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NPSForm 10-900•a OMB Approval
<br /> Na 10244018
<br /> (Rev. 8-88)
<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 Orange County , NC
<br /> SUMMARY PARAGRAPH.
<br /> The Holden Roberts Farm, now called Rolling Acres Farm, qualifies for inclusion
<br /> on the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion A for its associations with
<br /> the development of the late-nineteenth-and early-twentieth century diversified
<br /> agricultural economy of Orange County, North Carolina, from 1871 to 1945 . A land
<br /> grant map locates the farm on portions of two tracts of land conveyed by John, Earl
<br /> Granville, in the eighteenth century, one to Michael Synnott in 1752, and the other to
<br /> John Kelly at an unspecified date . ' Subsequent to Synnott and Kelly, the property was
<br /> joined in a single tract that was farmed by various owners before its purchase by
<br /> Addison L. Holden, half brother to North Carolina' s controversial Reconstruction-
<br /> period Governor William Woods Holden, in 1871 . The present 68 . 73 acre farm was
<br /> central to a 153 acre farm on which - Holden constructed a house, a kitchen house, an
<br /> equipment storage shed, a packhouse, a barn, a corn crib, and a granary . He cultivated
<br /> tobacco, small grains, corn, fruit, and raised cattle for thirty-two years before he sold
<br /> the farm to George Cain Roberts in 1908 . Roberts built five chicken houses and a
<br /> garden shed ca. 191045, and enlarged the farm by acquiring thirty- eight additional
<br /> acres of land in 1917. As Holden had done before him, Roberts cultivated small grains,
<br /> corn, and tobacco, and raised cattle, but he made a specialty of chickens, typically
<br /> keeping 500-600 White Leghorn as layers . After his death in 1943, his widow, Carrie,
<br /> leased ' the farm to a nephew, Aubrey Martin, until 1946, and then to Jerome 'Bud"
<br /> Garrard from 1947 to 1964. Garrard continued in the tradition of diversified farming,
<br /> and constructed a large concrete block chicken house, and two pole barns in 1950 to
<br /> replace Addison Holden' s barn that was destroyed by lightning. When Mrs . Roberts
<br /> died i id
<br /> n 1963, her heirs dived the farm. Portions of the Holden-Roberts Farm were
<br /> sold to Garrard' s sons, Victor "Vic" and Joseph "Julian", and to Thomas Bacon. Bacon,
<br /> who had purchased a 58 . 42 acre tract containing the house and outbuildings, sold his
<br /> property to James Rae and Betty Freeland in 1965 . The Freelands constructed the large
<br /> gable-roofed pole barn, and sold the property to Drs . Nels and Nancy Anderson, the
<br /> present owners, within a year. In 1970, the Anderson purchased 10 . 31 acres or one
<br /> half of the Garrard brothers' land, thus acquiring another portion of the original
<br /> Holden Roberts farm. The Andersons ' farming activities included raising small herds of
<br /> sheep and cattle, and keeping several horses from , 1968 to 1983, and more recently the
<br /> cultivation of fescue hay .
<br /> ' Markham, A. B., Map of Land Grants to Early Settlers in Old Orange County, North Carolina, copy in
<br /> Documents division, Perkins Library, Duke University, Durham, NC.
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