Flat Top Manor at Moses H. Cone Memorial Park

Moses H. Cone built a fortune in the textile mills of the North Carolina Piedmont, becoming one of the largest producers of denim in the country and earning the nickname the Denim King. Seeking a cool mountain retreat, he and his wife Bertha acquired a vast tract of land in the Blue Ridge and set about creating a model estate.

Completed around 1901, the grand Colonial Revival manor sits atop Flat Top Mountain with sweeping porches and long views. The Cones laid out the surrounding land with orchards, lakes, and a network of carriage roads engineered to gentle grades, so a rider or walker could take in the scenery in ease.

The estate was a working landscape as well as a retreat. The Cones planted large apple orchards on the slopes, experimenting with varieties suited to the mountain climate, and the fruit was shipped and sold under the estate's name. Remnants of those orchards still bloom and bear on the hillsides today.

Winding through it all are miles of carriage roads, broad and gently graded, that make for some of the easiest and most rewarding walking anywhere on the parkway. The trails loop past meadows, lakes, and forest, climb to overlooks, and lead to features like Cone's own gravesite and the estate's small lakes.

After Moses Cone died, his wife Bertha continued to manage and improve the estate for decades. In keeping with the family's wishes, the property eventually passed to public ownership as a memorial, becoming Moses H. Cone Memorial Park along the newly built Blue Ridge Parkway.

That transfer preserved not just the manor but the whole designed landscape of orchards, meadows, forest, and carriage roads, keeping it open for the public to enjoy. The park now stands as one of the most-visited and best-loved stops on the parkway in the North Carolina mountains.

Inside the manor, a gallery run by a Southern Appalachian craft guild displays and offers the work of regional artisans, from weaving and pottery to woodwork and jewelry. It ties the grand house to the living folk-craft traditions of the surrounding mountains.

The estate is glorious in every season. Spring brings apple blossom and wildflowers, summer offers cool green walking, and fall sets the hardwoods ablaze along the carriage trails. Winter can be quiet and snowy, though the parkway itself may close in bad weather, so it pays to check conditions before a cold-season visit.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.