In the winter of 2021 to 2022, we had a breakthrough in researching the farm's history! We're saddened to report all of the details but want to paint an accurate picture.
The original part of the house was constructed between 1834 and 1840. It is two rooms wide, one room deep, and two stories - a configuration often referred to as an I-house. To dress up the house, the builders appear to have applied some Greek Revival style elements, including a small portico-looking porch (the current porch is a 1950s but probably similar version) and classical looking fireplace mantels.
The house was built for Dr. Boaz Adams, his wife Nancy Patterson, and their children (eventually 10 born). It seems that Nancy's mother's family, the Cobles (a very old and widespread family in this area), gave nearly 200 acres of their much larger plantation to Boaz and Nancy and possibly had the house built for them. Boaz died in 1849, was buried at a nearby Baptist church, and was honored with a large marble headstone featuring a masonic symbol. Nancy continued to run the house, but by 1880 Boaz and Nancy's second son, John R. Adams, and his family owned it. John may have remodeled the house extensively at that time (or perhaps earlier), adding a perpendicular kitchen wing and side porches (see Photo 1), moving the staircase, and creating three rooms on the second floor.
Unfortunately, Boaz and Nancy had at least three and possibly six enslaved people in 1840. By 1850, there were just three in residence: Adam (25), Bet (40), and Bet's daughter, Artilda (5). By 1860, only Bet and Artilda were still living on the farm. It's possible that Adam, Bet, and Artilda lived in the one-story building that used to stand just northwest of the main house (see Photo 2) although the building may not have been constructed until the late 1800s. We think we found information about Bet and Artilda after Emancipation. If that's true, both continued to live within 30 minutes of the farm, both got married, and Artilda had at least three children.
In the farmhouse's upper attic we found a letter and part of a law book dating to the 1830s. We also found five pairs of boots and shoes, 17 singles, and one slipper sole. Most boots and shoes appear to be from the late 1800s and early 1900s, but a few may be from the Civil War era. In addition, the attic contained numerous bottles. Most of the bottles (many for medicine) date to the late 1800s and early 1900s, but one bottle looks to be from the mid-1800s. The attic also held a few clothes, which appear to be from the early 1900s. We are still investigating why people placed or left so many things in the upper attic!
John Adams and his wife, Florence Adelade Edwards, moved to Greensboro in 1911, but the house and many surrounding acres (whose exact number fluctuated with each subsequent house sale) remained in the Adams family until 1926, when it sold to Micajah Braxton (most of whose large family lived a few miles to the east) and his wife, Nancy Elizabeth Stafford. Micajah died in 1944, but the Braxton family kept the house until 1950, when Flavius Hornaday (from another important and widespread family) purchased it.
In 1951, the house passed to Robert D. Hill and his wife, Virginia Hornaday. At that time, the house was sitting empty and was markedly deteriorated (see Photo 1). Among other things, the Hills added electricity, indoor plumbing, siding, and landscaping, rebuilt the front porch, expanded and enclosed the side porches, tore down the back chimney and built a new one on the side of the kitchen, and rebuilt the upper portions of the two original chimneys (see Photo 3).
Tobacco Pack House Renovation
One of the many selling points of the farm was the historical (likely pre-1900) two-story tobacco pack house that stands near the farmhouse (Photo 1). Even before purchasing the farm in fall 2021, Rebecca had visions of how to use it! Then reality hit and the amount of work and money needed to make it safe for use made us hit pause...until we found the right contractors to help us renovate it. While biding our time we did have some minimal work done on the tobacco pack house to help prevent further deterioration: its north-side sill plate (Photo 2), connecting floor joists, main roof (Photo 3), and east-side shed roof were replaced and a gutter was added. In addition, Rebecca cleaned out the incredible amount of junk that was left on the second floor (Photos 4 and 5), letting the pack house breathe again (Photo 6).
We're overjoyed to say that we did find the right contractor in fall 2024, who literally laid the foundation (Photo 7) for the rest of the work. That new foundation paved the way for the next stage in renovation: fixing the wood siding on the outside of the building and restoring the original wood window and doors.
Shortly after completion of the foundation work, Rebecca started on repairing and replacing the wood siding. She left as many original boards as possible, replacing only what was necessary (which, in some cases, was a whole lot). She completed the south side in 2024 (Figure 8), then completed the other sides in 2025 (Figures 9-11).
The tobacco pack house's one original single-hung window and its frame and sill were in rough shape. We didn't get a good in situ before photo but a pane was broken (Figure 12), the top sash was barely hanging on, and the sill was mostly rotted out (Figure 13). Still, having restored all of her wood windows in a previous historic house, Rebecca had the confidence to tackle all elements of this one (Figure 14).
The pack house's four doors were also in desperate need of repair. The ca. 1950s door in the east side of the first floor was easy once Rebecca painted it and removed the framing to fix rotten wood that prevented the door hinges from staying affixed.
The Greek Revival style door (probably originally in the house but retrofitted to the pack house) that serves as the pack house's main door was another story. It required many partial days of work to straighten and strengthen the door and door frame, level the bottom of the door, work on door closure, create a new sill, and add trim. Rebecca's quite proud of the final useable product (although it could still use a tiny bit of tweaking)!
Tobacco Drying Barn Stabilization
An old ax-cut log tobacco drying barn stands in the farm's woods. This structure has native clay chinking, v-notch log joints, and incredibly tight rings in its oak and pine logs. V-notching is one of the oldest forms of notching used in this region. Our current working hypothesis is that this barn dates to the 1880s, but it could potentially be older and there's a slight chance it was a residential cabin prior to being a tobacco drying barn. We plan to count log rings at some point to get a better idea of its age...
In the 1950s, Mr. Hill grew tobacco and retrofitted this old drying barn with oil-fed heaters and wood tobacco-hanging frames. Our neighbor remembers climbing up in this barn to hang tobacco leaves as a teen, and also helping Mr. Hill prepare tobacco in the pack house!
The lower logs and much of the north side of the barn have rotted despite the addition of tar paper (probably in the 1950s) to try to protect the logs, and the building was twisted and leaning. In late winter 2026, Lynco Restoration and Design LLC helped us stabilize this important piece of the farm's early history! We bolted cleats to sturdy logs in each corner then jacked up each corner in turn and removed the lower rotted logs. Now the building is level and can sit for some months before we build new stone foundation pillars and insert new logs. What an interesting process to be part of!
