Mountain Lodge
Flat Rock, North Carolina
Beginning in the 1820s, affluent Charlestonians built summer residential complexes in the mountain community of Flat Rock, North Carolina, just south of Asheville, to escape the diseases of the Lowcountry. Many of these properties have remained in families for generations and continue as summer residences. Constructed in 1827 for Charles and Susan Baring, Mountain Lodge is the earliest of these summer places. The house was greatly expanded and remodeled in 1936 by prominent local architect Erle G. Stillwell.
A property dispute in the 1990s led to an extended period of abandonment, during which the house suffered from vandalism and major flooding from burst plumbing and radiators. JKOA was commissioned to perform a condition assessment with a cost estimate for repairs.
After years of neglect, the house was acquired by new owners through a local preservation organization. JKOA repaired the house and designed an historically sensitive kitchen addition, expanding a former conservatory. The project included two early outbuildings, a stone dairy and an elaborate billiards house.
Historical research and site archaeology exposed an unusual 1840s stone gutter drainage system at the entrance drive and other significant early landscape features.
Project services
Architecture
Historic preservation
Documentation drawings
Historical research
Condition assessment
Building archaeology and forensics
Site archaeology
Civil engineering
Landscape architecture
Construction administration
Cost estimating