400 West Cameron Avenue

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SCOTT-SMITHS-GATTIS HOUSE
1860
NR nomination: One of the earliest and finest houses in the neighborhood, this three-bay, two-story gabled and weatherboarded Greek Revival I-form structure possesses a transverse rear ell and exterior end-chimneys. The porch features wide board faux stone facing which was considered elegant in the mid-nineteenth century. The transomed and sidelit entry and the 6/6 double-hung fenestration appear to be original, as does the stone foundation of the main block. Rear extensions, Eastlake porch members, and rebuilt end chimneys are late additions, as is the wrought iron fencing. The house is thought to have been built before the Civil War on property purchased in 1857 by Calvin Scott, a merchant and elder of the Presbyterian Church. By 1881, the house was owned by Mary Ruffin Smith, daughter of James S. Smith off Hillsborough. In 1885, she bequeathed 1500 acres in Chatham County to UNC Chapel Hill. The "Gattis" of the building's provenance is Samuel Mallette Gattis, a University of North Carolina alumnus of the class of 1884 and trustee from 1909 to 1911.

In the 1998 survey, this was deemed a Contributing Building.

2015 Survey Update: The entrance, centered on the façade has a louvered storm door, seven-light transom, and three-light-over-one-panel sidelights. It is sheltered by a hip-roofed porch supported by turned posts. At the rear, a full-width, one-story, flat-roofed wing connects to the one-story, side-gabled wing. The flat-roofed wing has a group of three eight-over-eight-over-eight triple-hung windows on the right (east) elevation. A second-floor level, shed-roofed bay projects from the rear of the main building, over the flat-roofed wing. The side-gabled wing at the rear matches the main house in detail. It has a shed-roofed dormer on its rear (north) elevation over a shed-roofed porch on square posts with a weatherboard-covered knee wall that shelters an entrance on that elevation. A brick wall has been constructed atop a stone wall along Kenan Street and a metal fence extends along Cameron Avenue at the front of the property.

SOURCES: Kaye Graybeal, National Register of Historic Places Nomination: West Chapel Hill Historic District, Orange County OR1439 (Raleigh, NC: North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office, 1998); Heather Slane and Cheri Szcodronski, 2015 Survey Update (NCSHPO HPOWEB 2.0, accessed 10 Jan. 2020); courtesy of the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office.