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Home My WebLink About20201828 Ver 1_Averette Rd Houses Historical Research Report_20210227 Preliminary Historical Research Report Pearce-Mitchell-Neville House, Tenant House, and Farm 1716 and 1720 Averette Road, Wake Forest, Wake County Cynthia de Miranda MdM Historical Consultants PO Box 1399 Durham, NC 27702 Prepared on behalf of Tryon Investment Partners II, LLC 8311 Bandford Way, Suite 1 Raleigh, NC 27615 for the Town of Wake Forest February 25, 2019 Table of Contents Project Background & Methodology ......................................................................... 1 Property Description & Building Inventory .......................................................... 2 Property History ............................................................................................................ 14 National Register of Historic Places Assessment ............................................. 17 Recommendations ......................................................................................................... 20 Bibliography ..................................................................................................................... 22 Preliminary Historic Research Report Neville Farm, 1716 and 1720 Averette Road, Wake Forest, Wake County 1 Project Background & Methodology Tryon Investment Partners II plans to redevelop several parcels previously used for agriculture into an “active adult” community. Two properties slated for demolition under this redevelopment plan are the subject of this report, pursuant to the Town of Wake Forest demolition of historic structures ordinance. The ordinance states that all properties within the town limits or the ETJ slated for demolition are required to be identified and evaluated for National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) eligibility. The properties are located at 1716 and 1720 Averette Road. The project developer hired MdM Historical Consultants to complete this report. Cynthia de Miranda is the project manager and the architectural historian. Ms. de Miranda first checked the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office (HPO) GIS website to confirm that the properties had not been identified under previous architectural surveys conducted in the county; they had not. Ms. de Miranda then gathered information on the properties from the Wake County GIS system, the Wake County Register of Deeds, aerial photographs, and interviews and correspondence with owner Martha Neville Harris. Ms. Harris grew up on and has moved back to the farm, which was purchased by her grandfather in 1928. Ms. de Miranda also consulted other primary sources, including nineteenth-century agricultural census records at the North Carolina State Archives and genealogical sources at the State Archives and on Ancestry.com. Finally, Ms. de Miranda consulted secondary sources on the history and architecture of the local area from architectural historian Kelly Lally’s Wake County survey report and publication. Ms. de Miranda surveyed and photographed the two dwellings at 1716 and 1720 Averette Road and other buildings on the farm on February 4, 2019. She wrote the descriptions and narrative history below and evaluated the properties according to the criteria for the NRHP. An explanation of the evaluation is also part of this report. This preliminary report does not contain exhaustive research on these properties. Rather, its purpose is to provide sufficient information to make a recommendation about the properties’ eligibility for the NRHP. Eligibility requirements for other historic designation—such as local historic landmark status—are different and are not addressed here. The Historic Preservation Commission is the only body that can recommend a property to the Wake Forest Board of Commissioners for designation as a local historic landmark. Preliminary Historic Research Report Neville Farm, 1716 and 1720 Averette Road, Wake Forest, Wake County 2 Property Description & Building Inventory The parcels at 1716 and 1720 Averette Road together are part of land that has been farmed since at least the mid-nineteenth century. The properties are east of Wake Forest and north of Rolesville in the Wake Forest Township of northeast Wake County. Lying northwest of the intersection of Highways 96 and 98, the parcels are just a mile and a half south of the county’s border with Franklin County. For purposes of this report, the two properties together are referred to as the Pearce-Mitchell-Neville Farm. The dwelling at 1720 Averette Road is referred to as the Pearce-Mitchell-Neville House and that at 1716 Averette Road is the Pearce- Mitchell-Neville Tenant House. The land was part of a large tract owned by R. Calvin Mitchell in the nineteenth century and was transferred to his daughter Nancy James Mitchell Pearce in 1881. It later belonged to her brother Richard C. Mitchell. After the younger Mitchell’s death in 1907, the land was bought, sold, and lost a few times before the Neville family purchased it and another parcel south of Averette Road in 1928. While the houses predate the Neville family’s ownership, it is not clear if they were built during Nancy Pearce’s ownership or Richard Mitchell’s. The names, then, reflect the early family ownership as well as the long period of ownership by the Nevilles from the early twentieth century; more explanation follows in the history section of this report. Each dwelling is evaluated for NRHP eligibility individually as well as together as a farm. That farm encompasses the crown of the rolling landscape that characterizes the immediate area. The farmstead stands near the center of the parcel at 1720 Averette Road and is at the highest point of the parcel. The farmstead includes the Pearce- Mitchell-Neville House along with sheds, barns, a stable, grape arbors, a dinner bell, and mature shade trees from the early and late twentieth century as well as the twenty-first century. Cultivated fields spread out in all directions with farm lanes evident throughout. The Pearce-Mitchell-Neville Tenant House at 1716 Averette Road is southwest of the farmhouse and overlooks Averette Road. That road extends north from Highway 98 and curves to the northwest just where the two parcels lie, on the north and northeast side of the roadway. Averette Road continues northwest before curving back to head nearly due north. Roughly half a mile from the county line, the Averette Road curves to the northeast and continues in that direction into Franklin County. Just north of the farm and at a lower elevation flows Austin Creek, which was historically dammed by the Mitchells for agricultural purposes. It is beyond the farm parcel’s bounds. Preliminary Historic Research Report Neville Farm, 1716 and 1720 Averette Road, Wake Forest, Wake County 3 Map of the Pearce-Mitchell-Neville Farm with building locations marked. Pearce-Mitchell-Neville Farmstead, view N Preliminary Historic Research Report Neville Farm, 1716 and 1720 Averette Road, Wake Forest, Wake County 4 Façade view of Pearce-Mitchell-Neville House, view NW Pearce-Mitchell-Neville House 1720 Averette Road ca. 1890, ca. 1900, ca. 1955, 1968, 2004 The Pearce-Mitchell-Neville House is a one-and-a-half story, single-pile, side-gabled frame dwelling with a hip-roofed front porch, two gabled dormers, and single-story side and rear additions. The house faces roughly south, overlooking a gravel and dirt driveway that extends northeast from Averette Road and then turns east as it approaches the farmstead. A corbelled brick chimney rises at the center of the roof ridge. The asymmetrical façade is four bays wide and has windows set singly and in pairs. The side addition adds two more bays with its two sets of paired windows, which have the more horizontal proportion associated with the mid-twentieth century. All windows are replacement one-over-one sash. The house stands on a continuous concrete-block foundation and is covered with vinyl siding. Asphalt shingles cover the roof. A corbelled brick chimney rises at the center of the roof ridge. The front porch originally wrapped around the west side of the house; that portion of the porch was enclosed around 1955. The original three bays of the house feature two sets of paired windows flanking the front entry. The door is slightly off center between the sets of windows, a reflection of the original hall-parlor plan inside. At Preliminary Historic Research Report Neville Farm, 1716 and 1720 Averette Road, Wake Forest, Wake County 5 the other end of the façade, the room formed by the porch enclosure has a single window at the façade and another centered at its west elevation. The porch floor is poured concrete, which dates to 1968. The replacement porch columns were added in 2004 when the house was sided and the windows replaced. There is no railing at the porch, but stair rails have been added to the two sets of poured concrete steps at the porch. The rear ell was added around 1900, according to the owner, who grew up on the farm. The ell added a kitchen and dining room to the four-room house. The 1968 side addition provided space for a modern kitchen, and the space in the ell was remodeled for use as a bedroom and bathroom. Few historic features or finishes are evident at the interior. A stair rises along the original back wall of the house and features a square newel post and squared balusters. The original ceiling, consisting of wide boards with flat battens over the seams, remains in the main front room. Original wood floors are covered with ceramic tile and the fireplace mantel as been altered. The owner recalled that the interior walls originally had unpainted flush-board sheathing and that the house originally had weatherboard siding and stood on rock piers. She stated that there are two rooms at the half-story as well.1 Wellhouse, view NE Wellhouse, Ca. 1960 Poured concrete, gabled lid with asphalt shingles; stands northeast of the house. 1 The owner requested no interior photographs and provided only limited access to the interior. Preliminary Historic Research Report Neville Farm, 1716 and 1720 Averette Road, Wake Forest, Wake County 6 Ca. 1970 Shed, view NW Shed, Ca. 1970 Front-gabled shed on continuous concrete-block foundation with plywood siding, metal roofing, and overhanging eaves finished with fascia board at rafter ends. Entry at one gable end; single window at opposite gable end. Equipment Barn, view NW Equipment Barn, ca. 1975 Large, side-gabled, wood-framed barn with three open bays and one enclosed room. Metal siding and roofing, utility poles in poured concrete with angled bracing at at open bays; five-panel wood door and replacement windows at enclosed section. Preliminary Historic Research Report Neville Farm, 1716 and 1720 Averette Road, Wake Forest, Wake County 7 Shed, 2014 Front-gabled, prefabricated, rectangular-plan shed with double-leaf door at gable end, grooved plywood siding, cornerboards, skid foundation. 2014 Shed and ca. 1920 grape arbor, view NE Late twentieth-century grape arbors with tobacco barn in background, view SE Grape Arbors, Ca. 1920, ca. 1995 A ca. 1920 grape arbor near the pack house is two T-shaped wood supports with thin metal tubing to hold grape vines. Two other grape arbors with lumber and pole supports strung with wire to support vines date to a about 1995 and stand well south of the first, roughly between the stable and the tobacco barn. Preliminary Historic Research Report Neville Farm, 1716 and 1720 Averette Road, Wake Forest, Wake County 8 Packhouse, view NW Pack House, Ca. 1900 Metal-sided frame barn with gable roof standing on stone piers and additionally supported by concrete-block piers. Personnel door and hay-loft door at south elevation; window openings with storm windows stacked and centered at north elevation. Preliminary Historic Research Report Neville Farm, 1716 and 1720 Averette Road, Wake Forest, Wake County 9 Feed House and Stable, view NW Feed House and Stable, Ca. 1900 Gabled, frame barn with personnel doors and hay door at south gable end; sheltered area inset under main roof along west side of building with one personnel door; weatherboard and asphalt sheet siding; metal-sided pole sheds at east and north sides. Shed collapsing at southeast corner. 2015 Shed, view SW Shed, 2015 Side-gabled, prefabricated, rectangular-plan shed with door and two windows at one eave side; grooved plywood siding, cornerboards, skid foundation. Preliminary Historic Research Report Neville Farm, 1716 and 1720 Averette Road, Wake Forest, Wake County 10 Luther Neville Headstone with Feed House and Stable at background left, view NE Luther Neville Headstone, 1929, erected here ca. 2010 Marble headstone for Luther Neville. Martha Neville Harris relays that the stone was removed from Oak Grove Baptist Church Cemetery in Youngsville when Estelle Neville was buried there in 1978. At that time, the family replaced this stone with a double stone for the couple. Lonnie Neville brought the marble stone back to the farm, and Martha Neville Harris installed it at a flower bed many years later. Preliminary Historic Research Report Neville Farm, 1716 and 1720 Averette Road, Wake Forest, Wake County 11 Tobacco barn, view NE Tobacco Barn, Ca. 1965 Gable roofed frame tobacco barn with asphalt sheeting at the exterior walls over flush-board sheathing; continuous stone foundation; shed-roofed pole shed on concrete foundation at west side of barn with flush-board sheathing at shed’s west side; plywood at north side, and open at south side. Bell, ca. 1970 Lonnie Neville brought a broken bell home from church and installed it on his farm as a conversation piece, according to his daughter Martha Neville Harris. Preliminary Historic Research Report Neville Farm, 1716 and 1720 Averette Road, Wake Forest, Wake County 12 W side and façade of Pearce-Mitchell-Neville Tenant House, view NE Pearce-Mitchell-Neville Tenant House 1716 Averette Road ca. 1885, ca. 1900, 1980, 2004 The tenant house is a one-and-a-half-story, single-pile, side-gabled frame dwelling with a nearly full-width shed-roofed front porch and a rear ell with enclosed side porch. The house faces southwest. The porch posts are square with chamfered edges, and the porch floor is poured concrete. The façade is three bays wide with a centered front entrance with replacement door. A single window is centered at each gabled end, and the northwest side of the house has a full-sized window in the gable as well. All windows are replacement one-over-one sash. The house stands on a continuous concrete block foundation and is covered with vinyl siding. Asphalt shingles cover the roof. The interior brick chimney was removed after 2012. The gabled rear ell, according to the current owner, was added around the turn of the century. It is a single story in height and features smaller windows set in pairs at both the exposed side and rear elevations. The shed-roofed side porch, at the inner side of the ell, was enclosed in 1980 to add a utility room and bathroom to the house for the first time. The interior was not available for survey but the owner stated that there are two rooms at the first floor and a single large room at the half-story. She recalled that the interior walls had unpainted flush-board sheathing and that the house originally had weatherboard siding and stood on rock piers.2 2 The owner did not allow access to the tenant house as it is currently rented. Preliminary Historic Research Report Neville Farm, 1716 and 1720 Averette Road, Wake Forest, Wake County 13 Wellhouse and rear and west side of Tenant House, view SE Wellhouse, ca. 1960 Rectangular concrete enclosure with gabled roof/lid of wood with asphalt shingles; located northwest of house. Shed (L) and rear and west elevation of Tenant House, view S Shed, 2016 Front-gabled, prefabricated, rectangular-plan shed with door at gable end, grooved plywood siding, cornerboards. Preliminary Historic Research Report Neville Farm, 1716 and 1720 Averette Road, Wake Forest, Wake County 14 Property History In the nineteenth century, this land was owned by two prominent families in Wake Forest Township: the Mitchells and the Pearces. Richard Calvin Mitchell (ca. 1815- 1880), known as Calvin, farmed in the area as early as 1850, living with his wife Eliza (b. 1814) and their eight young children. By the time of his death thirty years later, Calvin Mitchell owned a nearly two-thousand-acre tract north of present-day Highway 98 and east of the town of Wake Forest. In the decades following the Civil War, large Wake County farms were commonly split into smaller parcels. Indeed, early in 1881, shortly after his death, Calvin Mitchell’s two-thousand acres were divided among his children. Two Mitchell daughters receiving land had married Pearces, introducing that family into the chain of ownership.3 Map showing 1881 division of Calvin Mitchell’s land Nancy James Mitchell Pearce and her husband James T. Pearce received 279 acres in the 1881 division. The map showing that distribution of land also recorded the location of a house, a mill, and a gin, all on land outside of the property studied for 3 Kelly Lally, The Historic Architecture of Wake County, North Carolina (Raleigh: Wake County 1994), 244; Libby Gorman, et al., North Carolina Century Farms: 100 Years of Continuous Agricultural Heritage ([Raleigh]: N.C. Department of Agriculture, 1989), 229, viewed online at archive.org; 1850 United States Federal Census [database on-line] (Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009); Richard C. Mitchell and others ex parte Division of Land, March 9, 1881, Wake County Deed Book 62, page 299-308; Kelly Lally, “Historic and Architectural Resources of Wake County,” National Register Multiple Property Documentation Form (Wake MPDF), E50-51. Preliminary Historic Research Report Neville Farm, 1716 and 1720 Averette Road, Wake Forest, Wake County 15 this report. No other structures were indicated on the map. Family tradition relayed by current owner Martha Neville Harris, whose family has owned the land since 1928, states that the tenant house was built around 1880 and the farmhouse around 1890. That chronology is compatible with the map of the division of Calvin Mitchell’s land, with the ca. 1880 date being just slightly early.4 Early twentieth century deeds note that A. R. Pearce later owned at least some of Nancy Pearce’s land and left a 68¼-acre section of it to Richard C. Mitchell (1848- 1907), a brother of Nancy Pearce. That smaller parcel included the land at today’s 1720 and 1716 Averette Drive as well as a few acres south of the road. A. R. Pearce’s relationship to Nancy Pearce or Richard Mitchell could not be determined. The date of the transfer of land from A. R. Pearce to Richard Mitchell could also not be established, but it was mentioned in deeds as early as 1910. Richard Mitchell owned other lands in Wake and Franklin counties and may not have lived on the 68-1/4- acre parcel. However, the identity of the owner who erected the buildings under study could not be ascertained.5 Richard C. Mitchell died in debt and without a will. His 68¼-acre parcel ended up in a public auction in 1910, above the objections of his wife, Julia Catherine Richardson Mitchell, and other family members. Alexander Shearon, a local iron mill manager, was the highest bidder, but he sold the parcel before the end of the year.6 The 68-1/4-acre parcel changed hands a number of times in the early twentieth century before Luther Ellis Neville (1877-1929) of Granville County purchased it. The family planned to move to Wake County because the tobacco wilt had hit their Granville County farm; as early as 1880, Wake County saw an influx of farmers from surrounding counties in this period for the same reason. Luther Neville purchased the land in 1928 but died of pneumonia early in 1929, before relocating to the farm. His widow Estelle Cannady Neville and her five children, ages three to eleven, moved and began farming here in 1929. The Neville family subsequently had a long and productive association with the land. Lonnie Neville, Luther and Estelle’s eldest child and Martha Neville Harris’s father, farmed the land both as a Estelle’s son and later as owner of the farm. As noted by Martha Neville Harris, the two dwellings, the pack house, and the feed barn and stable were already on the farm. The 1930 U.S. Census records that Estelle Neville reported the value of her house was $800, roughly $12,500 in today’s dollars, according to one historical currency converter. The family referred to it as “the big house,” in contrast to the tenant house at 1716 4 Mitchell and others ex parte Division of Land. 5 R. Calvin Mitchell Estate Papers in North Carolina, Wills and Probate Records, 1665-1998 [database on-line] at Ancestry.com; J. W. Bunn, Comr. [commissioner] To A. H. Shearon, Wake County Deed Book 248, page 299, May 6, 1910. 6 Mitchell Estate Papers; North Carolina, Marriage Records, 1741-2011 [database on-line], Ancestry.com (Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002); J.W. Bunn, Commissioner, to A. H. Shearon, May 6, 1910, Wake County Deed Book 248, page 299; Martha Neville Harris, interview with the author, January 28, 2019. Preliminary Historic Research Report Neville Farm, 1716 and 1720 Averette Road, Wake Forest, Wake County 16 Averette Road. The latter was used at the time that the Nevilles moved to the farm for cotton storage; in later years, the family leased it to farm tenant.7 Mrs. Harris can recall the houses’ original exterior appearance: weatherboard siding and stone pier foundations. At the interiors, the floors were wood and the walls had flush-board wood sheathing. She related that the “dinner bell” that stands in the farmstead was never used. Rather, it was a broken bell that the family’s church intended to discard. Lonnie Neville brought the bell home to his farm and installed it on the wood supports as a conversation piece. He also built the tobacco barn southeast of the farmstead. The scuppernong grape arbor near the packhouse was on the farm when the Nevilles arrived; current owner Ronnie Harris planted others, just south of the farmstead, in 1995. Aerial view of project study area, US Department of Agriculture, 1959 7 A. H. Shearon and Addie Shearon to J. M Brewer and W. C. Brewer, Wake County Deed Book 251, page 404, December 2, 1910; J. M Brewer, Mtgee, et al to Geo E Gill, Wake County Deed Book 380, page 530, October 19, 1921; George E Gill and wife to The Citizens Bank, Wake County Deed Book 380, page 536, October 17, 1921; Citizens Bank of WF to S W Brewer, Wake County Deed Book 470, page 222, May 7, 1925; S.W. and Nancy Brewer to L. E. Neville, January 31, 1928, Wake County Deed Book 533, page 405; Martha Neville Harris interview; Wake MPDF, E50; 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line] (Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002); Historical Currency Conversions at https://futureboy.us. Preliminary Historic Research Report Neville Farm, 1716 and 1720 Averette Road, Wake Forest, Wake County 17 National Register of Historic Places Assessment A property is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) if it maintains integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association, and is significant under at least one of the following four criteria. A. Property is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history. B. Property is associated with the lives of persons significant in our past. C. A property that embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction, or that represents the work of a master, or that possesses high artistic values, or that represents a significant and distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction. D. A property that has yielded or may be likely to yield, information important in prehistory or history. The two dwellings were evaluated as individual properties, and the two parcels at identified with PINs 1860199349 and 1860185168, which historically constituted a single farm, were evaluated as a single property. Pearce-Mitchell-Neville House: Integrity and Eligibility Evaluation as an Individual Property The Pearce-Mitchell-Neville House is a late-nineteenth century dwelling in its original location on a farm. The house has continued in use as a farmhouse and its period of significance would be ca. 1890 through 1969. The surrounding agricultural fields are still in use and there is an evident farmstead east of the house; the property, in other words, is easily recognizable as a farmhouse. The Pearce-Mitchell-Neville House therefore retains integrity of location, setting, and association. However, alterations to the house resulted in a loss of integrity of materials, design, and workmanship. Replacement of windows and the front porch flooring, posts, and railing; installation of vinyl siding; replacement of all the windows; and alterations of interior finishes like the flush-board-sheathed walls and wood floors has changed and/or obscured original materials and workmanship. Changes to the porch also have altered the integrity of design. Taken together, the loss of these aspects of integrity also result in a loss of integrity of feeling. The house no longer has a turn- of-the-twentieth-century or early-to-mid-twentieth-century appearance, nor does it exhibit materials and workmanship from that period. Overall, then, the house has insufficient architectural integrity to reflect its original appearance and the historic period. Properties can be eligible for the NRHP Under Criterion A if they are associated with a significant event or pattern of events that have made contributions to history at Preliminary Historic Research Report Neville Farm, 1716 and 1720 Averette Road, Wake Forest, Wake County 18 the local, state, or national level. While the practice of agriculture encompasses an important pattern in the history of Wake County, the house no longer retains sufficient integrity to reflect its period of construction or the historic period. The Pearce-Mitchell-Neville House is not known to be strongly associated with an individual significant in history at the local, county, state, or national level and is therefore not recommended eligible under Criterion B. The Pearce-Mitchell-Neville House is a late nineteenth-century frame vernacular house with a single-pile depth, side-gabled roof, and rear gabled ell. This was a common vernacular type in Wake County in the period. Because of a number of alterations at the interior and exterior, it does not embody the distinct characteristics of such a dwelling and is therefore not recommended eligible under Criterion C. It is unlikely that additional study of this property would yield any unretrieved data not discoverable through informant interviews, building technology, and documentary sources. Therefore, the Pearce-Mitchell-Neville House is not recommended eligible under Criterion D. Pearce-Mitchell-Neville Tenant House: Integrity and Eligibility Evaluation as an Individual Property The Pearce-Mitchell-Neville Tenant House is a late-nineteenth century dwelling in its original location. The house has continued in use as a residence on the farm and its period of significance would be ca. 1885 through 1969. For some of that time, it operated as a tenant house; it was at times used for agricultural storage and now as rental housing. The surrounding farm fields are still in use and the main house and its farmstead are extant north of the Pearce-Mitchell-Neville Tenant House; the property, in other words, is easily recognizable as a tenant house because of its location on a farm and its subsidiary relationship to the farmstead house. The Pearce-Mitchell-Neville Tenant House therefore retains integrity of location, setting, and association. However, alterations to the tenant house, including removal of the interior brick chimney, installation of vinyl siding, and replacement of all the windows, has resulted in a loss of integrity of materials, design, and workmanship. Together, this also has resulted in a loss of integrity of feeling as the house no longer has a turn-of- the-twentieth-century appearance or early-to-mid-twentieth-century appearance, nor does it retain most of its original materials or workmanship from that period. While the practice of agriculture and the use of tenant farming encompasses an important pattern in the history of Wake County, the house no longer retains sufficient integrity to reflect its period of construction or the historic period and therefore appears to be not eligible under Criterion A. Preliminary Historic Research Report Neville Farm, 1716 and 1720 Averette Road, Wake Forest, Wake County 19 The Pearce-Mitchell-Neville Tenant House is not known to be strongly associated with an individual significant in history at the local, county, state, or national level and is therefore not recommended eligible under Criterion B. The Pearce-Mitchell-Neville Tenant House is a late nineteenth-century frame vernacular house. Such dwellings are characterized by simple frame construction, often single-pile and side-gabled and generally with weatherboard exteriors, wood windows, fireplaces for heating, and pier foundations. Exterior alterations have removed or obscured original features and materials. As a result, it does not embody the distinct characteristics of such a dwelling and is therefore not recommended eligible under Criterion C. It is unlikely that additional study of this property would yield any unretrieved data not discoverable through informant interviews, building technology, and documentary sources. Therefore, the house is not recommended eligible under Criterion D. Pearce-Mitchell-Neville Farm: Integrity and Eligibility Evaluation The land was likely farmed as part of a larger tract in the nineteenth century, but the 68-¼-acre parcel that corresponds closely to the two parcels at 1720 and 1716 Averette Road was created in 1907. Mrs. Harris notes that the parcel was a farm when her grandfather bought it, as supported by the presence of the houses and farmstead. By this time, small-scale tobacco farms were common across Wake County. The farm retains its original arrangement—farmhouse and farmstead on the hill, surrounded by farm fields, and with a tenant house to the south. The farm therefore retains integrity of location and setting. The property has continued in use as a farm and its period of significance would be ca. 1885 through 1969. While integrity requirements for buildings that are part of a complex are less stringent than those for individual buildings, the extent of changes to the two dwellings still result in a loss of integrity of materials and workmanship for the farm as a single property. Alterations to the dwellings have obscured or removed defining elements of their original and historic-period appearances. If the agricultural buildings in the farmstead retained an impressive level of integrity as a late- nineteenth through early-to-mid-twentieth century collection, the loss of integrity of the two dwellings might be balanced by the strength of the farmstead and surrounding fields. However, the farmstead includes a number of buildings that date to the late twentieth century through the twenty-first century. Additionally, some outbuildings seen on a 1959 aerial photo of the farm are not extant. These changes to the overall farm have resulted in a loss of integrity of materials, design, and workmanship. Because the farm no longer has a late-nineteenth or early-to-mid- twentieth appearance, it has also lost integrity of feeling. Preliminary Historic Research Report Neville Farm, 1716 and 1720 Averette Road, Wake Forest, Wake County 20 Wake County farms eligible for the NRHP under Criterion A reflect the importance of agriculture to the economy of the county up through the mid-twentieth century. The Pearce-Mitchell-Neville Farm is a small farm that originated in the late nineteenth century and has been continuously farmed since then. While a small farm such as this is unusual now, it was common in the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth. Further, the Nevilles’ ownership and move from Granville County reflect the response to the tobacco wilt, a significant trend in Wake County agricultural history. However, the farm does not reflect the appearance of either the late nineteenth-century or the early-to-mid-twentieth century. Exterior alterations have removed or obscured original features of the dwellings, a number of outbuildings from the historic period are not extant, and other buildings have been erected or installed. Therefore, due to a lack of integrity, the farm does not appear eligible under Criterion A. The Pearce-Mitchell-Neville Farm is not known to be strongly associated with an individual significant in history at the local, county, state, or national level and is therefore not recommended eligible under Criterion B. Wake County farms from this period include a dwelling and a collection of subsidiary buildings, including but not limited to wells, cribs, smokehouses, outhouses, storage barns, and animal shelters. The majority of these buildings from this period are simple, frame buildings with rectangular plans and gabled roofs. The pack house, stable, and tobacco barn are all examples of this type. However, the farmstead includes more outbuildings that post-date the historic period, and some outbuildings observed on a mid-twentieth-century aerial do not survive. As a result, the farm does not embody the distinct characteristics its type and is therefore not recommended eligible under Criterion C. It is unlikely that additional study of this property would yield any unretrieved data not discoverable through informant interviews, building technology, and documentary sources. Therefore, the house is not recommended eligible under Criterion D. Recommendations Preliminary research does not indicate that the houses at 1720 Averette Road and 1716 Averette Road are individually eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places under any Criteria. The Pearce-Mitchell-Neville Farm, encompassing both parcels, likewise does not appear eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places under any Criteria. The gravestone present on the parcel at 1720 Averette Road is decorative only and does not mark a gravesite, according to current owner Martha Neville Harris. The Neville family has used the Oak Grove Baptist Church cemetery in Youngsville and no marked burials were observed in the larger area surrounding the farmstead or Preliminary Historic Research Report Neville Farm, 1716 and 1720 Averette Road, Wake Forest, Wake County 21 the tenant house. However, if burial places are discovered, they should be left intact and development should be redesigned to keep them in place. Preliminary Historic Research Report Neville Farm, 1716 and 1720 Averette Road, Wake Forest, Wake County 22 Bibliography Primary Sources North Carolina, Marriage Records, 1741-2011. Viewed online at Ancestry.com. North Carolina, Wills and Probate Records, 1665-1998 . Viewed online at Ancestry.com. Wake County GIS Department. Viewed online at https://maps.raleighnc.gov/iMAPS/. Wake County Register of Deeds. Viewed online at http://services.wakegov.com/booksweb/. United States Census, various years. Viewed online at Ancestry.com. United States Department of Agriculture. Wake County Aerial Photographs, 1959. North Carolina Geological Survey. Secondary Sources Gorman, Libby, et al. North Carolina Century Farms: 100 Years of Continuous Agricultural Heritage. [Raleigh]: N.C. Department of Agriculture, 1989. Historical Currency Conversions. Used online at https://futureboy.us. Lally, Kelly. “Historic and Architectural Resources of Wake County.” National Register Multiple Property Documentation Form. Available online at http://www.hpo.ncdcr.gov/nr/WA7244.pdf. Lally, Kelly. The Historic Architecture of Wake County, North Carolina. Raleigh: Wake County 1994. Interview Martha Neville Harris. Interview with the author, January 28, 2019.