Thursday, February 24, 2011

Historic Stagville | Durham, NC

Last Saturday was a great day to get out and enjoy some of the local history. We drove out to Historic Stagville and enjoyed a nice walk around the property. 
Stagville is North Carolina's largest pre-Civil War plantation and one of the South's largest. It once belonged to the Bennehan-Cameron family, whose combined holdings totaled approximately 900 slaves and almost 30,000 acres by 1860. Today, Stagville consists of 71 acres, on three tracts. On this land stand the late 18th-century Bennehan House, four rare slave houses, a pre-Revolutionary War farmer's house, a huge timber framed barn built by skilled slave craftsmen, and the Bennehan Family cemetery. - NC Historic Sites Website



Photo of the front of the late 18th Century Bennehan family house and the view of the back of the house walking up from the visitors center.



Next we headed toward the timber framed barn with its quite unusually decorations.





Here is a photo of one of the other smaller barns on the property. This one did not have  the unusually front decoration as the larger barn, but still very beautiful.




As we turn to leave the barn areas to walk back up to the house we see this thorn tree. I believe it is a Locust Thorn Tree, I would have to say it was very thorny and I wouldn't want to run into it.


Next stop.... the Bennehan Family Cemetery. I find cemeteries to be very peaceful and love to look at the grave stones and the beauty in them.






Also on the property are a couple of tables, so this would be a nice place to spend the afternoon with a nice picnic lunch. Check out their website for more informations and upcoming events.