Tar Heel Travels

Fearrington House
The quaint establishment remains the state's only Five Star hotel

By Bill F. Hensley

Counting all the ballots for the magazine's annual golf course rankings kept me home-bound the past several weeks. So this month's column is a bit of a hodgepodge where I empty my notebook of interesting tidbits of travel information I've come across lately:

The latest ratings for hotels and restaurants are out from Mobil and Triple A, and the Fearrington House near Pittsboro (right) remains the only North Carolina hotel to receive the highest honor from both groups. Of the 24 hotels around the nation that received a five-star rating from Mobil, Fearrington House was the only Tar Heel property to make the prestigious list. It also received a Five Diamonds ratings, the highest available, from Triple A.

Perhaps most noteworthy about this year's Mobil list is that two historic properties were bumped off. Slipping back to four stars were the Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, W. Va., which has received the highest rating for 38 years; and the Carlyle Hotel in New York City, which had been a five-star facility for 31 years.

While Triple A was stingy with its Five Diamond ratings, it found many hotels and restaurants worthy of its next-best recommendation, Four Diamonds. Here is the list:

Four-Star Hotels — The Grandover Resort and the O. Henry Hotel, Greensboro; Greystone Inn, Wilmington; Cedar Crest Victorian Inn and the Grove Park Inn, Asheville; Lovill House Inn, Boone; Innisfree Victorian Inn, Glenville; The Greystone Inn, Lake Toxaway; Pine Crest Inn, Tryon; Park Hotel and Hilton Towers, Charlotte; Carolina Inn and The Sienna, Chapel Hill; Pinehurst Resort, Pinehurst; First Colony Inn, Nags Head.

Four-Star Restaurants — Pine Crest, Tryon; Gabrielle's at Richmond Hill and Horizons, Asheville; La Bibliotheque and McNinch House, Charlotte; Carolina Crossroads and Il Palio, Chapel Hill; and The Fairview, Durham.

By the way, the Graystone Inn, in the heart of Wilmington's National Register Historic District, recently was voted one of the nation's ten most romantic bed and breakfasts by American Historic Inns. An historic landmark, the Graystone originally was the Bridgers Mansion, built by Elizabeth Haywood Bridgers in 1905-06. Owner/operators Paul and Yolands Bolda bought the 14,300-square-foot mansion in 1998 and are investing heavily to recapture its turn-of-the-century grandeur. The Graystone also has appeared in numerous movies, and it's a popular setting for weddings and receptions.

Across the state in Asheville, the Festival of Flowers, a colorful and popular annual event, will be held at the famed Biltmore House during the month of April. It's a breath-taking sight. The beautiful gardens were designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, and this year marks the 70th anniversary that the house and gardens have been open to the public.

When you're done antique-shopping in Cameron, why not drive a few miles down the road to shoot a few quail? There are two fine quail preserves near West End in Moore County. Clayton Myrick of Pine Lake Plantation and Ted Riley of PineKone Kennels, located just a few miles from each other, operate first-class preserves with excellent hunting. Both are well-known dog trainers and know how to conduct an ideal quail hunt. You can call Myrick at 910-947-1696 or Riley at 910-673-6361,

If you think the fastest growing towns in North Carolina are the big cities, you are mistaken. Surprisingly, the state's fastest growing cities are Huntersville, Jacksonville, Apex and Cary. In the past decade, Huntersville has grown 570 percent, from 3,023 souls to 20,282; Jacksonville has grown 144 percent, from 30,398 to 74,141; Apex has grown 205 percent, from 4,789 to 14,640; and Cary has grown 95 percent, from 44,397 to 86,613. Charlotte is still North Carolina's biggest city, with 521,478 inside the city limits; Raleigh is second with 269,211.

Charlotte attorney Richard E. Thigpen Jr. will serve as general chairman of the USGA Senior Amateur Golf Championship, which will be played at the Charlotte Country Club Sept. 23-28. The tournament will bring together more than 100 of the nation's top senior amateurs who will battle is out for the prestigious title.

In case you missed it, the prize money in NASCAR's Winston Cup Series this year went up to a whopping $10 million. That's double what the 1999 drivers were competing for. The points leader will take home $3 million this year. Last year Dale Jarrett was the leading points-getter and got $1 million.

COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL. This article first appeared in the March 2000 issue of North Carolina Magazine.