Wake Forest Historic Property Handbook & Design - 2021

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glass panes remain in the windows. Other prominent details include a stair with high knee walls, period mantels, four-over-six and six-over-six windows. In addition to the house, the property has a circa 1838 smokehouse, a circa 1862 doctor’s office. On December 30, 1837, James Purefoy bought one acre in the Alston’s Store community which was renamed Forestville in 1839. James Purefoy was the son of John Purefoy, the Baptist minister and plantation owner who convinced the North Carolina Baptist Convention to purchase Dr. Calvin Jones’s 615 acre plantation as the site for what would become Wake Forest College. James and his wife, Mary, built the house and lived in it until 1853. James was a Baptist minis- ter serving several churches, a businessman and a 45-year trustee at Wake Forest College. The Purefoys sold the property to Richard Ligon in 1853. The third owner of the property was Peyton A. Dunn, superintendent for the Raleigh & Gaston Railroad, and trustee of the Forestville Baptist Church which was built in 1860. The house was owned by one family, the Chappells, from November 21, 1862, until late 1965. Dr. Leroy Chappell moved his wife, Eliza, and their young son, Leroy, to Forestville from Kinston to escape the federal blockade and occupation and to be closer to his family. Dr. Chappell and all his descendants and family have been buried in the Forestville Baptist Church cemetery. Dr. Chappell was listed as one of the commissioners when the Town of Forestville was incorporated in 1879. He built the separate two-room office building south of the house soon after moving to Forestville. The property passed from the Chappell family in 1965 when it was sold to J. Nurney and Grace Bond of Wake Forest who sold the property to their daughter and son-in-law, Jean and Robert McCamy in 1967. The McCamy’s sold the house and land to John and Carol Pelosi in 1970 who are the current owners.

South Brick House, circa 1838 Three buildings were constructed as the original permanent campus of the Wake Forest Institute and later Wake Forest College, the administration building, the South Brick House, and the North Brick House. All constructed in 1838, the South Brick House is the only building that re- mains from the original campus. Built as faculty accommodation, the house is a fine example of Greek Revival-style ar- chitecture and the only local example of

residential masonry construction from the antebellum period in Wake Forest. In addition, it was built by John Berry, a well-known builder/carpenter who later designed and built the Orange County Courthouse in Hillsborough among other buildings in the piedmont. The house is a two-and-one-half story, side-gabled Greek Revival-style dwelling with center hall plan. The façade features fine Flemish bond brick while the other three elevations have common bond brick. Other details include nine-over-nine double-hung window with louvered shutters,

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