Fred W. Symmes Chapel aka "Pretty Place" — Attraction in Brevard

Planned our entire trip around the website - that stated they were open this Sunday (15th) from 6am-8am. We had never been to Brevard anyway, it was a surprise for my husband and our 5 yr. granddaughter got to go with us! We arrived at 7:10am to several cars on the side of the road and pulled in a little area and security had a truck with lights on and my husband opens his door and we are literally at least 250ft away from him and he is yelling very loudly to more than one family/couple/friends that were walking back to their cars. He was so ugly, screaming at them to get off the property NOW and that he said they were closed and that meant for them to leave immediately. I was like, what in the world?? I got out of my car and these other younger set of friends were walking down from back behind them and he starts screaming at them and there are curse words exchanged. All the while my granddaughter can hear everything. I was mortified!!! He literally was screaming at them to leave andsaid "this is private property and you are tresspassing!" One of the people asked his name to report his behavior and he very loudly yelled, "It's RANDY, you can tell them I told you to get the ((^& off this property." Another lady, yelled back that she had talked to someone, I couldn't hear exactly who she said, but he cut her off rudely and said, "I don't give a (% who you talked to, I said to LEAVE NOW!!" I very slowly walked toward him, my husband said, you can go ahead if you want to...I said, "Sir? I looked on the website and it said that ya'll were open from 6am-8am this morning". He said, "NO! WE ARE CLOSED FOR 6 WEEKS! I said, "really?" He said, "They are open in the morning (monday) from 6a-8a, you can come back then!" I turned around and just walked to my vehicle, and my granddaughter was inside bawling her eyes out - it was very upsetting to her and upsetting we didn't get to go. We proceeded to drive down a little ways, where there was a clearing and several of us who were there to witness the behavior had pulled over to watch the sunrise and it was of course being discussed and one of the girls beside me said, "I called the event coordinator for The Pretty Place and was on the phone with her when he first told us to leave that they were closed and she said, "No, we are OPEN this morning until 8am". Come to find out, she was the one who had tried to tell him that she had called the event planner and that he was mistaken? Anyway, I highly suggest that the hours be communicated to "security" who clearly feels much more important than he should. I can't imagine that the YMCA people would be happy to hear about this exchange, which I do plan on officially reporting him. We drove several hours just to get here and experience this special place and I would have never dreamed our beautiful morning I planned be so destroyed, by someone who was clearly wrong. Why wouldn't "RANDY" have taken a minute and called someone, with that many people showing up and telling him the site or the planner said they were open? I mean, RUDE doesn't even describe what I saw, witnessed and...

Our small group from our church planned to visit this chapel for months. We rented a house and planned this entire trip around visiting the chapel. Initially the website said every day was closed to the public except for Sunday from 6-9. As the week progressed, the Sunday viewing was then changed to “closed to public”. We were very upset as we planned the trip just for this chapel. We called and spoke with Angie Bowers and explained our situation to her. She told us that we could visit on Sunday from 6-9, we just had to leave at 9 as there was a wedding that day. We all got up at 5am and traveled an hour to the chapel from the home we rented. When we got up to the chapel, it said that it was “closed to public”. We tried calling, however only received the voicemail box. There were several other families that have traveled far as well. As we received special permission, we walked down to the chapel and were greeted with the nastiest, most hostile security guard, Randy. He cursed us out and I believe would have ran us over if we were walking on the street. One member from our group tried to explain the situation and she was met with more rage despite her apologizing. He told us we were “misinformed” and that there was a funeral we were holding up. There was no funeral. We did not see one car or hurst the entire trek down the mountain. He said to one African American gentleman that he was “one of those Jesus loving brothers carrying a Bible”. He continued to curse despite not one person arguing with him. One family had children with them and told him that there were kids to watch his language and he continued despite this. There were several families that had driven from many states just to see the chapel. We were highly disappointed by the lies and the hostility we were met with AT A CHAPEL. You would think that if someone was a security guard for the chapel, that he would at least not mock Christians or curse them out. The amount of money and time we spent planning this trip just to be cursed at and mocked is very disappointing. I would suggest to anyone planning to visit this chapel, that they would double and triple check the times as per the security guard, the event planner for the chapel apparently has no idea what events are going to be held there. I will not make a special trip to this area again. You would also think that the entire 4 day weekend would have at least one viewing time open for the public, but...

Be Aware: THIS PLACE COULD CHANGE THEIR SCHEDULE LAST MINUTE AND DENY PUBLIC ACCESS WITHOUT NOTICE.

Upon checking their website schedule, which states that this place will be opened on Sunday morning 6-9am when we checked the day before, we drove to this place at 6am on Sunday, and was told that the place is closed for a private event. There were over 40 vehicles lining up, and people travel from all over the world to visit, but none of us were given access. When we questioned their website schedule, we were simply told that the website was the best bet — which apparently is subject to last minute change.

My friend travelled all the way from New York and we have been adjusting our schedules to accommodate the church’s schedule to make sure we come at a time where it is open to public. We have been checking their website schedule since a month ago, and kept checking till the the day before we visit to make sure we can see the view. Apparently our effort means nothing, and the management simply has no respect towards visitor’s time and effort. They offered no alternative other than informing us we are not allowed to drive inside.

Will never visit this place again, do not recommend. Shame on the management.

UPDATE:

Thank you for your response. When we arrived, your gate agent told us it was our own fault for not checking your official website and relying on Google instead. In other words, we were blamed for arriving at the wrong time because we hadn’t consulted your website's calendar. However, as you mentioned in your reply, the schedule was indeed changed at the last minute, so it is unfair to place the blame on us.

While you certainly have the right to close to public visitors at any time, those visitors still deserve a basic level of respect. When turned away at the gate due to unexpected closures, they should be given an explanation — not blamed — for something they could not reasonably have...