This exclusive $5 million SC lakefront home has a movie theater and putting green. Take a look

When Lake Keowee was built in a northwestern South Carolina valley in 1971, it was intended to cool the reactors at Oconee Nuclear Station and generate electricity.

Now, 51 years later, it still fulfills its mission even as the lake has become one of the state’s most popular for recreation, remains among the cleanest and, increasingly, a place for elegant — and large — lakefront homes.

Million-dollar homes are not rare. Now, house prices are reaching up toward $6 million. Two houses are on the market for more than $5 million and a third is expected to be under construction beginning in September.

Lake Keowee is part of Duke Energy’s portfolio, along with Lake Jocassee to the north and Lake Hartwell to the south. Jocassee has limited development, Hartwell much more.

Keowee is somewhere in the middle, with a watchdog homeowners group wielding some measure of influence over what — and how much — gets built.

The lake is 23 miles long and three miles wide, with about 2,000 homes although its estimated there are 10,000 buildable lots.

One soon to be developed will hold a 5,500-square foot, four-bedroom, 5.5 bath contemporary style home in the Landing at Keowee Springs, one of the many Cllffs communities that dot the Upstate. The house on Promontory Court in Six Mile will be listed for $5.825 million, according to The Cliffs website.

The main floor will include a master suite and an adjacent office. There will be a second bedroom/study on the ground floor, kitchen, laundry and three car garage. the three-car garage. Downstairs will be a bedroom, two bathrooms, a bunk room, recreation/great room with a bar and attached wine room.

The Landing community will include a waterfront beach club with two pools, wellness center, tennis and the increasingly popular, pickleball courts.

A few miles to the south is an 8,000-square foot house on Wynward Pointe Drive in Salem with six bedrooms, a bunk room, six and a half baths, a four-car garage and security cameras throughout.

Every room has a view of the lake. Asking price $5.4 million.

It includes a large kitchen and butler’s pantry, master suites on the main level and on the mezzanine, office with private entrance, three bedrooms upstairs. On the lower level there is a wood-paneled bar, billiards, a bedroom, bunk room, and theater room.

There’s more. A putting green and waterfalls, veranda with fireplace, outdoor seating areas, a fire pit, firewood storage rooms and outdoor dining, surrounded by trees in a protected cove.

The boat dock includes a 12,000-pound boat lift, storage bunk, kayak racks, kayak launcher and jetski ports. There’s 370-foot of shoreline.

Farther south on Seneca’s Mountain View Point Drive is a 7,498-square-foot house with an unobstructed view across the lake of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Five bedrooms, five bathrooms, two half baths and a one-bedroom apartment over the garage.

The year-round screened porch has a fireplace, dining and seating area. Main master suite is on the first level, four others on the mezzanine. Multiple decks and patios overlook 245-feet of shoreline. Asking price $5.95 million.