In 2021, Christopher Liberatos and Jenny Bevan purchased Five Oaks in Flat Rock from Christopher’s brother, John. After 13 years in Charleston, SC, the couple saw an opportunity to pursue their shared profession and passion for architecture in an inviting new community. They also saw incredible potential in a house that has a long and varied history in the very heart of Flat Rock.

Jenny and Christopher specialize in traditional architectural design, both holding Master of Architectural degrees from the University of Notre Dame. They have taught programs at Notre Dame, in Charleston, and as directors of the Engelsberg Summer School in Classical Architecture in Sweden.

During their careers, they have designed for some of the most renowned classical architectural firms, including Fairfax and Sammons in New York where the couple met. In 2008 they moved to Charleston, S.C., Christopher’s hometown, to open a satellite office for the firm and in 2010 opened their own business, Bevan & Liberatos Architects.

Christopher Liberatos and Jenny Bevan at Five Oaks. *Photo by Nace Few.*

In talking with Jenny and Christopher, their passion for historic properties and traditional-style architecture was apparent. “We believe there is a place for traditional architecture in our time, that there is wisdom in traditional architecture that contributes not only to the longevity of a building - pitched roofs, projecting eaves, drips, moldings and ornament that redirect water, sills, etc. - but also, of course, to the beauty of a building.”

“The principles of traditional architecture are timeless and cross-cultural, they are universal yet capable of producing an endless variety of uniquely beautiful particulars. The beauty found in traditional architecture reflects the rhythms and proportions found in the human body and throughout all of Nature.”

As classical architects, it’s easy to see how these two fell in love with Flat Rock, the Little Charleston of the Mountains. Like Christopher’s hometown of Charleston, Flat Rock is teeming with traditional historic properties and a history that includes many Charleston natives. Christopher commented that if he was going to move anywhere in the mountains, Flat Rock embodied much of what he loved about his native Charleston and felt like home.

John Liberatos, who sold Five Oaks to Jenny and Christopher, is a preservationist at heart and a lawyer by trade. When he had the opportunity to purchase Bonnie Brae, another historic property in Flat Rock once owned by Charles P. and Mary Randolph Pelzer Cecil of Charleston, he discussed with Christopher the possibility of keeping Five Oaks in family.

The brothers grew up coming to their parents’ summer house in Saluda and the mountains were in their blood. With their parents now in Hendersonville full time, buying property in this area was a natural fit. When the old Flat Rock Inn – now returned to its original name, Five Oaks, came up for sale in 2018, John bought it. With John’s purchase of Bonnie Brae in 2021, Christopher and Jenny saw Five Oaks as a chance to be in Flat Rock, too, and decided to buy it from John.

Girlfriend get-together at Five Oaks c. 1920

The estate known as Five Oaks was built on seven acres of land in 1888 as a summer house by Robert Withers Memminger and his wife, Susan Mazyck Memminger, on land acquired from the Farmer, Ripley, and Patton families. Memminger (1839-1901), the eldest son of Mary Withers Wilkinson and Christopher G. Memminger, was a Charleston minister and author of several essays on religion. As the son of C. G. Memminger, considered one of the founders of Flat Rock and the first Secretary of the Treasury of the Confederacy under Jefferson Davis, he spent his childhood summers in Flat Rock at their family home, Rock Hill, now known as Connemara, the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site.

After his father's death, Memminger and two of his siblings each built a Flat Rock summerhouse. After Memminger's death in 1901, his widow kept the house until 1911, when it was purchased by Englishman Thomas Grimshawe and his wife Elizabeth. The Grimshawes named the place Five Oaks and used it as their year-round residence until 1930, when it was given to their daughter Greta and her husband, Campbell King.

Grimshawe lost a considerable amount of money, mostly in railroad stock, in the stock market crash of 1929. The house served as a boarding house during the Depression, first for women only and, later, men lived on the second floor. Male boarders were not allowed on the first floor but reached their second floor quarters by an exterior stair at the back. Greta and Campbell King sold Five Oaks in 1940, and from 1940 to 1985 the house was used as a summer residence by a number of owners. After extensive renovation, including reconstruction of the front stairs to match early photographs, it opened in 1993 as the Flat Rock Inn.

The imposing two-story front-gable Queen Anne-style house rests on a stone foundation and is covered with weatherboards. It features an interior brick chimney with a corbelled cap and an attached one-story wraparound porch carried on turned posts with decorative sawn brackets and a wooden balustrade. The porch shelters a broad single-leaf entry door, which is framed by paneled sidelights and a wide segmental-arch transom and topped with a central second-story balcony-like porch just above the main entrance.

The eaves of the house feature scalloped fascia boards, a decorative characteristic of many historic Flat Rock homes and often called “gingerbread” after the German Cottage influence in the village. A one-story gable-roof wing extending to the rear was originally a detached kitchen building that was later connected to the main house.

Signature of W.W. Memminger etched in a windowpane at Five Oaks.
*Photo by Nace Few*

In 1990, a one-story cross-gable wing was added to the southeast corner of the house and connects to the rear porch of the kitchen building. Jenny and Christopher have renovated this addition as their own living quarters and nicknamed it, “The Acorn.” One of the remaining treasures of the Memminger family in Five Oaks is an original windowpane etched with W. W. Memminger, 29 Legare Street, Charleston, SC in the kitchen building. Likely, the initials are those of Willis Wilkinson Memminger, the fourth child of Robert Withers Memminger and his wife Susan.

Once a boarding house and later an inn, Jenny and Christopher are hoping to make Five Oaks an integral part of the Flat Rock community as a place for people to gather for weddings, parties, family reunions, or as their favorite summer rental. Just a hop, skip, and a jump from Little Rainbow Row, guests can walk to the village for shopping and dining. The couple is thrilled to call Flat Rock home and continues to operate their architectural firm in Charleston with hopes to expand in the Western North Carolina area.

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Learn more about Five Oaks here.

Missy Craver Izard was born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina. She resides in Flat Rock, North Carolina where their family runs a summer camp.