Paul Shoemaker handed his camera to his younger brother Peter and sat down on the lush summer grass next to Simone. Peter framed the shot per his brother’s instructions - with the couple offset to the right, Paul’s flourishing garden in the background, and the summer sun shining with approval on the faces of a young couple in love.

Peter pressed the shutter release … and time stood still …

As a young boy growing up in northern Virginia, Will Garvey was drafted to help with his father’s hobby of beekeeping. “I didn’t like it,” he recalls. “I got stung a lot.” Now, nearly five decades later, Will is the Volunteer Beekeeper for The Park at Flat Rock and a vocal advocate for the many ways individuals can help care pollinators and for the natural world around us.

Fifty years ago this month, a healthy baby boy was born to Stephen and Paula Wiesenfeld in Edison, NJ. Within hours, however, the celebration of birth turned into unimaginable tragedy when Paula suffered an amniotic embolism and died on the same day her son was born. It was June 5th, 1972.

Although he had no way of knowing, Stephen Wiesenfeld was about to embark on an amazing legal journey that involved confronting an archaic statute of federal law. It also led him into a lifelong friendship with perhaps the most iconic female jurist in our country’s history - Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

Centuries after Native Americans first met on the “great flat rock”, the current-day residents of the village name for that same landmark gathered to celebrate their community, their history, and their good fortune to live in such a beautiful place with the revival of the Village of Flat Rock Ice Cream Social.

When Robin Hawkins Anderson arrived in Henderson County in 2015, she was still recovering from the upheaval caused by the dissolution of her marriage. A friend recommended spending time on the trails of the Carl Sandburg Home to find perspective and perhaps discover a new path forward. Seven years and over 7000 photographs later, Robin has published her first book, Uncommon Sanctuary, a photographic diary featuring Carl and Lillian Sandburg’s Connemara home in the mountains of western North Carolina.

During a recent Blue Ridge Center for Lifelong Learning course, instructor Paula Withrow did more than just teach history. She brought it to life. Dressed as Mata Hari, Withrow recounted the life and exploits of one of the most famous female spies in history. Her mastery of the subject material was captivating and her sartorial commitment to the topic gave additional life to an already fascinating subject.

As I stepped into the small Oakland Cemetery on the easternmost edge of Flat Rock, I could see her recent grave still adorned with memorial flowers. It was a cool, gray Saturday morning and the only sounds were the birds chirping in trees that border the modest cemetery on three sides. The grass was wet. The red clay, unearthed to prepare for her internment, still visible around the gravesite.

I’d come to this hallowed ground to pay my respects to a woman that I never met. To honor and reflect on a woman whose life was more intricately bound to the history of Flat Rock than perhaps almost any other living soul in the Village.

By the time John Burton was 11 years old, he had dislocated his left elbow six times and undergone three surgeries in an attempt to repair the problematic joint. John’s early medical misfortunes, however, turned out to be a bit of fortuitous fate that helped launch him on a course from the waters of Lake Summit in Tuxedo, NC to the 1972 Summer Olympic Games in Munich, Germany.

Growing up in Flat Rock wasn’t the most “kid-friendly” place. There was no late-night hang-out spot (because everything closed by 8 pm), there wasn’t a park at that time, and most of the church community was above the age of 65. However, there was one location that brought children of all ages together. A place that inspired and encouraged creativity. A place that drew people in not only from Flat Rock, but Asheville, Hendersonville, Greenville, etc. This place is the great Flat Rock Playhouse, the State Theatre of North Carolina.

Beginning in the 1830s, Flat Rock became a flourishing summer colony as a number of prominent families made an annual trek from the low country of the South Carolina coast to the elevation and cooler temperatures of the mountains of western North Carolina. The tradition of spending summers in Flat Rock has continued for multiple generations and stories of those earlier summers live on in the memories and recollections of Flat Rock residents today.

One of the more dramatic and violent moments in the history of Flat Rock occurred during the Civil War. Beaumont, owned by Andrew Johnstone of Georgetown, SC, was one of the earliest grand homes in Flat Rock and during the final chaotic year of the war, a band of “bushwhackers” descended upon the estate on a warm June day in 1864 - with tragic consequence.

In the space of approximately seven years, what started as a dream has become arguably the crown jewel of parks in our region. The Park at Flat Rock is the perfect place to park your cares and lift your spirits. The story of a vision made real, here…

Nestled in a small strip shopping center halfway between Flat Rock and downtown Hendersonville, Pita Express is an oasis of Middle Eastern culinary delights with a Mediterranean flair. Owned by Lina and Mohamid Abuadas, each dish is delivered with a smile and is accompanied by a side order of love that infuses every plate of food.

Somewhere along the way, I started paying attention to the rhythm of how the forest turns green and then eventually red, yellow, and orange in Autumn. Every year the wildflowers would return in abundance. They were like brief, annual visits from old friends. By Tim Jones

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The history of the Green River people includes many stories of moonlight entrepreneurs amidst exceedingly tough circumstances. As the Depression emerged, the mill-working farmers were forced to turn to moonshining and bootlegging, which thrived in spite of legal and religious condemnation and was a good way to make extra money in a cash-poor economy.

Starr Teel, owner of Flat Rock’s Hubba Hubba Smokehouse and Campfire Grill, has embraced his life-long relationship with the summer camp experience. First as a camper, then as a counselor, and later as a passionate advocate for kids in camp, Starr Teal’s fervent belief in the benefits of summer camp has never wavered.

At a time when it is easy to question the future of humanity, we appreciate this hopeful story of Lilian and Carl Sandburg’s faith in people whose lives were uprooted by racial discrimination and the fear rampant in a county suddenly thrust into World War II.

ShareWell Coffee Co. and Roastery hosted their grand opening in Flat Rock Square yesterday to officially open Flat Rock’s latest addition to the Village’s charming and bustling commercial center. Judging by the crowds that swarmed the new business on opening day, ShareWell Coffee seems to be the perfect brew of quality products and happy customers.

The Rosenwald Schools are the inspiring story of two hardworking, successful men who gave back to the country in which they prospered. Conceived by African American educator Booker T. Washington, the Rosenwald School project was a massive effort to improve black rural schooling in the Jim Crow-era South when minority students received vastly inferior education and sometimes no education at all. An effort that eventually reached all the way to East Flat Rock …

As he stood on the Heidelberg Garden terrace in August of 1921, Robert Galloway placed himself squarely at the intersection of two extraordinary chapters in the history of Flat Rock. Behind him, and representing the past, stood the magnificent structure and intriguing history of Heidelberg House. Stretching out before him was the future … his dream of a spectacular new home for the summer Bible conference of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church.