Waynesborough Historical Village




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The Grange
Interior - Interior - Interior

The Salem School (Ponoma Grange Museum) was built in 1890 on Salem Church Road. It is believed the structure was a two-room schoolhouse. The building was moved to the Village and placed on brick piers as it was at the original site. The building now houses artifacts and historical documents of the State Grange.

The Wiggins House
Side door - Interior - Interior - Interior - Interior

The Wiggins House is a one-room structure with a fireplace for heating. The building originally had a detached kitchen. There was no inside plumbing or electricity. Water for drinking and cooking was brought from a spring, or gathered by rain barrels set beneath the eaves of the house. The house and surrounding yard was enclosed by a picket fence to keep animals from the flowerbeds and from entering the house. James Williams Wiggins and his wife Louise Casey Wiggins built the house in the mid 1800s on land that is now part of the Cliffs of the Neuse State Park.

Dr. Kennedy's Office
Interior - Interior - Interior

The office of Dr. John Bryan Kennedy (1845-1915) was built around 1870. A native of the Grantham Community, his practice and office were located there. Dr. Kennedy had a distinguished career in the Confederate Army, having enlisted at the age of sixteen. He earned his medical degree from Vanderbilt University and, at the time of his death, was the oldest doctor in Wayne County. Note the back door; those who died in the doctor's office were taken out this door, so as not to disturb the patients waiting to be seen.

Park Hill School
Interior

The Park Hill School is typical of rural schools in Wayne County at the turn of the century. This building was erected in 1911 about 1/4 mile east of Selah Church on land deeded by Nathan Bishop and Sarah Wilson Cox. It was the third Park Hill School building in that location. This building was moved to Waynesborough Village and restored by the Grand Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and is considered their State Museum. The Neuse Odd Fellows Lodge was chartered at Waynesborough in 1845, and is still an active lodge meeting regularly in Goldsboro. The pier that the house sits on contains marble slabs original to the Odd Fellows Orphanage formerly located in Herman Park on Ash Street.

Faircloth Law Office
Interior - Interior

Attorney William T. Faircloth built this law office in 1868. It was located on the north side of Walnut Street across from the Wayne County Courthouse in "Lawyers' Row." Judge Faircloth served the latter years of his life as a Chief Justice of the North Carolina State Supreme Court.

Bethany Friends Meeting House
Interior - Interior

The Meeting House was built in 1878 on land given by Nathan B. and Sarah Wilson Cox. The outgrowth of Falling Creek Meeting of Friends, meetings were held for 10 years in the Quaker school located on the farm of William Cox, Jr. In 1879, Contentnea Quarterly Meeting of Friends approved "Bethany" as the new name. Services were discontinued at Bethany Meeting in 1953. The building was moved to Waynesborough Village in 1990.

Elder John R. Roberts School
Interior

Built circa 1834, this building was a one-room schoolhouse used until 1926. The family deeded the property to the Primitive Baptist Church, Gum Pond, which used the building for church services.

General Store and Blacksmith Shop

This general store was built in the early 1890s. The Jim Hooks family of Fremont donated it to the village in 1995. The store is open for business with toys and novelty items as well as T-shirts, hats and items crafted by the blacksmith shop located to the left. The Blacksmith Shop was constructed on this site as a new structure, but represents a typical shop of the area. The logs came from a barn near Seven Springs. The interior contains all the requirements and necessary items of a blacksmith shop.

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