Seventh in a Series: The History of Springhaven Inn: 1977, 1978

Written by Dr. Dan Morrill and Catherine Perry

This is the seventh in a series of articles covering the long, rich history of the Springhaven Inn, built in 1888 in Blowing Rock, NC. 

[Springhaven Inn is for sale. A group of town residents, with the Blowing Rock Historical Society, BRAHM, and Preserve Mecklenburg, Inc. (PMI), is working to save the structure. We are actively looking for a buyer or buyers for the property willing to keep the outside structure of the historic inn. Otherwise, it is in jeopardy of being torn down. If the property is demolished, this physical evidence of the history at the very core of Blowing Rock will be gone forever. We think it is worthy of being saved. If you would like to learn more about how you can be involved in the effort to save this property, contact Tommy Lee at either 704-737-5609 or tommy@appiantextiles.com.]

Springhaven Inn Has a New Owner

Margaret Reineking sold the Springhaven Inn to Alexander Hallmark in September 1977. Mr. Hallmark, who later became a well-known sculptor, was a real estate agent at the time. His primary motivation in purchasing the property was most likely economic. He acquired it at a bargain price from Reineking, being that it was somewhat dilapidated, and reasoned that the property was a good investment. In 1977 Alex rented the house to Ben Long and his wife Diane.

Ben Long–Painter of Frescoes 

In the 1970s, Blowing Rock included a coterie of artists who encouraged and assisted the artist Ben Long in making social contacts with clients who would purchase his art. Ben had spent several years studying under an Italian master in Florence and had learned to paint frescoes there, and produced his first frescoes in Italy. He spent nine months each year in Florence and returned to Blowing Rock in the summer to earn money. 

Ben’s wish was to share his artistic gifts with the people of his native North Carolina. He could survive financially by painting portraits, which he did. But producing portraits and landscape paintings was not enough. Ben enjoyed the teamwork and the physicality required to produce frescoes. What he needed, however, was someone in North Carolina who would let him create a fresco for free. He found that person when, at a party in Blowing Rock with other artists, he met the Episcopal priest who had recently been assigned to two small churches in nearby West Jefferson and Glendale Springs in Ashe County, J. Faulton Hodge.

Ben Long’s Frescoes at St. Mary’s Church in West Jefferson

Faulton Hodge was always looking to find ways to entice people to come to his two tiny churches. When Ben Long met Faulton Hodge at a party in 1973 and Ben offered to donate a fresco, Faulton did not hesitate to tell Ben to proceed. (Faulton admitted later that he had no idea what a fresco was.)

After his yearly stay in Italy, Ben arrived at St. Mary’s Church in West Jefferson in June 1974 and started working on a fresco. The first one he produced for St. Mary’s, which was the first one he created in the U.S., was entitled “Mary Heavy with Child.” Finished in 1974, it depicts Mary pregnant with Baby Jesus. Ben completed a second fresco at St. Mary’s Church in 1975, depicting John the Baptist. The third and last fresco at St. Mary’s was painted in 1977, titled “Mysteries of the Faith.” 

(An interesting footnote: Many times, Ben would use the face or body of a real person as the subject in a painting. For the fresco “Mary Heavy with Child,” the face and head of the Madonna was a lady Diane saw at Pizza Hut in Boone and the body was Diane’s who was pregnant at the time.) 

These three frescoes launched Ben’s career. He had no reputation when he began his work on them; he put everything into them to show what he could do. Today, Ben Long is an internationally acclaimed painter whose frescoes can be seen on the Ben Long Fresco Trail in western North Carolina, Bank of America Corporate Center in Charlotte, Rumple Presbyterian Church in Blowing Rock, Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Glendale Springs, St. Mary’s Church in West Jefferson, and the Statesville Civic Center, to name a few locations.

In next week’s article, we’ll learn how the Springhaven Inn continued as a place that drew people in the visual arts and music, weaving an indelible thread of a rich and vibrant art culture for the town of Blowing Rock.