As a young student at Cornell University in 1970, Rick Merrill had a life-altering academic experience. “After three semesters of engineering,” he explains with a smile, “I had no clue what I wanted to do. Spherical Trigonometry and Organic Chemistry helped convinced me that I didn't want to be an engineer.” Fifty years on from that hard life lesson, Cornell’s loss has turned out to be a significant gain for Flat Rock, NC.

The alarm goes off at 2:45 am. I crawl out of bed and stumbled around in the dark bedroom trying to get dressed without waking my wife. No dice. “You’re crazy,” she mutters as she pulled the sheets closer and turns over. “At least bring home something tasty.”

Fate - as it is often want to do - soon stepped in and opened a door to Karen’s dream. While driving through “downtown” Flat Rock one day, Mike and Karen noticed that there was a commercial space available for rent next to the Flat Rock Post Office. They immediately made an appointment to see the space and the rest is, as they say, history.

The 5th Annual Art in Bloom presented by The Gallery at Flat Rock is an artful pairing of colorful, fresh blooms with sculpture and canvases to create a novel experience visitors to the show. It’s a visual conversation that’s amplified through the inherent transience of the exhibit.

Tim Jones 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.

The program started small with just eight children at Flat Rock Middle School. Originally, the group would literally pack the children’s backpacks with food. The program has evolved over time and now the group fills grocery bags with food and delivers them to each location for distribution by students. Through the years, word of the group’s efforts began to spread and today the Flat Rock Backpack program …

Over 50 years ago, David Butler spent a long winter helping his father plow the ground for 2500 apple trees on Mt. McAlpine which overlooks the southern end of what is now the Village of Flat Rock. Little did that teenage boy know that he was actually planting the seeds for his own very successful and rewarding life as the owner and operator of one of Henderson County’s most iconic apple orchards.

The project turned into something more than just a business proposition for Suzanne. She discovered that her portraits are a window into the lives and experiences of families during the pandemic. Here are a few of her favorites and some reflections on what this time of COVID has meant for her … and the subjects on the other side of the camera lens.

When Polly Angelakis was hired as Park Superintendent at Carl Sandburg National Historic Site, it was not lost on her that her life and that of the Park’s namesake had many similarities. Both children of immigrants, Polly and Carl struck out on life-changing odysseys as young adults after relatively cloistered childhoods. They experienced the breadth and majesty of America and witnessed first-hand the tapestry of the human condition.

The Playhouse Main Stage may be closed temporarily, but the outdoor scenery is in full production with an all-star cast of flowering plants, shrubs, and trees putting on a spectacular performance seven days a week.

A chance encounter with a historic marker started the creative wheels turning in his head and Sullivan’s creative focus turned back to something that had fascinated him since he was a boy. At this point, his early fascination with the Civil War, his interest in wargaming, his corporate experience helping individuals and groups resolve thorny issues, and his relocation to Henderson County all coalesced into a remarkable premise for a new book. An idea that could only be called, “Audacious.”

In 2010, life served up a bowl of lemons to Flat Rock resident Bill Moss. After 12 award-winning years as Executive Editor of the Hendersonville Times-News, Bill found himself as the central character and most prominent casualty in a story about corporate downsizing at the county’s largest paper.

Two years later Bill picked himself up off the floor from an unexpected career detour …

Launa’s great-grandmother Marie brought her gift for pasta making to the United States, and she lived long enough to have a profound effect on her great-grandaughter. “My earliest memory of my great-grandma was running into her kitchen to find noodles hanging from wooden sticks,” says Launa. “I thought it was the most beautiful and magical thing in the world. Today if I close my eyes, that memory is just as vibrant.”

Visitors to Flat Rock often inquire, where exactly is the expanse of rock for which the village is named? And if they are standing anywhere near the intersection of Little River Rd and Greenville Highway, you might just suggest they look under their feet for the answer. The origin of the Village’s name has been addressed by several notable Flat Rock and Henderson County historians through the years. Here are some of their words …

Still in his 20’s, he was working in heavy construction as his primary source of income. But his heart burned with a passion for cooking. And the fire of that passion was fueled with wood. During that time Starr attended a French Classical cooking school in Paris. His experience in The City of Light, in particular, helped set him on a course that would change his life and ultimately have a profound impact on the culinary scene in a small village in the mountains of western North Carolina.