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United States Department of the Interior <br />National Park Service <br />National Register of Historic Places <br />Continuation Sheet <br />Cabe - Pratt - Harris House <br />Section number a Page 9 Orange Co., NC <br />Georgiades remodeled the rear addition, carefully preserving <br />the old portion of the house. <br />Architectural Context: <br />An architectural survey of Orange County was conducted <br />in 1997 and it revealed that, while a large number of <br />one -story log houses from the nineteenth century still survive, <br />frame houses from the early part of the century are very rare <br />and those which display fine late - Georgian style interiors are <br />rarer still. While log houses flourished, the development of <br />back- country North Carolina brought substantial houses of <br />frame and occasionally, even brick construction. Most <br />surviving frame houses from the early- nineteenth century are <br />gable- roofed structures, usually with shed - roofed front porches <br />and exterior -end chimneys. Most of the dwellings are one room <br />deep and three bays across with hall - parlor plans and a <br />variety of vernacular decorative features, such as reeded <br />mantelpieces, a familiar decorative element in Hillsborough. <br />Carpenters erected these houses using familiar timber -frame <br />construction. Heavy corner posts, either hewn by hand or sawn <br />at local water - powered mills, were connected by large horizontal <br />timbers, the .rain members held in place with sturdy, pegged <br />mortise - and -tenon joints. Many continued to follow the hall - <br />parlor plan with an enclosed corner in the :Hain (hall) room. <br />The Cabe - Pratt - Barris House is rare example of a one - story, <br />hall - parlor plan late Georgian house. "Fashionable domestic <br />architecture was also drawn into Hillsborough's orbit including <br />a small but notable collection of stylish country houses. . <br />. .these residential designs were influenced by architectural <br />publications that disseminated the norms of classical <br />architecture through plans, elevations, and a wide range of <br />decorative motifs. The creation of a regional network of <br />artisans and rich clients inevitably produced common elements <br />of design, such as mantelpieces, stairs, wainscoting, do2rls <br />and porticoes, that expressed mutual tastes and values." <br />Architectural historian Catherine Bishir has observed that "for <br />the gentlemen of the Piedmont, these handsome and well- crafted <br />houses represg�ted their success and taste in terms shared within <br />their class." <br />Three notable examples of late - Georgian frame farmhouses <br />are located in rural areas on the outskirts of the nearby <br />