Kanuga Conference Center, Episcopal conference center in Blue Ridge Mountains, North Carolina, US
Kanuga Conference Center is an Episcopal retreat and conference facility in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Hendersonville, North Carolina, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The property includes a lake, forested trails, lodging buildings, communal gathering spaces, and a chapel set among the trees.
The property began in 1909 as a private lake club and was converted into an Episcopal retreat center in 1928 under Bishop Kirkman George Finlay. Over the following decades it grew into one of the main gathering places for the Episcopal Church in the southeastern United States.
The name Kanuga comes from the Cherokee language and referred to both a settlement and a traditional game tool used by people of the region. References to this indigenous past appear on signs and in the stories shared by staff and guides throughout the grounds.
The grounds are open year-round and include trails and lake areas worth exploring on foot, so comfortable walking shoes are a good idea. It is worth contacting the center before your visit to check what programs or events are running, as the schedule changes by season.
The Chapel of the Transfiguration, completed in 1940, was designed by Scottish architect S. Grant Alexander as a memorial to Bishop Finlay. It is one of the few chapels of that era in the region designed by a foreign architect and still in regular use today.
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