Mast Farm Inn
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
Images
Current view of Mast Farm Inn
Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
Joseph
Mast migrated down to Valle Crucis from Pennsylvania and settled on the land, and
around 1810 his son David built the two-room log cabin, which now sits facing
the main house at the Mast Farm. David’s son Andrew began building the house,
but it was ultimately his son Finley who completed the house in 1896. Finley
and his wife Josephine Mast had two sons. Joe, one of the sons, stayed on the
farm and continued to run the house as an inn until the 1950s.
The Masts were known for their hospitality and their food. This is what made the inn what it was and what kept people coming. They raised corn, grain, sheep, cattle, and food for the family. Often times the main house would have no vacancies so Joe would sleep upstairs in the loom house to make sure the guests had rooms to stay in.
The Paul Lackey family bought the property in 1980 but sold it to Francis and Sybil Pressely in 1984, who rescued and restored the homestead. They opened the main house to guests in 1985 and later renovated the granary, the Blacksmith shop, and the woodworking shop. After working on the house for a year, it is now what you see today: a restoration that earned them the Gertrude S. Carraway Award of Merit from the Historic Preservation Foundation of North Carolina. Along with this, their hospitality landed the inn in the prestigious Innkeepers’ Register, a publication containing inns known for their hospitality, service, and historical or other special interest.