Daniel Boone Hotel

A group of Boone business leaders realized a need for a hotel to accommodate tourists, traveling salesmen, visiting court officials, and new faculty at Appalachian State Normal School. The group of leaders included G.P. Hagaman, R.C. Rivers, F.A. Linney, and W.H. Gragg. They incorporated the Daniel Boone Hotel Company and issued 500 shares at a par value of $100 per share in order to begin construction.

Crossing the front porch, hotel guests entered into a spacious lobby with a grand staircase and two large fireplaces on both sides. The dining room was located on the left side, and on the right side of the ground level there was a covered pull through for cars- a horseshoe shaped drive that looped around back the hotel from the street. Employees attending Appalachian State roomed on the third floor, and the hotel manager had an apartment behind the front desk.

Construction was completed in 1925, but it went bankrupt in the Great Depression. In 1935, the hotel was sold at auction. The new owners were Joe B. McCoy and Rich Finley. As a partnership they managed the hotel for over forty years. Once the Depression was over and the war-time economy guaranteed growth, the hotel became the popular place to stay in town for many years. Sunday dinner, open to the public, offered a legendary feast, as some residents recall, at $2.00 per person in 1946.

The decline of the hotel began as modernized roadside motels popped up around the Boone area. The newer hotels offered more amenities and space to satisfy more families visiting the area, forcing the hotel closed its doors in the late 1970s. When the remaining proprietor Joe B. McCoy died, his heir sold the property to the Daniel Boone Condominium Company.

Before being demolished, the Daniel Boone Hotel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. Mementos that have survived the demolition include archived records of the hotel in Appalachian State University’s special collections, and the sign that was displayed on the lawn of the hotel (Located inside Boone Drug on West King Street).