News

The rebel flag is gone

By Sunday morning, the Confederate flag was gone, exposing the Mansouri Mansion sign partly covered by a tarp.

By Bill Moss, Published: July 17, 2025

 FLAT ROCK — The rebel flag in the heart of Flat Rock, a startling sight to many motorists traveling north on Greenville Highway into the historic village, is gone.

Covered for several years by a tarp, the sign in front of the historic Woodfield Inn on Thursday afternoon was draped on one side with a Confederate flag and on the other by an American flag. By Sunday morning, the two flags were gone, exposing the Mansouri Mansion sign partly covered by a tarp.

It was unclear why the Confederate flag was put up to start with. A Lightning reporter who drove after a tip on Thursday encountered Werner Mansouri picking up sticks in the driveway and asked him whether the sign was for an event. "Why, does it bother you?" the man responded. "There is no event."

Mansouri seized the opportunity to criticize the Lightning's story in March of 2020 about the real estate holdings of his father, Hasan Mansouri, who had died on Feb. 7 that year. Mansouri had two sons, Werner, of Myrtle Beach, and Karim, who according to his Facebook page manages a country club in Bahrain.

Mansouri refused to answer any questions about the flags, which were firmly strapped onto the sign's structure. He then ordered the reporter off the property and threatened to bring a charge of trespassing. 

Henderson County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Stephanie Barbosa said on Thursday evening she had not heard anything about the flags, and Capt. Jordan Warren said Friday a check of call logs showed no communication from the public about the rebel flag. When he returned a call, Mansouri was civil but said he did not want to speak on the record about the flags.

Hasan Mansouri formed Mansouri LLC in 2009, according to N.C. secretary of state records, and bought the historic Woodfield Inn the same year, renaming it Mansouri Mansion. The following year he bought the group of apartments across Greenville Highway. In 2020, the Woodfield Inn and surrounding 24 acres were valued on the tax books at $2,234,500, with the 14,828-square-foot inn valued at $1.4 million. Current tax records list 26 parcels of real property in the name of Hasan Mansouri or Mansouri LLC.