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<br />United States Department of the Interior
<br />National Park Service
<br />National Register of Historic Places
<br />Continuation Sheet
<br />Holden - Roberts Farm
<br />Section number _8 Page 8 Orange County, NC
<br />sawnwork decoration. The true Gothic Revival style; however, was not widely used in North
<br />Carolina's residential architecture for center gables on I- houses are usually shallow and plain or
<br />enhanced modestly with shingles and small windows or ventilators.
<br />As elsewhere in North Carolina, I- houses were constructed by prosperous Orange County
<br />residents for many years, but very few were built during Reconstruction (1865 - 1877). Of these
<br />few, the Holden- Roberts Farmhouse, constructed for Addison Holden, a man who had inherited
<br />a moderate -sized estate and whose half- brother was the Governor of North Carolina, is a
<br />substantial example with machine -made ornamentation. Only one additional I -house in the
<br />general area is known to have been built during Reconstruction. The Kinchen Holloway House
<br />(SL), was constructed ca. 1870 in what is now northwest Durham County.23 Like the Holden -
<br />Roberts Farmhouse, this dwelling is frame, and has six- over -six windows, a gable roof, and
<br />fieldstone and brick end chimneys. However, Kinchen Holloway, a miller and a less wealthy
<br />man than Holden, built a plainer house. Holloway's dwelling does not have a double -leaf entry
<br />door, ornamental hinges, a center gable, or a bank of windows, and the mantels and newels in
<br />his house are handmade.
<br />In closer proximity, other I- houses in the proposed St. Mary's Road Historic District were
<br />constructed at around the turn of the twentieth century or later. The manager's house at Foxhill
<br />Farm, built in 1897 for Nannie Turner Hughes, is frame and has a gable roof, regular fenestration
<br />in three bays, and end chimneys. It, too, is plainer than the Holden - Roberts Farmhouse; there is
<br />only a single -leaf entry door and no center gable, and it is not possible to determine whether the
<br />interior was plain or fancy for it has been extensively modernized. Only the Watkins -Jones
<br />House, built around 1915 and also a frame tri -gable variant with regular fenestration and end
<br />chimneys, has modest decorative detailing. Notwithstanding, the sawnwork trim on the center
<br />gable, classic porch posts, turned balusters, and bracketed mantels were machine made at a
<br />later and prosperous time when such components were cheap and widely available.
<br />Thus, the Holden- Roberts Farmhouse, with many original architectural features intact, provides
<br />rare and important documentation of decorative enhancements chosen by a well- connected
<br />farmer, one of a very fortunate few in Orange County who could afford to build during 1873
<br />and 1874.
<br />HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND AGRICULTURAL CONTEXT:
<br />The Holden- Roberts Farm appears to fall within the boundaries of two parcels of land granted
<br />by John, Earl Granville, in the eighteenth century, one to Michael Synnott in 1752, and the other
<br />to John Kelly at an unspecified date 24 The records show that both Synnott and Kelly were
<br />owners of large tracts of land at various locations within Orange County, and each no doubt
<br />bought and sold real estate striving to increase his personal wealth.' While Kelly retained his
<br />subject p2 arcel, Synnott conveyed his to a man identified as Thomas Holden, a weaver by trade,
<br />in 1755.6 Holden's six children included a son, Thomas Whiffed, and a daughter, Mary, who
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