Graylyn is a sprawling 87-room Norman-revival mansion built between 1927 and 1932 by Bowman Gray, then president of R. J. Reynolds Tobacco. It looks transplanted from rural France — stone turrets, slate roofs, oak-panelled halls, a complete English pub shipped over and reassembled inside.
The estate is now an upscale hotel and conference centre owned by Wake Forest University, but day visitors can wander the public rooms and the formal gardens during daylight hours. The afternoon tea in the manor house is open to non-guests and is one of the more pleasantly out-of-place experiences in North Carolina.