HENDERSONVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) – There soon could be new life for the historic Osceola Inn, a once-bustling resort at Hendersonville’s Osceola Lake.
Construction of the stately, four-story inn began in 1909 – President William Howard Taft’s first year in office – at the princely sum of $25,000. Soon it would serve boaters flocking to the newly-developed lake.
But over more than a century since then, through the inn’s heyday and waves of changes in operators, the site has fallen into disrepair and now sits in need of significant restoration.
That could come soon, as the Hendersonville City Council this week will hold a public hearing on conditional zoning to clear the way for owners to convert the inn into a 20-room hotel with an event center and café, along with 26 multi-family housing units on the grounds.
The council meets at 5:45 p.m. Thursday, May 2, at the Hendersonville Operations Center assembly room, 305 Williams St.
The proposed project is considered to be an adaptive re-use and rehabilitation, with no new construction, just outside city limits in Hendersonville’s extraterritorial jurisdiction.
The proposal was unanimously endorsed by the city’s Planning Board at a meeting earlier this month.
In their formal decision, the board ruled that use as a hotel “aligns with the original use of the property,” predating the neighborhood of single-family homes now nearby. The board also decided, “The scale of the proposed reuse will not negatively impact the surrounding neighborhood,” and said, “The proposed rezoning will allow for preservation of the historic structure, into which investment is greatly needed.”
According to a staff report, the site was used as a hotel until the early 2000s and more recently was the site of the Heartwood Refuge.