Kanuga Conference Center

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kanuga Conference Center (Cherokee: ᎧᏄᎦ) is affiliated with the Episcopal Church, USA. It is located on 1,400 acres near Hendersonville, North Carolina, with scenic Kanuga Lake at its center. Yearly, more than 35,000 guests utilize the facilities, which include the Conference Center, Camp Kanuga (for Boys and Girls), Camp Bob Summer, and the Mountain Trail Outdoor School. Most of the cabins at Kanuga Conference Center are a part of the Kanuga Lake Historic District, a registered Historic Place.

1 History
- 1.1 Kanuga Lake Club
- 1.2 Kanuga, an Episcopal Center
2 External links
3 References

[edit] History

[edit] Kanuga Lake Club

Kanuga began in 1909 as "Kanuga Lake Club," the dream of George Stephens, a Charlotte banker, real estate developer, and newspaper publisher. Kanuga Lake Club was designed to be a place for families from the "low country" of South Carolina and North Carolina to take vacation. Stephens employed John Nolan as his planner, and Richard Sharp Smith as his architect.

After 950 acres were purchased, a dam was built over Mud Creek, creating a lake (much larger than the current Lake Kanuga). Thirty-nine cottages, an inn with dining rooms, and a lakeside pavilion were built. Utilizing his successful businesses, American Trust Company (now Bank of America and his newspapers, the Charlotte Observer, and the Asheville Citizen, Stephens attracted people to Kanuga.

In 1916, tragedy struck. After heavy rains, the dam to Lake Kanugabroke broke, sending water through Hendersonville and Ashville. Subsequently, Kanuga went broke and was closed. Four attempts at reorganizing the facility ended with four bankruptcies.

[edit] Kanuga, an Episcopal Center

In 1928 Bishop Kirkman George Finlay of the Episcopal Diocese of Upper South Carolina spearheaded the effort to purchase the land and open a camp and conference center for the North Carolina and South Carolina Episcopal dioceses.

Money was raised for the operation, and in the 1940s, Scottish architect S. Grant Alexander was commissioned to build the Chapel of the Transfiguration. The chapel was built out of pine wood, not as strong a wood as Alexander had hoped, so support beams were later added to prevent the chapel from collapsing.

In 1931, a summer camp facility was built near the inn. In 1962 an additional camp for boys was built farther away, allowing the first facility (now Camp Bob Campbell) to be used as a girls' camp. In the 1970s the boys' and girls' camps were combined on the second campus. In 1999 the first campus was redesigned as Camp Bob Campbell and is utilized for underprivileged children in the summer and as an outdoor education facility throughout the rest of the year.

Due to age and inadequate facilities, the inn was replaced in 1968 by a new inn, built on the site. This new inn allowed Kanuga to become a year-round conference center.

Kanuga continues to grow, adding on to the many buildings on the campus facility. Nearly all of the original cottages and the outdoor Chapel of St. Francis are on the National Historic Registry.