720 Gimghoul Road

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WILLIAM F. THRALL HOUSE
1930
Two-story, frame Colonial Revival with arched, bracketed hood over central entrance, wood-shingled walls, flanking two-story wings with one-story screened-porch on one side and second-story screened sleeping porch on the other. Built for William F. Thrall, an English professor.

The building has been modified with the installation of replacement siding and windows, the enclosure of a screened porch on the right (west) elevation and the addition of a one-story, full-width, side-gabled wing at the rear. The three-bay-wide building originally had wood shingles, deep eaves, and eight-over-eight wood-sash windows, but they’ve been replaced with fiber-cement siding and six-over-six windows. The six-light-over-two-panel door may be original, but was obscured behind a louvered storm door in 1993. A first-story screened porch on the right elevation has been fully enclosed with siding and six-over-six windows, though pilasters at the corners of the porch indicate its original configuration. The second-story sleeping porch on the left (east) elevation has been similarly enclosed. A full-width, one-story, side-gabled wing at the rear has grouped ten-light casement windows on the side elevations and basement-level parking accessed from the east elevation. A low stone wall extend across the front of the property and the driveway. County tax records date the building to 1932, though it appears on the 1932 Sanborn map, so may have been constructed earlier.

In the 2013 survey, this was deemed a Contributing Building.

The contributing status reflected in the database was assigned to the building as part of the 1993 National Register nomination. Were the NR nomination to be formally updated, this property may be considered noncontributing.

SHED - GENERAL STORAGE
2000
Not present in the 1993 survey, this side-gabled shed has a four-light window in the north elevation and fiber-cement siding and trim to match the house. In the 2013 survey, this was deemed a Noncontributing Building.

SOURCE: M. Ruth Little, National Register of Historic Places Nomination: Gimghoul Neighborhood Historic District, Orange County, OR0709 (Raleigh, NC: North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office, 2013, via HPOWEB, accessed 8 Jan. 2020), courtesy of the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office; Heather Wagner Slane, 2013 Survey Update (NCSHPO HPOWEB 2.0, accessed 10 Jan. 2020); courtesy of the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office.