Mast Farm, Valle Crucis

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. ()