The Green River lies 130 feet beneath the old High Bridge on US 176 between Flat Rock and Saluda. The view down to the river is dizzying, and it is not hard to understand why, when the bridge opened in 1927, it was acclaimed as the highest bridge of its kind east of the Mississippi River.
But the High Bridge is more than tall. It is elegant. The bridge stands with a quiet dignity, and even now, nearly a century later, the sweeping concrete arches that once supported the ancient roadway command respect.
I recommend you pour a cup of coffee or hot tea, settle into a comfortable spot at home, and spend some unhurried time with the words and images offered here by your friends and neighbors. It may very well be the best use of your time all day. It certainly has been for me.
In the summer of 1948, Hendersonville danced.
It danced on Main Street between Third and Fourth, where forty couples might whirl at once under the glow of a setting sun. It danced at Poplar Lodge in Laurel Park on Tuesdays, at the pavilion atop Jump Off Rock on Wednesdays, and in the barn at the Saddle Club on Saturday nights. It danced to fiddles and banjos, to callers’ singsong voices, and to the steady beat of shoes on wooden floors.
And right in the middle of all that motion was a seventeen-year-old girl named Peggy Jones.
John Davis was by turn a pioneer, entrepreneur, and civic leader in western North Carolina during the first half of the 19th century. Over the course of his life he would fight alongside a future president of the United States, purchase and sell the land that would become one of the largest estates in Flat Rock, have the occasion to meet future American legend Davey Crockett, play an instrumental role in the establishment of the town of Hendersonville, and even after his death, play a role in the creation of one of only two kingdoms to exist in the history of the United States.
On a quiet stretch of forest in the Green River Valley, the sound of water moves through the woods before you ever see it. Five waterfalls spill over rock ledges, winding through a landscape thick with rhododendron and hardwoods. At dusk, lanterns flicker along forest trails, and guests gather around a crackling fire, listening to the land breathe.
This is Tuxedo Falls, a boutique mountain retreat tucked into one of Western North Carolina’s most storied camp corridors. Inspired by the region’s deep summer-camp traditions and reimagined for modern travelers, it offers something both nostalgic and rare: the feeling of camp, without giving up comfort—or quiet.
Propelled by the momentum of a highly successful 2025 and fueled by a staff brimming with creative energy and excitement, Flat Rock Playhouse’s 2026 season promises to stir memories, ignite delight, and linger in our hearts long after the curtain falls.
The 2026 season is built around familiar titles, iconic music, and stories that have lived on movie screens, record players, and bookshelves for decades. But at Flat Rock Playhouse, these beloved works are not simply revisited. They are reimagined - shaped specifically for this moment and most importantly, for the Playhouse audience.
The Playhouse staff provides a preview of their upcoming season.
At the end of each year, I undertake the impossible task of selecting my five favorite Flat Rock Together stories from the preceding 12 months. It is, of course, a task that is both arbitrary and unfair. Every story is valuable and should be celebrated in its own right. Stories are how we mark time, celebrate relationships, bestow accolades on the protagonists, and give meaning to our existence.
Five favorite stories from 2025 here.
Tim Jones was invited to a home in Flat Rock for a photo session and interview to promote his new book of poetry, Blue Mountain Poems. Uncertain of the location, Tim entered the given address into Google Maps and realized immediately that a twist of fate was about to return him full circle to the very place he began his life over 50 years earlier.
For Hunter Foster Pope, a Spartanburg native, the idea of balance and renewal is more than theoretical — it’s deeply personal. Hunter grew up spending summers on Lake Summit, her mother’s happy place, where life was quiet, simple, and truly the best. So when she found herself at a life-changing crossroads a few years ago, the family made an easy choice.
Upon arrival in Moldova, Ray West discovered that the “orphanage” he was sent to evaluate was, in fact, the private home of a local couple who had taken in eight older children - the kind too often passed over for adoption. Their kitchen table was bare, the walls austere. Yet the couple’s devotion was unmistakable.
“I was sitting there, looking across the table at this guy and his wife doing something far greater than anything I had ever attempted,” Ray recalled. “I felt that I was somehow at the right place at the right time.”
Every day, hundreds of drivers rush north through Flat Rock along Greenville Highway, speeding past the Blue Ridge Fire Station and the Flat Rock Playhouse. As the road bends gently to the right, most never see the small, brightly painted purple building pressed close to the shoulder beneath distinctive, green-striped awnings.
Yet this modest structure—so easy to overlook today—once played a central role in Flat Rock’s early civic and commercial life. Its significance comes not only from its age, but from the many roles it played in the community’s early history.
A person’s true legacy is much more than the outward trappings of success traditionally celebrated in our culture. There is a case to be made for defining a person’s legacy as “acts of kindness done well, and without expectation of reward or recognition, that find a special place in people's hearts and that are the most important.”
By this latter definition, Mike Sollum and Don Hubbs left a legacy both impressive and transformational.
Alexander “Alex” Campbell King, III, longtime Flat Rock summer resident and owner of Argyle — one of Flat Rock’s most historic homes, held by the King family since the 1830s — passed away on October 31 (appropriately, All Saints’ Day). He was 96 ½.
Mr. King died at the home of his youngest daughter, Allison, in Bolingbrook, Illinois, after spending the summer in Flat Rock — as he did every year of his life.
The story of the King family in Flat Rock.
As autumn paints the edges of The Park at Flat Rock with gold and russet hues, the Pollinator Garden quietly slips into its seasonal slumber. Once alive with the bright chatter of bees and butterflies, it now glows in quieter tones - seed heads nodding in the breeze, the last blossoms waving their farewells to summer.
By the early 1990s, Bill Walker was trying to keep his general aviation business afloat. Bill Walker & Associates was on the ropes financially. “I had to figure out how to keep my company going,” said Bill. Then came the phone call that changed everything. A man had seen an ad for Bill’s company and was asking a very strange question. He wanted to know if a jet Bill had for sale could fly from New York to Lithuania.
The Gulfstream G4 banked low over the city of Kaunas, Lithuania, its sleek white body flashing in the summer light. From his window seat, Bill looked down at the airfield below, where a sea of nearly 500,000 people pressed against barricades and waved flags in celebration.
It was July 1992, and the world beneath him had only recently been reborn. Lithuania was free again, shaking off the weight of Soviet rule, and Bill Walker - successful businessman, accomplished pilot, and man who saw possibilities where others only saw obstacles - was about to touch down at the center of Lithuania’s national pride.
This moment, high above a cheering crowd in a country halfway around the world, would mark a turning point - the bridge between a lifetime of adventure and an unfolding legacy few could have imagined.
In the 1950s, Montgomery, Alabama’s city ordinance required Black riders to sit in the back half of the bus and give up their seats if the front section filled. The Montgomery Bus Boycott began on December 5, 1955, just days after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to yield her seat to a White man, and lasted for 381 days.
Flat Rock resident Jean Ross and her family lived in Montgomery in the months leading up to one of the most seminal moments in American history.
Long before Flat Rock became a retreat for Lowcountry planters and a magnet for artists and retirees, the people who shaped this mountain village arrived from somewhere else. Some came willingly, chasing opportunity or health. Others were brought in chains, their passage a tragedy that would reverberate for generations. Cherokee and other early peoples who lived here first were displaced by the tide of newcomers.
This is the truth of Flat Rock’s history. It is a place created by immigrants who displaced local Native Americans. It is a reminder that the American story - whether chosen or forced - has always been one of aggregating knowledge, skills, and traditions from a diverse array of cultures.
Roll into Flat Rock from the south on Greenville Highway and you’ll pass a blink-and-you-miss-it marker at the Kingwood entrance: “Mud Creek Watershed.” Not exceptionally interesting, and you might wonder why someone bothered to place he sign at that spot.
Until, that is, you realize what it really means.
The mountains of Swain County rise steep and green, their valleys stitched together by narrow roads and close-knit communities. It was here, in a landscape both beautiful and isolating, that Dr. Laura Leatherwood, President of Blue Ridge Community College, learned the values that would guide her life - and came to understand education not just as a personal achievement but as a force that could change the trajectory of entire families.
Long before Flat Rock became a summer retreat, parishioners of St. John in the Wilderness made their way to worship along a woodland footpath known as the Jerusalem Path. The trail began at Ravenswood, the home of the Reverend John Grimke Drayton, and wound through the neighboring estates of Mountain Lodge and Saluda Cottages before reaching the church.
This September, a portion of the old path will open once again. From September 5–7, St. John in the Wilderness will dedicate a restored section of the Jerusalem Path as part of its new woodland trail system. The full story here.
When Julie and Phil Wilmot packed up their lives in Dallas, Texas, and headed for the mountains of Western North Carolina in 2018, they thought they were stepping into retirement. They imagined quiet mornings on the porch, time for family visits, maybe a little painting, and certainly less noise and heat than the sprawling metropolis they were leaving behind.
What they did not imagine was that within seven years they would become the stewards of two of Henderson County’s most significant art galleries. Yet that is exactly what happened. Today, Julie and Phil are not only business owners but cultural leaders, shaping the way Henderson County experiences the arts.
During the 1950s, author Robert Ray Morgan was first a student at The Tuxedo School and later at the old Flat Rock High School. Sixty years later, that young boy who grew up in a home without indoor bathrooms and listening intently to the stories of his Appalachian ancestors, is arguably one of America’s most distinctive literary voices. Today, he is an author celebrated for novels, short stories, and poetry that bring the mountains of western North Carolina vividly to life.
One of the earliest published accounts of Flat Rock’s history was written in 1908 by Alicia Middleton Ripley Trenholm (1855–1926). Her book, A Sketch of the Past, offers a rare glimpse into the early days of this historic mountain village. While her prose may seem quaint to modern readers, the book brims with fascinating observations about Flat Rock's early settlers, homes, customs, and seasonal rhythms.
When Lisa K. Bryant was offered a position as a Playhouse Apprentice in 1994, a respected Elon University classmate was unequivocal about what Lisa needed to do. “He said, ‘If you don’t do it, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life,’” Lisa recalls. “I didn’t even know what Flat Rock Playhouse was. But when a big-deal senior tells you something like that, you listen.”
Lisa listened, and now, three decades later, that wide-eyed apprentice has stepped fully into the spotlight—directing, leading, and ensuring that the magic of Flat Rock Playhouse thrives for the next generation.
The heart and soul of the summer camp world was rocked on July 4, 2025. Catastrophic floodwaters from the Guadalupe River slammed into the Texas Hill Country—an area home to more than a dozen summer camps, vacation homes, and permanent residents.
As someone who has spent most of my adult life entrusted with the care of children at summer camps, I know the deep promise that camp holds. Camps are sacred places. Scattered across our beautiful country, each one carries its own rich history—evident in the well-worn trails, the echoes in their mess halls, and the reverent stillness of their chapels.
By Missy Craver Izard
After a seven-year hiatus, Historic Flat Rock, Inc. is bringing back its well-known house tour on August 2, 2025. Always a highlight of the Flat Rock summer season, the return of the Historic Flat Rock tour is a happening to experience.
This year, the tour will feature four homes - Chanteloup, Rutledge Cottage, Dunroy, Longwood - and the Episcopal Church of St. John in the Wilderness. 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.
Every summer, snowbirds begin their migration to Western North Carolina. As many as 42,000 Floridians trade their beachside condos and villas for mountain cabins and cottages in the small towns of Western N.C., more than doubling the population of these quiet and quaint communities.
Saluda, N.C., is one of the many small areas impacted by seasonal residents. Some of them are long-time generational families with a history in Saluda, but there are a number of new settlers who now call Saluda home.
At Marked Tree Vineyard in Flat Rock, Tim Parks and Lance Hiatt have always blended vision with hospitality, built on a deep-rooted belief in the potential of North Carolina wine. With the opening of their new event and production space they’ve christened “Skyward”, Tim and Lance have taken a bold step toward reimagining what a vineyard experience can be in the Crest of the Blue Ridge AVA.
For more than a century, the Lowndes House has stood at the intersection of two defining chapters of the village. First, the story of the Lowndes family, who helped shape Flat Rock into a Low Country summer refuge. And nearly one hundred years later, a second story of a young immigrant from Liverpool - Robert William Smith, whom we now know as Robroy Farquhar - whose theatrical vision transformed the Rock into the cultural heart of the region.