From Ashes to Opportunity

At the heart of the Flat Rock business district lies a historic tract of land steeped in the history and lore of the village. Today, that property is home to Flat Rock Square, a commercial development that houses several offices and notable businesses including Flat Rock Cinema, The Gallery at Flat Rock, ShareWell Coffee, and Blue Ruby Bistro.

A century prior to the advent of its current commercial activity, however, that parcel of land – on the northeast corner of the intersection of Greenville Highway and West Blue Ridge Road - was primarily known as the place where thousands of area students studied, played, and acquired the basic life skills necessary for happy and productive lives.

It is also the site of one of the most infamous crimes in the history of Henderson County. A crime that ultimately led to an increasingly vibrant commercial district in Flat Rock rising from the ashes of the old school.

The Stradley Legacy

The modern history of the land began in 1834 when Reverend Peter Stradley, a minister and blacksmith, arrived in Flat Rock. By 1844, he had acquired 33 acres on the “High Road” (now Greenville Highway) from brothers Elisha and Benjamin King. On this land, he built a home and a store across from the entrance drive to C.G. Memminger’s Rock Hill estate (Now Connemara and home to the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site.) (1)

The original house, known as the Stradley-Jones House, stood at what is today 110 Village Center Drive and these days serves as offices for the Flat Rock Village government.

Postal service was established for the growing settlement in 1829 and the first postmaster was Col. John Davis. Around 1844, the post office was moved into Stradley’s store and in 1845 he was appointed postmaster – a position he held until he was removed following the Civil War due to his Confederate affiliations. Stradley was replaced by his son Cephas, who was appointed in 1866. Cephas Stradley was succeeded by his sister Salome Stradley in 1868, the first female postmaster in Flat Rock. (1)

Over time, the property transitioned hands—from Allen Tabor in 1852 to the Hart family in 1883, then to James Ripley, and finally to John and Dovie Jones in 1915. The Jones family would own the house for over seven decades, watching as Flat Rock changed from a scattered settlement into a vibrant community. Natalie Jones Justus sold the property in 1986, to Bob and Louise Harley of Warrenville, South Carolina, who undertook major alterations. The Village of Flat Rock acquired the property in December 2003 and rehabilitated and enlarged the structure for use as the Village Hall. (1)

Most importantly to the narrative of this article, a portion of the Stradley property on the southern edge of the tract became the site of the first public school in the area in the 1880s - a transformation that tied the property’s legacy to Flat Rock’s educational foundation.

A Community of Learning

While it is believed that there was an earlier schoolhouse on the Ravenswood property, the first documented public school in Flat Rock was established in the 1870s. The one-room school was located near the present Hillandale Elementary School on West Blue Ridge Road (at the time referred to as Depot Road which connected Flat Rock to the new train depot in East Flat Rock.)

In the 1880s, the school relocated to the southern edge of Stradley’s former property. In 1906, a two-story, four-room school was built of frame construction at the same site, and included all grades through high school. The building did not have an office, library, or indoor plumbing. Drinking water was drawn from a well located directly in front of the school. While the frame building was under construction, classes met in Peace’s Store across the road. (1)

The school’s evolution continued into the 1920s. By 1925, a brick school building with Classical Revival-style details was constructed for elementary grades on the site. Under Principal Ernest L. Justus, it served all grades from one to eleven and was accredited by the state of North Carolina in 1927. The main building had eight classrooms, an auditorium, two toilets, a small library, and an office. (1)

The school was enlarged in 1932-1934 with the addition of four classrooms, plus a separate gymnasium and a vocational building called the Bogin Building which also served as a cafeteria and library. By 1934, the school transitioned into Flat Rock High School and served students from surrounding communities: Valley Hill, Tuxedo, East Flat Rock, and Green River. Flat Rock became the first district in the county to implement an extended school year—eight months instead of three. The schools in the outlying communities became elementary schools and elementary school students in Flat Rock began attending the East Flat Rock School. (2)

In 1960, East Henderson High School opened, and Flat Rock’s campus became a junior high school. The original 1920s building, steeped in decades of learning and community pride, continued to serve students from across the region for 11 more years —until it was lost in the fire.

The Fires of 1971

Hendersonville Times News August 18, 1971

On August 17, 1971, the serenity of Flat Rock was shattered when the Junior High School erupted in flames. The Hendersonville Times-News reported on the blaze the next day:

The high front windows of Flat Rock Junior High School were already lit by blazing orange light from the fire within the burning building when volunteer firemen from all over the county began pouring into the area around the school after a county-wide alarm was sounded last night. The sky above the school was a smoky orange tint reflecting the flames gutting the old structure.

The first units to arrive were from Blue Ridge who began battling the blaze which was sweeping the north end of the building. When the seriousness of the fire was determined a general alarm to all county fire departments was sent out and fire equipment of every description came with screaming sirens from every part of the county.

From the back of the building, firemen sprayed the building with several hoses and a more powerful water cannon mounted on the back of one of the trucks. Their main concern was to keep the fire from spreading to the second school building separated from the main building by a breezeway. The main building housed the office, eight classrooms, and the auditorium, and the building and back contained the library, lunchroom, and gymnasium. (3)

As it turned out, the fire in Flat Rock was no isolated incident.

Just days later, Balfour Elementary School burned. Then the Fruitland Baptist Institute. A private residence on Terry’s Gap Road was also set ablaze. With each new fire, the tension in Henderson County rose. Fears escalated, and North Carolina Governor Bob Scott deployed the National Guard to protect local schools. It was an unprecedented move, reflecting the seriousness of the threat. The story of the deployment of National Guardsmen to protect the community was even reported in the New York Times.

In Flat Rock, very real concerns arose about the safety of other buildings in the Village. In an article about St. John in the Wilderness, Missy Izard recounted the congregation’s response to the threat from an unknown origin:

Around 1971 there was an arsonist burning schools and churches in Henderson County, recalls Sandy Schenck. “One night, Flat Rock High School burned. The next day the St. John’s congregation came together and decided they needed to protect the church from the arsonist. A group of men, including my father, organized 24-hour watches until the arsonist was caught. The first night as the group assembled, my father asked the men what they were carrying to defend the church. With that, one man spoke up and said, ‘A golf club.’ To which, my father responded, ‘a three iron or a putter!’ (4)

Hendersonville Times News, September 10, 1971

For weeks, investigators followed every lead until a startling revelation emerged: the suspected arsonist was James Robert Arrowood, a 26-year-old volunteer firefighter from Hendersonville. A self-employed carpenter and contractor, Arrowood had been a firefighter for just eight months and was present in his capacity as a fireman at every one of the fires he allegedly set. He was arrested September 1971 and charged with unlawful burning in connection with four confirmed fires and suspected in others—including at Pleasant Hill Baptist Church and Hillandale Elementary.

His motives remain a mystery. But the pattern of destruction and his uncanny presence at each fire scene was enough to end a five-week terror campaign that had rocked the county. Author Terry Ruscin wrote about the incident in his book, Hidden Histories of Henderson County and recounted Arrowood’s ultimate fate:

Arrowood would later leave Henderson County, moving to Chapel Hill where he married a woman 22 years his senior. But his story ended as shockingly as it had played out—his body was found in the trunk of a car in Biloxi, Mississippi. The cause of death: a blow to the head with a blunt instrument. (5)

Aftermath and Renewal

Immediately following the fire, schoolroom trailers were placed on the property to serve as a stopgap measure until the new Flat Rock Middle on West Blue Ridge opened the following year in 1972. Although the main Flat Rock school building was lost, at least three separate auxiliary buildings remained. Two of the surviving structures were the gymnasium and the building which housed the school cafeteria.

A third building, known as the Bogin Building, survived and housed the offices of the Village of Flat Rock when it was first incorporated in 1995. The Village continued to lease part of the old school as Village Hall until 2004 when the Stradley-Jones House was rehabilitated and expanded to serve as the permanent Village Hall. The home that once housed the community’s postmaster, and later served generations of Flat Rock families, found a new purpose as the heart of local governance.

In the 1980s, Blue Ridge Community College used some of the surviving buildings for classroom space.

The Singleton Center and Flat Rock Square

By the early 2000s, Jane Singleton owned the property and made plans to convert the parcel into a larger rehabilitated mixed-use retail and office space. The Bogin Building and the Cafeteria were further renovated and two additional structures to house businesses were added to the property which then became known as The Singleton Center.

The gymnasium was converted into a condominium building with seven units known as Charleston Garden at Flat Rock. Scenes from the 1995 movie, Heavyweights, were filmed in the old gym before the conversion. The old cafeteria building now houses The Gallery at Flat Rock on the upper level and Blue Ruby Bistro and Ruby de Noche in the lower level.

Conversations with area residents who lived in Flat Rock at the time and newspaper articles from that era reveal that Jane Singleton was a lightning rod for controversy. It seems clear in retrospect that her plans for the property pushed the Village and the nascent Flat Rock business district into discussions about appropriate guidelines and ordinances governing a new era of commercial enterprise and development in Flat Rock.

After Singleton’s death in 2013, the family sold the property to Sid Blythe of Hendersonville in 2015. Blythe renamed the property to Flat Rock Square. Under his stewardship, the property has accumulated several well-established tenants and secured its position as a key component of the Flat Rock business district.

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Flat Rock is a community built not only on stone foundations and timber-framed homes but on the resilience of its people. From the early vision of Peter Stradley, to the educational advances of the early 20th century, and even through the dark days of arson and loss, the village has consistently found ways to move forward. A fact vividly demonstrated by the evolution of a blacksmith’s frontier parcel into a thriving civic landmark today.

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Question for our readers.

Did you attend, or do you know someone who attended, Flat Rock High School in the 1940s or 1950s prior to the school being converted to a Junior High School in 1961? We are researching the history of the high school and are seeking first-hand accounts of students who attended. Thank you for sharing this inquiry with anyone who might have information to share. - bh

Sources for this article:

1. Flat Rock Historic District Boundary Increase, Boundary Decrease Section number 8 Page 395 and Additional Documentation, Flat Rock, Henderson County, NC. Link

2. Jeannie Jones Giles, Henderson Heritage, https://hendersonheritage.com/flat-rock-2/

3. Hendersonville Times-News Archive

4. Missy Izard, Flat Rock’s St. John in the Wilderness, https://www.charlestonmercury.com/single-post/flat-rock-s-st-john-in-the-wilderness.

5. Terry Ruscin, Hidden Histories of Henderson County, 2013