The moment she pulls in to the Log Cabin Motor Court, writer Dana Wildsmith knows she’ll get some work done.
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. But Wildsmith, a novelist and poet who regularly travels to Kentucky, often stops there on her way back home to Georgia to write. The small cabins, nestled beneath a large stand of impossibly tall pines, are that quiet, she says.
“I love the way I feel when I’m there,” Wildsmith says. “I feel like I’m coming to some sort of family enclave. The employees there know me and know what I need and when to give me space.”
The peace and quiet have been attracting people since 1929. 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). 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. Wildsmith, who prefers privacy when she writes, always asks for the Hermitage.
“We’re not for everybody,” says John Maltry, who owns the motor court. “If you’re looking for a really fancy place, we’re just a few notches above camping out. If you want a serene, no-noise, back-in-the-woods experience, we’re not that either. We’re closer to someone who likes a flat TV screen and going downtown for dinner.”
The little cabins, each between 200 and 500 square feet, sound rustic, and they are. The interior walls are oiled so that heart-of-pine logs gleam a deep red color. Some of the light fixtures inside were hewn from saplings. Bedframes and posts were made from stout locust logs.
But in each cabin there is also TV and wireless Internet. There are king-sized beds and raised ceilings. Some cabins have kitchens, fireplaces and air conditioning (it’s cool enough at night during summer to need a sweater). The pet-friendly motor court also has a large lodge that sleeps 10.
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 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.
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.
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. 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. (More cabins were built later.)
Mrs. 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.
“We loved our pine trees – they became a part of our family,” she wrote years ago. “They sang a song of gladness as the morning breezes swept gently through their needles. Then they sighed when stronger winds sounded an alarm of a coming storm.”
The Fosters ran the only tourist court near Asheville on the road that connected that growing city to Knoxville, Tenn. 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 sold the little motor court in 1970. Maltry and his wife Maria have it now, and they and their staff keep it as spotless and warm as the Fosters did.
“Customer comments are what drive us,” Maltry says. “The one complaint we get is if the Christmas tree lights in their cabin aren’t on.”
