History Articles – Blowing Rock, NC

History Trail: Downtown Historic Walking Tour

This Downtown Walking Tour offers a look at some historic properties in downtown Blowing Rock. It was originally featured in the Blowing Rock Chamber of Commerce’s Visitor Map (some minimal updates have been made here). Take a leisurely walk around our charming downtown area. Begin at the Blowing Rock Chamber of Commerce – The Robbins House – and meander past historic B&Bs, unique restaurants and fascinating shops. Experience local lore and history within just a few blocks of Main Street. Structured in an easy-to-walk loop, it’s a great trail to follow and enjoy! 1. The Robbins House (The Blowing Rock Chamber of Commerce)132 Park Avenue Built in 1903 by Grover Robbins, Sr., the “Father of Tourism in the High Country.”The Robbins family started Tweetsie Railroad and Hound Ears Club, and gave the land to the town for Memorial Park. The building is constructed of chestnut wood before there was “wormy chestnut.” The next building is across Park Avenue on the corner of Main Street and Park Avenue. 2. Community Library/Community Club 1022 Main Street Built in 1923, the building has handsome native stone architecture. Miss Annie Cannon of the Cannon Mills family was a major donor to the building fund. May have housed the Community Club since its inception. Continue south on Main Street toward the park. 3. Memorial Park Main Street Deeded in 1945 on land donated by the Robbins family, Memorial Park was built in remembrance of the veterans of World War I and World War II. Continue south on Main Street. 4. 1888 Museum 1094 Main Street This tiny building is the last remaining cottage of the Watauga Hotel and is one of the oldest in Blowing Rock. Maintained by the Blowing Rock Historical Society, this building is open for self-guided tours every day. Visitors get a glimpse of what vacation loding looked like in the early days of the town. Continue south on Main Street. 5. The Martin House 1098 Main Street Built in 1870 as a private residence, this house is also one of the oldest of the town’s buildings. In 1914 it became a boarding house and was home to seasonal residents. From 1936 to 1938, it housed the offices of the Blowing Rock School of English. Margaret Mitchell was a guest lecturer in 1937, the same year she received the Pulitzer Prize for Gone With The Wind. Turn right onto Laurel Lane. 6. Annie Cannon Memorial Gardens/Broyhill Park Laurel Lane Broyhill Park was created, with some additions, from the older Mayview Lake area and commemorates the 1989 Centennial of Blowing Rock. Cannon Gardens is the starting point for the Glen Burney Trail (1.5 miles) to two waterfalls. The Glen Burney Trail was built in 1891 as a path along the gorge to Green Park Inn. Turn left on Wonderland Trail. 7. Bistro Roca & Antlers Bar 143 Wonderland Trail Originally built as a drug store for the doctor’s office next door in 1932, the building became a bar and food establishment and is now the oldest continuously serving bar in North Carolina. During Prohibition, booze and bookmaking were run out of the basement. Retrace your steps back to Main Street and turn right to head south. 8. Schenck Cottage (Rumple House)1200 Main Street Built in 1886, this was the former summer residence of Major Henry Franklin Schenck. His grandfather built the first cotton mill in the south (1813). Many of the original features are still present including the unusual dormers. Continue south on Main Street. 9. Rumple Memorial Presbyterian Church 1218 Main Street Built in 1906, this was a typical mountain-style rock church. Four stained glass windows commemorate the seasonal ministers, including Rev. Jethro Rumple, who was the first minister and one of our earliest summer residents. Continue south on Main Street. 10. Edgewood Cottage 115 Ginny Stevens Lane The site of the first home and studio of famed local artist Elliott Daingerfield. A sculpture by Brenda Mauney Councill depicting Daingerfield at his easel stands outside on the lawn. Originally constructed c. 1890, it is a fine example of a simple box-board style house built for summer residents of that time. Reconstructed in 2008 by the Blowing Rock Historical Society, the cottage features exhibits inside and is open daily for self-guided tours. It also houses the Artists in Residence program from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Continue south on Main Street. 11. Old Coaching Inn 116 Johns River Road Over 100 years old, this building was an old coaching inn at the turn of the 20th century. Globe Road, the earliest road leading from Lenoir to Blowing Rock, passed by the inn. The building was later owned by the mother of Eli Springs, head of the NY Stock Exchange. *Please note: this building is managed as a vacation rental, so please be courteous and maintain distance from the house when viewing. Continue south on Main Street. 12. Blowing Rock Methodist Church 1314 Main Street Built in 1904 on land donated by Charles D. Waller, the church served Methodist, Protestant, Jewish, and Catholic pastors and hosted numerous lectures and prominent authors. Dr. Morris Lazaron, one of four chaplains chosen to officiate at the Burial of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery on November 11, 1921, spoke often at the church. Retrace route back to intersection of Ginny Stevens Lane and Main Street, then cross Main Street. 13. St Mary of the Hills Episcopal Church 140 Chestnut Drive Built in 1918, this picturesque church is constructed of native stone. Elliott Daingerfield’s painting “Madonna of the Hills” hangs behind the altar. The “Mary Garden” to the right of the church contains a sculpture by one of Daingerfield’s daughters, Marjorie Daingerfield. Continue north on Main Street (back toward the tour starting point). 14. Randall Memorial Building (Village Cafe)1105 Main Street (follow path beside Kilwin’s Chocolates) Built in 1907, this building housed a traditional mountain crafts co-op. The Blowing Rock Community Club later used it as the town’s first lending library. It was placed on the

Owners of Woodlands BBQ recognized by Town of Blowing Rock

Blowing Rock Honors Woodlands BBQ Owners

In an official Resolution, the Town of Blowing Rock honored Butch and Gina Triplett, and Jim and Peggy Houston, the owners and founders of Woodlands Barbeque. The restaurant recently sold, and the Town wanted to recognize the legacy and contributions of the Houstons and the Tripletts. The Resolution was read aloud at the August 10 Town Council meeting, and presented to the two couples by Tracy Brown, the Director of the Blowing Rock Tourism Development Authority. Here is the full Resolution: RESOLUTION HONORING WOODLANDS BARBEQUE WHEREAS, the Town of Blowing Rock Board of Commissioners wish to honor Woodlands Barbeque and its founders and owners, Butch and Gina Triplett, and Jim and Peggy Houston; and WHEREAS, Woodlands Barbeque has been in business in the Town of Blowing Rock since 1977, originally known as Grubstake, taking the name of Woodlands Barbeque in 1980; and WHEREAS, during the past 44 years that Woodlands has been in business they have been responsible for employing thousands of individuals; and WHEREAS, Woodlands has served bar-b-que to millions of satisfied customers during the past 44 years including presidents, dignitaries, and many celebrities; and WHEREAS, Woodlands has made charitable contributions and donations to hundreds of causes within the community over the past 44 years, including the Hospitality House, the Hunger and Health Coalition, The Blowing Rock Community Foundation, Rotary International, Kiwanis, Appalachian State University and many, many more; and WHEREAS, Woodlands Barbeque, and its owners Butch and Gina Triplett, and Jim and Peggy Houston have contributed to the very culture and fabric of Blowing Rock for generations of locals and visitors; and WHEREAS, Woodlands Barbeque, and its owners Butch and Gina Triplett, and Jim and Peggy Houston have made a positive impact on the economy, culture and lifestyle of Blowing Rock for over four decades. NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, the Town of Blowing Rock Mayor and Board of Commissioners, Town Employees past and present, as well as the Citizens of the Town wish to honor Woodlands Barbeque this 10th day of August 2021. Thank you, Butch, Gina, Jim, and Peggy! Photo description: Peggy and Jim Houston, Tracy Brown, and Butch and Gina Triplett stand for a photo after the presentation of the official Resolution. Blowing Rock Town Manager Shane Fox and Blowing Rock Town Council member Albert Yount look on in the background.

Moses Cone: The Denim King & His Gilded Age Manor

Born in Jonesborough, Tennessee in 1857, Moses Herman Cone was the eldest of 13 children born to Jewish-German immigrants. He and his brother, Caesar, worked with their father in his dry goods business in Maryland and later moved to Greensboro, NC, and partnered with local businessmen to form Cone Brothers, Lowman, and Burger Clothing Manufacturers based in Baltimore. Cone realized from his sales and travels that blue-collar workers needed more durable clothes for working. He married Bertha Lindau in 1888, and they never had children. In 1890 Moses and Ceasar formed the Cone Export & Commission Company in New York and developed what was called the “Plaid Trust”, a commission to control the production market on checks and plaids. In 1892, they moved to Greensboro, North Carolina and took in another forty mills, and completely controlled the market. US antitrust laws broke up the agreements the Cones had with the various mills to control the market. Cone purchased a defunct steel mill in 1895 and developed it into a large cotton mill called Proximity Manufacturing Company that produced blue and brown denim. Competitors in the New England states were located much farther away from the cotton fields, giving Cone an advantage] He built additional mills throughout the Greensboro area and the South soon became one of the biggest denim fabric producers in the world, In the 1890s, Moses Cone came to be known as “The Denim King.” The Cone brothers soon after built White Oak Cotton Mills, at the time the largest denim mill in the world and largest cotton mill in the South, even supplying denim to Levi Strauss and Company. Moses was also instrumental in the development of Appalachian State University, as a contributor to the construction. In 1901, Cone built Flat Top Manor, a 20-room mansion in the grand Colonial Revival style nestled on a 3,500-acre estate on Flat Top Mountain in Blowing Rock, North Carolina. An avid conservationist, Moses Cone planted extensive white pine forests, hemlock hedges, and a 10,000 tree apple orchard, and built lakes stocked with bass and trout. In addition, there were prize-winning cattle and sheep and a constructed fence surrounding an extensive chestnut forest that was stocked with deer. After their deaths, Moses and Bertha Cone donated their home, Flat Top Manor to the National Park Service Today Moses H Cone Memorial Park is open to the public, located at Milepost 294 on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Flat Top Manor is home to the Parkway Craft Center, home to the Southern Highlands Craft Guild. In addition to the Parkway Craft Center, visitors enjoy twenty-five miles of carriage trails perfect for hiking, horseback riding, or cruising in a horse-drawn carriage. The Craftsman’s Trail is a 20-minute loop walk around the Manor which the Cones are said to have walked together every morning. The estate also contains a family cemetery and a carriage and apple barn.

Chetola Resort: A Haven of Rest with a Rich History

In 1846, Lot Estes purchased 100 acres with a horse stable and a way station for freight, passengers, and mail for only 5 cents per acre. Mr. Estes built a family home which was eventually used as a boarding house and became known as Silverlake, a summer resort. In 1892, Alabama native William Stringfellow purchased the resort, convinced by his wife that the cooler weather would improve her husband’s tuberculosis. It was the Stringfellows who actually named the estate Chetola, which in Cherokee means “Haven of Rest” and turned it into one of the most beautiful private dwellings in Blowing Rock. Mr. Stringfellow enlarged the estate by building a spring house, a smokehouse, a servant’s house, a caretaker’s home, and a large horse stable. William Stringfellow’s health improved greatly while at Chetola. In 1919 he sold the property. In 1926, J. Luther Snyder, a Coca-Cola bottling mogul, purchased Chetola Estate. He paid $36,000 for 36 acres. Known as the “Coca-Cola Kind of the Carolinas,” Luther started his career by traveling the streets of Charlotte in a one-horse wagon selling Coca-Cola to merchants and eventually operated 10 Coca-Cola bottling plants in the Charlotte area. Luther expanded the estate, building a regulation bowling alley for his children, and horseback riding trails joining those at the bordering Moses Cone Estate, which today is located off the Blue. Ridge Parkway. With six children, the Snyders entertained frequently and often invited the entire community, a glorious time which ended with Luther’s death in 1957 at the age of 83. The estate remained in the family until 1972. In 1982 Chetola Resort was purchased by a group of businessmen who constructed the lodge, condominiums, and meeting facilities. Current owners, Rachael Renar and her son Kent Tarbutton purchased Chetola in 1997. In Fall 2004, the Manor House Estate House became the Bob Timberlake Inn at Chetola Resort, a bed and breakfast featuring the designs, furnishings, and accessories of North Carolina artist, Bob Timberlake. Rooms in the Bob Timberlake Inn are named for past and present owners of Chetola, as well as other regional and local historic figures such as Hugh Morton, Moses Cone, and Ben Church. In subsequent years the resort also added a spa, and remodeled the restaurant, after a kitchen fire. While the new restaurant, reintroduced as Timberlake’s was being built, construction crews unearthed a fireplace, estimated to have been built between the 1890s and early 1900s, with an original locust log in the hearth. The fireplace remains in the restaurant’s main dining room, Timbers. In early August 2011, the Manor House Restaurant, which occupied the main level of the original 1846 Estate House, suffered a kitchen fire and closed for a year while the restaurant underwent a redesign to offer additional lakefront dining. In July 2012 the restaurant reopened as Timberlake’s Restaurant, featuring a menu inspired by artist Bob Timberlake’s culinary favorites and outfitted with Timberlake’s paintings, designs, and historic angling and hunting equipment. While Timberlake’s was being built, construction crews unearthed a fireplace, estimated to have been built between the 1890s and early 1900s, with an original locust log in the hearth. The fireplace remains in the restaurant’s main dining room, Timbers. For more information, visit chetola.com.

The Green Park Inn: Grand Dame of the High Country

The 73,000 square foot Green Park Inn opened its doors in summer 1891, the vision of three Lenoir, NC businessmen, led by Civil War veteran Major George Washington Findlay Harper. The posh new hotel featured sixty guest rooms furnished with fireplaces, running water, and electric bell alarms, and was comprised of three levels containing the restaurant and bar, hot and cold bath amenities, a ballroom, billiard room, bowling alley, shooting gallery, tennis court, and a telegraph and post office for public use. The Green Park Inn continued to house the only United States Post Office in the area for many years and guests can glimpse the first sorting system in the History Room of the hotel. Known as the “Grand Dame of the High Country,” Green Park Inn was a popular vacation spot for luminaries and celebrities including Annie Oakley, J.D. Rockefeller, Eleanor Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, and Margaret Mitchell (who penned part of “Gone With the Wind” while a guest at the inn). In May 2010, the Green Park Inn was purchased and refurbished by New York hoteliers and brothers Eugene and Steven Irace. Today, the hotel features eighty-eight guest rooms; multiple common areas, including a lobby, library, and tea room; two event spaces, the Carolina Room and the Blue Ridge Room; the bar, now known as the Divide Tavern; and the updated restaurant now named the Chestnut Grille.The inn recently launched a fitness center available to guests – the very first in its history. In 1982 The Green Park Inn was placed on the National Register of Historic Places with distinctions about the hotel’s physical location straddling the Eastern Continental Divide and its significance throughout the rich history of North Carolina and the High Country. Green Park Inn is the last of the grand manor hotels in western North Carolina, and is the state’s second oldest operating resort hotel. For more information, visit greenparkinn.com.

Annie Oakley shooting with other woman, ca. 1920. MS6 William F. Cody Collection

Annie Oakley’s Shooting Range at Mayview Manor

Annie Oakley shooting with other woman, location unknown, ca.1920. MS6 William F. Cody Collection Annie Oakley was born Phoebe Ann Mosey in 1860 near Willodell, Ohio. She began trapping at the age of 7 and hunting by age 8 to help feed her family after her father died. She sold game to hotels and restaurants throughout Ohio and by the age of 15 had paid off the mortgage on her mother’s farm. In 1875, when Annie was 15, the Baughman & Butler shooting act was being performed in Cincinnati. Marksman Frank Butler, an Irish immigrant, placed a $100 bet per side with a hotelier saying that he could beat any local shooter. The hotelier set up a contest between Butler and the 15-year-old Annie, saying, “The last opponent Butler expected was a five-foot-tall, 15-year-old girl named Annie.” Annie won the match and soon after, Butler began courting Annie and they married. Annie’s prowess earned her a spot in the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show. Her most famous trick was to split a playing card, edge-on, and shoot several more holes in it before it hit the ground, using a .22 caliber at 90 feet. She also gained fame for shooting the ashes off her husband’s cigarette. Annie was thought to have taught over 15,000 women how to shoot. Throughout her career it is believed that Annie taught upwards of 15,000 women how to shoot. She is quoted as saying that she would like to see every woman know how to handle a gun as naturally as they know how to handle a baby. She continued to set records into her sixties and also engaged in extensive philanthropy for women’s rights and other causes, including the support of young women she knew. In 1924, at the age of 63 Annie operated a shooting range at the Mayview Manor in Blowing Rock. Known as the “Queen of Blowing Rock Hotels,” Mayview Manor was the vision of Charlottean Walter Alexander and drew some notable names, including former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and then-Vice President Richard Nixon in the 1950s. During her time at Mayview, Annie still hit 98 out of 100 clays during one demonstration. She passed away just over two years later. The Mayview closed in 1966 and was demolished in 1978.

Blowing Rock Charity Horse Show: The OLDEST Continuous Outdoor Horse Show in America

The original “Tournament at Green Park” was a gymkhana consisting largely of games on horseback, which can best be described as an equine fashion show for the amusement of Green Park Hotel guests as early as 1897. In 1923 Lloyd M. Tate, a horsemen from Pinehurst, held his first Blowing Rock Horse Show on Green Hill Road, just up the mountain behind the Green Park Hotel. During these early years, the show evolved into an official sporting event, albeit still a “fun show” as it was often referred to by Mr. Tate. By the mid-1920s, Mr. Thomas H. Broyhill had purchased around 1,000 acres of land, consisting of much of the Mayview section of Blowing Rock. The horse show moved to a small, little-used golf course on the land owned by Mr. Broyhill; in the hopes of making it an attraction for guests of the nearby Mayview Manor Hotel. In 1934 Mr. Broyhill sold the “horse show grounds” to the Blowing Rock Charity Horse Show Association for $1.00. Uninterrupted by recessions, depressions, foul weather, or even World War II, the Blowing Rock Charity Horse Show has survived one national and regional crisis after another. While other horse shows claim to be the oldest, they had years that they closed due to those crises, which is why Blowing Rock Charity Horse Show is the OLDEST CONTINUOUS Outdoor Horse Show in America. The show features Saddlebred in June each year and Hunter/Jumper I & II late July-August each year. Please visit their website for more information: https://brchs.org/

Elliott Daingerfield’s Edgewood Cottage

Built around 1890, Edgewood Cottage was the first home and studio of artist Elliott Daingerfield (1859-1932) and was revitalized by the Blowing Rock Historical Society to preserve his legacy.

The Legend of The Blowing Rock

According to legend, a Chickasaw chieftain, who was protecting his beautiful daughter from white man’s admiration, journeyed to The Blowing Rock and into the care of a squaw mother. One day the lovely maiden was daydreaming on the cliff and noticed a Cherokee brave wandering in far below. She playfully shot an arrow in his direction and they began to flirt. Soon he appeared before her wigwam, courted her with songs of his land, and they became lovers, wandering the pathless woodlands and along the crystal streams. One day a strange reddening of the sky brought the brave and the maiden to The Blowing Rock. To him, it was a sign of trouble commanding his return to his tribe in the plains. With the maiden’s entreaties not to leave her, the brave, torn by conflict of duty and heart, leaped from The Rock into the wilderness far below. The grief-stricken maiden prayed daily to the Great Spirit until one evening with a reddening sky, a gust of wind blew her lover back onto The Rock and into her arms. From that day a perpetual wind has blown up onto The Rock from the valley below. For people of other days, at least, this was explanation enough for The Blowing Rock’s mysterious winds causing even the snow to fall upside down. For more information about the legend, and to purchase tickets to visit The Blowing Rock attraction, visit www.theblowingrock.com

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