Mimslyn Inn at the Hill's Edge
High on a rise above Main Street, the Mimslyn Inn looks like it has always been there. Its white columns catch the sun just right.
Locals drive past it every day, but for travelers, it feels like a surprise. The lawn opens suddenly to a grand, symmetrical dream.
At night, yellow light spills through the windows, hinting at ballroom music or quiet laughter that might still echo inside.
Nearly a century has passed since the first guests arrived, yet the air around the inn still carries something of that first night.
The Mimslyn was built in 1931, when Luray wanted to believe in elegance again.
The country was in the middle of the Great Depression, but brothers Henry and John Mims thought a fine hotel could give their small town the confidence of a city.
They had already made a name for themselves running the Mansion Inn and Hotel Laurance, both busy stops for travelers heading to the Blue Ridge.
This new place would be grander, set high on the hill where Aventine Hall once stood, with a curved staircase meant to impress every guest who climbed it.
A Hill Made for Promises
Before the Mimslyn, the hill held a Greek Revival house called Aventine Hall.
It was built in 1852 for Peter Bouck Borst, a lawyer whose fortune rose and fell with the railroad.
For decades, the house looked down over the town, white columns guarding its view.
By the time the Mims brothers came along, the building was aging.
They decided to move it, inch by inch, off the hill so their new hotel could take its place.
Construction began in 1930, with workers hauling in materials from across Virginia.
A steam shovel from Richmond clawed out the foundation while the world below the hill struggled through breadlines and unemployment.
When the Mimslyn Inn opened the following spring, it felt like a statement of faith.
The people of Luray dressed up for the gala. Cars lined the street.
Music carried through open windows. For one night, the town looked forward instead of down.
A Place for the Big Names
In the years that followed, the Mimslyn Inn became a waystation for travelers heading into Shenandoah National Park and along the new Skyline Drive.
The road itself was still a marvel, a narrow ribbon cut through the ridges, and Luray became the convenient place to rest before the next stretch.
Eleanor Roosevelt came through in the late 1930s.
Stories say she stayed at the Mimslyn Inn when her husband came to dedicate the park.
Whether or not every detail of that visit is true, locals still speak of it as fact, proud that a First Lady had once walked across the inn's marble floor.
Inside, the grand staircase became a kind of stage. Brides posed there.
Local leaders gave speeches. The Mimslyn's ballroom hosted dances that lasted until morning.
For a town surrounded by mountains, the inn was a reminder of the wider world passing through.
The Long Quiet
After the war, life at the Mimslyn Inn slowed.
Families began to travel farther, and the new highways led them around small towns instead of into them.
By the 1960s, the hotel was still handsome but tired.
The red bricks faded, and the paint on the columns peeled. Staff cut back.
Some winters, only a few lights burned in the windows.
Still, there was a kind of loyalty in Luray.
People met there for anniversaries, Rotary dinners, and high school banquets.
The inn had seen their grandparents marry and their children grow.
Even when money ran thin, it stayed open. The grand staircase creaked, but no one minded.
A generation later, when the Asam family bought the property, they found more history than comfort.
Plumbing from the 1930s, carpets that had seen too many seasons, and a view worth saving.
New Hands, Old Bones
The renovation began in 2005 and lasted two years.
Crews stripped out old wiring and rebuilt walls that had bowed over time.
When they were done, the Mimslyn Inn looked much as it had in 1931, only cleaner and warmer.
Forty-five rooms were restored, a pool was added out back, and a spa was installed in the basement where coal had once been stored.
The Asams kept the details that mattered most: the staircase, the wide veranda, the way the light falls through the front windows in the afternoon.
They reopened in 2007 to another round of applause from the town.
By 2008, the Mimslyn Inn had joined the Historic Hotels of America, standing shoulder to shoulder with grand places from every corner of the country.
For travelers, it became a stop not just for the park, but for the story.
They could sleep where presidents' wives had slept, where locals once danced in hard times, where hope had outlasted every season.
The Hill Still Watches
Today, the Mimslyn Inn is owned by a new partnership that includes retired Marine General John R. Allen.
The Asam family passed it on in 2024, proud of the years they had helped it shine again.
Weddings fill the ballroom most weekends. The veranda stays busy with wine glasses and quiet conversations at sunset.
From the front porch, you can still see Luray spread out below and the mountains beyond, blue in the distance.
The hill feels like it's still keeping its promises.
The Mimslyn Inn was built to give a small town a taste of grace, and nearly a century later, that's still what it does.
Inside, the staircase curves exactly as it did in 1931.
People pause there for photos, maybe not realizing they stand where countless others have stood before.
The floors are new, the paint fresh, but the feeling is the same. For a moment, it still feels like opening night.
