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The Horace Williams House

Restoration of the Horace Williams House was the second project of the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill. The Society was formed in October 1972 in order to respond to a threat to the Betty Smith House (315 East Rosemary), the first project successfully resolved by the fledgling Society. In May 1973 the Preservation Society obtained a lease on the Horace Williams House from the University of North Carolina. After a gift was made by Dermott Hedrick to help restore the Octagon Room, the Society and the University jointly carried out an extensive renovation of the whole house. The initial renovation cost was nearly $90,000.

The Horace Williams House now serves as the headquarters of the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill, and as a cultural center for the entire community. Art exhibits, concerts, lectures and other events take place regularly, and are usually free of charge. The House is governed by the Preservation Society, and run on a day-to-day basis by the Society's Executive Director with significant help from volunteers who give hours of their time for this purpose.

Occupants and Architectural Styles

The Dining Room (Farmhouse Room): This is the oldest part of the house, and was built around the 1840s. Benjamin S. Hedrick bought the property from the University of North Carolina for $300 in 1855; presumably this included the house. Hedrick was a native of Salisbury who taught chemistry at UNC.

The style is Greek Revival, which was popular during this time. Typical Greek Revival features are doors with two vertical panels, transoms over exterior doors, wide pine flooring and windows with six panes in both upper and lower sashes.

The house was built by local craftsmen who, on their own, copied what they saw elsewhere. It has simple window moldings and cornerblocks and a simple mantel intended to give the impression of a shelf supported by columns.

Benjamin Hedrick was the only person to have been dismissed by UNC for his political beliefs. He was a supporter of Fremont, an outspoken opponent of slavery. (Fremont ran against Buchanan in 1856.) The press across North Carolina demanded his resignation and he was burned in effigy on the UNC campus. The New York Times called him "a live Republican in North Carolina," and ten days later he was dismissed from UNC. He left the state, but returned after ten years to work with president Andrew Johnson and North Carolina Governor Jonathan Worth, both close friends, to restore North Carolina to the Union.

The Octagon Room

The Octagon Room is believed to have been built by Hedrick sometime between 1852 and 1855. It was connected to the Farmhouse Room by a breezeway or "dogtrot." The local story was that Hedrick, a scientist, believed that as a bee's honeycomb provided maximum strength in nature, so it would in a building. It was called the "Hexagon House" by the local people.

The Octagonal Style was very popular in the United States between 1840 and 1860. This style was inspired by a book, which ran through six editions, entitled "A Home For All" or "The Gravel Wall and Octagon Mode of Building." The author, Orson Squire Fowler, was a prolific writer on the subject of marital happiness, and he believed the octagon shape would "save a large and stirring family... a number of steps."

The Octagon Room has a square roof. James Webb, a local architect for the restoration of the Horace Williams House, speculated that the local craftsmen did not know how to frame an octagon roof, so they added brick piers, a square roof and tiny triangular porches. The windows, moldings, and cornerblocks are similar to those in the Farmhouse Room. The mantel, door, and windows trim are in the Greek Revival Style.

Benjamin Hedrick sold the house to H. Hosea Smith in 1857 for $1500. Smith was a native of New Hampshire and a professor at UNC. He had a charge of gunpowder set off under his chair (in class) in 1861 when he did not volunteer for the Confederate Army. He forgave his students and stayed until the university closed during the Reconstruction. Governor Zebulon Vance was a frequent visitor to the house when Smith was in ownership. Smith's son, Hoke, who grew up in the house, became governor of Georgia and later Secretary of the Interior under President Grover Cleveland.

The Parlor

After George T. Winston, a professor of Latin at UNC, bought the property for $1000 in 1879, he added the front parlor, the front porch, and enclosed the entrance hall (sometimes referred to as the south parlor) during the 1880s or early 1890s. He also had his dining room downstairs under the Octagon Room (in what is now the basement). Without screens on the windows, it was the only way to avoid flies.

The ceiling in the parlor is covered with tongue and groove beaded pine paneling laid in a parquet-like design. The entrance hall ceiling is similarly paneled. The wainscoting is also pine. The mantels are typical Victorian and were probably ordered from a catalog of so-called Eastlake styles. Spindles and brackets on the front porch (probably also ordered from a catalog) provide Chapel Hill's best example of Eastlake architecture.

Five-paneled double interior doors, decorative vents and exterior siding and a variety of window sizes and shapes were also typical of the Victorian period. In a 1988 redecoration of the parlor, the walls were repainted with a glazed effect, which was typical of the period.

George T. Winston was President of UNC from 1891 to 1896. He was best known for his campaign against merchants who sold "spirituous" liquors close to campus. He left in 1896 to become President of the University of Texas. Three years later he returned to North Carolina to become the second president of what is now N.C. State University.

Horace Williams

Horace Williams was the last private owner of the house. He bought it in 1897 for $1450. He had been living in the house since 1891. A graduate of UNC, he was appointed to the Chair of Mental and Moral Science (Philosophy) upon receiving his Doctor of Divinity degree from Yale University. People across the state were concerned that teaching philosophy could include teaching subjects like evolution, which was considered at that time to be bordering on heresy. Because of the divinity degree, Horace Williams seemed a "safe" choice. However, he was always an eccentric, and eventually became known as the "campus gadfly". He used the Socratic method of teaching, which involved questioning and much discussion rather than lecturing. Often these discussions were held at Professor Williams' home (the Horace Williams House). He was much loved by his students, and numerous stories have been told about him.

Horace Williams remained at the University for half a century, and on his death in 1940 bequeathed all his property to the institution. The house became a rental for professors and their families, until its gradually deteriorated condition attracted the attention of the Preservation Society (as mentioned previously). Though the Horace Williams House is now under the Society's management, and the Society invests annually in its upkeep, the University retains ownership and must continue to do so by the terms of Horace Williams' Last Will and Testament.

On entering or leaving the Horace Williams House, visitors will observe the large bell installed on the lawn near the side porch. This bell was given to the Horace Williams House by the family of Beulah and Tim Collins. Originally the bell hung in the plant of the American Tobacco Company in Durham, and was rung to signal changing of the shifts for the workers. It is now traditionally rung only on the Fourth of July.

This information was assembled by Betty Cloutier from numerous sources.