M7 Event Solutions is a special event facility management company that helps you to create memorable experiences. M7 was founded in 1998 and has been creating memories one event at a time. We operate 2 facilities in the area... Claxton Farm in Weaverville and The Crest Center and Pavilion in Asheville. We have beautifully unique facilities where we can create a large or small event. Whether it is a small meeting or a large wedding reception... we do it ALL!

We have a full service kitchen with a wonderful and talented Chef on staff that can create any type of menu requested by our clients. We also provide a top of the line service staff for all of our events. Our professional event planning staff will see to all the details of your event so that you too can be a guest at your own meeting or event.

We pride ourselves on our customer service and want to help create a memorable event for you and your guests. You can have an event anywhere, but let M7 Event Solutions help you to create memories!!!

From Ben Lippen to Crest Mountain--- A Spiritual Odyssey

1918—A Bible Training School is Envisioned:
Columbia, South Carolina’s Emily Dick, after working as a missionary to young women in mill villages, attends Chicago’s Moody Bible College summer sessions, in part to recruit other women for her personal mission. Ultimately she recruits her own mother and sister Gwen to help create a local Bible training center with a similar mission to that of Moody’s, and in 1921 they founded the “Southern Bible Institute” in a rented house with three students.

1922—Idea for a Mountain Retreat:
By autumn of the next year, the training center has been re-named Columbia Bible School and the Dick Family persuades Dr. Robert C. McQuilkin to relocate from Philadelphia and become the school’s first president. A follower of the Keswick Movement (also known as the Deeper Life Movement) begun in England a half-century before, Dr. McQuilkin is active in “American Keswick” and seeks for the school a companion Bible Conference Center. Such a center would be ideal in the form of a mountain retreat, where cool summer meetings could take place.

1923—A location, and a name, are chosen:
To help realize this vision, Miss Dick recounts to McQuilkin her visit to Asheville’s Eliada Home orphanage and campgrounds while on her mill workers ministry, and suggests he write to the orphanage founder, Lucius B. Compton. Compton in turn invites the Columbia Bible School to use the Eliada  Campground Tabernacle (which it, in fact, did in the summers from 1923 to 1931). It is during one of these summer conferences that the name “Mountain of Trust” is discussed as a name for the conference gathering, and someone asks the group’s song leader, a Scotsman named Jimmy Patterson, what those
words would be in the old Scottish tongue. His reply, “Ben Lippen” is ultimately adopted as the official name for the organization.

1928—Property on Dryman Mountain is discovered as ideal site:
One summer after grocery shopping, Miss Dick and Miss Frizzelle Hill are returning to the campground when they spot Dryman Mountain and decide it would be an ideal location for a permanent Bible Conference Center. They research who owns it, make contact, and by the following year purchase 75 acres. (This is later expanded).

1930—Camp Tappuah is created as summer retreat:
McQuilkin encourages development of a camp on the Ben Lippen property, and a threestory main building named Sell’s Lodge is built deep in the woods. For years it is administered by Dr. and Mrs. Pierce DuBose of the Hampden DuBose Academy, Ben Lippen’s sister school in Zellwood, Florida. Mrs. DuBose is the former Gwen Dick, Emily’s Sister.

1931—Ben Lippen buildings are erected:
The Columbia Bible College, as it is now known, purchases Asheville’s old post office building for $3000, dismantles it, and rebuilds the structure on their new Ben Lippen campus as “The Conference Inn” which opens in 1932. A second structure named Houston Hall begins with steel roof trusses salvaged from a burned out factory in Asheville. These are purchased for $300, moved to the site, and supported with eight columns comprised of fieldstone collected on the grounds.

1937—Several Camp Houses are constructed:
1938—Missionary Training Center is created:
Two ridges make up the mountain; the western ridge is primarily devoted to Camp Tappuah. Atop the eastern ridge is built Lippen Lodge, a two-story home designed to house three staff families. “Missionary Ridge” is ultimately used as a training ground for missionary candidates, and Lippen Lodge becomes its dormitory.

1940—A School for Boys is Started:
A 33-room wing is added to The Conference Inn to serve as a dormitory for male students. In its first year as a school, Ben Lippen has 17 students.

1945—Billy Graham makes a connection:
While conducting a series of meetings in Ben Lippen’s Houston Hall, the Reverend Billy Graham discovers one night he has no song leader. A young man from California, passing through while on his honeymoon, volunteers to play his trombone, which is in his car. Cliff Barrows goes on to become Graham’s musical director and a lifelong companion.

1947—The Conference Book Store:
Located beside Houston Hall, another structure using native fieldstone (mostly white quartz) is erected. This bookstore is later expanded into a chapel large enough to accommodate 250 worshipers.

1950—Gymnasium is Built:
Athletics are a big part of Ben Lippen life, with eight acres of ball fields and, for the size of the school, an impressive gym with retractable bleachers. (Among the sports celebrities who are part of Ben Lippen history is the New York Yankees’ Bill Richardson, who lived and coached at the school for two seasons).

1952—McQuilkin Dies; Girls are Admitted:
From 1952 to 1955, Mcquilkin’s son J. Robertson McQuilkin is headmaster of Ben Lippen; he goes on to become President of Columbia International University until his retirement. Three years after Ben Lippen becomes coeducational, a 30-room girl’s dormitory is erected.

1956—Camp Tappuah Closes:

1967—Boy’s Dormitory is Built:
Lippen Lodge, the name used for the old house built on Missionary Ridge, is transferred to this 60-room, four-story facility.

1980—Fire Destroys The Conference Inn:
In December, a student asks permission to build a fire in the fireplace of The Conference Inn. The chimney proves faulty, and the building burns to the ground. Ironically, the student who asked permission is Billy Barrow, Cliff Barrow’s son.

1981—“The Chalet” opens:
Built to replace The Conference Inn and provide a much-needed kitchen, dining hall, and meeting space, Headmaster Jack Layman oversees the construction of this 17,000 square foot facility completed in nine months.

1985—Billy Graham offers Ben Lippen 1500 acres:
Columbia Bible College invests approximately $3,000,000 in roads and infrastructure for what would ultimately become a new Ben Lippen campus. However, the schedule and expense are difficult for both parties, and the Graham organization ultimately reimburses CBC for their investment and uses the site to create “The Cove”.

1988—Ben Lippen School leaves Asheville:
The founding college, now named Columbia International University, merges Ben Lippen into its South Carolina campus, ending the conference retreat and boarding school’s 67-year history.

1990—Blanton’s Business College:
The campus grounds are leased to this private educational facility, which includes a school for long-distance truck driving.

1993—The Property is Sold:
The Church of God of Western North Carolina purchases the campus and converts “The Chalet” to a meeting place, renaming it “The Crest Conference Center”.

1999—Merrimon Christian School:
The campus is reopened as the home of a newly independent school and conference ministry. (The school had for 22 years been associated with Merrimon Avenue Baptist Church). The school functions here for three years.

2003—Crest Mountain:
The now aging campus is sold to Crest Mountain Communities, LLC, a new multi-use development planned and managed by Asheville businessman Reese Lasher. The Ben Lippen “family” continues to interact with the new community, through business associates and building contractors once connected with the school. The original Lippen Lodge chimney is salvaged as a memorial to the mountain’s heritage, and several campus buildings are restored.

2004—The Crest Center and Pavilion Open Doors; Crest Mountain Opens
Gates:
Upgraded and expanded, three of the original buildings are converted into one of Western North Carolina’s premiere conference and banquet destinations. Weddings dominate weekend bookings; low-density home sites and luxury condominiums are offered to the public for the first time in the property’s  history.

Information on Ben Lippen history compiled from “A Sketch of the History
of the Old Ben Lippen Property” written by W. L. Lumpkin in 2001