What to See in Valle Crucis - Top Sights and Attractions

General store in Watauga County, North Carolina. The Mast General Store is a general store located in Historic Valle Crucis, North Carolina. It is recognized by the National Register of Historic Places as one of the best remaining examples of the type. It is still the center of the community housing the post office and offering coffee for 5¢ on the honor system. There is even a large wood stove you can sit around on cold days swapping stories or playing a game of checkers. It remains true to the old-time tradition by offering items that its neighbors might need, as well as products of interest to travelers and other visitors. Today there are nine locations, including the Original Store and Annex, both located in Valle Crucis, North Carolina. The store sells commodities, such as old-time hearth and home goods, outdoor clothing and gear, footwear, work clothes, old-fashioned wind-up toys, regional books and music, honey, and more than 500 varieties of old-fashioned candy.^[1]

Building in Watauga County, North Carolina. The Mast Farm is a historic farm located near Valle Crucis, Watauga County, North Carolina and is now the Mast Farm Inn. In the late 1700s, Joseph Mast walked from Pennsylvania and settled on much of the land that is now Valle Crucis. 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 main house around 1880. Andrew's son, D. Finley Mast, completed it in 1896. A photo of the house in the early 1900s shows a sign stating simply, "BROOKSHIDE FARM, D. FINLEY MAST, ONE HALF MILE TO POST OFFICE." Originally, the main house consisted of only the part closest to the road – three stories high, with two rooms on each floor. Like most large homes with open flames for cooking, it had a detached kitchen. The main house is a two-story frame dwelling with a gable roof. In the early 1900s, Finley and his wife, Josephine, began to make additions to the house and to operate it as an inn. Over a period of about twenty-five years, five different symmetrical additions were completed, ultimately comprising thirteen bedrooms – and one bathroom. Other contributing buildings are an eight-sided gazebo, wash house, spring house, meat house, log woodhouse, apple house, weaving house, blacksmith shop, and gambrel roofed barn. The weaving house served as the original farm house.

The Mast Farm was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. It is also located in the National Register-listed Valle Crucis Historic District.

The Mast Farm Inn is a member of the Historic Hotels of America.^[2]

Valle Crucis Episcopal Mission, also known as Valle Crucis Conference Center, is a historic Episcopal mission church complex and national historic district located near Valle Crucis, Watauga County, North Carolina. The Gothic Revival style, gable-front stone Church of the Holy Cross was built about 1924. Other contributing resources are the church cemetery with the earliest burial dated to 1808, Auchmutv Hall dormitory, The Annex, "The Farm House", Former Dairy Barn, Former Apple Barn, The Mission House, the Power Dam, the Valley / Field, and the Apple Orchard. The Valle Crucis Episcopal Mission was established by the Episcopal Church in 1844-1845.

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993. It is located in the Valle Crucis Historic District.^[3]