Jones, Nancy, House

About this property

Nancy Jones House is a historic home located near Cary, Wake County, North Carolina. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. It is the oldest surviving structure in Cary. The Nancy Jones House was built on a 2,000-acre (810 ha) plantation on Chapel Hill Road in 1803 by Nathaniel Jones, known as Nathaniel Jones of Crabtree to differentiate him from Nathaniel Jones of White Plains who lived nearby. Jones' son Henry inherited the house in 1809. Henry married Nancy Ann Jones, daughter of Nathaniel Jones of White Plains, in 1813. Henry and Nancy started a stagecoach stop and a tavern out of the home which became a landmark on the route between the capital city Raleigh and Chapel Hill, home to the University of North Carolina. Maps of the era refer to Jones Ordinary. Henry left the running tavern and the stagecoach stop to Nancy while he tended to the farms on the property and 32 enslaved people. Nancy did not offer overnight accommodations for travelers, but did serve midday meals and brandy. One historian notes, "It was said to be the only fit place for important visitors to stop on the Raleigh–Chapel Hill route." When Henry died in 1841, Nancy inherited the house and 434 acres (176 ha) and continued to run the tavern and stagecoach stop for another 30 years. Her five children lived nearby on land they inherited. The house was supposedly the setting of one of North Carolina's folklore. In 1838, North Carolina's Governor Edward B. Dudley and South Carolina's Governor Pierce Mason Butler stopped at the tavern while traveling between Raleigh and Chapel Hill. As they consumed apple and peach brandy, Dudley said between rounds, "Its a damned long time between drinks". Laney, an enslaved server in the tavern, was shocked by the language and notified Nancy Jones who was "shocked by the affront to her hospitality". Other notable people have visited the house such as President James K. Polk, traveling with Governor William Alexander Graham and former governors John Motley Morehead and John Branch, while on his way to a give a commencement speech at University of North Carolina in 1847. Polk mentioned stopping for the "noontime meal at the Jones House" in his diary. On April 17, 1865, the day, Raleigh surrendered to Union General William T. Sherman, Major General Francis Preston Blair, Jr led the XVII Corps (Union Army) into Cary and established headquarters at the Nancy Jones House. After the Civil War, Nancy's son Adolphus operated a school from the house. Nancy died in 1876 and left the house to Adolpus. In 1878, Adolpus moved into Cary and sold the house to S. R. Horne. Other owners of the house in the late 19th and early 20th centuries include businessman Russell O. Heater and civic and political leader Henry Adams. Audrey Mary and Thomas Robert Stone, who ran a barbeque restaurant in Cary, purchased the house and sixteen acres from Adams in 1935.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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