Polk County North Carolina

Looking Up: Cool mountain properties lure lowlanders seeking summer homes ...

An historic marker in Flat Rock, N.C., pays tribute to Christopher Memminger, the first Confederate Secretary of the Treasury.

What seems out of place is that Memminger, a 19th century statesman, grew up and lived most of his life in Charleston. Memminger Auditorium is named for him.

Yet like many Lowcountry residents, he traveled to the North Carolina mountains to escape the heat and diseases that seemed to appear in summer. Memminger owned a home in Henderson County, and that’s where he first hunkered down after the Civil War.

“We have always been a refuge for coastal people,” says Gwen T. Fowler, who owns Gwen Fowler Real Estate in Oconee County-based West Union and markets her website under www.coolmountainescapes.com. Charlestonians effectively settled the area. “They didn’t know mosquitoes caused malaria,” only that the symptoms went away when leaving the Lowcountry in the warmer weather months, she says.

Today buyers from the Charleston area and elsewhere are attracted by low prices, such as a lakefront condo on Lake Keowee for $80,000.

“We don’t call them deals, we don’t have steals, we call them true value,” says Fowler, who has ties to the Charleston area — she spent a harrowing night in a house on Johns Island when Hurricane Hugo blew through close to 22 years ago.

The mountain appeal? “Cooler temperatures, babbling brooks,” says Daryl Hardin, a Realtor with Keller Williams in the North Carolina town of Polk.

“You leave Charleston and it’s 98 (degrees) and get up to 3,000 (feet) elevation at Boone and Blowing Rock, and it’s 78,” says Nate Saunders of Premier Land Liquidators in Davidson.

It’s no question the highlands of North and South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee have been a home away from home for residents of low lying areas across the Southeast for decades. That includes Charlotte and Atlanta 1-2 hours away as well as Charleston, Savannah and Wilmington, N.C., which are 3-6 hour drives.

According to Realtors in the region, the mountain properties have felt the national housing showdown. But it hasn’t resulted in a big drop-off in sales or prices.

“The market’s gotten better but it is still on the moderate side,” says Tom Perry, broker with Steve Owen and Associates in Brevard, N.C., near the Pisgah National Forest.

He is listing a 3,500-square-foot lakeside home for $699,000 in Connestee Falls off U.S. Highway 276 South, known as the Greenville Highway. The neighborhood has four lakes, hiking trails, golf course, tennis courts, clubhouse, fitness center and bocce courts.

Polk County-North Carolina

Polk County, North Carolina

Polk County, North Carolina, history

The history of Polk County, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c., biographical sketches of its citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion, general and local statistics, portraits of early settlers and prominent men, history of the Northwest, history of Iowa, map of Polk County, Constitution of Iowa, miscellaneous matters, &c., &c

The Hannon family of Polk County, North Carolina, with allied families, Henderson and Carruth