The King’s Inn

Written By: Wiley Sloan | Issue: 2015/03 - March

Perched atop the crest of Fourth Street Hill, King’s Inn commanded a regal view of Main Street and the surrounding forest. Gentle breezes stirred the tall trees chasing away summer’s heat. Many of the Inn’s guests returned annually, spending summers rocking lazily on the wrap-around porches.

Originally built as a private home by Monroe Skinner in 1878, it soon housed guests when Mrs. Margaretta Ravenel purchased the house in 1883. When she added porches, the home was christened Islington House. Its popularity prompted Mrs. Ravenel to expand the inn to three times its original size. Under various managers the inn was abuzz with activity until it was offered for sale in 1913. It was not until 1925 that Robert R. (Bob) King of Andersen, South Carolina, purchased it.

An experienced hotelier with properties in both Florida and South Carolina, King set out to enlarge the inn. With an expanded living and dining room and several additional guest rooms, King’s Inn soon became Highlands’ premier destination. Each of the rooms included a fireplace; each bath a claw foot tub. Cottages surrounded the main house. Guests enjoyed horseback riding, tennis, or shuffleboard or strolled the gardens when not hiking or playing card games. So many couples celebrated their marriages at King’s Inn that it was often referred to it as “the honeymoon center of Highlands.”

In the fifties and sixties the Inn was managed by Bob King’s daughter, Betty Trowbridge and her husband Bill, who continually enhanced the property, enlarging the dining room to seat 150 and adding a heated swimming pool. Sunday lunch with its prime rib and fried chicken enticed many Townies to join the hotel’s guests. Foodies requested recipes so frequently that the “King’s Inn Cookbook” was created. A renowned recipe from that cookbook is Macaroni Mouse — a King family favorite to this day. The quality meals were enhanced by soothing music provided by Bob Ramsey on the inn’s Hammond organ.

Kay Trowbridge Thomas (granddaughter of Robert King) fondly remembers her summers in Highlands. The King family children grew up with their “summer aunts and uncles” (regular guests whose families came to escape the  oppressive heat of the lowlands). She tells of Sadie — a Rhode Island Red hen who was too good for the barn. Sadie regularly perched on the inn’s porch railing to peer over the guest’s shoulder as they read the morning paper. The inn hosted many prominent citizens including Helen Keller and Wernher von Braun, the famous rocket engineer.

From the 1930’s-1950’s the end of the Highlands season (Labor Day) would see many of the inn’s regulars migrate to Florida to the King’s property, King’s Jacaranda Hotel, for the winter season. The King family sold the inn in 1967 but it operated throughout the 1970’s and ‘80’s. Nick Moschouris (who later opened his own restaurant at the base of Satulah Mountain) honed his skills at the inn.

On February 20, 1994, the inn burned to the ground. It was the sad end of a magnificent Highlands gem.