The William Henry and Sarah Hauser Speas House in rural western Forsyth County is a rare, intact example of a prominent mid- to late-nineteenth century brick farmhouse exhibiting eclectic Romantic- and Victorian-era stylistic details applied to a national folk form. Built ca. 1850 as a two-story, Greek Revival-style I-house with the front entrance originally oriented to the west, the house was enlarged in 1879 with a two-story gabled wing on the west elevation. The expansion resulted in a core T-shaped plan with the entrance relocated to the north elevation of the 1879 wing and an asymmetrical façade, in keeping with national house forms popular in the late nineteenth century. Among the extant ancillary buildings that contribute to the property’s significance are the ca. 1879 brick curing house, a rare building type for the period, and a ca. 1879 wood frame granary.
The property was listed in the National Register in September 2018.
William Henry and Sarah Hauser Speas House
Forsyth County, NC
Sanford Tobacco Company Redrying Plant & Warehouse
Lee County, NC
In the early twentieth century, Sanford developed a strong tobacco market serving Lee, Moore, Chatham, Harnett, and Hoke counties, the success of which necessitated the construction of several large-scale brick warehouse just west of the central business district. The opening of the Sanford Tobacco Company’s redrying plant in 1947 (the first redrying plant in Sanford and the only redrying facility for much of its history) put the Sanford market on par with such important tobacco markets as Durham, North Carolina and Danville, Virginia. The plant was enlarged in 1951 and again in the early 1960s as the tobacco market thrived. However, by 1975, the tobacco market had begun to collapse and the company closed the redrying facility.
The Sanford Tobacco Company Redrying Plant and Warehouse is significant for its association to the Sanford tobacco market and the broader tobacco industry in Lee County. It is the only extant large-scale brick tobacco redrying plant or warehouse remaining in Sanford, illustrative of Sanford’s twentieth-century tobacco industry. The property was listed in the National Register in August 2019.