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History of the River Forest Manor

In 1899, John Aaron Wilkinson, President of J.L. Roper Lumber Company and Vice-President of Norfolk & Southern Railroad, began building the Victorian mansion known today as the River Forest Manor. Italian craftsmen were called in to carve the ornate ceilings, and by 1904, the mansion was complete – with carved oak mantels for each of the eleven fireplaces, sparkling cut glass leaded into windows, crystal chandeliers glittering from the ceilings, tapestry placed above the mahogany wainscoting in the dining room and two baths so large that they included oversized tubs for two. Eight years after the completion of his showplace, Wilkinson married a beautiful New Yorker who shared the house with him for many years.

At his death, the house was sold to J.W. Hines of Rocky Mount In 1947 it was purchased by Axson Smith of Belhaven, whose experience in hotel management was partially gained at the Drake & The Palmer House in Chicago. Since then it has become  world famous for its restaurant, hotel, marina & shipyard and it is featured in Country Inn’s of the Old South, the National Geographic Magazine,  as well as on the front covers of North Carolina Accommodations Directory and Country Inn’s of America (Southeast Edition), and by many newspapers. It has attracted the wealthy and famous, with James Cagney, Tallulah Bankhead, Robert Ripley, Harvey Firestone, Burl Ives, Twiggy, Roy Clark, Neal Sedaka and Walter Cronkite, among others, numbered as its guests.