513 East Franklin Street

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PRESBYTERIAN MANSE
c. 1840
One of the earliest houses on this end of Franklin Street, the two-story, hip-roofed, house is three bays wide and single-pile with a full-width, shed-roofed rear wing. The house has a stone foundation, plain weatherboards, a standing-seam metal roof, and two interior brick chimneys. It has nine-over-nine wood-sash windows on the first floor and six-over-nine windows on the second floor. A six-panel door, centered on the façade, has a four-light transom and is sheltered by a near-full-width, hip-roofed porch supported by square columns with a standing-seam roof and a matchstick railing. A one-story, hip-roofed bay projects from the right (east) elevation of the shed-roofed wing and has nine-over-one windows on all three sides. A gabled ell extends from the right rear (northeast) with a brick foundation, weatherboards, and an asphalt-shingled roof. A shed-roofed porch along the left (west) side of the ell has been enclosed with casement windows. A low stone wall extends across the front of the property.

A plaque on the house notes that the house was the Presbyterian Manse, constructed about 1840, though Little dates the house to 1847. It was the home of Dr. Charles Phillips, chairman of the faculty when the university was reopened in 1875. He was professor of mathematics like his father before him. It is said that when in April 1865, Chapel Hill was approached by a force of Federal cavalry under Brigadier General Smith Atkins, Phillips rode his horse out the Raleigh road and, obtaining an interview with Atkins, persuaded him to protect the university and the village. Atkins reported that Sherman had already given orders to this effect. From 1889 until 1966 the house served as manse for the minister of the Presbyterian Church [Vickers].

In the 2015 survey, this was deemed a Contributing Building.

SOURCE: Heather Wagner Slane, National Register of Historic Places Nomination: Chapel Hill Historic District Boundary Increase and Additional Documentation, Orange County, OR1750 (Raleigh, NC: North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office, 2015), courtesy of the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office.