My name is Tamara DePace and I manage RiverPlace for my mother, Doris Freeze. This beautiful piece of land on the banks of the Watauga River in Valle Crucis was originally owned by my grandparents. My mother vacationed here when she was a little girl. I remember hearing stories of her and her 6 brother and sisters playing on the rocks in the river. Throughout my childhood, I recall my parents dreaming and planning the house they would one day build on the land. Twenty-five years later they built their "dream home" on the river. RiverPlace was intended to be their retirement home, much deserved after a lifetime of service to the church. My parents had spent their life serving on the mission field in Liberia, West Africa, and when stateside, my dad worked for the Lutheran Church as the director of a church camp and at the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in Columbia SC.

In 2009, after a short battle with cancer, my dad passed away, only getting to enjoy their "dream home" for a short time. Mom, not able to live on her own 4 hours away from the rest of the family, decided to allow other families to enjoy her home and hopefully make their own memories on the banks of the Watauga River.

I guess I took after my grandmother, as I now have seven children of my own. I hope one day they will look back at their childhood and reminisce about their vacations at the "mountain house". It is our hope that you and your family will also.