“The one complaint we get is if the Christmas tree lights in their cabin aren’t on.Enjoy nature's beauty and cool mountain breezes in the authentic log cabin on 25 wooded acre's. “Customer comments are what drive us,” Maltry says. Maltry and his wife Maria have it now, and they and their staff keep it as spotless and warm as the Fosters did. The Fosters sold the little motor court in 1970. The words she wrote in her diary explain the cabins’ charm today … “we knew that our inviting pines would be a welcome sign … people did come, and they liked what they found … we tried to keep our cabins as clean and attractive as possible and everyone mentioned how inviting it was.” The Fosters ran the only tourist court near Asheville on the road that connected that growing city to Knoxville, Tenn. Then they sighed when stronger winds sounded an alarm of a coming storm.” “They sang a song of gladness as the morning breezes swept gently through their needles. “We loved our pine trees – they became a part of our family,” she wrote years ago. Foster ran a restaurant in the cabin by the road (it’s now the excellent Bavarian Restaurant & Biergarten) and kept a diary of her day-to-day work. Foster’s Log Cabin Court charged $1.50 a night the first season, accumulating enough money to build six more one-room cabins the next year. Seeing an opportunity, the owners – Zeb and Audrey “Dickey” Foster – in 1930 hired a carpenter from the area to build seven cottages, each with a little porch across the front. It was that stately stand of trees that prompted the first travelers, walking to Asheville nearly a century ago, to ask the owners if they could spread their bedrolls on the soft needle bedding. The motor court is a star in its own right – it shows up extensively in the 1958 Robert Mitchum film “Thunder Road.” Many of the moonshine-and-hotrod movie’s interior scenes were made in Goldview cabin, set deep in the tall pines. The Log Cabin Motor Court is a 10-minute drive from the lively restaurant and arts scene in downtown Asheville, which with a dozen small breweries earned its name “Beer City, USA.” Nearby are all the things Asheville is known for – the Biltmore Estate, the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Folk Art Center and Chimney Rock State Park among them. The pet-friendly motor court also has a large lodge that sleeps 10. Some cabins have kitchens, fireplaces and air conditioning (it’s cool enough at night during summer to need a sweater). There are king-sized beds and raised ceilings. Bedframes and posts were made from stout locust logs.īut in each cabin there is also TV and wireless Internet. Some of the light fixtures inside were hewn from saplings. The interior walls are oiled so that heart-of-pine logs gleam a deep red color. The little cabins, each between 200 and 500 square feet, sound rustic, and they are. We’re closer to someone who likes a flat TV screen and going downtown for dinner.” If you want a serene, no-noise, back-in-the-woods experience, we’re not that either. “If you’re looking for a really fancy place, we’re just a few notches above camping out. “We’re not for everybody,” says John Maltry, who owns the motor court. Wildsmith, who prefers privacy when she writes, always asks for the Hermitage. With their bright red shutters, each of the 19 cabins has a charming nameplate above the door that reflects the experience its guests are likely to have, and many ask for them by name – Snug Harbor, Kozy Korner, Snuggle Inn, Happy Haven. The Log Cabin Motor Court is the kind of place that attracts people who rent by the week or longer (though shorter stays are cheerfully accommodated). The peace and quiet have been attracting people since 1929. The employees there know me and know what I need and when to give me space.” “I feel like I’m coming to some sort of family enclave. “I love the way I feel when I’m there,” Wildsmith says. The small cabins, nestled beneath a large stand of impossibly tall pines, are that quiet, she says. But Wildsmith, a novelist and poet who regularly travels to Kentucky, often stops there on her way back home to Georgia to write. Most people stay at the Log Cabin Motor Court to relax and enjoy being a mere five miles from the culturally rich city of Asheville, N.C. The moment she pulls in to the Log Cabin Motor Court, writer Dana Wildsmith knows she’ll get some work done.
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