Have you noticed? Giving Tuesday is arriving early in 2021 on Tuesday November 30th!   Giving Tuesday is a special day each year to support all Nonprofits. The date is the first Tuesday following Black Friday which appears to have already descended upon us. For HFR we...

The Carolina Special — note the steam coming out of the helper engine in the rear of the train. Image courtesy Henderson County Genealogical and Historical Society. The story of transportation in Western North Carolina began with drovers traveling on foot and...

“The Drovers’ Roads” map from Terry Ruscin’s book, A History of Transportation in Western North Carolina. Images by the author. In the early 19th century, there were few roads in the North Carolina Mountains. More often than not, what qualified for a road was a...

Local author and HFR Inc member David Sullivan has completed work on his second novel, the first book in a trilogy titled “Encounters at Flat Rock”. The book is a SciFy-themed crime thriller set in… you guessed it! Partial proceeds from the sale of the book will go to...

Memorial stone for Henry Simmons. Photos by Missy Schenck unless otherwise stated. The Society of Necessity What Happened to the Promised Land?The dissolution of the Kingdom of the Happy Land was gradual. Work was a driving force, and residents began to drift away to...

The Kingdom of the Happy Land Several years ago I mentioned to my dear friend, John “Chip” Laurens of Charleston and Flat Rock, that I was writing a book on the summer camps of the Green River Valley. He immediately responded to my comment with “Miss, you’ve got to...

Nestled on a wooded hilltop above the northern gateway to Flat Rock, sits the Church of St. John in the Wilderness, the oldest Episcopal Church in Western North Carolina. Like a shepherd keeping watch over his flock, St. John’s appears to stand guard over the Village...

A Lowndes family history Since the early days of the colony that became known as “The Little Charleston of the Mountains,” the Lowndes family of Charleston was here. Of English descent, they were planters who made their fortunes in sugar and rice and public servants...

Anne “Annie” Guerard Coletta was born and raised in Charleston and spent her summers in Flat Rock, North Carolina, where her family has gathered for generations. She is the direct descendant of six former South Carolina governors:  Thomas Smith, Rawlins Lowndes,...

Seventh in a series on Flat Rock by the Charleston Mercury Recently, my husband, Sandy, and I had the most delightful visit with Alexander Campbell King III, owner of Argyle in Flat Rock, North Carolina. It was Mr. King’s 91st birthday, so we celebrated in social...

Local author David Sullivan has completed work on his historical fiction novel “Audacious” of which he spoke at last summer’s annual meeting of HFR, Inc. A portion of proceeds from sale of the book will go to Historic Flat Rock, Inc. As you may recall the book is...

“Flat Rock was one of the places my grandfather was the happiest,” says Frank Maybank. That grandfather, Dr. Joseph Maybank, along with his wife, owned the Dam House at Highland Lake in Flat Rock. Highland Lake and the Maybank, Rhett and Aiken families have a long...

The Little Hill has “always been a welcome place for everyone,” says Patty Laurens Adams. This beautiful property near the center of Flat Rock has been a part of the Laurens family since 1907. Her great-grandfather, Henry Rutledge Laurens of Charleston, purchased the...

Robert Cuthbert’s book, Flat Rock of the Old Time, takes us on a journey through the largest historic district in all of North Carolina, as reflected in letters penned by the people who founded it. I would like to thank Mr. Cuthbert for generously permitting HFR...

“My family has owned this house for over 100 years,” says Langdon Edmunds Oppermann. The house she is referring to is Many Pines, a beautiful complex consisting of a main house and its outbuildings in Flat Rock. Langdon jokingly tells me the house is “constant...

“A house should have a purpose, as should all people,” says Marty Whaley Adams Cornwell, Charleston native and nationally recognized artist. She was telling me this when we spoke about her beautiful home in Flat Rock called Elliott Place. She and her mother, Mrs....

Flat Rock or “Little Charleston in the Mountains” is a special place for many Charlestonians, as most readers know; hence, it deserves a series about many of the historic homes dripped in pluff mud. Located 22 miles south of Asheville, this quaint village was “named...

In the mid 1830s, Charles Memminger of Charleston ventured to Flat Rock is search of a summer home. Unable to find something that he liked, he purchased land and hired an architect to build a large dwelling he named Rock Hill. Today the house is known by a different...

Photo Above: A historic driveway on North Highland Lake Road, threatened by NCDOT road-widening plans, displays a “Don’t Urbanize Flat Rock” sign, part of an effort by Flat Rock’s Cultural Landscape Group (clgflatrock.org) to persuade the village to vote down the road...

Photo Above: Mountain Lodge, 1827 home of Charles and Susan Baring, pictured in Blanche Marsh’s 1961 book, “Historic Flat Rock”; photo by Kenneth Frederick Marsh, now held in the Marsh Photograph Collection, housed at South Caroliniana Library, U. of...