Welcome to Flat Rock, NC
Flat Rock, NC, also known as “The Little Charleston of the Mountains,” became an incorporated township of Henderson County in 1925. It is located only four miles from Historic Downtown Hendersonville, but possesses a rich history in its own right. So much in fact that it has earned an official listing in the National Register of Historic Places. It is a very special community of unique historical attractions and an abundance of character in all of its surroundings. It is an area that exudes certain warmth and possesses a compelling mysterious quality that charms its residents and visitors alike. Its history can be traced back to the 18th century when many affluent European and Charleston, SC, then known as Charles Town, natives were lured to the area to relocate and establish seasonal residences. The basis of the area’s appeal to these early settlers were the similarities of the surroundings and topography to their native lands, but with a more mild climate characterized by four distinct but pleasantly moderate seasons. Today a row of brightly painted cottages that comprise a unique retail area in Flat Rock can even be found as a nod to Charleston’s popular Rainbow Row district of pastel colored historic townhouses, and it is appropriately named “Little Rainbow Row.”
By the late 1700’s, the area that is now known as Flat Rock had become a bustling place of trade between the merchants of Charleston and the Cherokee Indians. The “Great Flat Rock,” which is the site that provided the basis for the town’s name, became the meeting grounds for these two groups of area settlers meet, trade and conduct business. Still today, the Flat Rock shopping and trade is characterized by many unique specialty shops and enterprises. By 1807, the town of “Flat Rock” had begun to blossom and expand in the area surrounding the early meeting ground. This year also marked the first appearance of the name “Flat Rock” in public land records being used to describe this unique area and distinguish it from other surrounding areas and townships.
Today a number of the estates of the original Charlestonian settlers still stand in Flat Rock, further accenting the town’s charming and historic appeal. Some unique historical attractions of the town of Flat Rock include St. John in the Wilderness Episcopal Church, which began as the private chapel for the Mountain Lodge that was built in 1827 as a Summer estate on a 400 acre estate by Charles Baring, a member of the Baring Brothers Banking Firm in London; as well as the Connemara estate, the home for 22 years of the Pulitzer Prize-winning, great American poet and writer Carl Sandburg. Flat Rock is also the home of the Flat Rock Playhouse, a distinguished landmark as the North Carolina State Theater. It is an area of great artistic influence and the ambiance of its surroundings has proved to be quite inspirational artists of many disciplines throughout history.
Today the village has a total area of 7.9 square miles and as of the year 2000 the census reported a population of 2,565. Present day Flat Rock is a scene set against a backdrop of a distinguished past that attracted many affluent leaders, individuals and families including: families of four signers of Declaration of Independence, the President of the Third Continental Congress, Revolutionary War Generals and later, Generals of the War between the States. Christopher Memminger and George Trenholm, both Secretaries of the Treasury of the Confederacy owned houses in Flat Rock; so did the grandson of General Thomas Pinckney (George Washington's ambassador to the Court of St. James), also the Count de Choiseul, French Consul at Charleston, Edmund Molyneaux, British Consul at Savannah, and many others whose names have made history. Flat Rock’s eclectic history and present day unique charm make it a most delightful place for relocation or seasonal living in all walks of life!
