{"nrhp_refnum":"82003535","name":"Nu-Wray Inn","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Off US 19E","address_restricted":false,"city":"Burnsville","county":"Yancey County","state":"NC","lat":35.91659778600007,"lon":-82.29918186999998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1982-04-15","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"The Nu-Wray Inn is a long, two-and-one-half-story, L-shaped frame hostelry on the south side of the Burnsville Town Green in Burnsville, Yancey County, North Carolina. Its origins lie in an antebellum inn attributed by local tradition to Backhaus Smith in the early 1830s, with major changes around 1870, 1915 and 1915-1917.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the inn is significant as a surviving mountain inn central to travel, communication and early tourism in western North Carolina, tied to the founding of Yancey County and Burnsville. Its architecture embodies three construction stages, including late Georgian interior detail considered unusual for the mountain region and Colonial Revival work of the early twentieth century.","narrative":"Along the south side of the Burnsville Town Green, the Nu-Wray Inn grew from an early nineteenth-century tavern into a long, L-shaped frame hostelry. Local tradition credits Backhaus Smith with the original building in the early 1830s, and surviving mantels and panelled doors suggest a finish unusual for the mountains at that time. Garrett and Elizabeth Ray doubled its floor space after the Civil War and renamed it Ray's Inn, and William and Julia Wray added the rear ell, gable portico and Colonial Revival detailing between 1915 and 1917. The inn is regarded as important because it served travellers, county officials and visitors to the mountains for generations, and because its building stages record the region's architectural development. Its long association with regional hospitality, especially its meals, made it widely known across the Southern Appalachians through the twentieth century.","period_of_significance":"ca. 1833-1915","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Late Georgian interior features; Victorian additions; Colonial Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"The inn remains with the Wray family and operates as an inn; the document states it closes December 1 and reopens in the spring.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:40.769132-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/0/7229/47722900/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/82003535.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82003535/a5399b108b-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82003535/a5399b108b-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Upstateherd","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nu-Wray_Inn.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Upstateherd</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nu-Wray_Inn.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47722900","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nu_Wray_Inn","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7067685"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/yancey-county/nu-wray-inn-82003535/"}