Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012

Wake Forest landmark slated for some TLC

Freed slaves lived in Ailey Young House

More than 135 years ago, before it became a half-forgotten shack by the cemetery popular for covert beer-drinking and vandalism, the Ailey Young House was a stepping stone for freed slaves just after the Civil War.

Work began this month to uncover the historic boarding house from its hiding place in the woods off North White Street and make the unique Wake Forest landmark accessible to the public.

The goal is to tidy up the site in time to include it in the town’s annual spring cemetery walking tour for the first time.

“It’s not gone because nobody knew it was there,” local historian Ruth Little said. “I feel like it was just waiting for people to realize how important it was and that it needed to be saved.”

In January, town staff spent days clearing trees and underbrush from around the site to make it visible from North White Street and less attractive for after-hours activity.

Town officials are still discussing the best way to restore the site to prominence. The town has deployed experts to figure out the cost of repairs. Wake Forest commissioner are cautious to commit to an upgrade until they see numbers.

Reconstruction era

Built in 1875 by Wake Forest College professor William Simmons, the house is the oldest post-Civil War landmark associated with the town’s black residents, Little said. It’s one of the few surviving structures from Reconstruction, the time immediately following the Civil War.

The house was likely one of a row of duplexes built by Simmons housing black families. It shows the living conditions of free blacks in that period, Little said – post-slavery, but not yet owning property.

After Simmons’ death, his wife subdivided the property and sold it to local black families, serving as the foundation for the black East End neighborhood, Little said. The house’s namesake established the first black school in Wake Forest. All the original buildings have been torn down – except for this house.

A fire about 15 years ago blackened the interior and collapsed the floor on one side of the house. It was boarded up in the 1990s to prevent further damage, Wake Forest senior planner Agnes Wanman said, but the padlocks had since been cut off the doors and the interior was littered with beer bottles.

Until last month, the house was nearly invisible from the road, hidden in thick forest.

Tours envisioned

With the house’s new visibility, the town is waiting for cost estimates on basic repairs. Eventually, Wanman hopes to stabilize the house enough to allow visitors to walk inside, with signs to educate visitors on the story of the building and its former residents. That would require a replacement roof, a new front porch and a ramp to the front door, as well as rebuilding the interior floor and large sections of the walls and ceiling.

Right now, Wanman just hopes to get the surrounding site safe for tours this spring to generate public interest.

Wake Forest restoration carpenter Patrick Schell was one of the contractors taken to evaluate the site by town staff late last year.

He sees the house’s preservation as vital.

“There’s just nothing like this left,” Schell said. “The fancier houses tend to survive, but something like this, the housing for regular folks – especially African-Americans – is extremely rare.”