Two decisions were particularly crucial in shaping Blowing Rock's destiny: B.B. Dougherty's choice to locate Watauga Academy in Boone rather than Blowing Rock, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1933 support for construction of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Born of the Depression, the Blue Ridge Parkway was designed to link Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains National Parks and provide jobs for Southern Appalachia's unemployed. As America's first national, rural parkway, it stretches 469 miles and offers travelers beauty, romance, and history. From the earliest planning stages, Blowing Rock lobbied to be included on the route, and Grover Robbins traveled to Washington, Baltimore, and Raleigh to help secure the town's inclusion because he and other civic leaders saw its potential to bring millions of tourists by way of "the greatest scenic road in the world." Internationally recognized as a design achievement, sections of the highway were completed over 52 years until the final section opened around the slopes of Grandfather Mountain in September 1987. Today, the Blue Ridge Parkway receives over 20 million visitors each year.

Photo: Historic American Building Survey via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (PD)

Photo: Duane and Tracy Marsteller

Blowing Rock, North Carolina · USA