The Fairfield Inn was an historic hotel building located on Fairfield Lake near US Highway 64 in Sapphire Valley, Jackson County, North Carolina. It was built in 1896-1898, and consisted of a 2 1/2-story main block with two rear wings.
The Queen Anne style frame building featured three massive singled gables, hipped dormers, a three-story corner turret, elliptical windows, and a one-story lakeside verandah. The hotel had 100 rooms.
The building was originally built in 1896 [by the Lake Toxaway Hotel Group] near a former gold mine on Lake Fairfield and added to in the early 1900s. { Gold in Sapphire Valley }
The historic inn stood on Lake Fairfield near US 64 until 1986. Despite undergoing only minor renovations over the years (detailed below), a fire in 1986 revealed significant safety issues, leading to its demolition later that year. Its loss was deeply felt in Sapphire Valley. (Source: Wikipedia / SVHS)
Minor Renovations
When the Howerdd family acquired the property in 1954, they made notable updates, including installing an elevator sourced from a grand hotel in Palm Beach and redesigning rooms to add private baths by reducing or eliminating closets.
Additional changes included enclosing the side porch to create the original Library Lounge, covering the back porch to expand the dining area, upgrading the kitchen to meet modern standards, and periodic painting and carpet updates. These were the only significant modifications made to the inn over its lifetime.
Image Description
ORIGINAL BROCHURE - UPDATED FOR 1986
"In the midst of a glorious mountainous region stands Fairfield Inn, on a hard surfaced road seventy miles northwest of Asheville, North Carolina known as Route 64.
This Inn is in the heart of the sapphire country, beautified with numerous waterfalls, excess vegetation, with many varieties of wild flowers, that make these mountains the most picturesque in the world, and geologist will tell you - the oldest.
Twenty miles of mountain streams in an estate of twenty thousand acres belong to the Inn and furnish an abundance of good trout fishing.
The Inn itself faces Fairfield Lake, around the edges of which grow flowering water lilies, which makes it a most beautiful spot, where you may enjoy rowing, black bass fishing and swimming in water that is clear, clean and invigorating."