The 1901 summer estate of textile magnate Moses Cone on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Blowing Rock, where cast members and a park ranger have reported a stern female figure in the upstairs windows after the house empties.
Blue Ridge Pkwy Milepost 294, Blowing Rock, NC 28605
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free to visit as a National Park Service site; parking available on Blue Ridge Parkway. Craft shop inside manor has its own operating hours.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Blue Ridge Parkway access, paved parking, gravel carriage trails throughout 3,500-acre estate
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1901 · Moses Cone Textile Industry Legacy · Gilded Age Estate Architecture · Blue Ridge Parkway Cultural Landscape · Southern Highlands Craft Guild History
Moses Cone, who built his fortune in the textile industry, selected land along what would become the Blue Ridge Parkway for a grand country retreat. Construction of Flat Top Manor — a 23-room, 13,000-square-foot mansion — was completed around 1901. Cone worked with conservationist Gifford Pinchot to plant white pine forests and hemlock hedges across the 3,500-acre property, which also included a 22-acre Bass Lake and a 16-acre trout lake connected by 25 miles of carriage trails.
Moses Cone died in 1908. His wife Bertha Cone was, by multiple accounts, a petite but authoritative woman who ran the estate with precise expectations. She outlived her husband by decades and managed every detail of the property. Bertha's will reportedly directed that the manor remain closed after her death — a directive that was never honored. She donated the estate to the federal government, and the National Park Service eventually incorporated it into the Blue Ridge Parkway corridor, opening the grounds and eventually the manor itself to visitors.
Today the Southern Highlands Craft Guild operates a craft shop and demonstration center in the manor. The estate draws approximately 225,000 visitors annually, making it the most-visited recreational area on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The carriage trails, lakes, and manor grounds remain free to visit.
Sources
The haunting accounts at Flat Top Manor center on Bertha Cone, whose precise and controlling management of the estate in life has generated a corresponding paranormal narrative. Cast members of the Horn in the West outdoor drama performed nearby, and several reported seeing a stern female figure looking out from an upstairs window after visitors had left and the manor had been emptied for the day.
A former park ranger contributed a separate account: family portraits were relocated from second-floor bedrooms during a renovation, only to be found face-down on the floor the next morning. The disturbances reportedly continued until the artwork was returned to its original positions — interpreted as Bertha's insistence that things remain as she arranged them.
An additional, unverified legend holds that thieves once disturbed Moses Cone's burial site searching for jewelry, with some accounts claiming Bertha found his body propped against the tombstone after the violation. Whether his remains were ever relocated has not been established. The unifying thread across all accounts is Bertha Cone's strong-willed character in life and the sense that her will to govern the estate did not end at her death.
Notable Entities
Twenty-five miles of historic carriage trails wind through Moses Cone's 3,500-acre estate, passing Bass Lake (22 acres), a 16-acre trout lake, and Flat Top Manor itself. Self-guided exploration; no admission required.
The 23-room, 13,000-square-foot manor houses the Southern Highlands Craft Guild's craft shop and bookstore. Visitors can tour the exterior and ground-floor public areas of the 1901 mansion while exploring the estate history of Moses and Bertha Cone.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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