Flat Rock’s crown jewel restored
A pair of lion statues show the end game of Chanteloup, an estate that bears the mark of respective architecture and landscape-architecture royalty (Richard Sharp Smith, Frederick Law Olmsted).
Sometimes, you go big, and you go home.
Such was the case when Comte de Choiseul-Beaupré, the French Consul to Charleston, commissioned his grand estate in the village of Flat Rock. Built between 1836 and 1841 from native granite, the mansion — originally called “The Castle” and now known as Chanteloup — was designed to impress. It still does.
“It’s truly a little castle,” says Galen Reuther, local author, historian, and organizer of the 2025 Historic Home Tour.
Presented by Historic Flat Rock, Inc., the one-day event offers a rare look inside four private residences, all of them listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In addition to Chanteloup, this year’s tour includes the Dunroy estate, built around 1862 and made from granite mined on site; Rutledge Cottage, a charming 1840s home built for the founder of the Glen Roy community (now Kenmure); and Longwood, a pebbledash-covered residence with rumored ties to one of Flat Rock’s earliest schoolhouses.
While each property teems with history, Chanteloup might be the most storied.
According to Reuther, the mansion was purchased in the late 1890s by the Norton sisters of Louisville, Kentucky. These women hired Richard Sharp Smith — fresh off his role as supervising architect of the Biltmore Estate — to remodel the space, adding a wing on each end. They also brought in Frederick Law Olmsted, “Father of Landscape Architecture,” to design a terraced landscape.
“Smith’s renovations more than doubled the size of the house, and Olmsted transformed the grounds into a version of an Italian Renaissance hillside garden,” she explains. “So beautiful are the grounds that, at one time, Chanteloup was considered as a site for the North Carolina Botanical Garden.”
But Chanteloup has had its darker moments. By the early 1990s, the estate had slipped into disrepair. Historic Flat Rock, Inc. purchased the property at auction and stabilized the structure. Several owners followed, but it wasn’t until the current couple, Tim and Tiffany Carroll, acquired Chanteloup that the real resurrection began.
Over the past six years, the Carrolls have taken a thoughtful, hands-on approach to restoration — reviving Chanteloup room by room, stone by stone. They’ve installed a new roof, six HVAC systems, and a modern drain field, all while carefully preserving original features like the grand staircase and ornate moldings. In the dining room, they even attempted to save a historic French wallpaper.
“It just disintegrated into a fine, powdery mess,” Tiffany recalls ruefully.
Preservation comes with good surprises, too. While remodeling the upstairs hallway, for instance, the couple uncovered an original fireplace that had been plastered over long ago. Tucked inside the hearth: a single musket ball, likely from the Civil War.
“We think someone was actually firing into the house,” says Tiffany.
Chanteloup is full of stories like that — quiet clues to a life once lived, now carefully coaxed back into view. And while the restoration hasn’t always been easy, the Carrolls say it’s been worth every challenge.
“We love it here,” Tiffany says. “This home is a true treasure.”
Historic Flat Rock, Inc. presents the 2025 Historic Home Tour on Saturday, Aug. 2, 10am-4pm. Tickets are $50 pre-purchase, $60 the day of the event. Visit historicflatrockinc.com or call 828-974-4242 for more information.