704 East Franklin Street
Text
PRATT-WELLS HOUSE
1907, c. 1920, c. 1950, c. 2007
Impressively sited on large lot and set well back from the street, this two-story, side-gabled, Colonial Revival-style house is three bays wide and double-pile. It has plain weatherboards, nine-over-two wood-sash windows, exposed sawn rafter tails, and an exterior brick chimney in the left (east) gable. The one-light-over-four-panel door, centered on the façade, is deeply recessed within a classical surround comprised of a cornice supported by fluted pilasters on the façade. A multi-light oval window is centered over the entrance on the second-floor level. A one-story, hip-roofed porch on the left elevation is supported by fluted square columns and is accessed by a pair of fourteen-light French doors on the left elevation. A side-gabled wing at the right rear (southwest) was constructed before 1925. It has finishes matching those of the main house, including nine-over-two windows and an interior brick chimney. A two-story, hip-roofed sleeping porch on the right (west) elevation of the wing was constructed at the same time, but enclosed after 1949; it has nine-over-one windows at the second-floor level and an open porch supported by fluted square columns at the first-floor level. A one-story, hip-roofed screened porch on the right elevation of the main block, in front of the two-story wing, appears on Sanborn maps by 1932; it is supported by fluted square columns. An uncovered deck at the left rear (southeast) connects the porch on the left elevation to a c. 2007 two-story, gabled wing at the rear. A c. 2007 two-story, gabled wing has also been added to the rear (south) elevation of the side-gabled wing at the southwest with the ridge extending slightly higher than the ridge of the side-gabled wing. A stone wall extends across the front of the property and a lattice brick garden wall extends from the right side of the house.
According to a real estate listing for the house in 2012, the house was built in 1907 by Joseph Hyde Pratt, who served on the UNC faculty and also built several other homes on this part of Franklin Street. Pratt died in 1942 and Dr. Warner Wells, a neurosurgeon and faculty member of the UNC medical school, purchased the home in 1952. The house was renovated in 2007 and the rear gabled wings were likely added at that time.
In the 2015 survey, this was deemed a Contributing Building.
GARAGE
c. 2009
One-and-a-half-story, front-gabled garage with gabled dormers on the north and south elevations. The garage has weatherboards, sawn rafter tails, nine-over-two wood-sash windows in the gables, six-over-two windows in the dormers, and overhead doors on the east elevation. Aerial photos indicate that it was built between 2008 and 2010. IIn 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.
