Flat Top Manor

BY DAVID ROGERS

Flat Top Manor, as it is most commonly known, is also called the Moses Cone Manor, Moses Cone Estate and the Moses H. Cone Mansion. It is at milepost 294 of the Blue Ridge Parkway in Blowing Rock It was built by American textile entrepreneur Moses H. Cone for his home and based on the idea of replicating George Vanderbilt’s Biltmore Estate, the largest privately owned house in the United States. He used his estate to showcase his knowledge of scientific farming and to represent his wealth he had accumulated.

The Moses H. Cone Memorial Park that contains the mansion and associated property is located between Milepost 292 and 295 of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The mountain holdings of the Flat Top Manor was maintained by Moses’ wife, Bertha, for 39 years after Moses died in 1908, until she died in 1947. It then passed to the Cone Memorial Hospital in Greensboro and shortly thereafter they donated it to the United States Park Service, which has maintained it since.

If horseback or hiking is your preference, you can do that, too, at the manor, from one of the many access points along the 26 miles of carriage trails that meander around the 3,496-acre park maintained by the National Park Service.

From the front porch, which has been the venue for many a wedding, you can see Bass Lake below and beyond. The house was built in 1900 by Moses Cone, just eight years before he passed away.

Today, the 23-room mansion is home to an NPS information desk, as well as a gift shop managed by the Southern Highlands Craft Guild, which each year hosts a variety of workshops and artisan demonstrations.

PHOTO BY J. SCOTT GRAHAM 2019 Moses Cone Manor is a history-rich estate along the Blue Ridge Parkway. The home was completed in 1901 to be a summer residence for Moses and Bertha Cone.

A view from the porch of the Moses Cone Manor House.

BY DEREK HALSEY

IF YOU GO: FLAT TOP MANOR

The house is open to the public and there is no charge for admission. The first floor contains a Craft Center operated by the Southern Highland Handicraft Guild. It also has a National Park Service information desk and a book store. There are tours given by park rangers of the second story of the mansion. A visitor can sit in a rocking chair on the large veranda or walk the nearby self-guiding trail to the side of the manor house. The hike around Bass Lake is the most popular.

The Craft Center inside the mansion features a gift shop and a craft-person’s workshop where various arts and crafts (i.e. pottery, wood carving, textiles, painting, drawing, needlepoint, crocheting) are demonstrated often. To most people who travel the Parkway the Cone Manor is simply the Parkway Craft Center, which is the major component of the manor house. It is open to the public from spring through fall and gets more than 250,000 visitors annually. 6570 Blue Ridge Pkwy, Blowing Rock, NC 28605 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Sunday (828) 295-3782 (Craft shop) https://www.blueridgeheritage.com/destinations/mosescone-manor/