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united States Department of the Interior National Park Service 045 National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number Page 1 hearing that an Italian stone mason hired to work on the buildings at Duke University , also worked on the Rigsbee house ( Singleton Interview ) The white flint rock is said to have come off an Orange County farm and the slate used to floor the front porch from the same quarry that provided stone for Duke University in Durham . ( Singleton Interview ) , Very little factual information is known about Mack Rigsbee but local stories of his notoriety abound even today . I According to local lore , Rigsbee was a Prohibition bootlegger who styled himself as . a " gentleman farmer . " He was alleged to have used the many storage areas created by his house ' s steeply pitched roof and dormers to hide the moonshine some say he distilled in the downstairs bathroom . The . construction of the ides possible corroboration for the legend . The current Rock House prov owners found that- the downstairs . bathroom. . had a# rein forced• . f loan. , and l an . : , over s i zed % drain in . the batr tub . The upstairs bedroom and baahr.00m-: : wa hl s end far from the roof eaves ,. . leaving oversized storage.. . areas• % beneath ttle : steeply pitched hip roof. . . One . of the faucets . 1TI . the ° upstairs - sink was ts own tank concealed in the eaves of.. the . roof ; Some: , . have fed by i speculated . that Rigsbee and his guests had only - to. turn the. . . appropriate . fauce 't: �` to fill their . glasses with il.1egal libation . _ . mother. tale recalls . a tunnel from the baseinent~ . to the garage so liquor could be " smuggled in . and out of the house without being seen . Clarence Jones , a local historian who knew Mack Rigsbee , remembers the bootlegger as a short dapper man who wore kid gloves , drove a new Model A . every year , dressed his wife in finery and was a wholesaler - distributor of illegal whiskey , known locally as East Lake Rye . ( Charlotte Observer , 26 January 1987 ) . Documentation for the legends that surround Rigsbee ' s bootlegging activities. exist both in ' Durham County court records and in North Carolina Supreme Court records * Neighboring Durham County records document Mack Rigsbee ' s conviction in June , 1929 on charges of assault with a deadly weapon . Co - defendants were Felix Rigsbee who was found not guilty of assault and , battery with a deadly weapon and Whalen Barbee who was found guilty of those charges - The events leading up to the trial are not known ; however , Mack Rigsbee was fined $ 500 and given a suspended two year sentence' on the= Durham County Road gang providing he gave " $ 1000 bond to guarantee the maintenance of peace with Felix Rigsbee . " ( Durham Superior Court Minutes , 1929 , pg . 416 , 552 , 558 _ ) * Orange County Court - - Records - are not indexed and have not been thoroughly searched .