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The restoration of the 137-year-old inn was nearly 30 years in the making.
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The Inn at Foster Falls, circa 1905
After nearly 15 years of renovating The Inn at Foster Falls, Greg Holzgrefe was due for a celebration. The inn, which opened last year, was an ambitious, nearly 30-year project undertaken by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, which acquired the historic property in 1995.
To celebrate, Holzgrefe — the project manager for the renovation — invited seven Richmond couples to experience what the inn and the surrounding New River Trail State Park had to offer.
“Everyone was in love with the hotel and its surroundings,” Holzgrefe recalls, describing a weekend full of riding bikes on the New River Trail, listening to music in the park’s picnic shelters, enjoying tea and sweets in the hotel parlor, and sipping mint juleps while watching the Kentucky Derby from the inn’s honeymoon suite.
Situated halfway between Pulaski and Galax, Foster Falls is the only inn within a Virginia state park, making it a unique getaway for those wanting to enjoy the natural amenities of Southwest Virginia without any of the discomforts of camping.
In its past lives, the building was used as a hotel upon opening in 1887, then a school and finally an orphanage until closing in 1964. When DCR bought the property, the wear and tear of the building’s extended vacancy was apparent. As such, Holzgrefe says, the first major phase of the project was stabilizing the building, which included installing a new metal roof and insulated windows, repointing the brick exterior and restoring the inn’s striking two-story porch.
Once more funding came, he worked alongside Richmond-based Circle Design Studio and The Lane Group in Big Stone Gap for interior design and architectural expertise, respectively. The end result was a 10-room boutique hotel with an accessible unit, a parlor and two dining areas.
Managed by New River Retreat, the inn has easy access to biking, kayaking, canoeing and hiking trails while offering a tranquil retreat for guests to lounge in rocking chairs on the inn’s wraparound porches as they listen to the New River and take in views of the surrounding hills and native wildlife.
However, you don’t need to be outside to enjoy the views. Holzgrefe says some of the most exciting features of the inn are the 12-foot ceilings with tall windows that give guests spectacular views from various spots of the building. “It was nice being able to connect that outside to the inside,” he says.
Holzgrefe and his team also worked to bring together old and new in the design of the inn. Among practical upgrades to the building, such as updated sprinklers, fire alarms, and heating and cooling systems, Holzgrefe wanted to make sure the inn had an air of modernity to it.
“It was complicated trying to fit all those systems into an older building,” he explains. “There’s a lot of working with the building to try to make it seamless.”
At the end of his weekend getaway with friends, Holzgrefe was satisfied to see that the project he worked on for so long on seemed to have a little bit of something for everyone.
“It offers a nice opportunity for people to get away from the urban area of the city and get out to Southwest Virginia,” he adds.
