A look-back at Our Lady of the Hills Camp

Bishop Vincent Waters (center) visits Our Lady of the Hills Camp in 1958.

A write-up on Our Lady of the Hills Camp (where the Highland Lake Inn is now) in the Catholic News Herald (Diocese of Charlotte):

In late 1955, Bishop Vincent Waters bought 250 acres just south of Hendersonville to be used as a diocesan retreat center for the people of the diocese. Our Lady of the Hills Camp was a popular destination for North Carolina Catholics for the next 30 years.

Family vacations, conferences and a summer camp for youth were offered at the newly-named Catholic Assembly Grounds, more commonly called Our Lady of the Hills Camp.

The property included Highland Lake (also known as Madonna Lake), an Olympic-size swimming pool, an open-air gymnasium and the historic Trenholm-Rhett homestead.

The land had been part of a 1789 land grant to John Earle, and over the years it had belonged to several prominent owners, including Secretary of the Confederate Treasury George Trenholm and South Carolina Gov. William Aiken....

Check it out, especially the photos.