619 East Franklin Street

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ROYSTER-UMSTEAD HOUSE
1923. c, 2002
Set far back from East Franklin Street, this two-story, side-gabled, Colonial Revival-style house is six bays wide and double-pile with a five-bay-wide, shed-roofed wall dormer on the façade. The house has plain weatherboards, replacement six-over-six wood-sash windows, an interior brick chimney, and an exterior brick chimney in the left (west) gable end flanked by quarter-round windows in the gable. Six pairs of twelve-light French doors are evenly spaced across the first-floor façade and are sheltered by a full-width, shed-roofed porch supported by square columns on a brick foundation and porch floor. A later, one-story-with-basement gabled ell extends from the right rear (northeast) corner of the house. This wing has a brick foundation, with basement-level garage on the north elevation. Windows are six-over-six sash with six-light transoms and paired, twelve-light French doors on the west elevation open to an engaged, shed-roofed porch supported by square columns. There is a one-story, flat-roofed wing at the intersection of the main house and rear ell and a flat-roofed porch project from the rear (north) elevation supported by square posts with arched spandrels. The front yard is generally wooded with a grassy clearing at the front of the house. The rear of the house has a series of stone patios and retaining walls.

This house, designed by Hobart Upjohn, was built in 1923 by James Finch Royster, who was dean of the graduate school at the university from 1925 until 1930 [Little]. Royster’s nephew, Vermont Royster, served for many years as editor of the Wall Street Journal. In 1933 the house was purchased by John Umstead, state senator and brother of Governor William B. Umstead. The house is noted as being under renovation during the 2002 survey and the rear wing was likely added at that time.

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

GARAGE
c. 2002
One-and-a-half-story, side-gabled garage with apartment above has shed-roofed dormers spanning the south and north elevations. It has plain weatherboards, six-over-six wood-sash windows, and a twelve-light French door on the east elevation that is sheltered by a shed-roofed porch supported by square columns that wraps around the north elevation. A projecting shed-roofed bay on the south elevation, facing the street, has two sets of overhead garage doors. The garage is noted as under construction during the 2002 survey. In the 2015 survey, this was deemed a Noncontributing 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.