{"nrhp_refnum":"82001281","name":"Black Mountain College Historic District","other_names":["Camp Rockmont"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"SR 2468","address_restricted":false,"city":"Black Mountain","county":"Buncombe County","state":"NC","lat":35.63520712950003,"lon":-82.37049560619232,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1982-10-05","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Art","Literature","Education","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 604-acre district at Lake Eden near Black Mountain, Buncombe County, North Carolina, now Camp Rockmont for Boys. It combines 1920s summer lodges built by E. W. Grove with buildings made for Black Mountain College in the 1940s.","why_significant":"The district holds the Lake Eden campus of Black Mountain College, where faculty and students built International Style buildings on a tight budget. The Studies Building by A. Lawrence Kocher is the main example. The campus was also the setting for notable arts performances, including a 1952 mixed-media event involving John Cage, Charles Olson and Robert Rauschenberg. The form's criteria and period of significance are not legible in the text provided.","narrative":"Lake Eden, near Black Mountain in the Great Craggy Mountains, holds a group of buildings from two eras. In 1923-1924 developer E. W. Grove built summer lodges, a stone octagonal Round House, a dining hall and stone cottages with native stone foundations. Black Mountain College later used them as classrooms, dormitories, faculty homes and a performance space. The college added its own modern buildings in the 1940s. The largest is the Studies Building of 1940-41, designed by faculty architect A. Lawrence Kocher. It stands on concrete pilotis, has Transite sheathing and steel-sash windows, and contained fifty-five studios. Students also built the stone Quiet House and the low-cost Minimum House in 1942, and the college ran a farm with barns and silos. The property is now Camp Rockmont, a boys' summer camp. Several buildings have been altered, but the district still shows the mix of rustic cottages and International Style design from the college years.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"E. W. Grove (1920s lodges); A. Lawrence Kocher (Studies Building, Jalowetz house); Paul Williams, Al Lanier and Si Sillman (Minimum House); Alex Reed and Molly Gregory (Quiet House)","architectural_style":"International Style (1940s BMC buildings) alongside 1920s vernacular wood-shingle and native stone summer cottages","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied and in use as Camp Rockmont, a summer camp. Condition is marked fair, and the buildings have been altered. The Minimum House is noted as in need of repair.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:58:57.041028-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/69/7191/47719169/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/82001281.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82001281/b2a7e25af8-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82001281/b2a7e25af8-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"HowardMorland","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blue_Ridge_Assembly_Robert_E_Lee_Hall.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">HowardMorland</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blue_Ridge_Assembly_Robert_E_Lee_Hall.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47719169","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Mountain_College","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q880447"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/buncombe-county/black-mountain-college-historic-district-82001281/"}