Dale Brumfield/Special to The News Leader

In the mid-1960s, the construction of Interstate 64 over Afton Mountain was the largest earth-moving project in America at the time. That construction unfortunately buried the former site of what was once one of the most prestigious vacation spots in America – the Mountain Top Inn.

The original Rockfish Inn sprung up on the mountain as early as 1776 during westward migrations just prior to the Revolutionary War. Rockfish Gap was one of very few routes over the Blue Ridge, and weary travelers were happy to find the squat stone structure, situated at 1,996 feet above sea level, as it was the only wayside accommodation available after passing through Charlottesville, and the last one for many miles (and many days) after.

In August of 1818, President James Monroe, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and 18 other prominent Virginians met at the Inn to decide the final location for the University of Virginia. With Lexington, Staunton and Charlottesville under consideration, Jefferson swayed the vote by pointing out that a high number of octogenarians living in Charlottesville was proof of the city’s healthy environment. He was persuasive – only two votes were cast for Staunton and three for Lexington. The rest voted for Charlottesville.

Between 1820 and 1850 the name was changed to Mountain Top Inn, and many improvements were made to the original building. Wings and rooms were extended, porches and verandas were added and several small cottages were built. Several mountain springs were re-channeled to form a small lake and hiking trails were created. Families traveling from the east to the various springs of the far western parts of Virginia and what is now West Virginia made sure to stop and spend a few days resting and enjoying the cool mountain air before their arduous trek across the Shenandoah Valley into the Alleghenies.

The construction of the Virginia Central Railroad and the “Great Blue Ridge Tunnel” in the 1850s created another boom time for the remote inn, as it provided meals, recreation and overnight accommodations for dignitaries and newspaper men eager to witness construction of the innovative railroad that was linking eastern Virginia with points west. During tunnel construction, visitors were carried to the inn over Rockfish Gap via a temporary track laid roughly over what is now U.S. Route 250.

Fall was the most popular season at the Inn. General Robert E. Lee surely noticed the early sprays of autumn colors as he disembarked at the Dublin station just west of the tunnel and spent the night at the inn September 17, 1865 on his way to Lexington to assume his new job as President of Washington College, later renamed Washington and Lee University.

Later becoming the Mountain Top Hotel, an advertisement from May, 1882 states rooms were $1.50 per day, $10 per week and an entire month could be spent at the historic structure for $30-$35, depending on the room and appointments.

The hotel continued operation until September 20, 1903, when a devastating fire that started in a flue pipe destroyed the structure, causing $12,000 in damage and leaving only the original stone walls standing. Those ruins were in turn torn down in the 1940s to make room for the Howard Johnson Motor Lodge – now itself a crumbling ruin.

Dale Brumfield can be reached at dalebrumfield@protonmail.com.