Julien and Lori Smythe to restore Mountain Lodge

From the Hendersonville Lightning:

The new owners of historic Mountain Lodge plan to nurse the 1820s house back to life before using it as a summer residence and opening it up for a Historic Flat Rock fundraiser.

Historic Flat Rock Inc. bought the property in a sale approved in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Columbia, S.C., and immediately sought a buyer who had the ability and will to spend the money — close to $1 million — needed to stabilize and preserve it. Historic Flat Rock Inc. officials believe they hit a homerun with the buyers — Julien Smythe, whose Flat Rock roots date to the early 1900s, and his wife, Lori.

For Julien Smythe, spending summers in Flat Rock is a return to his boyhood visits to the Many Pines estate that connects his family to the North Carolina mountains. . .

One other connection made the buyers seem like destiny. Joe Oppermann, a historic preservation architect and member of Historic Flat Rock Inc., is married to Langdon Smythe Oppermann, Julien's first cousin. The couple owns Many Pines; Oppermann is guiding the renovation for the Smythes. . .

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