More Blue Ridge: Moses Cone Park

One of the attractions we enjoyed in our time on the Blue Ridge in June was the Moses H. Cone Memorial Park, just outside the town of Blowing Rock. An intact 3500 acres that was the mountain home of one of North Carolina's textile industry founders (Cone Mills may be familiar if you ever bought fabric or paid attention to hang tags on clothing in the 1960s or earlier) it preserves a beautiful chunk of land along the Blue Ridge Parkway. The veranda of the 20-room Flat Top mansion where Cone and his wife lived and entertained is an inviting, shady spot on a summer afternoon.

Moses Cone made his fortune in Greens- boro, and in his life time he donated a lot of money to charities there; a hospital is named for him. He supported education in Blowing Rock by offering a challenge of $4 for every $1 the locals could raise for schools. Cone died in 1908 and his wife, Bertha, kept the estate going until her death in 1947. The entire estate was willed to the hospital and the hospital transferred it to the United States Government to be used for the pleasure of the public.

The side approach to the manor from the parking lot gives little hint of the expanse of the place. But this view illustrates the tall trees, many benches, and laid back aura of the place. The manor's upstairs is open for tours on weekends. The lower floor houses several rooms of crafts produced by members of the Southern Highlands Craft Guild. We looked at wonderful weavings, pottery, baskets, stained glass, jewelry....like Thoreau, we owned everything we saw, but since we were going to be flying home, we weren't able to purchase what we admired. Norm said it was a treat just to see so much art in one place...photos were not allowed in the galleries, unfortunately.

This retaining wall, probably built or perhaps re-built in the 1950s, caught our eye. It is made of the typical gray rocks of the region, and stacked without mortar. The manor is built into a south-facing hillside and terraces and retaining walls like this abound on the grounds. The whole thing was anchored by a huge boulder at the right that eluded the picture.

The view from the veranda includes this one of a lake, one of three that Cone built on the property and stocked with bass or trout. This is Bass Lake, and it can also be accessed from a street on the edge of the town of Blowing Rock, which is down there somewhere in all those trees. One reason Cone moved to the mountains and left his brother in Greensboro to run the business was his fragile health. He built 25 miles of carriage roads on this property, and a 20-minute loop walking trail. He was 40 when he began acquiring the land, and he was 51 when he died.

One writer notes that Cone allowed the 30 or so small farmers whose land he purchased to stay on, and he hired them as tenants to help run the estate. This rail fence is an outstanding example of the rail fences used throughout this region. Most of the Blue Ridge Parkway, a two-lane highway that is also a national park, is marked along its right-of-way with fences just like this.

These roses blooming on the terrace below the manor are a remnant of the vast plantings that Cone estab- lished. One writer on this web site notes:

"An avid orchardist, he supervised the planting of apple varieties that matured from June through November. He replaced any tree that was cut. He obtained the help and advice of his friend Gifford Pinchot, governor of Pennsylvania and a noted conservationist, in planting extensive white pine forests and hemlock hedges. His tenants grazed his sheep and took care of his nearly 20 milk cows.... Rose gardens, vegetable plots, boulders, mosses, and ferns surrounded Flat Top Mance. Miles of carriage roads, smoothed out to a point of flawlessness, invited the pleasures of an early morning walk or an afternoon ride. Within a short time, 10,000 apple trees produced 40,000 bushels of fruit in a favorable season."

This carriage house is a short walk from the manor. Today it houses some farm implements and carriages, as well as the public restrooms for visitors. The trails are used by equestrians...we sat in the shade of some trees nearby and noticed the evidence of recent horse travel.




Here the Blue Ridge Parkway crosses the Moses Cone Park on the north side, and a carriage trail goes under it. These stone arches are a signature of the Parkway--instantly recognizable wherever the Parkway crosses another road or thoroughfare. The arches really are works of architectural art, built painstakingly by workers in the Works Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps programs that provided life-saving employment for thousands of Americans in the 1930s.


As we left the park and headed back to Blowing Rock, we paused to take a photo of this bicyclist who was studying the signs and consulting with someone on his cell phone. People ride bicycles up and down the parkway and the climb seems grueling enough to help one train for the Tour de France!

There are many better known and advertised attractions in the Blue Ridge, but we enjoyed this gem of a park that provides a window into how the rich lived in the latter half of the 19th century and early part of the 20th, while at the same time conserving and preserving part of the natural and cultural heritage of the region.