Anne Guerard Coletta: the new mayor of Flat Rock
By Missy Craver Izard
On Tuesday, November 5, 2024, Vice Mayor, Anne Guerard Coletta, “Annie,” became the first female mayor of the Village of Flat Rock, succeeding Nick Weedman, who has served on the Village Council for 21 years. Annie was born and raised in Charleston and spent her summers in Flat Rock, North Carolina where her family has gathered for generations. She is the direct descendant of six former South Carolina governors: Thomas Smith, Rawlins Lowndes, Robert Gibbes, James Moore, William Aiken, Jr. and her grandfather, Burnet Rhett Maybank, the 99th governor of South Carolina, mayor of Charleston, S.C. and U.S. senator.
Her father, Theodore Guerard, served in the House of Representatives. It’s no wonder that Annie took to politics after moving to Flat Rock full time in 2010 with her husband, Paul and son, John. She is the first female in her family to hold elected office, but credits her late mother, Elizabeth Maybank Guerard “Libby” Wright, as her role model for standing up and fighting for what is important.
When Annie was in middle school, her mother along with a few others organized Save Historic Charleston and fought the city’s proposed demolition of a large section of old buildings between East Bay and King just north of Broad where a private developer had plans to build a huge convention center. Many dinnertime conversations centered on this project and Annie quickly learned that sense of place is a part of who you are and if that place is threatened, you need to act. And act, she did. In 2011, Annie organized a group of Flat Rock residents, The Friends of Highland Lake, to oppose the development of the Highland Lake Golf Course into a soccer complex by Henderson County. As a result, the Flat Rock Village Council voted against the sale to Henderson County and agreed to purchase the property for a village park. A non-profit foundation was formed and The Park at Flat Rock was born.
In her new role as mayor of Flat Rock, Annie describes her focus in detail, as a good public servant would. She considers her top priority as follows:
Protecting the Village and its sense of place, as embodied in its historic buildings and landscapes, against the pressure of development. Western North Carolina, including Henderson County, has seen steady growth during the past decades; growth has increased greatly during the COVID pandemic lockdowns. Through the work of Historic Flat Rock, Inc., a local nonprofit dedicated to preserving and protecting the Flat Rock area, the majority of the Village is in the Flat Rock Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places (U.S. Department of the Interior), the largest such district in the state of N.C. Although this offers some protection against over-development, it’s important that the village community and the Flat Rock Village Council remain vigilant in keeping the beauty and character of the Village as we work to incorporate thoughtful changes when necessary. Fortunately, for the last 16 years, Mayor Weedman was careful with the people’s tax money and Flat Rock is on strong financial footing. This is something I hope will continue.
“Annie” secured her first seat on the Flat Rock Village Council in 2013 and served in that capacity until 2017. In 2018, when the historic fiber of Flat Rock was threatened once again, Annie reminded her community that “you do not need to be an elected official to make a huge difference in where you live.” A group was assembled and together with Annie as their leader, they formed The Cultural Landscape Group: Flat Rock to oppose a DOT plan to North Highland Lake Road. The newly created Park at Flat Rock stood to lose a portion of its land and the scenic entrance to Flat Rock was at stake. The controversy that incurred led to the most heated Village Council election in the history of Flat Rock including the return of Annie to her council seat in the 2019 elections. As it was for centuries past, the Village of Flat Rock is still a place to escape the summer heat of the Lowcountry, but it is also now a village with year-round residents in a fast-growing county. “I grew up coming to Flat Rock every year, as my mother’s family has for generations and have seen Flat Rock grow in population yet keep its rural sense of place. I think it’s important that we retain our rural mountain character even as we work hard to develop solutions for any issues that may arise,” said Annie.
Annie spent her youth in Charleston where she attended Charleston Day School and Ashley Hall. After graduating from Davidson College in 1981 with a B.A. in history, she moved to Washington, D.C. and was there from 1981-1994. She continued her studies at the American University in Washington, D.C. in their film and video graduate program. From 1981 to 1983, Annie worked as a production assistant for Reston Publishing, a Prentice-Hall subsidiary and finished up as a producer at C-Span. While in D.C., Annie met her husband, Paul Coletta and they were married in 1989. From 1994-2010, Paul’s job took them to Carlsbad, California (northern San Diego County) where their son, John, was born in 1995. During this time, Annie worked as a free-lance technical writer with clients in the high-tech industry. When Paul retired in 2010, they moved to Flat Rock permanently.
Annie’s family, the Aikens, Rhetts and Maybanks have a long history with Highland Lake and the land that is the Park at Flat Rock. The Honorable William Aiken, Jr., the 61st governor of S.C. and U.S. congressman, purchased all of the acreage that is now Highland Lake in 1873 from George Trenholm (second secretary of the Confederate Treasury). Originally, part of a land grant to John Earle in 1789, it is the earliest land grant known for the area that became Flat Rock in 1807. William Aiken and his wife, Henrietta Lowndes, gifted the land to their only child, Henrietta Aiken Rhett, Mrs. Andrew Burnet Rhett, whose father-in-law, Robert Barnwell Rhett, owned The Charleston Mercury and was the author of the first draft of the Ordinance of Secession. The grist mill established by John Earle on the property was renamed Rhett’s Mill and the lake became Rhett’s Pond.
In 1910, Henrietta sold 259 acres of her property including the mill and lake to Joseph Holt from Alabama for a development called the Highland Lake Club. Mr. Holt along with a group of businessmen from Charleston and Columbia formed a corporation and bought nearly 500 acres of land in the Flat Rock area. The land was subdivided into lots and sold for summer homes with Highland Lake Club privileges including swimming, boating, fishing and a newly designed golf course. Unfortunately the club failed after two years and the property began hosting a succession of boarding schools and summer camps until it was bought by the Lindsey family in 1985. The Lindseys transformed the acreage into the Highland Lake Inn and Resort and divided large portions of it into neighborhood developments. Sadly, part of this included demolishing the old Rhett House that stood on the estate for decades. In 1999, the Grup Family purchased a portion of the property and lovingly restored the Inn and Resort. They continue to operate it today.
Henrietta Rhett retained part of her land including seven acres east of the dam site that she transferred to her daughter, Harriet and her husband, Dr. Joseph Maybank. This parcel is where The Dam House is located and is now owned by the Maybank’s great grandson, Joe Maybank and his wife, Virginia. According to the National Register of Historic Places, “Mrs. Rhett also platted approximately 15 small lots on a point of land extending into the lake midway along its eastern shoreline. In the 1910s and 1920s, five summer cottages were constructed on Rhett Drive, as it was known, creating a small enclave of bungalow-style and Colonial Revival- style residences.” One of these cottages, built around 1912, was purchased by Burnet Rhett Maybank (son of Dr. & Mrs. Joseph Maybank) in 1930 from a member of the King family. Burnett and his wife, Elizabeth deRosset Myers, had three children including Annie’s mother, Libby. When Annie’s grandfather died, the house and land were divided equally among his three children. The cottage went to her uncle, Burnet Maybank and her mother and Aunt Roberta, each got equal shares of land. Throughout time, a family compound has evolved along Rhett Drive, and it is where Annie, her two siblings Elizabeth Guerard Parker and Russell Guerard have cottages.
It takes a village and a labor of love to convert a golf course into a park. Annie’s family story came full circle when she rallied her relatives to raise funds for the Maybank-Rhett Nature Center located within the heart of the Park at Flat Rock; land that once was part of her family’s Highland Lake property. “I’m fortunate to be a part of a very generous family who has been connected to Flat Rock since the 1850s, particularly in the Highland Lake area near the Park. The Nature Center will provide a space to display information about the wildlife in the Park and Western North Carolina — and we were happy to help make this happen,” she said.
In talking with Annie, it is very evident that she feels passionate about Flat Rock and dedicated to representing the residents of this community, so that they, too, will appreciate those who protected and preserved this historic village. She believes strongly that to maintain a sense of place, educating residents about the character and history of the village is important. There’s an energy in Flat Rock that has existed for hundreds of years. The air is clear and sweet, and life is unhurried. Best of all there is an intimacy here — a milieu allowing a newcomer to ingratiate him/herself into the community and to learn about its rich history.
“Her mother was so proud of her and what she was doing for Flat Rock,” said Legare Head, a family friend. “Annie has blessed those who did not grow up here with her memories and recollections of life in Flat Rock and embraced the importance of preserving these beautiful mountains that many of us call home.” Flat Rock is fortunate to call Anne Guerard Coletta – Annie – its new mayor. It takes a village to create a sense of place and an enthusiastic, strong leader to make a difference. She will be sworn into her new role on December 12th, 2024.
Missy Craver Izard was born and raised in Charleston, S.C. and resides in Flat Rock, N.C. A retired Summer Camp Director and art teacher, Missy is an entrepreneur, speaker, author, journalist, community leader, and the recipient of several awards including the White House Champions of Change.
