Lake Toxaway

Lake Toxaway holds one of the most remarkable stories in the North Carolina mountains. Created in 1902 by damming the Toxaway River, it became the first artificial lake built in the Appalachian Mountains and quickly grew into a Gilded Age retreat, where a grand 250-room inn once welcomed families like the Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, and Edisons. The original dam gave way in 1916, and the lake vanished for decades before the community rebuilt and refilled it, restoring the waters that define the area today.

That resilience shaped the character of modern Lake Toxaway, now regarded as one of the region's most exclusive lake communities. The historic Greystone Inn, a Swiss-style mansion built during the lake's earliest days, still stands as a link to that era, while the surrounding neighborhood offers boating, fishing, and a private country club set against a backdrop of layered mountain ridges. Homesites here favor privacy and scenery, with many properties positioned to capture long lake or mountain views.

For buyers drawn to a sense of place as much as natural beauty, Lake Toxaway offers a rare pairing: a genuinely storied past and a quiet, close-knit mountain community built around one of the most scenic lakes in western North Carolina.