LOCAL BANKS TO GIVE UP $100,000”, Asheville Citizen-Times, November 15, 1911, pg. 2.
[31] “$250,000 HOTEL SEEMS ASSURED”, Asheville Times, November 15, 1911, pg. 1.
[32] Ibid.
[33] “COMMITTEE HERE WITH HOTEL PLANS”, Asheville Times, November 20, 1911, pg. 8.
[34] Ibid.
[35] “City Has Done Her Part”- A Message from Mr. Grove, Asheville Gazette-News, December 12, 1911, pg. 1.
[36] “HOTEL AT FOOT OF SUNSET ASSURED”, Asheville Citizen-Times, December 13, 1911, pg. 3.
[37] “CONSULTED ARCHITECTS, INSPECTED HOTELS, ETC.- Messers Randolph Securing Data for Development of Grove Property.”, Asheville Gazette-News, January 8, 1912, pg. 1.
[38] “ARCHITECTS DRAWING PLANS FOR NEW HOTEL”, The Asheville Citizen, January 30, 1912, pg. 5.
[39] “Built Without an Architect: Architectural Inspirations for the Grove Park Inn”, by Bruce E. Johnson. May We All Remember Well, Volume 1., edited by Robert S. Brunk. (Asheville, NC: Robert S. Brunk Auction Services, 1997), pp.218-219.
[40] “TO BEGIN WORK MAY FIRST”, Asheville Citizen-Times, February 7, 1924, pg. 6.
[41] “ATLANTAN GEORGIAN TO CHANGE OWNERSHIP”, Times-Recorder, Americus, GA, February 4, 1912, pg. 7.
[42] Ibid.
[43] “MINUTES OF THE ORGANIZATION MEETING OF INCORPORATION OF THE GROVE MOTOR CAR COMPANY”, MS094.002G-
Johnny Baxter Collection (MS094), Buncombe County Special Collections, Pack Memorial Library, Asheville, NC.
[44] “WORK ON NEW HOSTELRY”, Wilmington Morning Star, Wilmington, NC, April 9, 1912, pg.
[45] Ibid.
[46] “HOTEL PLANS ARE BEING CONSIDERED”, Asheville Citizen-Times, June 24, 1912, pg. 8.
[47] Ibid.
[48] See: Tales of the Grove Park Inn, by Bruce E. Johnson. (Fletcher, NC: Knock On Wood Publications, 2013), pg. 56.
[49] Ibid, pg. 57.
[50] “START EXCAVATION FOR GROVE HOTEL”, Asheville Citizen-Times, July 9, 1912, pg. 1.
[51] Ibid.
[52] “CONSTRUCTION OF GROVE HOTEL STARTED”, Asheville Citizen-Times, July 10, 1912, pg. 8.
[53] Ibid.
[54] “GROVE PARK INN TO OPEN JULY 1ST, 1913”, Asheville Gazette-News, August 28, 1912, pg. 7.
[55] “TASK IS DONE: ALL ARE REJOICING”, Asheville Gazette-News, September 12, 1912, pg. 1.
[56] Asheville Gazette-News, November 9, 1912, pg. 8.-“W. F. Randolph requested that the sewer line to be laid connecting with the city lines and extending to the Grove Park Inn, be done with 12-inch piping and that the part already in use be substituted with larger pipe. This request was granted.”; Asheville Citizen-Times, December 14, 1912, pg. 5. –“Through W. F. Randolph, E. W. Grove last night accepted the proposition of the city to furnish the new Grove Park Inn with water.”
[57] “MR. CAMPBELL GOES TO GROVE PARK CO. OFFICE”, Asheville Gazette-News, January 4, 1913, pg. 5.
[58] Ibid.
[59] The French Broad Hustler, Hendersonville, NC, January 9, 1913, pg. 1.
[60] Asheville Gazette-News, January 8, 1913, pg. 5.
[61] “W. F. RANDOPLH SELLS HOME”, Asheville Gazette-News, November 14, 1913, pg. 1.
[62] 02/01/1913 E. W. Grove Park PLAT GROVE PARK REVISION Db. 154 pg. 171.- Buncombe County Register of Deeds.
[63] Image # F315-8- Grove Park residential section. -Buncombe County Special Collections, Pack Memorial Library, Asheville, NC.
