Saluda, North Carolina

Church of the Transfiguration is a historic Episcopal church located at Henderson and Charles Streets in Saluda, Polk County, North Carolina. It is a parish of the Episcopal Diocese of Western North Carolina. The church reported 139 members in 2018 and 159 members in 2023; no membership statistics were reported in 2024 parochial reports. Plate and pledge income reported for the congregation in 2024 was $274,964. Average Sunday attendance (ASA) in 2024 was 73 persons. The church was built in 1889, and it is a one-story Carpenter Gothic-style church with a steeply pitched gable roof and board and batten siding. It features a two-tiered square corner bell tower and pointed arch stained glass windows. A vestry addition was built in 1968. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

Saluda Main Street Historic District is a national historic district located at Saluda, Polk County, North Carolina. The district encompasses 16 contributing buildings, 1 contributing site, and 1 contributing structure in the central business district of Saluda. It includes buildings dated from about 1878 to 1946 and notable examples of Late Gothic Revival and Stick style / Eastlake movement architecture. Notable buildings include the Saluda Presbyterian Church (1895–1896), former Saluda Depot (c. 1900–1910), the Saluda City Hall (1896–1907), the M. A. Pace Store (1905–1910), Thompson's Store (1905–1910), Pebbledash Building (1911–1916), Top Service Station (1930s), and the former United States Post Office (c. 1910). It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.

Ryder Hall, also known as the Mountain Manor Hotel and Cloud Hotel, is a historic hotel located at Saluda, Polk County, North Carolina. It was built in 1909, as a girls' dormitory for the Saluda Seminary that operated until 1922. It is a 2+1⁄2-story, "H"-plan, Colonial Revival style frame building sheathed in weatherboard. It has a gambrel roof with shed-roof dormers and features full-width one-story shed roof porches on the front and rear elevations. It housed a public school until 1927, then was converted to a hotel. It was converted to a single-family dwelling after 1992. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.

Charlton Leland, also known as the Dr. E.B Goelet House and Saluda Inn, is a historic home located at Saluda, Polk County, North Carolina. It was built about 1896, as a 2+1⁄2-story, Queen Anne style frame dwelling with a wraparound porch. It was enlarged and remodeled in the Colonial Revival style when converted to an inn in 1914. It rests on an ashlar-face stone foundation and is capped by a gable-on-hip roof with a prominent front gable. The building houses a retreat house known as the Saluda Inn. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.

Railway Clerks' Mountain House, also known as the Mountain Home, Clerks' Mountain Home, and Orchard Inn, is a historic country inn located near Saluda, Polk County, North Carolina. The inn ("home") was built in 1926, and is a two-story, six-bay, frame building with Colonial Revival and American Craftsman style design influences. It has a hipped roof and features a full-width hip-roofed one-story porch supported by slender Tuscan order columns. Also on the property are three contributing guest cottages built about 1926: the "Paulownia" Cottage, "Boxwood" Cottage, and "Twin Poplar" Cottage. The property was originally developed by the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks of the Southern Railway System as a summer retreat. The union retained the property until 1962. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.

Saluda Grade was the steepest standard-gauge mainline railway grade in the United States. Owned by the Norfolk Southern Railway as part of its W Line, Saluda Grade in Polk County, North Carolina, gained 606 feet (185 m) in elevation in fewer than three miles (4.8 km) between Melrose and Saluda, North Carolina. Average grade was 4.24 percent for 2.6 miles (4.2 km) and maximum was 4.9% for about 300 feet (91 m). In late 2001, Norfolk Southern took the line containing the grade out of service for economic reasons. In a contract signed August 5, 2024, Saluda Grade was sold to the Saluda Grade Trail Conservancy, with plans to convert to a rail trail.

Pearson's Falls is located in the foothills of western North Carolina off Hwy. 176 between Tryon and Saluda. This wildlife and bird sanctuary comprises 268 acres (108 ha) of native forest, granite, spring-fed streams and a moderate 1/4 mile trail to a 90-foot (27 m) waterfall. There are over 200 species of rare wildflowers and plants. There are also mosses, lichens, shrubs and trees in this glen, which is classified as a deciduous climax forest. Pearson's Falls is owned and maintained by The Tryon Garden Club, a non-profit 501 (c)(3) organization. Pearson's Falls was named for a young engineer, Charles William Pearson, who scouted the mountains for what was to become the Southern Railroad. A military man, farmer, and an engineer, Captain Pearson bought the Glen as part of a large tract of land that he wanted for his family. In 1931, the Tryon Garden Club bought the property in order to preserve this unique mountain Glen. Although open to the public, the property remains under the ownership and protection of the Tryon Garden Club. Over 17,000 people visit Pearson's Falls each year. Pearson's Falls is a wildflower and wildlife preserve and an outdoor laboratory for botany and biology students from the surrounding colleges and universities, and the site of frequent field trips for local science classes. Pearson's Falls is designated as a North Carolina National Heritage Site of the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area, a North Carolina Birding Trail Site, and is placed in the Smithsonian Institution Archives of American Gardens. The botanical preserve is made up of spring-fed streams and 268 acres (108 ha) of native forest. In addition, the wildlife preserve features more than 200 species of fern, algae, flowering plants, and mosses. The waterfall's water source is Colt Creek, and the trail leading up to the waterfall is roughly three-tenths of a mile. Using a scale of 0–10, with 0 being easy and 10 being very difficult, the difficulty of the trail is listed as a 3. The waterfall is not wheelchair accessible. The waterfall is not dog friendly. Only service animals are allowed.

Mountain Page is an unincorporated community in Henderson County, North Carolina, United States. It is in the southeastern edge of the county. The ZIP code is 28773 with a Saluda address even though Saluda is in neighboring Polk County. Mountain Page is named after the local Page family. The community backs up to the Greenville Watershed in neighboring Greenville County, South Carolina. The community is 12 miles south of Hendersonville, North Carolina the county seat. Mountain Page is a part of the Asheville Metropolitan Area.

The Narrows of the Green is a 2.9-mile (4.7 km) section of the Green River in Henderson County and Polk County, between the Big Hungry Creek confluence and the Fishtop access area, in western North Carolina, United States. It is roughly 35 miles (56 km) south of downtown Asheville. Locals simply call it “The Narrows”.

The Peter Guice Memorial Bridge consists of dual two-lane automobile bridges carrying I-26/US 74 across the Green River, located between East Flat Rock and Saluda, in Henderson County, North Carolina. Surpassed only by the Phil G. McDonald Bridge in West Virginia and the Emlenton Bridge in Pennsylvania, it is the third-highest bridge carrying an Interstate Highway in the eastern United States at 225 feet (69 m) tall. Each bridge is 1,050 feet (320 m) long and 28 feet (8.5 m) wide, with two 12-foot (3.7 m) travel lanes and 2-foot (0.61 m) shoulders. In 1993, both bridges were rehabilitated after missing welds and poor welds were found in the structures. As of July 2018, both bridges are rated structurally deficient and functionally obsolete in the National Bridge Inventory. A major rehabilitation project for the bridges is scheduled to begin in 2021.The bridge is dedicated to the memory of Peter Guice, who built the first toll bridge over the Green River in 1820; it replaced a hazardous ford along Howard Gap Road. An unrecorded flood washed out the toll bridge, but was replaced by his son; the second toll bridge was destroyed by flood in 1916. The current bridge is located high above where the former bridges once stood.

The Hungry River flows in western North Carolina, United States. It arises in eastern Henderson County and flows southwesterly, its entire course within Henderson County, before it empties into the Green River. In 1904, the first hydroelectric plant in Henderson County was built on the river, and, in 1913, a second dam was built half a mile downstream for the same purpose. Both dams stand to his day, though they are currently inoperable and slated for removal under management of the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.