The History of Highland Lake Inn & Resort
/Adapted from a timeline published on the Highland Lake Inn & Resort Website
hliresort.com/resort/history/
Millpictures.com Photo Credit: Paul Stanley
1789
Land Grant to John Earle, who established the 1st grist mill (to the right, in front of the waterfall as you enter the property) and opened the first road to the area.
Possibly the first settler in the traditional community of Flat Rock was John Earle. On Aug. 23, 1784, John Earle enters land on the south fork of Green River where “Dellingham’s path crosses to Sauldy.” This reference is to the Saluda Indian Path (along old U.S. 25).
Early pioneer settler John Earle built a grist mill in the community on his land. This land is located today near the Highland Lake. Prior to obtaining land in today’s Henderson County, Earle lived in the Landrum, S.C., area, near the Revolutionary War’s Earle’s Fort. He arrived in the area via another old Indian path, today called the Howard Gap Road.
In 1815, Earle’s widow, Eleanor Earle, conveyed to Robert McAfee 200 acres on the “shoal where John Earle had a mill.” (1)
1807
Settlement officially named “Flat Rock.”
The enormous granite outcropping that gives Flat Rock its name was first mentioned by geographers in public records in 1807. But that doesn’t mean that there were no people in the area before that. (3)
Historians wrote of merchants from the seaport of Charles Towne (now Charleston) meeting with Cherokee braves on the "Great Flat Rock" to trade beads and trinkets and sometimes ammunition 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. (4)
Soliitude ca 1960s. Photo from estate of Louise Howe Bailey. Published at Hendersonville & Flat Rock : An Intimate Tour on Facebook. Curated by Terry Ruscin. Link.
1848
Charles Baring built “Solitude” on a hill overlooking the lake.
In 1848, Charles Baring built his home, Solitude, on the outcrop after his powerhouse wife, Susan, had died. They’d been the leaders of the Charleston migration to Flat Rock, starting in 1827. (5)
Charles Baring built “Solitude” on a hill overlooking the lake. This was sold to George Trenholm, who succeeded Charles G. Memminger as Secretary of the Treasury for the Confederate States of America. (1)
Susan Baring died in 1846 and Baring II married Constance Beatrice Dent a year later and he built another summer home in Flat Rock called Solitude where the Highland Lake Inn now resides. They became full-time residents of Solitude in 1861 at the outbreak of the Civil War. Charles Baring II died in 1865 and is buried at St. John in the Wilderness church. (11)
George Alfred Trenholm
1872
Sold to George Trenholm, Secretary of Confederate Treasury, who lived there one year and sold it.
Trenholm owned this summer estate only a short while and sold it to William Aiken, a former governor of South Carolina. (1)
Throughout the first years of the war, Trenholm was a valued adviser to the Confederate secretary of the treasury, Christopher Memminger, a fellow Charlestonian and close friend. When Memminger resigned in June 1864, President Jefferson Davis appointed Trenholm to the post. When Davis and his cabinet fled Richmond in April 1865, Trenholm remained in the city until finally resigning his position on April 27. (13)
Henrietta Aiken Rhett, Portrait from Aiken Rhett/Robinson House--Charleston, SC. Link
1873
The Honorable William Aiken – Governor of South Carolina, purchased the property. Passed it on to his daughter, Mrs. A. Burnet Rhett, whose father-in-law, Robert Barnwell Rhett, owned “The Charleston Mercury” and was the author of the first draft of the Ordinance of Secession. The mill was renamed Rhett’s Mill and was located on Rhett’s Mill Pond, now called Highland Lake.
The Honorable William Aiken, Jr., the 61st governor of South Carolina and a U.S. congressman purchased all of the acreage that is now Highland Lake in 1873 from George Trenholm (second secretary of the Confederate Treasury). Originally, part of a land grant to John Earle in 1789, it is the earliest land grant known in the area that became Flat Rock in 1807. William Aiken and his wife, Henrietta Lowndes, gifted the land to their only child, Henrietta Aiken Rhett, whose father-in-law, Robert Barnwell Rhett, owned the 19th-century Charleston Mercury and was the author of the first draft of the Ordinance of Secession. The grist mill established by John Earle on the property was renamed Rhett’s Mill and the lake became Rhett’s Pond. (2)
1910
Highland Lake Club – Joseph Holt and a group of Columbia and Charleston, SC, businessmen organized the Highland Lake Club as a corporation.
They bought nearly 500 acres of land in the Flat Rock area and enlarged the lake to the largest in the county at that time. The land of this new corporation was subdivided into large lots which were to be sold for summer homes. An owner of a lot had all the privileges of the lake, such as boating, swimming, and fishing, as well as the privilege of the Highland Lake Club House. It was a big rustic type hotel that had all of the modern conveniences of the day including a large lobby and dance hall, which were to be lighted by electricity- a rare thing in this area in those days.
The Club would furnish hotel accommodations to club members and their guests and serve meals to those members who had built cottages. The Club had its own orchestra that played at mealtimes and for dances. John Ingils (or Ingles), a nationally known golf expert, was brought here to lay out the only 18 hole golf course in the entire mountain area of Western North Carolina at the time and predicted to become the Mecca of golf enthusiasts the world over. Too far ahead of its time, the Club failed after two years.
1915
Fleet School for Boys, a preparatory school, operated during the fall, winter and spring months. During the summer months, the facility operated as a hotel called Highland Lake Inn. Unfortunately, the original Inn burned, but, you can still see some of the footings.
In 1915 a private school for boys opened on the Highland Lake property. In 1919, the Carolina Military and Naval Academy opened at Highland Lake. The school closed in 1924. The property owners then operated Camp Highland Lake at the property until the late 1940s. There were two other short-lived camps at the property.(1)
Campers at Camp Highland Lake. (Highland Lake Inn & Resort Facebook Page)
1919
The Carolina Military and Naval Academy (under the auspices of the Georgia Military Academy). Just before World War I, Highland Lake Inn and the surrounding property, including the cottages and the lake, was purchased by Colonel J.C. Woodward, who established a school for boys (also known as Camp Highland Lake) that offered a choice of either military or naval training.
Camp Highland Lake was under the direction of Colonel J.C. Woodward until the time of his death in 1939. His son, Major C.D. Woodward, then continued as owner and director of Camp Highland Lake until 1947.
1940 PLaybill from the Old Mill PLayhouse. From 50 Years with the Vagabonds by Louise Howe Bailey
1941
Robroy Farquhar opened “The Old Mill Playhouse” in the mill, starring actresses “Kim Hunter” and “Joanne Woodward.” (Later moved and became the Flat Rock Playhouse.)
In 1940 and 1941, the Vagabond Players led by Robroy Farquhar performed in the summers at the site of the old grist mill at Highland Lake. (1)
A cluster of dwellings was built upon the old mill foundation that was used as the Old Mill Playhouse beginning in 1941. (10)
In that summer of 1940, Robroy established the first professional summer stock theater in North Carolina. For two summers, the Old Mill that had once ground grist for pioneer settler and summer residents of “Little Charleston of the Mountains” served as an auditorium - with the cast ignoring the occasional bat swooping overhead during performances. (14)
After World War II, the group opened a playhouse on Lake Summit in Tuxedo. In 1952, the Vagabond Players purchased the Lowndes home in Flat Rock and incorporated as the Vagabond School of Drama. The Flat Rock Playhouse was designated as the State Theater of North Carolina in 1961. (1)
Grand ole Hall 1940s
1946
Property sold to Berryman Longino who ran the “All American Boys Camp.
1947
Camp Brandeis, a summer camp and school for young people of the Jewish faith.
Bishop Vincent Waters (center) visits Our Lady of the Hills Camp in 1958. (Link)
1950's
Our Lady of the Hill’s Camp, a Catholic camp for boys and girls on Madonna Lake, now Highland Lake.
In late 1955, the Catholic diocese bought the Highland Lake property to be used as a diocesan retreat center and summer camp, Our Lady of the Hills Camp. The camp opened in 1956. It was the first racially integrated camp in the region. In 1978, the Diocese of Charlotte Youth Ministry office relocated to the camp. In 1985 the property was sold and the Highland Lake Inn and Conference Center was established at the former camp location. (1)
1985
Highland Lake Inn and Conference Center, operated by the Lindsey family.
In 1985, the Lindsey family acquired the property and organized the Highland Lake Inn and Conference Center, remodeling the existing buildings, constructing new buildings, and adding new amenities for visitors to Flat Rock. Portions of the property were also sold off or subdivided for residential development. In 1999, the guest accommodations and facilities were reorganized under new owners as the Highland Lake Inn & Resort. (6)
Kerry Lindsey developed and operated a 200-acre resort/retreat community including 125 seat restaurant, 175 seat banquet facilities, and the first "garden to table" menu in the area. (9)
Linda and Jack Grup, Owners of Highland Lake Inn & Resort
1999
Highland Lake Inn & Resort, operated by the Grup family. Today the entire property has been lovingly restored to offer unique and charming dining and lodging experiences. Our award-winning restaurant, Season’s, takes pride in offering fine dining in a casual country setting where seasonal menus are based on the flow of produce from our organic gardens.
Read about Linda and Jack Grup and the story of their purchase of the Highland Lake Inn & Resort and their development of one of the premier resorts in the Southeast here: Twenty Years of Delighting the Guest
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Footnotes
1. http://hendersonheritage.com/flat-rock-2/ by Jennie Jones
2. https://www.charlestonmercury.com/single-post/2020/06/04/lives-and-locales-bound-by-preservation by Missy Izard Schenck
3. https://www.blueridgenow.com/article/NC/20070527/News/606054553/HT
4. “A Short History of Flat Rock by Louise Bailey” flatrocknc.gov Link
5. Visiting Our Past: Flat Rock’s antebellum Golden Age By Rob Neufeld in the Citizens Times
6. https://historicflatrockinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/HN1352.pdf Page 144
7. https://historicflatrockinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/HN1352.pdf Page 204
8. https://www.hendersonvillelightning.com/life/8372-u-s-geological-survey-officially-names-lake-creek-in-flat-rock.html Hendersonville Lightning “Is this called Highland Lake? Until recently, no”
9. Kerry Lindsey LinkedIn Link https://www.linkedin.com/in/kerry-lindsey-91804a1b/
10. MillPictures.com https://millpictures.com/mills.php?millid=1706
11. Hendersonville Best https://hendersonvillebest.com/notable-men-of-henderson-county-charles-baring-ii/
12. FB Hendersonville and Flat Rock: An Intimate Tour https://www.facebook.com/HendersonvilleFlatRockAnIntimateTour/posts/solitude-the-home-of-charles-baring-and-constance-dent-highland-lake-flat-rock-n/482525775291411/
(13) https://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/trenholm-george-alfred/
(14) 50 Years with the Vagabonds by Louise Howe Bailey
