403 West Cameron Avenue

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POOL-HARRIS-PATTERSON HOUSE
1870
NR nomination: This house appears to be one of the few examples in Chapel Hill of the Victorian Gothic, but may be an updated three-gabled I-house form with an L-shaped plan, interior chimney, rear extensions and late porches. The two-story frame house with gabled block features a circular louvered vent in the central front-facing gable and double-arched louvers on the end gables, six-over-six fenestration on the second floor, and paired, floor-length windows on the first, flanking the transomed and sidelit entry. The wrap-around porch features a pedimented central element with rafters and decorative bracketing that is repeated elsewhere on the porch. Pedimented rear-block window bays with pediments and cornice bracketing reflect some of the porch motifs. Several late additions are attached to the rear. The house is reputed to be the first in Chapel Hill to have running water. The house is associated with Solomon Pool, an Elizabeth City native, UNC alumnus, Republican, and deputy appraiser of the state who was once known as the "most disliked person ever to be president of the University of North Carolina." He was a Reconstruction appointment to the presidency of the University at its lowest ebb, between 1870 and 1875, after which a committee organized by Governor Zebulon Vance reconstituted the University according to guidelines more acceptable to the North Carolina populace and remaining faculty. Pool owned two pieces of property on Cameron Street, and it is not clear which of these was his residence. The house at 403, however, was eventually purchased by Dr. Thomas W. Harris a physician, pharmacist, and proprietor of a drug store at the corner of Franklin and Henderson Streets, who was founder, first dean, and one of three original faculty members of the UNC Medical School, inaugurated in 1879. He had also been a captain in the Confederate army. In 1888, the house was purchased by Henry Houston "Hoot" Patterson in 1888, who, given the detailing of the house and his tenure, is probably responsible for its present appearance. Patterson was born six miles east of Chapel Hill in 1844, was wounded at Chancellorsville, and was the proprietor of a "high class emporium" at Franklin and Henderson Streets. Eventually he served as vice president-and director of the Bank of Chapel Hill, as a village alderman, founder of its telephone service in 1901, and member and chair of the Board of Education. His grandson was a Chapel Hill physician, Dr. Fred Patterson (Vickers 1985, p. 110).

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

2015 Survey Update: The house is three bays wide and single-pile with a two-story, gabled ell projecting from the left rear (southeast), nearly flush with the left (east) elevation. The house has plain weatherboards, two interior brick chimneys, two-over-two windows on the first floor, six-over-six windows on the second floor, all with molded surrounds, and very decorative brackets at the roofline. The entrance, a one-light-over-three-panel door has three-light-over-one-panel sidelights and a five-light transom. It is flanked by paired six-light-over-two-panel paired doors with two-light transoms. The porch wraps around the left elevation and is supported by chamfered post with sawn brackets and has a turned balustrade. A later, one-story, gabled bay projects from the right elevation with a single six-over-six window on its front (north) elevation. A one-story, hip-roofed bay projects from the left elevation of the rear ell with paired windows in a paneled surround. The rear (south) elevation of the rear ell features a canted bay with the gabled roof supported by sawn brackets. A one-story addition at the right rear (southwest) has a front-gabled form on the right (west) with a full-width, side-gabled projection on the left (east). The addition has two-over-two wood-sash windows on the west elevation, but windows on the east elevation have been replaced with larger, fixed one-light windows that also replace an original door on the east elevation. There is an exterior brick chimney and a six-light-over-three-panel door that opens to a wood deck on the west elevation. A two-story, shed-roofed bay extends from the rear elevation of the main house, between the two-story house and the one-story addition. A low concrete wall extends along the front of the property with a later picket fence constructed atop the wall.

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.