Farmville Plantation, Elmwood North Carolina

Date added: August 21, 2024

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Farmville Plantation, the home of the Chambers family who were among the county's first settlers, includes an interesting early brick dwelling and an impressive Federal house distinguished by its handsome brickwork and well-executed interiors. Especially notable is the graceful spiral stair with "tulip" brackets, characteristic of the major Federal houses of the Piedmont.

Henry Chambers was the grandfather of Joseph Chambers, the builder of the present Farmville Plantation house. A native of Pennsylvania, Henry obtained land in Rowan County, North Carolina, by a grant of 640 acres surveyed in 1754. According to a descendant's memoir, Henry Chambers' log dwelling was still standing and in "fairly good condition" at the end of the Civil War. Tombstone records indicate that Henry Chambers was born in 1707 and died in 1782. One of his nine children was a son, also named Henry, born in 1751. Henry, the younger, did not inherit his father's plantation house by the terms of the will, but was probably living on an adjoining tract at the time of his father's death. In 1781 he had bought from his father a 320-acre tract rectangular in shape, which was probably a half of his father's above-mentioned grant of 640 acres, also laid off as a rectangle. It is also likely that he had taken possession of the tract some years before the actual execution of the deed.

The younger Chambers, a successful planter, increased his estate by the purchase of several tracts from the McElwraith family whose progenitor was a neighbor and contemporary of the first Henry Chambers. One of these tracts included a two-story brick dwelling built probably by John McElwraith who first settled there in 1751. This house, the smaller brick building at Farmville, is thought to be the oldest brick dwelling in Iredell County. The 1790 United States Census shows Henry Chambers to be the owner of nine slaves, and the 1810 census records his owning sixteen slaves. By 1815 his estate was held in trust, according to that year's tax list, for his sons, David, Joseph, and Maxwell, and included nine slaves and 2,349 acres. His will left "the plantation I now live on" to his son, Maxwell (later a wealthy merchant prominent in the affairs of the Presbyterian church and Davidson College), while to Joseph he willed several tracts including "the land I bought from John McElwraith" containing 325 acres.

It is more than likely upon this land that Joseph Chambers built the present Farmville Plantation. In 1818, not long after his father's death, he married Margaret Brown. At this time also deeds show that he acquired extensive real estate from his brothers David and Maxwell, which probably included most of the family lands. In one deed he is described as "merchant." It appears that Joseph Chambers began building his plantation home, which he called Farmville, around 1818. By 1837 the estate comprised more than 2,600 acres with twenty-three slaves. At Joseph Chambers' death in 1848, his son, Pinckney Brown Chambers, inherited Farmville. In 1850 the plantation consisted of 2,480 acres with 600 under cultivation and a slave population of eighty-six. A relative, writing in 1912 "as a matter of historical preservation and interest" described Farmville as it was in 1860:

The dwelling and out-buildings were in a magnificent oak grove some ten or twelve acres in extent … The view was through a broad and beautiful avenue, as wide as the house was long, leading from the front gate at the house to the public road, and which was lined, shaded and ornamented by a row of alternate sycamores and elms on each side … This yard on its North, East and West sides was enclosed by handsome out-buildings and, between them, a strong brick wall nearly as high as an ordinary man … On the inside of this wall and along each side of the walks leading to the several gates, and around the residence itself, were rows of Cedars.

Although the relative antiquity of the following described building is not noted by the writer, current information suggests that it refers to the McElwraith homestead mentioned above, by now used as a kitchen for the main house:

About twenty feet from the foot of these steps was a large two story brick building forming a part of the enclosure of the Eastern side of the yard. The Northern of the two lower rooms of that building was the kitchen, the Southern was a bedroom, often occupied by a resident physician and, for this reason, was called "The Office." One of the rooms upstairs was a weaving and lumber room, the other a store room for flour, meal and other necessary articles.

Farmville remained the property of P. B. Chambers until 1898 when, at an advanced age, he was unable to look after it and therefore sold it. The house had a succession of owners until 1960 when, on its way to becoming a ruin, it was bought by Mr. T. Harry Gatton of Raleigh. Mr. Gatton, chairman of the Executive Board of the State Department of Archives and History, undertook the extensive task of restoring the house. After making it habitable and renewing its faded grandeur, Mr. Gatton sold Farmville to Dr. R. Meredith Hall in 1970.

Site Description

Farmville Plantation, located in the Piedmont farmland, includes a small residential complex composed of two houses of different periods and several outbuildings. The main structure is a two-story brick house, three bays wide and two deep, with a two-story entrance portico and a one-story east rear wing. The smaller dwelling, set at right angles to the main structure and connected to it by a breezeway, is also two stories high, three bays wide and two deep, and is constructed of brick covered with stucco.

The principal structure faces north. The front and rear of the main block and the rear elevation of the wing are laid in Flemish bond, and the sides of both sections are laid in three-to-one common bond. The high brick foundation projects slightly, and the water table is marked by a single course of molded brick headers. The openings are surmounted by handsome flat arches. In each bay of the foundation is a six-pane casement window, protected by a wooden grille. A low gable roof of standing-seam tin covers the structure. The eaves are boxed at the front and rear, with a molded cornice. The gables are accented by a deep molded cornice which is interrupted on each side by the stack of the exterior end chimney. Each chimney, constructed of brick laid in three-to-one common bond, has single concave shoulders and a molded cap with a corbel cornice and a stucco band.

In the center bay at each level of the main facade is a doorway. The main entrance at the first level consists of a double door, each leaf containing five flat panels, surmounted by a transom with pointed-arched tracery. The entrance, framed by an ovolo-molded architrave and flat-paneled soffit and reveals, has a flat arch and a granite sill. The second-story entrance consists of a single flat-paneled door beneath a four-pane transom within an ovolo-molded architrave. A handsome Doric tetrastyle entrance portico protects both stories. The pediment, with a stuccoed tympanum and molded cornice and frieze, is supported by stuccoed brick pillars with plaster capitals. Brick steps lead to the center bay of the first-level porch, and a plain wood balustrade encloses both lower and upper porches. The portico rests on brick piers, with arched openings between the piers flanking the steps. The windows are identical throughout the structure, each having six-over-six sash set in a simple molded architrave, flanked by flat-paneled shutters and a sill composed of two rows of brick headers stuccoed to simulate stone. The rear central entrance and the entrance in the rear bay of the east side are identical, each having a single flat-paneled door in an ovolo-molded architrave.

A one-story shed porch extends across the rear elevation. In the east bay of the porch is a brick wing contemporary with the main block, while the west bays are open. The porch has stuccoed brick Doric columns, connected by a plain wood balustrade. Brick pillars form the porch foundation.

Both stories of the principal structure of Farmville Plantation follow a center hall plan one room deep, and the original simple, elegant trim is intact throughout the house. The walls at both levels are plastered, and each room in the main block has a molded baseboard and a molded plaster cornice. In the wing room a molded baseboard is present, but the wooden cornice appears to be a replacement. With the exception of the hall at the second level, each room is finished with a wainscot. The window openings throughout the structure have splayed reveals. Some of the doors and window reveals on the first floor are flat-paneled, and the remaining reveals in the house are plain. Wide molded architraves surround the window and door opening of both stories. The window architraves continue to the floor, framing a paneled section of the wainscot, with the window sill a continuation of the chair rail. Each of the interior doors has flat panels and is hung on butt hinges.

A concentric plaster medallion adorns the hall ceiling. The handsome open-string stair (cited in Waterman's Early Architecture of North Carolina) spirals against the west wall of the hall to the second story and is ornamented with delicate tulip brackets which terminate in tendrils on the fascia of the second-floor landing. The stair balustrade is composed of tall slender balusters square in section and an oval handrail. The stair appears to be copied from Owen Biddle's 1810 Young Carpenter's Assistant, a type found in many fine Piedmont houses.

The focus of the parlor is a tall, wide three-part Federal mantel. Flanking Doric pilasters, each with a single vertical flat panel, support a plain frieze with end blocks, a deeply molded cornice that breaks out over the end blocks, and a narrow shelf. The dado in this room is flat-paneled, with a molded chair rail. The dining room mantel is simpler, with a wide molded architrave surrounding the fireplace opening, a wide plain frieze, and a molded cornice with a narrow shelf. The wainscot here is identical to that in the parlor. The mantel in the wing is quite similar to the dining room mantel but features a more complex surround. The wainscot in this room is composed of raised panels and a molded chair rail. Both second-story mantels are identical to the mantel in the first-story wing. Each second-story room has a horizontally sheathed wainscot and molded chair rail.

The full basement, divided into two rooms by a brick partition wall, was recently renovated. The west chimney contains a supporting arch at this level while the east chimney has a segmental-arched fireplace opening. The door and window openings in the basement have wooden arches and are set within segmental relieving arches.

The main (west) facade of the smaller structure faces the east side of the principal residence and is connected to it by a breezeway. This breezeway, although of recent construction, is perhaps rebuilt from an earlier passageway. The walls of this building are of brick laid in one-to-three common bond with a thick stucco coating (a recent addition) and set on a random fieldstone foundation. The gable roof, covered with standing-seam tin, has boxed eaves and molded cornices at the front and rear, with plain cornices at the gables. The structure originally had two exterior end chimneys, but the south chimney and the cap of the large north chimney have disappeared.

The remaining chimney has deep single convex shoulders. The main facade has two entrances, a center one and the one in the south bay, both with granite sills. The unequally sized windows, with brick header sills, have six-over-six sash. Plain, thin architraves surround the door and window openings, and flat arches surmount the second-story windows in the east elevation. The floor joist beams of the second story protrude from the main facade, possibly once having extended as a porch roof. The structure has been completely renovated on the interior. The hall-and-parlor plan now present is possibly a retention of the original division of space. The north fireplace on the first floor still exists and is very large with a segmental-arched opening.