The Beaux-Arts Cone Estate (Flat Top Manor). Photo courtesy of National Park Services.

Join App State’s Dr. Neva J. Specht for an in-depth look at the iconic Beaux-Arts Cone estate (known originally as Flat Top Manor) near Blowing Rock.

This property excites visitors and leads to questions about when it was built and who occupied the estate. Through three narrative threads, this talk will touch on the histories of the Cone and Lindau families (including Moses’ famous art-collecting sisters), the lives of the Cones and their workers while traveling on a world tour and during their residences in Baltimore and Blowing Rock; and how Flat Top Manor has been interpreted by the National Parks Service over the years.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Neva Specht

Specht serves as App State’s Sr. Vice Provost for Faculty Policies and Development and Professor of History. She is the former dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

A native Iowan, she received her B.A. from Grinnell College and her M.A., Museum Studies Certification, and Ph.D. from the University of Delaware.

For six years, she served as the University Liaison to the Blue Ridge Parkway. During that time, she completed an Historic Furnishing Report for the Blowing Rock home of Moses and Bertha Cone for the National Park Service (NPS), directed two National Endowment for the Humanities Landmarks workshops on the Blue Ridge Parkway, and conducted a number of oral histories for the NPS including interviews with former CCC workers for King’s Mountain National Military Park.

She has received the Transforming North Carolina Faculty Research Award; App State Board of Governors Teaching Award; Jimmy Smith Service Award; and the Communal Studies Association Starting Scholar Award. She served as Chair of the Board of Trustees for the North Carolina Humanities Council.

This is an Appalachian State Presents event and is free for Members and the general public.
Online registration requested.