The Blue Ridge Boutique Hotel | By Elizabeth Baird Hardy

A New Destination to Explore the Mountains and Reach for the Stars

The Blue Ridge Boutique Hotel, a restored 100-yearold building that was once a school, opens this summer Margaret Earley-Thiele, Executive Director of the Mayland Community College Foundation, stands at the “entrance” of the new Glenn and Carol Arthur Planetarium

The Blue Ridge Boutique Hotel: By Elizabeth Baird Hardy

Most High Country residents know that Mayland Community College is a wonderful resource for education, with a wide range of degrees, certificates, and training programs available for everyone from transfer students gaining required credits toward a degree to community members learning a new skill like photography or blacksmithing. Mayland, however, has even more to offer, and this summer, with the opening of the new Blue Ridge Boutique Hotel, Mayland is providing our region with a wonderful new resource for residents and visitors alike.

When Spruce Pine’s Pine Bridge center complex, including the Coliseum and Inn, was donated to the college in 2015, it soon became apparent that there was an opportunity to create a new venue that could benefit the region. “Economic development has always been important to Mayland,” as Margaret Earley-Thiele, Executive Director of the college’s Foundation stresses. “Our duty as a community college is to build community”; that often means reaching outside the normal expectation of a community college in order to meet a need and expand opportunities. The Mayland Enterprise Corporation, a 501c3 that directs the college’s business entities, has undertaken the task of turning the site into a multi-use complex that will provide a wide variety of options and resources.

One of those resources is the Blue Ridge Boutique Hotel, opening this summer. Located in a beautifully restored one-hundred-year-old school building, the hotel features modern amenities alongside vintage elements like restored wood floors. Each room is named for a regional destination site, like Grandfather Mountain, a theme that will invite visitors to explore the wonders of the area. Sixteen rooms will be open and ready to receive guests this summer, as will the hotel’s library and conference room. Next year, the hotel will open the remaining sixteen rooms, along with a restaurant and bar.

In addition to enjoying the amenities of the hotel itself, guests will be able to walk to the charming shops, restaurants, and events of downtown of Spruce Pine via the town’s footbridge, which will sport a facelift this year, thanks to the town and the North Carolina Department of Transportation. Of course, also at hand is the Three Peaks Enrichment Center, housed in the former Pine Bridge complex. The facility will include Mayland’s Cosmetology program and salon, providing a variety of services to the public, from styling to spa treatments. The Resource Center for Entrepreneurs will also be housed in the complex, providing resources from computer access to marketing tools for businesses receiving support from Mayland’s Small Business Center. In the future, the event space at the site will host concerts, performances, and other events, so the hotel will be the ideal destination for attendees. For the present, there are still plenty of attractions to entertain guests, both in Spruce Pine and at Mayland’s Earth to Sky Park, which is also boasting new changes this year.

One of the rooms in the Blue Ridge Boutique Hotel is The Bare Dark Sky Observatory room, named for one of the principal attractions of the Earth to Sky Park. At the Bare Dark Sky Observatory, visitors can experience spectacular views of the heavens, by using their own telescopes to explore a night sky with minimal light pollution, or by gazing through either the Sam Scope, a custom-built Newtonian telescope, or through a Meade planetary telescope.

This summer, the Earth to Sky Park is also opening the Glenn and Carol Arthur Planetarium, a 60-seat state-of-theart facility with programs for stargazing even when the weather doesn’t cooperate, so visitors will have plenty of opportunities to enjoy learning about the stars. They can also enjoy learning about the earth by visiting the pollinator gardens, outdoor classroom, visitors’ center, hydroponics and aquaponics labs and other educational and beautiful resources in the park. Staying at the Blue Ridge Boutique Hotel allows visitors to enjoy all the experiences at the Earth to Sky Park. The park does not have camping on site, but the new hotel will provide the perfect landing spot for stargazing visitors, and package deals will be available for guests to enjoy the beauties of the heavens. They will even have the opportunity to stay in the room named for the Observatory. Other package plans are available, including wedding packages, as the Earth to Sky Park is a magical wedding venue, and the new hotel is a romantic and unique location for receptions and accommodations.

With the opening of the Blue Ridge Boutique Hotel, Mayland Community College continues to provide the community with opportunities for development and growth, while also welcoming visitors to learn more about our remarkable region, from the mountains beneath our feet to the stars over our heads.

This summer, the Blue Ridge Boutique Hotel will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony to officially welcome the community and visitors to enjoy this lovey new venue for the community. To learn more about the hotel and about the ribbon-cutting event, visit https://www.mayland.edu/foundation/blue-ridge-boutique/ or follow Mayland on social media.