Home Horace Williams House Calendar of Events House Tour Archives Photo Album PSCH History PSCH Accomplishments Event Rentals Exhibitors Membership Info Web Links Local Points of Interest The 2006 Tour Homes 1. Horace Williams House 610 East Franklin Street Holiday Decorations by Carol Council Smith The Horace Williams House began as a small farm house (the current dining room, office, and kitchen), probably built in the 1840s by local craftsmen skilled in vernacular construction. Between November 1854 and January 1855, Benjamin Hedrick had the “octagon room” added as part of his efforts, as professor of agricultural chemistry, to experiment with economical and efficient methods of building. Writing about the addition in the February 1856 number of The Carolina Cultivator, Professor Hedrick explained “gravel wall” construction and recommended this method as one “well adapted to the building of the finest villa, or the plainest laborer’s cottage.” Today the Octagon Room is the gallery of the Horace Williams House Art Committee, which sponsors monthly exhibitions of work by North Carolina artists. In the 1880s and ‘90s, the house took on its current appearance, when Professor George Winston added the parlor, the foyer and the front porch. Professor Horace Williams made no significant changes to the home he occupied from 1891 to 1940, but at his death he willed the property to the University. In 1975, the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill oversaw the renovation of the house, which it continues to maintain it as its headquarters. 2. The Chapel Hill Museum & The Chapel Hill Historical Society 523 East Franklin Street Museum President: Stephen Rich - CH Historical Society President: Kimball King Donald Stewart, who had trained with Chapel Hill architect Jim Webb, in 1968 designed a building to house the Chapel Hill Public Library. The structure fits naturally into its sloping site and incorporates elements familiar and contextual to Chapel Hill and the building’s immediate environment. The design features a fieldstone lower level, a wood shingled main level with angled walls, and a metal mansard roof with a wide overhang. Although some people initially objected to a modern building in the heart of the historic district, it is now a landmark in Chapel Hill’s architectural evolution. In 1994 the library moved to new quarters on Estes Drive, and in 1996 the building became home to the newly incorporated Chapel Hill Museum. The current special exhibition tells the story of “Luther Hodges: The International Legacy of a North Carolina Statesman.” The Chapel Hill Historical Society was founded in 1966 with a mission to “investigate, preserve, and make available, knowledge of the history of Chapel Hill.” The Society’s office on Boundary Street houses research materials and provides assistance with genealogical and historical research. The Historical Society, through its public programs and its sponsorship of “Town Heritage Sites” plaques, works to “make the past present.” 3. Wilson-Perlmutt-Seehusen Home 607 East Rosemary Street Head Host: Glynis and Jim Wilkes Architect Charles W. Barrett of Raleigh in 1911 designed this four-square house for Louis Round Wilson, UNC librarian and administrator. The house showcases Barrett’s belief in the use of simplified decorations and geometric forms, part of his reaction against Victorian eclecticism in favor of classical purity. The house changed little over time. When Wilson contracted tuberculosis in 1929, after a long stay in a sanatorium, his doctors suggested that he sleep in the “fresh air.” A sleeping porch was built at that time on the second floor and functioned as the master bedroom for several years. Wilson lived in the house until his death in 1979 at the age of 103. His daughters Betty and Penny Wilson took care of him all their lives. When they moved to the Methodist Retirement Home in Durham in 1989, they sold the house to the Seehusen/Perlmutt family. Susan Seehusen and Louis Perlmutt preserved the historic façade of the Wilson house and created a “Danish Modern” feeling inside. Architects Dail Dixon and Ellen Weinstein transformed tiny, dark rooms into light and open spaces that accommodated an active family of six. The home is furnished with pieces by modern masters like Charles Eames, Eero Saarinen, and Arne Jacobsen to reflect the traditions of Susan’s native Denmark. For the holidays, Susan has displayed ornaments and paper cuts from the Jett Frolick Collection of Copehnhagen and Royal Copenhagen plates that depict scenes from the famous Danish Christmas story “Peters Jul.” The grounds of the home preserve four huge oaks along with quince and beauty bush, magnolias and dogwoods, planted by the Wilsons. Susan writes that “birds inhabit the garden in all seasons and enjoy its old soul.” 4. Berry-Brown-Tax-Smith House 611 East Rosemary Street Head Hostess: Barbara Pipkin Harriet Morehead Berry built this bungalow in 1914. Miss Berry is known for her legislative work that brought North Carolina “out-of-the-mud” by creating a network of all-weather roads connecting every county seat and state institution. For this achievement she became known as the “Mother of Good Roads.” In 1919 Miss Berry passed on the home to her sister Mary Brown, university nurse, and husband, Kent Brown, a professor of German. When Mary Brown died in 1967, the home was sold to another professor of German, Petrus Tax. The Taxes raised five children in the house; in 2005, they sold it to Edward Smith. Mr. Smith describes his work on the house as an “Arts & Crafts makeover.” Smith worked with Diane Eckland of ShadeTree Construction to keep the original fabric of the house. He sought out antiques rather than reproductions to enhance the style of the house while remaining true to the period of its construction. He peeled layers of alligatored paint off the front porch to reveal the beauty of the heart pine underneath. Inside, he reclaimed many of the porches to make more commodious spaces and reconfigured the kitchen with quarter sawn oak cabinets. The home includes a number of Arts & Crafts antiques and is a perfect setting for Mr. Smith’s collection of North Carolina pottery. 5. Stacy-King House 610 North Street Head Hosts: Mary Brenda and William Joyner Local builder Brodie Thompson constructed this house (the only house on North Street that faces east instead of north or south), designed by George Watts Carr, in 1930 for Inez Koonce Stacy. Together, Carr and Thompson built some of the finest homes in Chapel Hill during the first half of this century. Thompson began his career in the post World War I building boom in Chapel Hill, when he built homes on Tenney Circle and in the Gimghoul, Laurel Hill, Greenwood, and Westwood neighborhoods, fraternity houses on South Columbia Street, and structures in the downtown commercial district. George Watts Carr is perhaps most well known for the houses he designed in Durham’s Old Forest Hills section, but he also designed a number of hospitals and institutions of higher learning and was commissioned by the federal government to serve as the architect for buildings at Camp Lejeune and Cherry Point Marine bases. Inez Koonce Stacy began her career at the university in 1919 when she became adviser to women and then dean of women, a position she maintained until 1946. Her husband was the much-loved Marvin Stacy, who was the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, in charge of academic and student affairs, until he (and an infant daughter) died in the influenza epidemic in 1918. Robert House writes in his memoir of Chapel Hill from 1912-1916, “The name and influence of Marvin Hendrix Stacy continued beautifully in the person of his wife.” Roy and Ruth Homewood later purchased the home, and Mrs. Homewood created a large garden on the land just to the west of the house. Harriet and Kimball King have lived in the home since July 1976 and have filled it with family pieces and portraits. 6. Bowman-Ewing-Lyerly House 300 Tenney Circle Head Hostess: Charlotte Newby Architect George Watts Carr and builder Brodie Thompson created this home in 1937 for Mr. and Mrs. Frederick O. Bowman, for a cost of $15,000. Bowman, sometimes known as “Judge,” was an influential lobbyist in Raleigh for the soft drink bottlers and druggists of the state. Dr. Frederick Bowman, Jr., recalls that local realtor John Foushee came to his mother with word that a couple involved in the Navy’s Pre-Flight School was interested in the house, even though the Bowmans had expressed no interest in selling it. Foushee suggested asking an outrageous price to force his client to move on to available properties. No house in Chapel Hill had sold for over $20,000 at the time, so Mrs. Bowman asked $25,000. To her surprise, the couple accepted the deal, giving the Bowmans enough money to pay off all debts and to move back to Franklin Street. The house also belonged to UNC football coach, Carl Snavely, who presided over the “Golden Age of UNC Football,” from 1946 to 1949, the Charlie “Choo-Choo” Justice years. Oscar Ewing, who was active in the national Democratic Party and was appointed Administrator for the Federal Security Agency under Harry Truman, retired from his law practice in New York City and became part of the Research Triangle Foundation and Research Triangle Regional Planning Commission when he moved to Tenney Circle. Mrs. Heidi Ewing was apparently a great shopper, who kept claiming more and more space in the house to store all of her purchases. In June 2000, physicians Annie and Kim Lyerly purchased the house and worked with contractor Stan Stutts of Additions Plus to update the kitchen and the family room and to adapt the house to fit the needs of an active family. The classic elegance of the home is a perfect backdrop for the Lyerlys’ collection of North Carolina art. 7. Yeargin-Tenney-Pringle House 381 Tenney Circle Head Hostesses: Betsy Bryan and Coolie Monroe Interesting lore and history surround the origin and beginnings of the old Tenney Farmhouse. The house was probably built by Benjamin Yeargin about 1810 as a simple hall and parlor farmhouse with an enclosed stairwell to two attic rooms. The well-proportioned early structure has a simplicity and character that is apparent today after almost two centuries. The Tenney family owned and farmed this property from sometime in the 1830s or ‘40s when John B. Tenney purchased it. There was an addition in the 1840s. The house was moved in the 1920s from the lot next door when Mary Ward Tenney decided to develop Tenney Circle. There was another addition at that time, as well as in the 1940s. Betsy and John Pringle bought the house in 1992. Betsy had visited the Tenney home place with Mary Arthur Stoudemire and Nancy Preston, both past presidents of the Preservation Society, and had fallen in love with the spirit of the old house, crying out for restoration and repair. The Department of History and Archives offered advice and encouragement. John Shoneman of Hillsborough and his crew of skilled craftsmen did the restoration and the addition, which Betsy designed. Some of every period of the house is saved for posterity. The stories of what grew here are alive and well; of a grandmother pressing grapes on the back porch; of two chicken houses in the rear joined in the 1950s to make a little cottage; of growing figs and pears; of pigs and a milk cow. This place is rich with its past, both real and imagined. The story of future president and UNC graduate James K. Polk boarding here is fascinating but undocumented. Even so, the Pringles call one bedroom the Polk Room. 8. Welsh-Lamberton-Gravely-Ross House 377 Tenney Circle Head Hostess: Susan Green This California contemporary home was designed by Cliff May for UNC psychology professor George Welsh and his wife Alice, a civic leader and member of the Chapel Hill Board of Aldermen from 1970-1975. May is sometimes called the “father of the California ranch house.” The low roofline, beamed ceilings, and fieldstone and brick floors achieve May’s goal of creating a harmonious relationship between the interior and exterior of the home and makes an interesting fit with the more formal Colonial Revival homes that are characteristic of the early development of Tenney Circle. Susan Gravely, CEO of VIETRI importers, purchased the home in 1993. With the help of Gary Mason of Additions Plus, she added the east wing, including a master suite, renovated the kitchen and opened walls. She married lawyer Bill Ross in 1995, and kept the house as a weekend retreat. In 2001, Ross and Gravely decided to move back to Chapel Hill and added the west wing, incorporating a new master suite, downstairs offices and a playroom. Chip Callaway and Merwyn Varnado have designed the garden, which includes a bocce court, water element, and two-level patio. Susan says that she and her husband love ceilings. She says that looking up represents “an attitude about positive thinking and just feeling thankful for each day.” To encourage looking up, they have a beautiful coffered ceiling in the hallway to the master suite and local artist Cricket Taylor has recreated an old Florentine plaster style with soothing colors in the bedroom. The home reflects Susan and Bill’s love of Italy and North Carolina and shows the possibility of incorporating modern and antique elements in a harmonious whole. 9. Peacock-Cobb-Grumbles House 350 Tenney Circle Head Hostess: Mary Alice Dorton This Colonial Revival house was built in 1932 for Erle Peacock, UNC professor of accounting and Chapel Hill’s town auditor from the 1930s until his death in 1968. For many people, this house represents the epitome of Chapel Hill elegance and represents an era when the university was coming into its own and faculty were beginning to create stylish homes to reflect their new prosperity. Erle Peacock, Jr., a pioneering surgeon, a researcher in the science of wound repair and a lawyer, fondly remembers growing up on Tenney Circle in an earlier time. He recalls creating a phone system for neighborhood boys constructed of tin cans and wire “borrowed” from behind the telephone company, or listening to the birds that gathered in abundance on the old farm site. He remembers watching laborers move great stones in wheelbarrows and the loving attention to detail of the carpenters who built the houses. In 1971, Collier and Carolyn Cobb made this their home. “Cobby” was active in the insurance business and in many civic organizations and served on many community boards. Carolyn was an avid gardener, who lived in the home until last year. She was known for her sense of style that brought a touch of class to Preservation Society house tours. Bill and Julia Grumbles have only recently moved to Chapel Hill from Atlanta and have worked to preserve the character and charm of the home while updating the kitchen and bathrooms. Julia emphasizes her love of old things and her joy to be living in Chapel Hill. Holiday House Tour | Rosemary Street & Tenney Circle Home Horace Williams House Calendar of Events House Tour Archives Photo Album PSCH History PSCH Accomplishments Event Rentals Exhibitors Membership Info Web Links Local Points of Interest PRESERVATION SOCIETY OF CHAPEL HILL • 610 E. ROSEMARY ST. CHAPEL HILL, NC 27514 • 919-942-7818 • chpreservation@mindspring.com