Agenda 10-17-23; 5-a - Joint Public Hearing with the Historic Preservation Commission Regarding the Proposed Designation of the Davis Cotton Gin and Press as an Orange County Historic Landmark

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7 ORANGE COUNTY LOCAL LANDMARK APPLICATION DAVIS FARM COTTON GIN AND PRESS includes approximately 1.5 acres in the southwest corner of the Davis Farm, but its farm setting adds to an understanding of its historic function. Located at the west end of the farm driveway, the cotton gin and press building (Photos 1-6) faces woods on its south and west sides. (refer to Site Plan) East of the cotton gin and press building stands the farmhouse (Photo 18), and north of the building is a collection of other farm outbuildings (Site map). The large area of the property to the south of the compound of buildings is wooded. East of the house and outbuildings is open farm land. To the north of the compound is a ca. 1940 manmade faun lake, a row of apple and pear trees, and additional open farm land edged by woods. The entire farm is not being designated because although it provides an appropriate setting for the cotton gin and press building, the house has been significantly altered, and the accompanying outbuildings are in varying stages of repair and do not bear the singular historic significance of the cotton gin and press building. The following is an overview of the other buildings on the farm and their layout that forms the setting for the cotton gin and press building. According to long-standing family tradition, the original house was built in the 1860s. Constructed of half-dovetail-notched oak logs, the one- and-a-half(nearly two) -story house has a stone foundation, a side-gable roof, a west gable-end chimney, and mortise-and-tenon, pegged rafters. (Photo 18) Additions were built to the house in the 1890s and the 1940s-1950s and aluminum siding was added. Today's owners have removed all the additions, except for the front and rear dormers, and the house currently stands in its exposed-log form. The owners plan to repair the log house and renovate it as part of their long- range project to construct a modest-sized modern farmhouse in the location of the former 1990s rear ell; the two will be joined by a porch/connector. The original log kitchen (Photo 17) was moved twice---to the west of the house in 1929 and again to its present location northwest of the house in 1940. Constructed of half-dovetailed logs, it has a widely overhanging gable on the front end supported by extended log plates and a double-leaf batten door with wrought-iron strap hinges believed to have been fashioned by blacksmith Robert Davis. The chimney, no longer standing, was at the north end. An open shed extends from the east side and a two-stage enclosed shed from the west. After it was moved, the former kitchen took on different uses. Both salt-cured meat and chewing tobacco were hung from rafters, and one of the open sheds was used as a garage. Immediately northwest of the kitchen is a small, concrete-block pump house. Northeast of the kitchen stands the V-notched log corncrib (Photo 17), similar in farm to the kitchen, but smaller. Like the kitchen, its gable roof has a wide front overhang supported by extended log wall plates. Open sheds run along the sides and rear of the crib. Northeast of the crib stands atwentieth- century frame gazebo with a wood floor, wood corner posts with upper braces, and a wood- shingled pyramidal roof. North of the kitchen and northwest of the corncrib is a ca. 1950 frame shed or crib with aside-gable roof, Its front and side walls have been stripped to the studs, and a metal-sheathed shed extends from the north (rear). Two large barns (Site map) stand west and northwest of the kitchen. The northwest barn, used to stable the animals and for feed storage, is the older of the two. The original west side is constructed of half-dovetail-notched logs and likely dates from the same period as the house and 4