Harwood Hall | |
---|---|
Alternative names | George Watts House |
General information | |
Status | Demolished |
Type | Private residence arts institution |
Architectural style | Châteauesque |
Location | Durham, North Carolina, U.S. |
Completed | 1897 |
Demolished | 1961 |
Owner | George Washington Watts Sara Virginia Ecker Watts John Sprunt Hill George Watts Hill |
Design and construction | |
Architect(s) | Kendall and Taylor |
Harwood Hall, also known as the George Watts House, was a mansion in the Morehead Hill Neighborhood of Durham, North Carolina. It was built for American manufacturer and philanthropist George Washington Watts in 1897. Following his death, Watts' second wife and widow, Sara Virginia Ecker Watts, stayed in the house until her remarriage to North Carolina Governor Cameron A. Morrison. The wedding ceremont of Sara Watts and Governor Morrison took place at Harwood Hall. After his widow's remarriage, the house passed down to Watts' daughter, Annie Louise Watts, and her husband, John Sprunt Hill. The house was later inherited by their son, the banker and philanthropist George Watts Hill. The mansion was demolished in 1961 to make way for what would become Duke University School of Medicine's Physician Assistant Program building.
In 1879, Baltimore businessman George Washington Watts decided to build a residence on the ridge of a small valley by West Chapel Hill Street in what is now the Morehead Hill neighborhood in Durham, North Carolina. [1] Watts purchased land from William Vickers and built a large Queen Anne style house between what would become Morehead Avenue, South Duke Street, and Proctor Street. [1] The house was completed in 1880. [1] Once construction on the house was complete, Watts' wife and daughter, Laura Valinda Beale and Annie Louise Watts, joined him in Durham. [1] [2]
Between 1895 and 1896, Watts had his house moved across South Duke Street to make way for a new, more elaborate mansion. [2] His old house became the site of the Calvert School (the precursor to Durham Academy). [3] [4] He hired the contractor C.H. Norton and a Boston-based architectural firm, Kendall and Taylor, to construct a three-story pink granite Châteauesque mansion, which he named Harwood Hall. [2] [3] The same architectural firm was used to build Watts Hospital and the future home of Watts' daughter, the John Sprunt Hill House. [1] Watts and his wife lived at Harwood Hall throughout the early decades of the twentieth century. [1] His first wife died in 1915, [5] and he later married a second time to Sara Virginia Ecker, who had been his family's nurse. [4] [6] In 1921, Watts became ill and died. Thousands of people attended the funeral service at Harwood Hall. [1] His widow continued to live at the house until she remarried to North Carolina Governor Cameron A. Morrison in 1924. [4] The estate then passed to Watts' daughter, Annie, and her husband, John Sprunt Hill. [1] They gifted the mansion to their son, George Watts Hill, who moved in with his wife, Ann McCulloch, after an 18-month honeymoon. [1]
Ann McCulloch Hill, an artist who was the daughter of schoolteachers, considered Harwood Hall ostentatious, calling it "a fifty room monstrosity - the satisfied desire of dead ancestors." [1] Despite her disdain for the mansion, she and George lived at Harwood Hall from 1926 until 1938, when they moved to their dairy farm, Quail Roost. [1] The house then served as a temporary home for nurses at Watts Hospital. [1] [4] After returning from fighting in World War II, Hill tried to find an alternative purpose for Harwood Hall, contacting with a hotel management company in 1949 to try and convert the home into a stylish hotel. [1] The hotel deal fell through, resulting in Hill turning the home over to the Allied Arts of Durham in 1954. [1] Allied Arts, a precursor to the Durham Arts Council, was made up of The Art Guild, Civic Choral Society, Duke University Arts Council, Chamber Arts Society, and the Durham chapter of the North Carolina Symphony Society. [1] They occupied Harwood Hall until 1960, when they moved to the nearby Foushee House. [1]
In January 1961, Harwood Hall was demolished to make way for the Hospital Care Association Building, which would later become the Duke University School of Medicine's Physician Assistant Program building. [4] An artist named Gerard Tempest purchased materials from the house for $5,000 in order to build an arts space on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill. [1]
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolling students in 1795, making it one of the oldest public universities in the United States.
Durham is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County and Wake County. With a population of 283,506 in the 2020 census, Durham is the fourth-most populous city in North Carolina and the 70th-most populous city in the United States. The city is located in the east-central part of the Piedmont region along the Eno River. Durham is the core of the four-county Durham–Chapel Hill metropolitan area, which had an estimated population of 608,879 in 2023. The Office of Management and Budget also includes Durham as a part of the Raleigh–Durham–Cary, NC Combined Statistical Area, commonly known as the Research Triangle, which had an estimated population of 2,368,947 in 2023.
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John Sprunt Hill was a North Carolina lawyer, banker and philanthropist who played a fundamental role in the civic and social development of Durham, North Carolina, the expansion of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the development of rural credit unions in North Carolina during the first half of the 20th century.
George Watts Hill was an American banker, hospital administrator and philanthropist who played a key role in the socioeconomic development of Durham, North Carolina, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Research Triangle Park. He was also instrumental in health care reform, the desegregation of Durham, the education of children with learning disabilities, and the removal of the Speaker Ban Law.
George Washington Watts was an American manufacturer, financier and philanthropist. Alongside James B. Duke, he co-founded the American Tobacco Company. He also founded Watts Hospital, which was the first hospital in Durham, North Carolina, and prompted the establishment of Duke University.
Central Carolina Bank and Trust (CCB) was a bank headquartered in Durham, North Carolina. It began in 1961 with the merger of Durham Bank & Trust and University National Bank of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Central Carolina Bank and Trust merged with SunTrust Banks of Atlanta, Georgia in 2005, which in turn merged with BB&T to form Truist Financial. Its headquarters was the historic 17-story Hill Building in North Carolina.
The John Sprunt Hill House is a historic house at 900 S. Duke street in Durham, North Carolina, in the Morehead Hill Historic District.
Morehead Hill Historic District is a national historic district located at Durham, Durham County, North Carolina. The district encompasses 206 contributing buildings in a predominantly residential section of Durham. They were built between the late-19th century and 1950s and include notable examples of Late Victorian, Queen Anne, and Bungalow / American Craftsman style architecture.
Morrocroft is a historic home located at Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. It was designed by architect Harrie T. Lindeberg and built between 1925 and 1927. It is a Colonial Revival/Tudor Revival style brick manor house. It consists of a main two story block with rambling 1+1⁄2-story side wings. It is characterized by picturesque massing, rhythmic spacing of mullioned, multipaned grouped windows, and numerous multi-stack chimneys rising from steeply pitched gable roofs. It was built by North Carolina Governor and Congressman Cameron A. Morrison and his second wife, Sara Ecker Watts Morrison. After Morrison's death in 1953, the house passed to his daughter, Angelia Lawrance Morrison Harris.
Whitehall Terrace, also known as the Richard H. Wright II House, is a Colonial Revival mansion in Durham, North Carolina. Completed in 1929, it was built for businessman Richard H. Wright II and his wife, Mary Scalon Wright. Whitehall Terrace was one of the first houses constructed on the north side of Durham's Duke Park neighborhood. Recognized as a historic landmark by the Durham City-County Planning Department and the Durham Architectural and Historic Inventory, it was included in Duke Park's nomination to the National Register of Historic Places.
Margaret Rose Sanford was an American civic leader, teacher, and philanthropist who, as the wife of Terry Sanford, served as First Lady of North Carolina from 1961 to 1965. Prior to entering public life, she worked as a teacher in North Carolina and Kentucky. As first lady, Sanford hosted the first annual North Carolina Symphony Ball in 1961, established a library of North Carolinian books at the North Carolina Executive Mansion, and planted a rose garden on the mansion's grounds. She was the first governor's wife to decorate the Governor's Western Residence in Asheville. Sanford sent her children to the first racially integrated public elementary school in Raleigh, North Carolina, while the family lived in the executive mansion. She served on the board of the Methodist Home for Children, the North Carolina School of the Arts, the Stagville Plantation Restoration Board, and East Carolina University. She was also a member of the Education Commission of the States and the Defense Department Advisory Committee on Women in the Services. While Sanford's husband served as president of Duke University, she was appointed by Governor Jim Hunt to serve on a delegation of university faculty and administrators to China in 1975.
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Angelia Lawrance Harris was an American heiress, political hostess, philanthropist, and businesswoman. She served as First Lady of North Carolina during the administration of her widowed father, Governor Cameron A. Morrison, from 1921 to 1924, until her father remarried to Sara Virginia Ecker Watts. She was the second daughter of a North Carolinian governor to serve as First Lady during his term, after Helen Whitaker Fowle Knight. Throughout the Morrison administration, she was known as the "little mistress of the mansion." In her later life, she lived at her Charlotte estate, Morrocroft, and operated an antique business. Harris was a benefactor of multiple institutions including Queens College, St. Andrews Presbyterian College, and the Mint Museum, and was appointed by Governor Dan K. Moore to serve on the North Carolina Executive Mansion Fine Arts Commission.
Sara Virginia Ecker Watts Morrison was an American nurse, heiress, philanthropist, and civic leader. She was first married to financier George Washington Watts, whom she met while working as a nurse at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Left widowed with a vast fortune in 1921, she became active in her late husband's philanthropic endeavors. She later married Cameron A. Morrison, who was serving as Governor of North Carolina, becoming First Lady of North Carolina. She served as First Lady from 1924 to 1925.
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