Oberlin Village

The Graves-Fields House, built in 1885 by Willis M and Elenore Hinton Graves, both formerly enslaved, sits on Oberlin Road.  It has been moved from it's original location and restored by Preservation NC. 

  Oberlin Village began before the end of the civil war as a freedman's village.  It was named after Oberlin College, the alma mater of the founder of the village, James H. Harris.  The village has been annexed and surrounded by Raleigh, but the community is still working to keep the heritage alive.  (see here)

 

Nature takes over

Part of a wall and a chimney are all that is left of an old homestead.  The forest returns.

 

Lost history

I wonder what the story of these buildings is.

 

If walls could talk

There are several old buildings on this property.  They must be over 100 years old but I haven't been able to find out anything about their history.

 

Old house

This little house sits on the Stagville plantation.  

Who lived here, and what stories could these walls tell?

 

Hart House

This house was originally one of the slave quarters on the Stagville plantation.  After emancipation the Hart family, a formerly enslaved family, sharecropped here until 1957.  They lived in and renovated the house.

 

Horton Grove

These three buildings were home to enslaved workers on the Stagville plantation.  Each building housed 4 families with as many as 26 people in all.  The buildings were occupied until the 1970's as many of those enslaved on the plantation continued to live there and work as sharecroppers.  (see here)

 

If you can't stand the heat...

This kitchen was the birthplace of Andrew Johnson, 17th president in 1808. (see here).  In those days, kitchens were outbuildings, not in the house, due to the heat and the frequency of fires from the hot cooking fires.  The downstairs was one big open kitchen with a sleeping area upstairs.  This building was moved from it's original place behind a tavern in downtown Raleigh to the Mordecai historic park.

 

Old Homestead

The sign on the trail calls this the "Old Homestead".  I don't know how old or who were the homesteaders, but all that's left is this piece of wall and part of a chimney.  

I think if people disappeared off the Earth, it wouldn't take too long for nature to reassert her dominance.

 

Beat the heat, old style

Before there was air conditioning, this is how to keep cool, rocking on the front porch.

 

A big porch and a lot of trees were all they had to beat the heat.  This is the Anderson family homestead at Anderson Point park.  It's now a rental facility for weddings, etc.

Old shed

This old shed seems like it has some stories to tell.

 

Weather Bureau Station

The Hatteras Weather Bureau Station is a beautifully restored building housing the Hatteras Welcome center.  ( see here). At one time it housed the scientific equipment used to monitor the weather as well as the people who manned the station.

It's easy to forget that before satellites, someone had to go out on the catwalk to check the weather.

Spooky old house

This old house looked very spooky with the angels in front and Spanish moss all over the trees.  I thought it was situated in an old graveyard, but it just turns out to be owned by an eccentric lady who likes to collect things.

The angels reminded me of the weeping angels from Doctor Who.  (don't blink!)

It's really a beautiful old house set on a quiet street in Hatteras Village on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

The Spanish moss on the old live oak trees made it even spookier.

Farmhouse

Horseshoe farm sits in a large oxbow of the Neuse River.  It's been settled since the 1830's.  This farmhouse was built somewhere between 1910 and 1930.  

It was a family home until 1994, and is now a Raleigh city nature preserve.  

One family lived there from 1972 - 1994.  They must have done extensive work, here's a picture from 1968.

Old Homestead

We came across a sign for the Old Homestead on a trail in Durant Nature Preserve.  This pile of stones is about all that's left.  The park used to be a boy scout camp, and I can find history for that era, but this building was much before that time.  Who lived here, and what did they do?  It's a mystery so far.

More old buildings

An old log house on the farm property I showed yesterday.  Maybe the cookhouse?  or the original homestead?

And here is another barn on the property.  It's covered in corrigated metal, but might be a log building underneath.  It looks like it's still being used for storage.

Old farm buildings

 

This place is a curiosity to me.  You can see the buildings from the greenway, but they're posted no trespassing.  Someone lives in a newer house toward the street on the other side of the property.  This barn looks very old.  The building below looks like worker's quarters, slave or sharecroppers?

Methodist Home for Children

When I hear the word Orphanage I think of Oliver Twist's work house.  But the Methodist Orphanage, today's Methodist home for children, was very different.  Hearing stories of people who grew up there they had nothing but gratitude for the kindness they were given.  Today the Methodist Home for Children is still active, although they work with inhome situations and sold their orphanage to the city.  It is now the Fred Fletcher park (Link).  The house above is the Garriss building, built as a dormitory around 1950.  The building below is the Borden building, built in 1900, first a home for the superintendent and later a dormitory.  The Borden building can be rented for weddings. dormitory

Dogtrot

I first learned the word dogtrot in Harper Lee's book, Go Set A Watchman.  She describes Scout's uncle's house as a dogtrot.  It's a Southern style pre air conditioning.  The house was built with a center breezeway that was open.  See here.  

This house was a tenant farmer's house at Oak View farm.  On either side of the main breezeway there is a room with a fireplace (probably for heat in the winter.)  There is a porch in front and back. 

Good Old Days???

Who says the good old days were so good.  This is a typical kitchen building from a pre civil war southern farm.  The heat from the open fire was so intense, and the danger of lighting the whole place on fire was so real, that the kitchen was a separate building near the house.  This one was the first building constructed on the Oak View Farm.  The family lived in the building until the big house was built.  An indoor kitchen was added onto the main house in th 1940's.