215 West Cameron Avenue

Text

MALLETTE-WILSON-MAURICE HOUSE
1845, late 20th cent
NR nomination: The three-bay, one-and-a-half-story Greek Revival I-house with shallow-pitched roof is one of the earliest in the neighborhood, traceable to the 1840s. It features two half-sized windows beneath the front eaves, two interior chimneys, a later pedimented porch with sawn members, and two later-added side porches. A late shed-roofed rear addition is sided with board and batten. The house was owned by Sallie Mallette, daughter of early settler and bookseller, Charles Mallette, and sister of Dr. William P. Mallette. Sallie was the proprietor of the student boarding facility "Steward's Hall" in the 1840s, and, when her brother, Edward Mallette, was killed in the Civil War, she raised his five orphaned children in this house. The "Mallette" of Mallette Street may be Sallie, rather than one of her male relatives. The "Wilson" of its pedigree was T. J. Wilson, I, a surgeon on the Confederate Army of Virginia, and father of another T. J. Wilson, a UNC registrar. T. J Wilson, III was the head of UNC Press and later, of Harvard Press.

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

2015 Survey Update: The house retains six-over-six wood-sash windows, including single windows in each gable, and nine-light casement windows at the second-floor level. The one-light-over-three-panel door has a three-light transom and is sheltered by the original porch supported by paired posts with diagonal cross-bracing. A one-story, shed-roofed porch on the left (east) elevation has been enclosed with plain weatherboards, though the original shed porch on the right (west) elevation remains. A full-width, hip-roofed wing at the rear retains board-and-batten sheathing and a deep one-story gabled wing extends from the left rear (southeast), bisecting the hip-roofed wing.

GUEST HOUSE
1930s
The guest house faces Wilson Street and stands one-story with front gabled roof, interior rear chimney and shed additions on the north and south elevations. It has plain weatherboards, six-over-six wood-sash windows, and six-light casement windows in the gables. The shed-roofed addition on the north elevation has a French door on its west elevation and a hip-roofed wall dormer with paired six-light windows on its north elevation. A one-story gabled wing extends from the rear (east). In the 1998 survey, this was deemed a Noncontributing Building.

SHED - GENERAL STORAGE
1990
One-story, side-gabled shed with plywood sheathing and a shed-roofed extension on the west elevation with paired plywood doors. In the 1998 survey, this was deemed a Noncontributing Building.

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.