Historic Flat Rock House Tour returns, Part I
- peter19892
- Jun 13
- 11 min read
By Missy Craver Izard
The history of Historic Flat Rock, Inc.
Flat Rock is “The Little Charleston of the Mountains,” a socially distinct Western North Carolina settlement founded by Charlestonians in the early 1800s. An extension of English country living and one of the first summer colonies established in the nation, Flat Rock is home to a variety of diverse lives and times and a protected area consisting of several thousand acres of large estates set distances apart with long gravel driveways lined with white pines, hemlocks, rhododendrons, mountain laurels and hydrangeas
Named for the great expanse of exposed Flat Rock, the village traces its beginnings to the time of the Cherokee Nation. Known as the Mountaineers among American tribes, the Cherokee laid claim to this region as their summer home and hunting grounds. Historians wrote of merchants from the seaport of Charles Town — now Charleston — meeting with Cherokee braves on the “Great Flat Rock” to trade beads and trinkets (and sometimes ammunition) in exchange for valuable hides and furs to ship to European markets. In 1807, the Great Flat Rock gave its name to the pioneer settlement that was growing up around it.
For more than a century, Flat Rock was self-sufficient: It had its own railroad station, a blacksmith shop, a post office and an Episcopal church. Today, Flat Rock’s boundaries are clearly drawn, but before they were marked, the late Frank L. FitzSimons referred to Flat Rock as “a state of mind.” Whoever wanted to claim residence did so.
The 1950s brought progress to the area with the arrival of industry and retired people from the North and Midwest seeking year-round homes in a mild climate. Residential developments spread across forest and fields that once offered space and privacy to Flat Rock’s country estates. Many of these estates were built during the period of Flat Rock’s first growth prior to the Civil War were part of its golden age. Their history and the names associated with them contribute to the romance of Flat Rock and its story.
Until this time, Mother Nature and the acts of war raging around and within the summer colony failed to destroy the architectural mosaic that is Flat Rock. The area runs the gamut from the classical style of the Old South through Gothic revival, late Victorian or Edwardian and Tudor to the massive framed cottage style of the early 20th century. Its rich variation of designs makes Flat Rock a unique architectural whole found nowhere else in the entire South.
When the antique beauty of Flat Rock was threatened in the 1960s with the demolition of two historic properties and the burning of another, a non-profit organization was formed with the purpose of helping to protect as much as possible of the community’s unique character and the preservation of the areas historic sites and values. This organization was named Historic Flat Rock, Inc.
The early activities of HFR centered on recommending the Flat Rock district and a number of its structures for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. As a result, in 1973, Historic Flat Rock, Inc. was instrumental in having 6.25 square miles of Flat Rock placed on the U.S. Department of Interior, National Register of Historic Places; one of the largest districts in the Southeast and the largest in North Carolina.
The success of Flat Rock’s economic growth was also dependent on the collective efforts of Historic Flat Rock, Inc. and the stewardship of its members and the community. Maintaining a balance was important in order to protect the village and its culture. Already home to the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site, a property administered by the National Park Service, and the Flat Rock Playhouse, the official State Theatre of North Carolina, tourism management and transportation became essential components of Flat Rock’s preservation. As an advocate for all, Historic Flat Rock, Inc. was in a position to help make the vital decisions to move the community forward in a graceful and accomplished manner.
It takes a village to create a sense of place and one to make a difference. Fifty-seven years after its founding, the mission of Historic Flat Rock, Inc., to protect and preserve, continues with an emphasis on education and volunteer opportunities, community engagement and planning, and preservation and financial assistance of historic properties. The antebellum structures of Flat Rock, the people, their stories and traditions are laden with tales of the past and a history that inspires and connects us to the future of a place that is a “state of the heart.”
The Episcopal Church of St. John in the Wilderness
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 of Flat Rock and its people. For almost 200 years, the whispers of history emanated by the marble plaques and epitaphs in the church and surrounding graveyard tell the stories of the many parishioners who escaped the heat of the Lowcountry to build summer homes in the pioneer settlement around the “great flat rock.”
S.C. rice planter, Charles Baring, set out to find a climate that would be more agreeable for his wife’s health. He stumbled upon Flat Rock, where he purchased a 400-acre tract of land and built an English country estate, Mountain Lodge, around 1827. The Barings were strong church people and built a private chapel, a custom prevalent among the English gentry, on their property. The original wooden structure burned in a fire, and in 1833, work began on a new chapel built of handmade brick.
In August of 1836, the Barings deeded their chapel to the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina. Twenty members of the summer colony formed a parish under the title of the Church of St. John in the Wilderness with the Reverend Thomas S.W. Mott as its first chaplain. In 1890, when the Missionary District of Asheville established the Diocese of Western North Carolina, St. John’s transferred its affiliation and became the oldest parish in the diocese.
For the first 120 years, the church operated only during the summer months. Church business continued as usual during the off-season with vestry meetings and various other church functions held in members’ homes in Charleston. By the early 1840s, the congregation outgrew the small chapel and in early 1850, the vestry decided to rebuild the church, almost doubling its size. Charleston architect Edward C. Jones designed an expansion of the church, adding the bell tower and entrance on the east end with Ephraim Clayton as the builder. That structure, completed in 1852, is the one that stands today.
Rutledge Cottage
Dr. Mitchell Campbell King, the son of Susanna Campbell and Judge Mitchell King, a founder of the Flat Rock summer colony and builder of Argyle, purchased 293 acres from his father for 25 cents an acre in 1836 to build his family estate, Glenroy, now a private country club and gated community called Kenmure. Kenmure and Rutledge Cottage are steeped in Flat Rock history, originating in the King family. Once part of the same estate, their stories are intertwined and infused with generations of family events and meaning.
Dr. King and his wife built Rutledge Cottage, which was first known simply as “The Cottage” for a temporary residence during the years of Glenroy’s construction. He hired Mr. Freeman, a Scottish architect and shipbuilder from Charleston, to design the estate. Built by local mountain craftsmen and constructed of lumber harvested on the place, there were 23 buildings on the property. Rutledge Cottage was fashioned in a German country style and completed in 1840. The Kings lived in “The Cottage” until Glenroy was finished around 1856. The Cottage and adjacent kitchen house were then placed on logs and pulled by oxen a mile down the hill on a carriage trail to their present site.
In 1857, The Cottage and its kitchen house were separated from Glenroy and purchased for $4,000 by Frederick Rutledge of Hampton Plantation for his daughter, Elizabeth Pinckney Rutledge, a descendant of John Rutledge, Revolutionary War governor of South Carolina. She called The Cottage “Forest Hill” and, along with her sister Sarah, she enjoyed this dwelling for more than 50 years. In 1908, Elizabeth Rutledge gave the house to her niece, Alice Rutledge Felder. I.K. Heyward purchased it and 50 acres known as the Forest Hill Tract in 1917 and named it Heyward House.
In 1920, Gordon McCabe II, a cotton broker who lived at 50 South Battery St. in Charleston, purchased the Glenroy estate from Henrietta King Bryan and changed the name to Kenmure, an homage to the Scottish home of the Gordon clan. McCabe acquired the house and the original 293 acres along with additional lands totaling 1,007 acres, including The Cottage and the kitchen house. William Gordon McCabe, Jr., the director of J.P. Stevens Textile Co. inherited the Kenmure property from his father and bought out his brother’s interest in the estate. The Cottage was converted into the McCabe’s guesthouse.
In the early 1960s, Gordon McCabe, Jr. decided to sell The Cottage property and 25 acres to Laurie and Alex Schenck of Greensboro, N.C. In no time, the Schencks renamed the house Rutledge Cottage in honor of the Rutledge family. They quickly became one of the best stewards of this historical gem and one of the founding couples of Historic Flat Rock, Inc.
After almost 60 years of ownership, the Schenck family sold Rutledge Cottage in December 2022 to Cricket and Andrew Lepeyre of New Orleans, Louisiana. The Lepeyres were drawn to the Flat Rock area by way of the summer camp world, family and friends. With a passion for historic homes, the Lepyres have lovingly restored the main house and grounds of Rutledge Cottage. The kitchen house, complete with a historic beehive oven, continues to be a work in progress and a fascinating part of this historic property.
Dunroy
Dunroy’s history dates back to 19th century rice planter, David Rogerson Williams, II and his wife, Kate, of Camden, S.C. After spending a summer in Flat Rock at the Farmer’s Hotel, Williams purchased 97.5 acres in 1852 from Charles Baring who was forced to liquidate his deceased wife’s Mountain Lodge holdings. Located just southwest of Mud Creek Baptist Church on a portion of land that was once Trenholm Road and before that, The High Road, Dunroy is situated on Rutledge Drive. Williams engaged Henry “Squire” Farmer, the owner of the Farmer’s Hotel (Woodfield Inn and now Mansouri Mansion) to build his family’s two-story summer home.
Situated on a hillock, Dunroy’s architecture reflects the influence of Tudor houses found in England, with wooden edging under the gables, known as “verge boards” or “bargeboards.” This gingerbread style trimming was used on many of the “Carpenter Gothic” American houses and cut with a scroll saw. Gothic influence is also displayed in the steep roofs over the gables and former windows.
In 1868, the Williams sold their summer cottage to Duncan Cameron Waddell, whose tenure in Flat Rock was brief and he sold the house in 1875 to Louise Rutledge of South Carolina. Mrs. Rutledge’s first husband was Daniel Blake Heyward, with whom she owned a rice plantation between Charleston and Savannah. After he died, she married James Rose Rutledge, also of South Carolina.
After Mrs. Rutledge’s death in 1911, her daughter Anne Louise “Loulie” Heyward inherited the Flat Rock property. Both Mrs. Rutledge and her daughter were descendants of a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Loulie Heyward married her cousin, Julius Henry Heyward in 1885. Ambersley was the name that appeared on Mrs. Heyward’s stationery heading and the first known name applied to the property. When her husband died in 1923, Mrs. Heyward sold the cottage to William Dalton McAdoo, a real estate impresario who made a name for himself in St. Petersburg, Florida and Greensboro, N.C. His local residence was Chanteloupe; Dunroy was simply one of his investments. The stock market crash of 1929 left the McAdoos considerably overextended, and a 1930 transaction transferred the property to Harriott L. King, wife of Major General Campbell King for “one dollar and other valuable consideration.” The King’s granddaughter recalls being told that the aforementioned “other valuable consideration” was a “suitcase full of money” and was advised that “any other form of payment would have been confiscated by the IRS.”
It was King who came up with the name Dunroy for the property — Dunroy from the Gaelic word “dun” for a hill-fortress (or, more loosely translated, a castle) and “roy,” meaning “king.” Thus, the combination became “the castle of the king.”
General King died in 1953, just one year before his wife. Their son Duncan Ingraham Campbell King (known as “Dick” — a reference to his initials) moved into the family home and fully renovated Dunroy, converting it into a year round residence where he and his family lived unitl he succumbed to his final illness in 1987. He opened his medical practice in Hendersonville, where he served the community as a family doctor and an accomplished civic leader for more than 50 years.
Dick King’s heirs sold the Dunroy property to Rutledge Road Properties, LLC in May of 1998, who renamed it Dunroy on Rutledge. In addition, the LLC purchased 27.32 acres on the top of the mountain from Eugene and Anne Kirkley, forming the boundaries of the subdivision as it is known today. Joe Crowell was the contractor who set out to create this new 125-acre community.
With development comes demolition, and Dunroy was no exception. Fortunately, the main house was preserved, but several of the outbuildings, including a kitchen house, wood shed and barn were demolished. Lucy and David Crawford bought the historic house and its one-acre lot, where they lived in a camping trailer in the yard while it was renovated. David salvaged bead board, trim and other valuable pieces from the outer buildings and incorporated them into their renovation. They meticulously worked on the project for five years.
Lucy Crawford and Michael Thompson grew up in Hendersonville and attended grade school together. One day Lucy invited Michael to come see Dunroy’s transformation. A beautiful old camellia tree was in full bloom by the house as Michael approached it. He was so taken with the blossoms on the bush that it made an impact on Lucy. When he entered Dunroy, Michael knew in that moment he wanted to own it one day. There was something special about the house — it spoke to him. He told Lucy to let him know if she and David ever decided to sell Dunroy. Soon after this, Michael arrived at his office one day to find a single camellia on his desk accompanied by a note that read “Michael, call me.”
The Crawfords had done as much as they could financially on Dunroy and had decided to sell it. They wanted to give the right of first refusal to Michael and his wife, Elaine. It was an easy decision all around and the Thompsons soon became the new owners. Within four months, Elaine and Michael were packing up their home in Tranquility subdivision, leaving behind a newly built house as a piece of history. They moved in on December 29, 2004.
Historic Flat Rock’s House Tour Returns
After a seven-year hiatus, Historic Flat Rock, Inc. (HFR) is bringing back its well-known house tour on August 2. Always a highlight of the Flat Rock summer season, the return of the Historic Flat Rock tour is a happening to experience.
This year, Historic Flat Rock will have four homes, Chanteloup, Rutledge Cottage, Dunroy and Longwoo,d as well as the Church of St. John in the Wilderness on their tour. Three of the homes are under new ownership and have been recently restored. All sites offer a view into the historic founding of Flat Rock and the generations of tradition restored in them. For house tour tickets and further information, visit www.historicflatrockinc.com. The HFR office may be reached at (828) 974-4242 or via historicflatrockinc@gmail.com.
Stay tuned for part two in the July Mercury
Part II of this article will appear in the July Mercury and will include a history of the other two properties on the tour: Chanteloupe and Longwood. Built in 1841, Chanteloupe was sold to Tim and Tiffany Carroll in 2019, and the couple has spent the last six years totally refurbishing the property, including the Olmsted-designed gardens added to the property by former owners Lucie and Martha Norton. Chanteloupe has not been open to the public since 2002 and is an exciting addition to this tour. Longwood has never been on tour and offers a rare treat to all. Recently restored by Joy and Eric Rutherfurd, the house was built by Rev. Robert M.W. Black and his wife around 1898 and passed through four other families before the Rutherfurds purchased it in 2021.
Missy Craver Izard was born and raised in Charleston, S.C. and resides in Flat Rock, N.C. A retired Summer Camp Director and art teacher, Missy is an entrepreneur, speaker, author, journalist, community leader, and the recipient of several awards including the White House Champions of Change.
