Chronology

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1. Antebellum and Civil War · 1800–1865

2. about 1835
   Construction or physical change · west of Hillsborough The Rev. Ira Ellis builds Little Ayr Mount, a two-story brick house west of Hillsborough

   The Rev. Ira Ellis, who bought 300 acres on the Eno west of Hillsborough in 1835, built the plain two-story brick house later called Little Ayr Mount about that time. With Ayr Mount it is one of the few masonry houses the county survey found from the early nineteenth century.

3. 1835
   Property or economic transaction · Rev. Ira Ellis House (Little Ayr Mount), 1800 Hall's Mill Road (SR 1336) at the Eno River, north of Efland The Rev. Ira Ellis buys 300 acres on the Eno near Hall's Mill Road

   Ira Ellis, a minister and farmer then in his fifties, bought 300 acres on the Eno River and added 184 more four years later. His three-part Federal brick house, later called Little Ayr Mount, is usually dated to this purchase, and local tradition holds that it took in stagecoach travelers.

4. mid-1800s
   Founding or opening · Eno River, west of Hillsborough Ira Ellis's mill, later Hall's Mill, is working on the Eno west of Hillsborough

   A mill stands on the Eno west of Hillsborough by the middle of the nineteenth century, part of the Rev. Ira Ellis's home place; it took the name Hall's Mill after Nelson P. Hall acquired the Ellis house and land. Only its stone dam, a stone foundation and the trace of the race survived.

5. Reconstruction and the New South · 1866–1899

6. 1878
   Property or economic transaction · Rev. Ira Ellis House (Little Ayr Mount), 1800 Hall's Mill Road (SR 1336) at the Eno River, north of Efland Nelson P. Hall buys the Ellis house and 267 acres on the Eno

   Nelson Parrish Hall bought 267 acres of the Ellis land with the brick house, though his family may have lived there since about 1870, when his son Simeon was listed as a miller. The mill on the Eno across the road took the Hall name as Hall's Mill.

7. Early twentieth century · 1900–1944

8. early 1900s
   Property or economic transaction · Rev. Ira Ellis House (Little Ayr Mount), 1800 Hall's Mill Road (SR 1336) at the Eno River, north of Efland Martha Hall sells the Ellis house to Sheriff R. D. Baine

   After Nelson Hall died, his widow Martha bought the house and farm from his estate and sold them two years later to Orange County sheriff R. D. Baine.

9. Recent decades · 1976–2026

10. April 9, 1992
    Naming or commemoration · Hillsborough vicinity The state adds the Elms, Little Ayr Mount and Maple Hill near Hillsborough to the Study List

    Public requests for three houses outside Hillsborough came before the committee on April 9, 1992: the Faucette House, known as the Elms; Little Ayr Mount; and Maple Hill. Staff raised no questions about them, and the committee approved them with the other central and southeastern applications.

11. 1998
    Property or economic transaction · Rev. Ira Ellis House (Little Ayr Mount), 1800 Hall's Mill Road (SR 1336) at the Eno River, north of Efland Thomas S. Rankin buys the Ira Ellis House

    Thomas S. Rankin bought the Ellis house and its mostly wooded 60-acre tract on the Eno, where he lives with his wife Jill McCorkle. The owners later paid for a history of the house (2012) that the state's 2016 survey drew on.

12. 1999 and 2005
    Construction or physical change · Rev. Ira Ellis House (Little Ayr Mount), 1800 Hall's Mill Road (SR 1336) at the Eno River, north of Efland Two large rear wings are added to the Ira Ellis House

    Owner Thomas Rankin added two-story weatherboarded wings at the back of the brick house, one in 1999 and one in 2005, forming a U around a rear courtyard; a darkroom and a large pond came about 2000. The state later judged the additions too large for the house to qualify for the National Register.

13. February 21, 2017
    Law, policy or court · Rev. Ira Ellis House (Little Ayr Mount), 1800 Hall's Mill Road (SR 1336) at the Eno River, north of Efland The state finds the Ira Ellis House and Hall's Mill site not eligible for the National Register

    Reviewing a survey for replacing the Hall's Mill Road bridge over the Eno, the State Historic Preservation Office agreed that the Ellis House, the Hall's Mill site and a proposed rural district around them did not qualify for the National Register, while the David Faucette House across the road remained eligible.

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Compiled and maintained by the Friends of the Orange County Public Library from county records, the sources named on each card, and the index’s event pages. Last updated October 1, 2026.