Brief History

Benjamin Bunn settled in eastern Wake County in the late 1700s. He acquired several hundred acres of land on Moccasin Creek and later bought additional acreage on the creek, the Little River, and Beaver Dam Branch. By the second decade of the nineteen th century, Bunn owned more than 3000 acres. He died in 1819 leaving most of his property to his wife. He left his son Bennett two slaves and land situated between the Raleigh-Tarboro Road and Beaver Dam Branch.

Bennett Bunn set about making his mark as a successful farmer. In 1823 he married Nancy O’Neal who bore him seven children. He built a Federal style farmhouse on his property in 1833 and slowly increased his slaveholdings from the two individuals he inhe rited from his father to 16 slaves by 1850. He planted several hundred acres of corn and wheat; raised cattle, sheep, and hogs; and probably operated the sawmill on Beaver Dam Branch until its destruction in1848. Bunn died several years before the outb reak of the Civil War, and his wife continued to operate the farm. During the Civil War, terrible tragedy befell the family; three of Nancy Bunn’s four sons died. She struggled to keep the farm going after the war, and at one point her only help on the farm was her daughter and a young boy. Fortunately, her daughter married an ambitious young man who took over the operation of the farm and turned it into one of the more successful farms in the area. The house and at least a portion of the property woul d stay in the family until its recent sale to Tom and Jill Hendrickson in August 2002.

The Property

The main feature of the plantation is a two-story clapboard farmhouse sited on a slight rise. The house has a gable-roofed two-story porch on the front and large stone chimneys on either end. The original house consists of four main rooms–two on the fi rst floor and two on the second–connected by an enclosed stairway and a covered one-story shed room running the length of the house at the back. The original structure is a classic illustration of vernacular Piedmont farmhouse architecture with Federal p eriod influences in its design and details. Each room is wainscoted and has a fireplace with a Federal style mantel. A substantial two-story addition now stretches across the back of the structure and houses a bathroom, a large family room, and an upstair s bedroom. Also of note on the property is a log house that was built in the late 1700s and an assortment of barns and other outbuildings, most of which were constructed in the 1800s. A family graveyard and a slave graveyard are on the site.