Ninth in a Series: Linda and Sydney High Purchase Springhaven Inn in 1978

This is the ninth article in a series 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. 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.]

Linda and Sydney High Purchase Springhaven Inn in 1978

In November 1978 Alex Hallmark sold the Springhaven Inn to Linda Rockwell High and Sydney Houston (Hugh) High (1941 – 2007). Hugh and Linda met while in school at Texas Christian University and married. Linda then received a master’s degree in Music Education from North Texas State University and a Ph.D. in Music Education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNC-G). Hugh High earned a master’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Ph.D. in Economics from Duke University; he spent his career as a University professor.

In the 1970s, Linda and Hugh traveled to Boone and Blowing Rock from Winston-Salem, where Hugh taught at Wake Forest University. They became very interested in buying a vacation house in the area. One of Alex Hallmark’s real estate associates took them to see the Springhaven Inn. Linda said in a recent interview, “She thought we would not be interested in that old house, but we just loved it!” The Highs bought the Inn right away and, even though the property was known as the Springhaven Inn, it returned to its pre-1928 use as a summer cottage.

Linda, Hugh, and their three sons routinely came to the house on weekends and stayed for longer periods in the summer. Over the years, she heard many stories about its history, including the erroneous tale that it had been a turnpike toll house. Many people told her about Margaret Mitchell’s stay. However, Linda never heard of the Vardells or Jane and Jethro Rumple, but she does remember hearing the name Reineking.

Linda and Hugh were divorced in 1982 and she was awarded sole ownership of the Springhaven Inn. Linda High received her Ph.D. in 1988 and was hired by East Carolina University as a Professor of Music Education. She moved to Greenville, NC in January 1989 and became a specialist in training student teachers on how to teach the fundamentals of music to children from kindergarten through eighth grade. Some of her work also involved secondary education. In 1998, she and other East Carolina University faculty members participated in an enrichment program for the theater arts curriculum at the high school in Tarboro NC. The local newspaper reported that Linda would “teach the students about music composition and how to compose music to accompany and highlight their poetry, monologue, or dramatic reading.”

It seems that the Springhaven Inn was fated to have a rich cultural legacy, especially in music and the visual arts.  Dr. Linda High was on the cutting edge of musical pedagogy in North Carolina. At UNC-G she studied the Orff Method of music education.  The Orff Method takes its name from its creator, twentieth-century German composer Carl Orff.  Linda trained hundreds of teachers, including some at Appalachian State University, on how to use the Orff Method in the classroom.  The Orff Method is now the norm in elementary and middle schools throughout North Carolina and Linda High played a significant role in making that happen.

Springhaven Inn Becomes a Bed and Breakfast

Mrs. High decided to change the business model for the Springhaven Inn in the early 1990s, turning it into a bed and breakfast. Guests could lease from one to four bedrooms. Each bedroom had its own bath and guests had a two-night minimum. Her first guests arrived at the bed and breakfast in July 1992. The Charlotte Observer, in an article on July 11, 1997 describing inns in Blowing Rock, had this to say about Springhaven Inn: “You’ll find that a weekend at the antique-furnished inn is similar to stepping into your great grandparents’ home….The floors slope every which way but level, and three of the four bathtubs are the original claw-footed kind.”

Linda High operated the Springhaven Inn as a B&B from 1992 until around 2015. She managed the site during the summers and hired someone to assume that responsibility in the fall seasons. She always cooked a breakfast casserole, and was the “chief cook and bottlewasher.”  Eventually, Linda hired students from Appalachian State University to clean the Inn.

In recent years, Linda has reverted to occasionally renting or leasing the Springhaven Inn for several days a week or even longer during the summer and fall. All her income over the years has been used to pay for repairs and improvements to the property such as upgrading the bathrooms and building a roof over the stone patio in front of the house.

Linda High has listed the Springhaven Inn for sale. She told us that she has reached an age when she has diminished energy. Additionally, the death of her son Jeffrey in 2021 removed her child who had the most emotional attachment to the property. The future of Springhaven Inn is uncertain. Dr. High hopes that a buyer will purchase the property and include the preservation of either all or portions of the Inn.