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The Farmhouse
The farmhouse at Duke Homestead, a plain
vernacular house with hints of Greek Revival influence, was constructed in
1852 by Washington Duke. The two-story frame building originally
contained only four rooms, two on either side of a central chimney.
A small structure at the rear of the house served as a kitchen. The
interior walls of the home were fashioned of hand-dressed, heart-pine
boards--a feature typical of North Carolina farmhouses of the
mid-1800s. The furnishings and household items on display are
representative of those which were in use in farmhouses of the region
during the mid-nineteenth century.
Beneath the house is a root cellar which served
as a cool storage place during hot summer months for the family's stock of
fruits, vegetables, and other foods. A well house, smokehouse, and
grape arbors are close by the house.

Washington Duke's
original 1852 homestead. |