The Cherokee Nation once proclaimed what today we know and love as Flat Rock as their hunting grounds. For early settlers it became a place business people, planters and their families to escape malaria and the oppressive summer heat/humidity of coastal South Carolina.
Merchants from the seaport of what is now known as Charleston would meet with Cherokee braves on the "Great Flat Rock" to do their trading of beads, trinkets, etc. It was in 1807 that the "Great Flat Rock" gave the site a name for a pioneer settlement that would grow up around it in what would become Hendersonville NC.
By 1827 Flat Rock was thriving (the Buncombe Turnpike had been completed from Asheville to join the Poinsett Highway in upper South Carolina.) All kinds of industry starting taking place such as grist and lumber mills, brick makers, taverns and on and on -- it was a boom time.
Than a member of a rich banking family in England found Flat Rock to have a very healthful climate and settled here with his family. The prestige of the area only went up from there and Flat Rock and the general area became a mecca for an escape from the oppresive hot and humid areas further south and many summer "cottages" were built, which would be considered exclusive even by today's standards.
Flat Rock was incorporated in 1995 and today is goverened by a mayor and six council members.
It is home to many prestigious mansions and beautiful modern day homes, Flat Rock Playhouse, the Carl Sandburg Home and rich in history.
Flat Rock and Henderson County has a lot to offer our tourists or new residents.
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