Comprehensive Architectural Survey of Franklin County, North Carolina
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Comprehensive Architectural Survey of Franklin County, North Carolina Prepared by: Megan Funk with contributions by Jeroen van den Hurk Submitted by: Commonwealth Heritage Group, Inc. P.O. Box 1198 Tarboro, NC 27886 April 19, 2018 Contents Introduction and Methodology ......................................................................................................... 1 Geography and Material Culture ....................................................................................................... 5 Exploration and Settlement: Eighteenth Century.............................................................................. 8 Early Franklin County Settlers ............................................................................................ 13 The Federal Period Through Antebellum Period (1779-1864) ....................................................... 19 Establishment of Franklin County and Louisburg .............................................................. 22 Growth of Franklin County ................................................................................................. 27 Late Eighteenth- and Early Nineteenth-Century Architecture ............................................ 28 Continued Growth in the Early to Mid-Nineteenth Century…………………………….33 Religious Activity ............................................................................................................... 35 Masons ................................................................................................................................ 36 Education ............................................................................................................................ 38 Agriculture During the Antebellum Era ............................................................................. 42 Nicholas Massenburg .......................................................................................................... 43 The Raleigh and Gaston Railroad and the Establishment of Franklinton ........................... 46 Discovery of Gold ............................................................................................................... 49 Nineteenth Century Architecture and the Influence of the Architect-Builder .................... 50 The Civil War ........................................................................................................................................ 57 From the Postbellum Period to the Early Twentieth Century, 1865-1910 ...................................... 60 Louisburg ............................................................................................................................ 67 Franklinton .......................................................................................................................... 72 Youngsville ......................................................................................................................... 79 i Education ............................................................................................................................ 81 Architecture: Greek Revival to Queen Anne ...................................................................... 89 Louisburg ................................................................................................................ 92 Franklinton .............................................................................................................. 97 Youngsville ........................................................................................................... 104 Rural Architecture ................................................................................................. 108 The 1910s to Circa 1960 ............................................................................................................... 118 The Agricultural Economy Strengthens ............................................................................ 118 Infrastructure and Automobiles ........................................................................................ 126 Lumbering and New Communities ................................................................................... 130 Education .......................................................................................................................... 136 Twentieth Century Residential Architecture: Colonial Revival to Modernism ................ 149 Agricultural Buildings....................................................................................................... 163 Commercial Architecture .................................................................................................. 165 Religious Architecture ...................................................................................................... 172 Masons .............................................................................................................................. 174 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 176 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................. 178 ii Introduction and Methodology The following report presents an architectural history of Franklin County, North Carolina from the 1750s through the 1960s. The architectural history is told primarily through the discussion of extant buildings in addition to descriptive accounts of buildings that no longer stand. County history is also provided as a context for patterns of growth and changes to the county’s socio-economic climate. This report represents the culmination of a comprehensive architectural survey of Franklin County administered by the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office (HPO) with funding from Franklin County and the HPO. The fieldwork was conducted by Commonwealth Heritage Group, Inc. (Commonwealth) in three phases from April 2015 through September 2017. The survey covered all rural and municipal areas of the county outside the preexisting Louisburg National Register District. The methodology for the survey followed the project outline set forth by the HPO and the HPO’s architectural survey manual Practical Advice for Recording Historic Resources. It was further defined by the physical and historical nature of the county as discovered through preliminary research, windshield surveys, and communication with a local committee established in 2015. Sites of approximately 50 years of age or greater were selected for survey based on their architectural integrity and distinction as well as their social and historical significance. A wide array of buildings including domestic, commercial, agricultural, religious, educational, and civic were documented. Cemeteries were documented only if they were related to a standing house or religious building or had outstanding artistic merit. The project built upon previous surveys of architectural resources in Franklin County, the first of which occurred between 1974 and 1975 and was performed by HPO staff members Catherine Bishir and Michael Southern and the Franklin County health inspector and historian, 1 Thilbert Pearce. This survey documented a total of 164 rural properties and 39 urban resources, with a focus on buildings constructed before 1865.1 In 1976 and 1977, some of these resources were revisited as part of the Tar-Neuse River Basin survey, but no additional resources were surveyed.2 Additional resources were documented for Thilbert Pearce’s The Early Architecture of Franklin County in 1977, and for an updated edition published in 1988.3 In 1986, a large portion of Louisburg was surveyed in preparation for the nomination of the Louisburg Historic District to the National Register of Historic Places.4 The initial phase of the current project included a reconnaissance level update of existing records as well as an extensive survey of previously unrecorded resources. The update covered 233 previously surveyed resources outside of Franklinton, Louisburg, and Youngsville and involved digitally photographing extant primary and secondary resources and updating HPO database records and GIS locations. The phase also identified, photographed, and populated HPO database records for 325 previously undocumented properties outside the municipal boundaries of Franklinton, Louisburg, and Youngsville. Lastly, the survey identified previously documented properties in need of updates and 166 undocumented properties in the towns of Franklinton, Louisburg (outside the National Register district), and Youngsville meriting recordation. At the end of phase one, a considerable number of preliminarily identified resources were left unsurveyed, particularly on the Bunn West and Ingleside quads, and existing tax data suggested the presence of more undocumented historic buildings in other areas. In consultation with HPO staff, Franklin County, and Commonwealth, it was decided to survey an additional 1 The findings of this survey were published in T. H. Pearce’s Early Architecture of Franklin County, Franklin County Historical Society, 1977. 2 North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, Division of Archives and History, Historic and Architectural Resources of the Tar-Neuse River Basin, 1977. Ms. on file at the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office, Raleigh. 3 T. H. Pearce, The Early Architecture of Franklin County (Louisburg: Franklin County Historical Society, 1977) and T. H. Pearce, Early