Marion, N.C. — When John M. Greer built the Skyline Village Inn, he made sure his name would always be a part of the establishment. He spelled it out prominently with black marble in the inn's entrance.

The inn, on N.C. 226A near Little Switzerland, has endured for almost 60 years and changed hands a few times, but Greer's craftsmanship and his legacy are still very much a part of the business.

PEGGY ROWE/AP (ENLARGE)

Skyline Village Inn is shown with the remnants of builder and original owner John M. Greer's woodworking shop (in wall above). Construction of the inn began in 1942 and was completed in 1948. It is believed the tunnel under the road was used to transport moonshine.

PEGGY ROWE/AP (ENLARGE)

Owner Mike Thrift, standing inside a cave behind the rear wall of the Skyline Village Inn's boiler room, points his flashlight into a ventilation shaft. The cave, which was once home to a moonshine still, was hidden for years behind a concrete block wall at the inn near Little Switzerland, N.C.

IF YOU GO • Skyline Village Inn, 12255 N.C. 226A, at Milepost 331 on the Blue Ridge Parkway between Little Switzerland and Spruce Pine, N.C. 704-517-6374; www.skylinevillageinn.com.

Mike Thrift, the current owner of the Skyline Village Inn, is committed to preserving and promoting the history of the place. Through word-of-mouth, he's pieced together a collection of stories about Greer and the inn's past.

Construction began in 1942 and was completed in 1948, a remarkable feat considering World War II made materials hard to come by. The marble floors on the lower level came from leftover material from the construction of the Coats American plant.

And Greer wasn't afraid to improvise. While cutting into the wall to install a vent for the bar, Thrift found a piece of railroad steel reinforcing the concrete.

How did Greer afford to build the place during a war? Thrift tells it bluntly: The inn was financed with moonshine money. Greer was an active and accomplished moonshiner, and his inn, built at the mouth of the cavern where he operated his still, was the hub of his liquor business.

Already aware of stories about secret caves and tunnels, Thrift discovered a wall in the inn's boiler room that sounded hollow when he thumped it with a broom handle. An intense curiosity and a little help from a sledgehammer uncovered the home of Greer's old still.

Behind the now-demolished back wall of the boiler room is an entrance to a small cavern. A shelf has been chiseled into the cave's wall large enough to hold the still, and a small ventilation shaft rises more than 20 feet to the parking lot above.

Thrift thinks this find may only be a part of the secret. Throw back the rug in the inn's restaurant and there's a concrete slab in the middle of the marble floor. It could be the closed entrance to another tunnel rumored to run under the road to a building across from the inn where Greer sold his moonshine.

"I think he might have run the booze back and forth under the street so no one would see it," Thrift said.

A foundation is all that remains of the building across the road after an earthquake split it in half several years ago. An observation deck has taken the building's place at the road level, but below it, a raised section of the old foundation meets a recessed arch in the stone wall along the road bank. Thrift said it's easy to imagine it as the other end of the rumored tunnel.

The moonshine business dried up in the 1960s after Greer died, and his still has since been moved to a museum in Newland. But, according to Thrift, bootlegging continued at the Skyline Inn into the 1970s.

A recent remodeling project uncovered a false ceiling with two unopened bottles of bootleg whiskey hidden inside the opening. Thrift said one of them — a 175th anniversary bottle of Jim Beam — was dated to 1970.

Thrift called the Skyline Inn a "strategic location" for moonshining and bootlegging. It's just inside McDowell County, a short distance from the Mitchell County line, which provided a convenient escape route. And if trouble came up the mountain from Marion, it was easily seen and prepared for.

But in that respect, things at Skyline have changed. The tavern serves a variety of beers and wines, but moonshine and bootleg whiskey are no longer available.

Even though business has changed and the inn has seen a few alterations, much of Greer's original craftsmanship remains unchanged. As a master carpenter, he used his skills to make the Skyline a work of art.

"We're trying to preserve the character of the place as [Greer] designed it," Thrift said.

A few of his tiger maple bed frames remain in the rooms upstairs along with intricate paneling styles made from 22 different hardwoods, including oak, pine, tiger maple and walnut.

Guests are still served at the original tables Greer made for the restaurant. Each one is different, featuring a piecework wood design. Greer learned the skill from a German tradesman who worked with him on a few construction projects.

Some tables display Greer's woodworking skill, while others show characteristics of the region. One table is full of different gems and stones found in the mountains, and another shows designs made of mica mined near Spruce Pine.

Thrift is remodeling and making the inn more modern, but he said he will continue to preserve the history and Greer's craftsmanship.

Andy Ferguson writes for The McDowell [N.C.] News.