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7 <br /> S. Statement of Significance <br /> Built in 1881 by a tobacco farmer on property passed down from his father, the <br /> Nicholas Corbett Hester House is a two-story farmhouse embellished with <br /> Victorian-era elements making it the best-preserved example of vernacular <br /> Italianate architecture in rural Orange County. The prominent dwelling,which <br /> replaced a surviving log house as the farm's main residence, chronicles the <br /> prosperity Hester achieved growing primarily tobacco and subsistence crops on his <br /> 100-acre farm in the late nineteenth century.After a long period of neglect,the <br /> current owner has completed a careful and substantial restoration of the dwelling, <br /> returning it to its historic appearance while creating a home for modern living. <br /> 6. Architectural Description <br /> Nicholas Corbett Hester House <br /> 1881 <br /> The 1881 Nicholas Corbett Hester House occupies an eighteen-acre site at the <br /> northeast corner of NC 86 North and Allison Road (SR 1500) in rural Cedar Grove <br /> Township in northern Orange County just south of the Caswell County border. <br /> Rolling hills and stretches of open fields and thick forestland characterize this <br /> portion of Orange County. Small watercourses meander through this bucolic <br /> landscape enhancing the well-drained soil that led to agricultural prosperity in the <br /> nineteenth and twentieth centuries. <br /> The Hester House faces west toward NC 86 North, a two-lane state route that <br /> continues north into Caswell County and on to the Virginia state line. A gravel drive <br /> from the east side of NC 86 North leads to the gravel parking area just northwest of <br /> the house. The eighteen-acre house parcel is mostly wooded except at the southwest <br /> corner where the Hester House and its outbuildings stand. The buildings' immediate <br /> surroundings consist of well-tended gardens and landscape features, as well as a <br /> grass-covered lawn.A nineteenth-century hand-dug well is behind the house and <br /> just north of a natural spring.A tall,thick hedgerow likely planted in the 1940s <br /> extends along the south property line and separates the yard from Allison Road. <br /> The Hester House's current owner meticulously restored the house from 2001 to <br /> 2009 taking great care to retain as much historic material as possible.Where <br /> architectural elements were missing or extremely deteriorated, she replaced them <br /> with substitutes appropriate to the style of the house. <br /> The Nicholas Corbett Hester House is a two-story, single-pile, frame,vernacular <br /> Italianate house on a brick foundation and sheathed in weatherboard siding.A one- <br /> story, partial-width,low-hipped-roof porch with a front-gabled, two-tiered portico <br /> 1 <br /> October 26, 2015 <br /> Orange County Local Landmark Application: Nicholas Corbett Hester House <br /> 9501 NC 86 North <br /> Cedar Grove, NC 27231 <br />