Moses H. Cone Memorial Park

The Moses H. Cone Memorial Park is a country estate in honor of Moses H. Cone in Blowing Rock, North Carolina. It is on the Blue Ridge Parkway between mileposts 292 and 295 with access at milepost 294.[2] Most locals call it Cone Park. The park is run by the National Park Service and is open to the public. It contains 3,500 acres (14 km2), a 16-acre (65,000 m2) trout lake, a 22-acre (89,000 m2) Bass Lake and 25 miles (40 km) of carriage trails[3] for hiking and horses.[4] The main feature of the park is a twenty-three room 13,000-square-foot (1,200 m2) mansion called Flat Top Manor built around the early 1900s. At the manor, there is a craft shop and demonstration center,[5] along with an information desk and book store.[6]

Hiking and horseback trails

Flat Top Estate
Moses Cone Manor
Moses H. Cone Memorial Park is located in North Carolina
Moses H. Cone Memorial Park
Moses H. Cone Memorial Park is located in the United States
Moses H. Cone Memorial Park
LocationBlue Ridge Parkway, milepost 292.8 to 295.5, near Blowing Rock, North Carolina
Coordinates36°8′53″N 81°41′36″W
Area3,496 acres (1,415 ha)
Built1901 (1901)
Architectural styleColonial Revival
NRHP reference No.13000978[1]
Added to NRHPDecember 24, 2013
Park sign near Flat Top Manor
A side view of the manor as it overlooks the Blue Ridge Mountains.

The activities in the park are walking, hiking, cross-country skiing, and horseback riding. More people use the park for hiking and horseback riding than any other activity. There is also fishing available at the two nearby fishing lakes. Many people also do amateur and professional photography, especially in the autumn. The park is open year-round and sees 225,000 people each year being the most visited recreational place on the Blue Ridge Parkway [7] and second in visitors after the Folk Art Center that sees 250,000 visitors.[8] Together with the Julian Price Memorial Park, it is the largest developed area set aside for public recreation on the Blue Ridge Parkway.[9]

Carriage house

Moses obtained advice from noted conservationist Gifford Pinchot, the pioneering forester at the Biltmore Estate and First Chief of the US Forest Service,[10] on planting white pine forests and hemlock hedges.[3]

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013 as Flat Top Estate, a national historic district. The district encompasses four contributing buildings and two contributing sites. They include the historic landscape, Flat Top Manor house (1899-1900), carriage house (c. 1899–1905), Cone Cemetery (1908), Sandy Flat Missionary Baptist Church (1908), and the apple barn.[1][11]

References
  • Blue Ridge Parkway brochure (GPO 2006 -320-369/00480) of "North Carolina / Virginia" by the National Park Service (NPS) of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
  • Noblitt, Philip T., A Mansion in the Mountains: The Story of Moses and Bertha Cone and their Blowing Rock Manor, Parkway Publishers 1996, ISBN 1-887905-02-2
  • Buxton, Barry M. Historic Resource Study: Moses H. Cone Estate. National Park Service, 1987.

Footnotes
  1. "National Register of Historic Places Listings". Weekly List of Actions Taken on Properties: 12/23/13 through 12/27/13. National Park Service. January 3, 2014.
  2. "Moses H. Cone Memorial Park, Blue Ridge Parkway Milepost 294.1". virtualblueridge.com. Retrieved May 8, 2023.
  3. "Sherpa Guides | North Carolina | Mountains | Moses H. Cone Memorial Park". www.sherpaguides.com. Retrieved May 8, 2023.
  4. "Cone Park Carriage Trails" (PDF). Retrieved May 8, 2023.
  5. "Parkway Craft Center". Archived from the original on February 13, 2008. Retrieved May 8, 2023.
  6. "Moses Cone Memorial Park – Blue Ridge National Heritage Area". blueridgeheritage.com. Archived from the original on December 27, 2007. Retrieved May 8, 2023.
  7. First Annual Centennial Strategy for August 2007 Archived February 22, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  8. "Folk Art Center official website". Archived from the original on February 12, 2008. Retrieved May 8, 2023.
  9. "Blue Ridge National Heritage". Archived from the original on May 10, 2008. Retrieved May 8, 2023.
  10. Moses Cone Estate National Park Service
  11. Deborah Slaton; Liz Sargent; Kenneth Itie; Tim Penich & Mike Ford (July 2013). "Flat Top Estate" (PDF). National Register of Historic Places - Nomination and Inventory. North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office. Retrieved July 1, 2015.
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