This Home in NC was Built for a Huge Plantation that is Long Gone

William Wright Faison House - Friendship, Faison North Carolina

Date added: September 01, 2024

Do you have an update on the current status of this structure? Please tell us about it in the comments below.

The William Wright Faison House, a fine example of rural Greek Revival style design and one of an array of large residences built by related families of the county during the antebellum period. The house occupies a 1.2-acre site that is part of the original 3,500-acre plantation amassed by Faison before the Civil War. Situated on a broad, flat plateau above Goshen Swamp and the headwaters of King Branch, the house symbolizes the age of agricultural prosperity in the antebellum era, and preserves the ambiance of the big house standing as a beacon amid miles of well-tended fields. The high quality of design and craftsmanship exhibited throughout the structure likely are due to the influence the Wilmington and Raleigh (as of 1855, Wilmington and Weldon) Railroad had in bringing increased commerce and up-to-date cultural trends to upland settlements. An earlier building on the property, a school building dating to ca. 1830, is also architecturally important for its distinctive characteristics of the Federal and Greek Revival styles.

In the mid- to late-eighteenth century, farmers in the upland district of Duplin County located themselves along inland trading paths and the numerous tributaries that fed the Northeast Cape Fear River. Beginning in the late 1830s, the tracks of the Wilmington & Raleigh (later Weldon) Railroad stimulated growth to an unprecedented degree. The advent of the railroad permitted farmers to move from a subsistence mode into being production farmers. It allowed farm produce to be shipped quickly to the port of Wilmington or other markets. Among the planters who purchased rail-access tracts in the area were Faison, Herring, Hicks, and Hooks who established contiguous plantations and developed a social and economic network.

William Wright Faison (1810-1868), a native of Duplin County; and his wife, Elizabeth (Betsy) Ann Oates (1817-1902) also of Duplin, married December 19^th, 1833. Their union produced ten children, nine of whom lived to adulthood. In 1835, William began amassing his plantation of 1305 acres southwest of Goshen Swamp. He built his house on the last tract of land, 383 acres on King Branch, that he acquired in 1852 from Joel D. Battle.

The couple moved into their house, and there raised and educated nine of their ten children, six daughters and three sons. A seventh daughter died at the age of two and is buried in the family cemetery across the road. The children's primary education occurred in a schoolhouse near the residence. It is believed to be a part of an earlier house on the site owned by Colonel Charles Hooks, a Revolutionary War veteran, who later moved to Alabama where he became a Democratic representative in the U.S. Congress. Through dedicated work and determination, assisted greatly by the development of the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad, the Faisons prospered on the plantation.

In the 1850 census, W. W. Faison lists himself as a "farmer" with nineteen slaves and property valued at $5000. By 1860, the value of his property had increased to $13,830 in real and $24,654 in personal property with twenty-six slaves.

Local legend alleges that during the Civil War, Federal troops attempted to burn the house several times, but on each occasion, the slaves rallied and put the fires out. Through succeeding generations, the house and land have remained in the possession of Faison family heirs, who, like their forebears, were active in political, civic, and social pursuits. A great-granddaughter of William and Elizabeth Faison, Betty Rae McCain, is the immediate past Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, a state cabinet-level post.

William Wright Faison died on March 13^th, 1868. Mrs. McCain related a family anecdote about the death of William Wright Faison. He and his black overseer, "Uncle Washington" went out for their daily inspection of the plantation to plan the day's work. Mr. Faison fell dead from his horse and his faithful overseer carried him back to his home. Faison's acreage was divided equally among the eight surviving children, and his widow, Elizabeth Ann, who received the tract on which is located, the house. She continued to live on the plantation until her death in 1902.

At auction in 1903, the sheriff of Duplin County, L. Middleton, conveyed the 145-acre house tract to John H. Hardy in exchange for his bid and payment of $1400. Through a series of wills, the house became the property of Charity Parker Kalmar (1891-1970,) niece of John Hardy and his brothers. She gave the house to her son, John Nicholas Kalmar (1928-1982) during her lifetime. His widow Claire Kalmar inherited it in 1982 and continues to own it.

The Greek Revival style in America developed between the 1820s and 1860s as a result of two basic factors: the emergence of a cultural identity based on classical ideals and the rapid advance of the national economy. A full-fledged Greek Revival style was in its ascendancy, especially in public architecture, one of the finest examples in the state being the 1833-40 Capitol in Raleigh, designed by the eminent New York architectural firm of Town and Davis. By 1843, the port of Wilmington embraced the style in a new Custom House facing the Cape Fear River, designed by New York architect, John H. Norris. The two-story brick structure featured Tower of the Winds columns supporting a broad pediment and a cast iron balcony above the ground floor. Norris' Custom House began the public use of Greek Revival in the counties of the Lower Cape Fear.

Greek Revival details first appeared in porches, moldings and mantels applied to traditional residential structures. In the Cape Fear region, a domestic building, Orton Plantation, was the first to employ the Greek Revival style. Dr. Frederick Jones Hill enlarged and enhanced his eighteenth-century Orton plantation house, in 1840, by adding a tall Doric portico and classical frieze to the riverfront of his plantation. The following year, Armand J. DeRosset, Jr. chose the Greek Revival style for his new residence at Second and Dock streets, featuring a front porch incorporating six Doric columns and a classical frieze similar to that at Orton. Within a short time, the style spread into the countryside where the Black, Cape Fear and South rivers flowed, and railroads ran, spurring economic and cultural interests among urban and rural residents.

During the 1840s, 1850s and 1860s the rural population built plantations, farmhouses and churches in the Coastal Plain exhibiting the Greek Revival style with such fervor that the architecture became a part of the romantic image of the Old South for generations. Farmhouse after farmhouse displays evidence of Greek Revival characteristics.

The front elevation of the W. W. Faison House is dominated by a ca. 1948 colossal portico supported by four paneled posts with molded caps and crowned by a balustrade of Chippendale pattern above a plain frieze and ogee cornice; a balcony with sheaf-of-wheat balustrade was added to frame the upstairs door. The W.W. Faison House is said to originally have had a double-story front porch across the entire facade. If so, it would have been unique. Double-story porches on other Greek Revival houses in the region are of two sorts: those that are three-bay and those of one-bay that cover just the entrance. Several employ the sheaf-of-wheat motif in porch balustrades like that used around the current second-story balcony of the Faison House.

The William Wright Faison House has good exterior integrity and is the largest in scale and proportion of all the Duplin County Greek Revival style plantations. They all have corner boards and wide entablatures at the eaves. The Faison House has especially well executed, bold, pedimented gable end walls. The front doors at both the first and second floors, are nicely crafted, with transoms and sidelights. The doors themselves are unique, each executed with four octagonal panels.

The W.W. Faison House evidences remarkable interior integrity. While like others, it has a center hall, double-pile plan, the Faison House's center hall is especially wide, more like a room than a hall. The interiors of the Greek Revival houses are similarly finished with plaster walls, simple door and window frames, baseboards and pilastered mantels; however, the Faison House expresses the features far more boldly. It also has some unique features, like the faceted newel post and, in the front parlor, crossetted door and window frames with panels beneath the windows. The Duplin Greek Revival dwellings owe their academic design quality to the cultural transference enabled by the railroad that traveled through the area.

The rare mid-nineteenth-century school on the property may date to as early as 1830. The single pile building has a steep gable roof with a very shallow, plain rake. The front and rear walls feature a frieze board and capped corner boards, and crossetted window frames and pointed lintels are also indicative of the Greek Revival style. The nine-over-six windows and the plain end gables suggest a construction date earlier than the main house.

Building Description

Built about 1852 and located five miles southeast of Faison, the traditional agricultural capital of Duplin County, North Carolina, the William Wright Faison House, known as Friendship, is one of a distinctive assemblage of Greek Revival style, antebellum plantations built by kindred families in the northwest corner of the county.

Goshen Swamp forms a wide arc beyond the northern and eastern borders of the property. State Route 1304, connecting Faison with the nearby crossroads community of Friendship, bridges the swamp half a mile to the northwest and passes directly in front of the house. Much of the land now comprises stands of swamp oak, piney woods, and loamy, upland fields. State Route 1354, running southwest to Bowdens, formerly an important stop on the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad line from the port city of Wilmington, is two-tenths of a mile north of the property. The road in front of the house is bordered by a dense row of tall trees, mainly magnolia, chestnut and oak. Pines and pecans dot the plot and camellias and yews are planted close to the house. The 1.2-acre tract surrounding the residence and outbuildings is a remnant of a plantation that reached 1,300 acres in its prime, prior to the Civil War. The site includes the William Wright Faison House, school, slave house ruins, barn, pump house and three metal feed tanks.

The William Wright Faison House is a massive, noteworthy example of the frame plantation architecture in the Greek Revival style, popular throughout the region during the second quarter of the nineteenth century.

The two-story house, three bays wide and two bays deep, faces northeast toward the road, and beyond, a wooded landscape defining Goshen Swamp. The front, northeast elevation is graced by a tall portico supported by four paneled posts with molded caps and crowned by a balustrade of Chippendale pattern above a plain frieze and ogee cornice. Locals remember the house having a double-story front porch extended across the facade, similar to other plantations in the region. In the late 1940s, the porch was altered to its present appearance and a balcony was added to frame the upstairs door. Doors at both levels have four chamfered panels, four-light transoms, and three-pane sidelights with chamfered lower panels. A small balcony with sheaf-of-wheat balustrades surmounts the entrance and is supported from underneath by square, molded-cap posts. Windows contain six-over-six sash and plain frames with mitered backbands. Walls are sheathed with plain-edge weatherboards, and the terminations of the structure are accentuated by paneled corner boards, a hallmark of Greek Revival design. Low-pitched pediments crown the side elevations, and twin interior chimneys rise through the ridge of the side-gabled concrete shingled roof.

A one-story, transverse gable service wing, dating to the mid-twentieth century, is attached to the central bay of the rear, southwest, elevation. It is two bays wide and three bays deep. A center rear door is flanked by six-over-six sash windows; a porch was recently added to the rear facade. The northwest side elevation contains a pair of windows and a single sash, all six-over-six; the southeast side has two six-over-six sash and a bay window.

A broad center hall extends through the depth of the house past the front stair and four large corner chambers. Throughout, heart pine flooring and plaster ceilings and walls finish the interior. The open string, straight run stair is well executed with a faceted newel post, square balusters supporting a rounded handrail. Hall doors leading to the chambers have Greek Revival type, double vertical panels, and frames with triangular backband moldings. Adjacent to the doors on the hall side are high, beaded boards for clothes hooks. Twin interior chimneys, rising through the dividing walls between front and rear rooms, contain four fireplaces in each stack. The wooden mantels consist of square-base, molded-cap pilasters supporting a wide frieze and projecting shelf. The parlor, on the north, is more ornately finished than the other rooms. Its mantel has arch-topped paneled pilasters supporting tall, but plain, end blocks in the frieze. Panels rest between the window sills and the baseboards, with the whole being framed by long crossettes. The second floor is finished identically to the plainer rooms on the first.

Twenty feet southeast of the house is a one-story, gable-end building formerly used as a school for the Faison children. It may be the remnant of an earlier dwelling on the property, or as family tradition hints, it may have been moved to the property. Currently it is vacant and deteriorating. The front contains two bays, one a door; the rear has three; and the ends each have one bay, one being a door. Elements on the structure suggest construction as early as 1830. The details include Federal style nine-over-six sash windows with Greek Revival crossetted frames and pointed hoods; board-and-batten and four-panel doors are set in frames similar to those of the windows. A steep gable roof, covered by standing-seam metal, has no overhang or entablature along the ends, and is carried on narrow corner boards. The interior walls are covered with wide, flush, beaded wooden, horizontal paneling, has heart pine tongue-and-groove flooring, and beaded-board ceilings.

Behind the main house and tucked into the edge of the woods stood a small, unpainted structure, the only surviving slave house on the former plantation. A steep gable-end roof extended down over the front elevation to shelter double wooden steps and twin, board-and-batten doors opened into the two-cell interior. Rough corner posts supported the asphalt-covered roof before the entire structure collapsed.

A two-story, gable-end, weatherboarded barn stands several yards west of the house. Constructed of typical wood-frame construction with exposed studs nailed into sills and plates, it has a one-story, three-bay equipment shed attached at the rear.

To the west, beside the house, a one-story concrete block pump house with a shed roof is adjacent to the driveway.

Farther west, three cylindrical, metal feed tanks with conical roofs, all of metal, sit close and at right angles, to the barn.