Moses H. Cone Memorial Park, Colonial Revival estate in Blowing Rock, United States.
Moses H. Cone Memorial Park is a protected area in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, centered on a Colonial Revival manor house known as Flat Top Manor. The grounds include two lakes, forested slopes, open meadows, and a network of carriage roads and trails that spread across the property.
Moses Cone, a textile industrialist, built the estate in the early 1900s as a summer retreat, and his wife Bertha continued to live there after his death. Bertha donated the property to the National Park Service in 1949, after which it opened to the public.
Inside Flat Top Manor, a craft shop run by the Southern Highland Craft Guild sells and demonstrates work by regional artisans. This living tradition of handcraft from the Appalachian region is something visitors can directly experience during a stop at the manor.
The park sits at Milepost 294 on the Blue Ridge Parkway and is generally open from April through November. Comfortable walking shoes and water are recommended, as trails vary in length and mountain weather can change quickly.
Gifford Pinchot, who later became the first Chief of the U.S. Forest Service, advised Moses Cone on the plantings at the estate, including white pine groves and hemlock hedges. His involvement means the grounds reflect early American thinking on managed forestry, which visitors can observe while walking the carriage roads.
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