Architecture, Colonial; Architecture, Domestic -- North Carolina; Historic buildings -- North Carolina
While the work of the archaeologist continues, Brunswick Town has been
opened to the public as an open air museum—quite an unusual exhibit, one
found in few places in the world. As one walks down the streets there
are display cases at individual ruins. The cases contain objects found
at the site, as well as drawings of houses as they probably looked
before burning.
One of the most interesting of Brunswick Town’s houses is the
Hepburn-Reonalds house. According to Stanley South, archaeologist in
charge,
the second floor porch was an architectural feature borrowed from the
West Indies, where this style of architecture was popular. Many of the
homes in Brunswick were of this type, with a cellar partly sunk below
the surface of the ground and a garret above the main floor of the
house.
If the photograph and drawing are examined carefully, the steps which
lead down and the path to the basement door may be seen. The photograph
also reveals the remaining foundations for the posts which supported the
porch. The basement is divided into two rooms; the nearer room was a
kitchen which was entered from the rear of the house.
On the Sauthier map (figure 59) the Hepburn-Reonalds house is marked by
an arrow. Looking carefully at the map one sees indications of certain
details shown in the drawing, such as the fence running along the
street, the barn and garden, and the fence leading to the barn. The
drawing was made by Don Mayhew, staff artist of the Brunswick Town
project.
One question the reader may have in mind: how does one know the name and
date of this house? Very complete records of the sale of property in
Brunswick Town have been preserved in nearby Wilmington and Southport.
By careful study of these records and of the Sauthier map it has been
possible for the archaeologist to identify and date the various ruins in
the town.
[Illustration: FIGURE 60. WAKEFIELD, RALEIGH.]
Wakefield (figure 60) is the oldest house in Raleigh. It was built in
1760 by Joel Lane, who later sold the original tract of 1,000 acres of
land for the new state capital. The sale, it is said, took place in this
house on Joel Lane’s farm. The house was moved a few years ago to its
present site—not far from its original location—and now is owned and
maintained by the Wake County Colonial Dames.
As the photograph shows, it is a gambrel house with shed addition in the
rear, but, unlike houses we have just been discussing, it has only a
small porch in front. It is probable that the house originally looked
quite differently, for construction details in the vicinity of the roof
suggest that it once had a gable roof. Further, the smooth sheathing
over the front of the house (often found under the porches of colonial
homes) suggests that originally a shed porch ran across the entire front
of the house. With long porch and gable roof, Wakefield would have
looked like the typical farm shown in the sketch, figure 46.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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