Flat Rock Historic District

Flat Rock is a mountain settlement in Henderson County, North Carolina, where a cluster of country estates, cottages, a stone church and a post office are set along narrow, tree-lined roads. Wealthy families from Charleston and elsewhere in South Carolina began summering here in the early nineteenth century, drawn by a cool climate that offered escape from low country heat. Many of the houses were built on large wooded sites and are often hidden behind stone gates, and they show a wide range of styles, from Federal and Greek Revival to Second Empire, Stick-style and Neoclassic Revival. Saint John-in-the-Wilderness, a brick Gothic-style church with a double hammer beam roof, stands near the center of the district and holds the graves of many early prominent local families. The district is valued for its estates, its association with notable families, and its record of how affluent southerners lived in the nineteenth century.