You can get this early vernacular, 1280 square feet, I-House with Greek Revival details free and with up to $15,000 in structural moving costs.
The house has a fieldstone foundation, chimneys, and original windows with ornamented surrounds. The interior of the main block appears to be intact and consists of a center hall plan, two rooms wide and one room deep. Some other notable features are original flooring, sheathing, mantels, and double vertical panel doors. With all these architectural details, this may be one of the best preserved farms in Durham County. It is also one of only a few antebellum structures still extant in the area.
The house gets its name from Fendol (Fendel) Bevers (Beavers) who built the house around 1850. He lived from 1822-1883, was Raleigh’s City Engineer and surveyed Wake County using his own surveys for the 1870 U.S. Census. The surveys were part of an effort from 1870-1895 by many North Carolina counties to show the new township borders as a result of the 1868 Constitution. When Durham County separated from Wake County 10 years later, his 1871 survey map helped set the Durham County borders. Interestingly, in 1871 Durham County did not exist, so the Fendol-Bevers farm would have actually been identified, at that time, as being within Wake County. In the nineteenth century, Leesville Road was near the Wake County Line and served as a major route between Raleigh and Hillsborough. In 1895, the house and farm were sold to J. Elmer Ross.
There are a number of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century farm buildings surrounding the farmstead, including a kitchen house with a hewn-timber frame and transom lights above the two entrances, a log smoke house, several tobacco barns, and storage sheds. The architecture of the Fendol Bevers building features an elongated form with a low hip roof and end chimneys. A rare feature in Durham County is the ashlar (squared) stone bases. The windows are six-over-nine on the first floor and six-over-six on the second floor and have four-part surrounds decorated with plain corner blocks.
Although this farm is one of the better preserved farms in the county, there have been a number of changes over the years. The almost full facade hip-roofed front porch was added in the late nineteenth century. An early entrance on the east façade has also been covered with weatherboard. In the early twentieth century, a one-story ell (wing), was added to the rear of the dwelling. In addition, despite its generally good condition, it also needs some repairs.
The house was placed on the 2012 “Places in Peril” list by Preservation Durham in response to development pressure in the area. However, this placement did not result in the intended purpose of the preservation of several acres around the house and its outbuildings within the proposed future subdivision. Nonetheless, the property is now part of the state’s study list. It is eligible for placement on the National Register of Historic Places and might also be a candidate for local landmark status. It is currently located at 2713 Leesville Road. The house is in danger of demolition as the developer, ForeverHome LLC of Raleigh, plans to replace the house with new development. ForeverHome LLC of Raleigh has offered $15,000 in moving costs to the new owner. Preservation Durham expects that the building will remain in the Triangle area, but have no restrictions on the new location.
CONTACT INFO
Wendy Hillis
Director
Preservation Durham
919-682-3036
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Mark Ward
Partner, Sales Director,
Land Acquisition Manager
ForeverHome LLC
919-614-7600
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