Member Directory - Blowing Rock Chamber of Commerce

FUN FACTS TO KNOW
ABOUT BLOWING ROCK
• Renowned artist Elliott Daingerfield discovered Blowing Rock and began to
summer here. Before he built his first home, he stayed at The Fair View House
operated by Mrs. Brady, near the Blowing Rock Hotel. Here he offered art
classes to the summer population until he built his first home/studio across
from the Episcopal Church.
• Dr. Mary Cabell Warfield was Blowing Rock’s only doctor from 1930-1946.
Dr. Warfield often took ailing children into her home to heal them since no
hospital existed at the time. Dr. Warfield was a cousin to Wallis Warfield
Simpson, Duchess of Windsor.
• The Blowing Rock Charity Horse Show, which began in 1923, is the oldest
continuously running horse show in the country. While many sporting events
were suspended during the war years, the Horse Show continued.
• Elliott Daingerfield’s “Westglow,” now an elegant spa, was completed in 1917
by architect and contractor J. Lee Hayes.
• “Little Miss Sure Shot”, better known as the legendary Annie Oakley, a famous
marks-woman from Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, taught marksmanship at the
Mayview Manor Gun Club in the 1920 and 30s.
• Blowing Rock has been the destination for many famous people looking for a
quiet and inspirational home to do their work. Margaret Mitchell wrote much of
Gone With The Wind in Blowing Rock, and Pearl S. Buck was a long-time summer
resident who did most of her writing at a home on Buxton Road. Hotels and
summer homes have also hosted presidents, actors, authors, artists and other
famous folks from Franklin Roosevelt to Tom Hanks.
• The Blowing Rock, North Carolina’s oldest travel attraction, has drawn visitors
since the late 1800’s. By the mid-30’s a gift shop and soda fountain were added
and in 1938 the stone gift shop was constructed. Ripley’s “Believe It or Not”
notes that the Blowing Rock is the only location “where it snows upside-down.”