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14 dated events match your filters.
Searched the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–14.Back to highlights
- Antebellum and Civil War · 1800–1865
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The Rev. William Mercer Green builds the first house on the land later called Montrose
Around 1821 the Rev. William Mercer Green, rector of St. Matthew's, built the first house on land he had acquired from William Kirkland; the tract had first belonged to James Hogg. William A. Graham bought it in 1842.
People: William Kirkland
Subject: Montrose
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William A. Graham builds a law office on his new Eno River property, Montrose
On buying the property in 1842, William A. Graham built a one-and-a-half-story frame law office there. It survives on the Montrose grounds; his son John W. Graham added a two-room rear ell around 1893.
People: John W. Graham
Subject: Montrose
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William A. Graham buys the Eno River house that became Montrose
Senator William A. Graham bought 59 acres on the Eno River east of Hillsborough from John U. Kirkland, with the house the Rev. William Mercer Green had built there, paying $3,200 plus his town residence and three lots. Graham named the place Montrose, and his son and grandson lived there after him until 1977.
People: John U. Kirkland · William Mercer Green
Subject: Montrose
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English landscape designer Thomas Paxton lays out the Montrose grounds for Mrs. William A. Graham
The terraced landscape at Montrose, running down to the Eno, was first shaped in the 1850s by the English landscape architect Thomas Paxton, working under the direction of Mrs. William A. Graham.
Subject: Montrose
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William A. Graham's house at Montrose burns
The house the Grahams had enlarged at Montrose burned in 1862, and the family moved to a house on West Tryon Street. Only the law office and outbuildings were left on the land.
Subject: Montrose
- Reconstruction and the New South · 1866–1899
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Maj. John W. Graham builds a twelve-room house at Montrose on his father's old foundation
In 1874 William A. Graham gave the vacant Montrose land to his son Maj. John W. Graham, who built a twelve-room house on the foundation of the first house. It burned in 1893.
People: John W. Graham
Subject: Montrose
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Fire destroys Major John W. Graham's house at Montrose
Major John W. Graham's house east of Hillsborough burned to the ground on the night of October 19, with almost nothing saved and no insurance on a loss of about $15,000. It was the second Graham house lost to fire on the Montrose site, after the governor's house in 1862; the family moved into the old law office until the present house was built.
People: John W. Graham
Subject: Montrose
- Early twentieth century · 1900–1944
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John W. Graham builds the present house at Montrose
After his 1893 fire, John W. Graham lived in the enlarged law office until 1902, when he built the two-story frame house that is the core of the present Montrose, the third house on the site.
People: John W. Graham
Subject: Montrose
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Alexander H. Graham inherits Montrose on the death of his father, John W. Graham
When John W. Graham died in 1929, Montrose passed to his son Alexander H. 'Sandy' Graham, later lieutenant governor.
People: John W. Graham
Subject: Montrose
- Civil rights era · 1945–1975
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Lt. Gov. Alexander Graham has Watts Carr remodel Montrose as a Colonial Revival house
In 1948 Lt. Gov. Alexander Graham and his wife hired Durham architect Watts Carr to turn the Victorian house at Montrose into a Colonial Revival one, with a high hipped roof, side wings and a Georgian Revival entrance. Carr helped work in mantels, doors and trim from old Orange County houses, including double doors from the Burwell School.
Subject: Montrose
- Recent decades · 1976–2026
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An antebellum office from the Henderson Jones house is moved to Montrose
A small frame office of about 1840, built for the Henderson Jones house north of Hillsborough, was moved to the Montrose grounds around 1980.
Subject: Montrose
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Nancy and Craufurd Goodwin acquire Montrose
Nancy and Craufurd Goodwin have owned and lived at Montrose since 1986. A greenhouse, lath house and pineapple-topped entrance gate on St. Mary's Road date from about 1987, and the gardens behind the house are theirs.
Subject: Montrose
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Montrose joins the Study List
The National Register Advisory Committee placed Montrose, William A. Graham's home in Hillsborough from 1842 to 1874, on North Carolina's Study List, its list of properties likely to qualify for the National Register.
Subject: Montrose
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Montrose is listed in the National Register
On October 18, 2001 the National Park Service listed Montrose in Hillsborough in the National Register of Historic Places.
Subject: Montrose
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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.
