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NPS FORM 10 -900 -A
<br />(8 -86)
<br />United States Department of the Interior
<br />National Park Service
<br />National Register of Historic Places
<br />Continuation Sheet
<br />Section number 8 Page 12
<br />Captain John S. Pope Farm
<br />Orange County, North Carolina
<br />14
<br />OMB Approval No. 1024 -0018
<br />her will leaving the farm to Carl. In 1909, Carl leased a portion of the farm from Mary Jane Pope "for
<br />the purposed of running a government distillery." In February 1910, Mary Jane Pope formally deeded
<br />the 73.05 -acre property, known as the John S. Pope Homeplace, to her son Carl McDade Pope. That
<br />same year, federal census records show Carl and Lindia and their seven children (Lottie, Jodie, Mary,
<br />John, Thelma, Lacy, and Inez) living on the property with Mary Jane Pope, then in her 70s. Mary Jane
<br />Pope died in 1917.
<br />Carl and Lindia raised a large family on the farm. Robert Harris Pope, the couple's youngest child was
<br />born in 1914, giving the couple a total of eight surviving children.3 Additionally, with the death of his
<br />older brother, Thomas, around 1914, Carl's four nephews also moved onto the farm. Carl, who owned
<br />a sawmill, was responsible for several alterations to the house including renovations around the turn of
<br />the twentieth century that included the replacement of the original Greek Revival -style front porch with
<br />a shed - roofed porch on turned posts with sawnwork details and the addition of a decorative front gable
<br />to give the house a Queen Anne -style exterior. At this time, Carl also erected an addition to the garage,
<br />which in the 1920s, housed a truck Carl had purchased to haul lumber to and from his sawmill.
<br />Carl McDade Pope died in 1927 and Lindia Lee Harris Pope remained in the house with her three sons
<br />running the farm. In the early 1930s, the current front porch and a small wing on the south side of the
<br />rear ell were erected by Carl's youngest child, Robert Harris Pope. Robert Pope married Janie Sue
<br />Hester in 1936, and they lived in the house, electrifying it in 1937, the same year his son, Robert Harris
<br />Pope Jr. was born. Water and plumbing were run to the house in 1943 -1944, relieving the need for
<br />heating water in the nearby washhouse. Shortly thereafter, a one -story wing was added to the north side
<br />of the rear ell. (Both rear wings were removed in stages from 2002 to 2007.)
<br />In 1947, Lindia Lee Harris Pope died and the house and farm went to auction, from which Jodie, John,
<br />and Robert Harris Pope acquired the property in 1948. Robert continued to farm the land and in 1952,
<br />purchased an additional 1.46 acres from the heirs of David Wells on which he constructed a tenant
<br />house with its own well house. By 1967, he had purchased an additional .75 acres from the Wells heirs,
<br />adjacent to the 1952 parcel, and erected a garage for the second home. By 1980, both John and Jodie
<br />had died and Robert Harris Pope took full ownership of the property. He farmed the land, raising
<br />tobacco, just as his father and grandfather had, until the Fair and Equitable Tobacco Reform Act of
<br />2004.
<br />In 2006, Robert Pope deeded both the original 73.05 -acre tract and the 2.28 -acre tract that he had
<br />acquired in 1952 and 1967 to his son, Robert Harris Pope Jr. Robert Jr., the great- grandson of Captain
<br />John S. Pope, uses the land to pasture -graze meat lambs and proudly holds farm tours of the property
<br />and farm dinners in the house. He removed the wings added to the rear ell, constructed a new bathroom
<br />s Carl and Lindia Pope had a ninth child who died in infancy in 1908.
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