Historic Home Tour 2025
/Historic Flat Rock’s House Tour Returns
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, four homes will be featured on the tour - Chanteloup, Rutledge Cottage, Dunroy, and Longwood - as well as the 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.
The Episcopal Church of St. John in the Wilderness
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 two hundred 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 low country to build summer homes in the pioneer settlement around the “great flat rock.”
South Carolina 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 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 decision was made 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
Rutledge Cottage
In 1836, 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 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 of 50 South Battery in Charleston, purchased the Glenroy estate from Henrietta King Bryan and changed the name to Kenmure, after 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 kitchen house.
William Gordon McCabe, Jr., 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 became 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, North Carolina. 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 sixty 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
Dunroy’s history dates back to 19th-century rice planter, David Rogerson Williams, II and his wife, Kate, of Camden, South Carolina. 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.
Dunroy, sitting on a hillock, reflects the influence of Tudor houses in England with wooden edging under the gables called 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.
Upon 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, North Carolina. His local residence was Chanteloupe and 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, the wife of Major General Campbell King, for “one dollar and other valuable consideration.” The King’s granddaughter remembers being told that the “other valuable consideration” was a “suitcase full of money” and 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 “dun” signifying a hill-fortress or, more loosely, a castle and “roy” meaning “king.” Thus, the combination became “castle of king.”
General King died in 1953 and his wife a year later. Their son, Duncan Ingraham Campbell King, who became known by his initials as “Dick” moved into the family home. Dick fully renovated Dunroy as a year-round residence and lived there with his family up 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 over fifty years.
In May of 1998, Dick King’s heirs sold the Dunroy property to Rutledge Road Properties, LLC 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, making the area 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 kept, but several of the outbuildings, including a kitchen house, wood shed, and barn, were destroyed. Lucy and David Crawford bought the historic house comprising one acre and lived in a camping trailer in the yard as they renovated the structure. 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 together 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 that if she and David ever decided to sell Dunroy, to let him know. Not long after this visit, Michael arrived at his office one day to find a single camellia on his desk with a note saying, “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 Michael and his wife, Elaine, first refusal. 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 and leaving behind a newly built house for a piece of history. Moving day was December 29, 2004.
Longwood
Longwood
Also known as “The Black House,” according to the National Register of Historic Places, it is believed that an earlier structure may have been remodeled into the present house form, but this has not been verified.
The property containing Longwood was once part of Charles Baring’s Mountain Lodge estate, but following the death of Mountain Lodge’s subsequent owner, Edward Trenholm of Charleston, a portion of the property was acquired in 1896 by Louis G. Trenholm, one of Edward Trenholm’s children. Louis Trenholm sold his property, approximately seventy-eight acres, in 1898 to the Young family, who in turn sold 22 acres of it to the Rev. Robert M.W. Black and his wife, Clara, of Long Island, New York.
The Blacks built the house soon thereafter and then divided their time between Flat Rock and rectorships at Zion Church in Douglaston, New York; St. Batholomew’s in Brooklyn, New York; and Grace Church in Memphis, Tennessee.
In 1919, the Blacks sold the house to Cornelia Tucker of Charleston who transferred it to another Charlestonian, J. Chapman Huger, in 1924. The property has passed through various owners, including Mr. and Mrs. Park Paxton who rehabilitated the house in the 1980s. Dr. and Mrs. James Horwitz bought Longwood as a year-round residence in 1997 and sold it to the Rutherfurds in 2021.
An imposing two-story hip-roof dwelling, Longwood is covered with pebbledash stucco and sits on a raised brick basement. This 4,215 square foot, three-story home has 12-foot ceilings, native granite fireplaces, original transom windows, and heart pine floors. Outside are tiered Pennsylvania Bluestone entry steps with a custom wrought iron railing and a single leaf glazed and paneled door topped by a transom with tracery pattern muntins. There is an exterior chimney that rises against the northwest side of the house and is constructed of cut stone blocks on the first story and brick above, with a corbelled cap. The attached two-tiered hip-roof porch carries across the full width of the façade on the first story and has a second-story central bay.
Chanteloup
Chanteloupe
Count Joseph Marie Gabriel St. Xavier de Choiseul, a cousin of France’s King Louis Philippe, who reigned from 1816-48, stands high on the roster of early Flat Rock residents. The count defended his country’s interests on Malta until the situation became hopeless and totally adverse to the new order emerging from the French Revolution; he sought refuge in England.
While there, he became associated with the banking family of the Barings. Since Charles Baring represented the firm’s interests in Charleston, South Carolina, the count came to Charleston and obtained the position as France’s counsel to the port city and, at times, similar duties in Savannah, Georgia.
In the summer of 1836, the deChoiseuls visited Susan and Charles Baring at their Flat Rock summer home, Mountain Lodge. With both the climate and countryside of Flat Rock, the deChoiseuls were so pleased that they purchased 205 acres on the waters of Mud Creek from the Barings for $410. They built a modest house with two small cottages to the south for servants and groundskeepers. It was named Saluda Cottages as one side of the property bordered the Saluda Path, used for many years by the Cherokee taking hides and furs from their village to the seaport town of Charleston, S.C.
While the Count and his family were in residence at Saluda Cottages, they began work on a more elaborate house on property they also acquired from Charles Baring. They called this house “The Castle,” now known as Chanteloup. When finished, it became the year-round residence of the deChoiseul family for more than 20 years while the count traveled to and from Charleston and Savannah as his duties required.
Very little information or personal history is known about the count and his family. His wife, Sarah, arrived in America with three daughters, Alix, Eliza and Beatrix, along with one son, Charles. Alix returned to France, and daughters, Eliza and Beatrix, remained in Flat Rock until the atrocities of the Civil War drove them to Greenville, S.C.
Beatrix eventually returned to Flat Rock and Eliza lived out her life in Greenville. Both sisters, their brother, and mother are all buried in the cemetery of St. John in the Wilderness in Flat Rock, where they attended services regularly and Beatrix served as the organist. Son, Charles, became an American citizen and is credited with laying out the streets of Hendersonville and later moving to New Orleans to practice law.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, he joined the Confederate forces and was killed while fighting in Virginia. A French flag presented to St. John in the Wilderness by the government of France stands in his memory in the Tower entrance of the church. The count’s second son succeeded to the title of Marquis de Choiseul in France.
It is odd that a man of the count’s position bears only brief mention in the archives of historical societies in Charleston and in Flat Rock’s early settlers. In 1841, the deChoiseuls moved to The Castle and sold Saluda Cottages to A.S. Willington, editor of the Charleston News and Courier. It is not clear whether Willington received Saluda Cottages in settlement of the debt owed him by deChoiseul, who was considered at the time to be without moral scruples concerning monetary affairs.
The countess died in 1859 at the age of 61 under mysterious circumstances. Many historians believe she and the count got into an argument at The Castle and she was pushed off a balcony, falling to her death. Some believed she died of an illness, but there are no facts as to how she died. Despondent over the death of his wife and son, the count left Charleston in 1862 and returned to France, never to visit the United States again. He died in Cherbourg, France in 1872.
Chanteloup has known almost two centuries of ownership, beginning with the count and his wife 1836 to 1858. From 1858 to 1898, Colonel Robert David Urquhar owned it; followed by Lucie and Martha A. Norton (1898-1917), who renamed the estate Woodnorton. It was the renovation of the house for Lucie and Mattie Norton, daughters of Louisville, Kentucky banker G.W. Norton, that gave the house its present character.
With extensive landscaping by Olmsted & Sons and elegant renovations of the house by architect Richard Sharp Smith, the estate more than doubled in size and added such modern conveniences as indoor plumbing, central heating, and electricity. The design of Chanteloup, as realized by Olmsted and Smith, represented a remarkable integration of landscape and architecture.
The only real notable feature of the place was its massive stone construction. In terms of style, it was a rather odd combination of generally Italianate and Greek Revival details applied to a conventional center hall plan. Smith’s renovation extended matching wings to the north and south of the house, which were constructed of the same rough quarried granite as the original structure.
The elegant Doric order porches smoothed over various peculiarities of the original design and knit the entire structure, old and new, into a formally coherent whole. More importantly, the porches joined the house to the terrace garden, which Olmsted envisioned.
An important aspect of Olmsted’s design was the relocation of the main entrance drive from the west to the east side of the house. The purpose of this was to dramatize his garden design. Even before its completion, Chanteloup began to have an effect on other Flat Rock Estates. Several other homeowners sought out Olmsted and Smith for the landscaping and renovations of their estates.
From 1917 to 1924, Mary Whitehead Parsons owned Chanteloup and renamed the estate Parsons Fields. William D. and Nina McAdoo owned it from 1924-33 and appear to have lost it during the Depression when it was purchased by George W. and Ruth Hundley of Durham, North Carolina. McAdoo is sometimes credited with giving the name Chanteloup, meaning “song of the wolf” in French, to the place; nonetheless, the name of the estate first appears in a 1966 deed between the Hundley heirs.
Lottie Hundley Fortescue and her husband William Fortescue, Jr. owned the property from 1941- 1993. During the latter years of the Fortescue ownership, the property was held in bankruptcy court until Historic Flat Rock, Inc. purchased it in 1993. Historic Flat Rock sold the property to Leonard V. and Linda M Oliphant in 1995.
The Oliphants spent several years restoring Chanteloup with historical integrity in mind. Exceptional features of this nearly 10,000-square-foot aerie include 15-foot ceilings, a floating staircase in the entry hall, pocket doors, a grand salon and library. The unfinished attic was floored with boards hewn from a huge pine tree on the property, and 11 of the 13 original fireplaces remain. “We took a 19th-century house and made it comfortable for contemporary living,” says Leonard Oliphant.
Sadly, in the latter years of the Oliphant ownership, the house was auctioned off on the courthouse steps, where Historic Flat Rock, Inc. once again retained ownership of Chanteloup. Chanteloupe was sold to Tim and Tiffany Carroll in 2019, and the couple have spent the last six years refurbishing the property, including the Olmsted-designed gardens added to the property by former owners, Lucie and Martha Norton.
Chanteloup has not been open to the public since 2002 and is an exciting addition to this tour.
About the Tour
Tour homes are not handicapped accessible. The tour committee requests no strollers and no interior photography, suggests wearing flat-heeled shoes, and beginning the tour no later than 1 p.m. so that participants may view all of the properties.
Historic Flat Rock, Inc. is a non-profit organization. All proceeds will benefit further historic preservation in Flat Rock.
For house tour tickets and further information:
www.historicflatrockinc.com
HFR Office: 828-974-4242
historicflatrockinc@gmail.com
About the Author
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.
