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Houses, farms, parks and cemeteries

Heartsease

Heartsease is a frame house on East Queen Street in Hillsborough whose one-and-a-half-story core Sterling Harris built about 1786. Polly Burke, daughter of Governor Thomas Burke, bought and enlarged it in 1810, and after 1837 the family of Hillsborough Recorder editor Dennis Heartt named it Heartsease and added a two-story Greek Revival wing.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.

People in its history

People named in events about this site, ordered by number of mentions. Each example links to an entry with a source citation.

Sites linked through the same people

Indexed works

Books, articles, records, and images about Heartsease. Each has been reviewed for relevance; materials held at OCPL appear first.

About the site

Heartsease, 113 East Queen Street, Hillsborough, Orange County, NC

Historic American Buildings Survey · 1933

Heartsease, the frame house at 113 East Queen Street in Hillsborough, documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey after 1933 in eight photographs, five data pages and a caption page. Names connected with the house include Governor Thomas Burke, the Heartt family, Rebecca B. Wall and the Loyalist raider David Fanning, and its history reaches back to the Revolutionary War.

Included because: The site is named in the title, catalog subjects, or description.

Library of Congress Digital Collections

Surveys and maps of the area

Not about Heartsease alone: the architectural surveys that cover its town or the county, and maps drawn while it stood. Several of the surveys can be read free online at NC Digital Collections.

Hillsborough architectural survey

Slane, Heather Wagner · 2017 · hmwPreservation

Survey of Hillsborough's historic buildings by Heather Wagner Slane of hmwPreservation, completed in September 2017. The 40-page report covers the town's architecture and history with color illustrations and maps.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

NC Cardinal NC Digital Collections DPLA

NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Time in place, place in time : history and sense of place in Hillsborough, North Carolina

Warren, Cheryl Davis · 2005

Cheryl Davis Warren's 2005 study of history and sense of place in Hillsborough, 216 leaves with illustrations, maps and a bibliography. Written as human geography, it treats the town's past alongside its social conditions and the ways residents understand where they live.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

UNC

[Plan of the town of Hillsborough in Orange County, North Carolina]

Sauthier, Claude Joseph · 1768

Claude Joseph Sauthier's 1768 plan of the town of Hillsborough in Orange County, reproduced as a colored facsimile of the pen and ink manuscript on a sheet 43 by 53 centimeters. Relief is shown by hachures and the sheet is indexed for points of interest. The 1975 reproduction was made from negatives taken of the original in the Map Room of the British Museum.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

UNC

Plan of the town of Hillsboro, taken in October 1863

1863

Plan of Hillsborough drawn in October 1863, showing the downtown blocks around the crossing of Tryon and Churton Streets, with the Eno River, spelled Enoe on the sheet.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

DigitalNC DPLA

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Hillsboro, Orange County, North Carolina.

1905

Fire insurance map of Hillsborough, spelled Hillsboro, drawn by the Sanborn Map Company in January 1905 on two sheets, from the Sanborn Maps collection.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

Library of Congress Digital Collections

Birdseye View of Hillsboro, N.C. Looking East

1905 · A. C. Bosselman & Co., New York, N.Y

Bird's-eye view of Hillsborough looking east, with houses and industrial buildings, on a postcard published by A. C. Bosselman & Co. of New York about 1905 to 1915. Card number 11116.

Included because: A survey or map of the town or county where the site stands.

DPLA

Found a book OCPL doesn’t own? You can often borrow it through interlibrary loan at OCPL.

Start at OCPL

    Where to look on the shelf

    These books don’t necessarily mention Heartsease, but they cover where it stands, its kind of building and the land, family and burial records behind it, and they are where a search for a place like this usually goes next. All are at OCPL, most in the Wall Collection.

    Histories of the town and county

    • Start here · NC 975.656 LLO History of the Town of Hillsborough, 1754-1982 Lloyd, Allen Alexander · 1983

      A 1982 revision of Allen Alexander Lloyd's history of Hillsborough, now written with Pauline O. Lloyd and carried forward from the town's founding in 1754 to 1982. Published in Hillsborough by A. A. Lloyd, 310 pages with illustrations and a bibliography.

    • Rebecca Wall Collection · NC 975.656 HOLADAY Hillsborough Holaday, Chris · 2002

      J. Chris Holaday's Images of America volume on Hillsborough (Arcadia, 2002), built mostly from photographs and postcards. Chapters cover homes, churches and schools, business and industry, local people, scenes around town, and sports, entertainment and events.

    • Rebecca Wall Collection · NC 975.656 NAS Hillsboro, Colonial and Revolutionary Nash, Frank · 1953

      Francis Nash's history of Hillsborough in colonial and Revolutionary times, first published in 1903 and reprinted in 1953 by Edwards & Broughton with an index and a sketch of the author. Topics include the Regulator Insurrection of 1766 to 1771, the Revolution and local genealogy.

    Show 1 more
    • Foundational · 975.656 RYAN Orange County Trio: Hillsborough, Chapel Hill, and Carrboro, North Carolina, Histories and Tour Guides Ryan, Elizabeth Shreve · 2004

      Elizabeth Shreve Ryan's combined histories and tour guides for Hillsborough, Chapel Hill and Carrboro, the three towns of Orange County, with the University of North Carolina treated alongside Chapel Hill. Each town gets a narrative history and a tour of its streets and buildings. Published by Chapel Hill Press in 2004, 369 pages with illustrations and maps.

    Buildings and surveys

    • Foundational · NC 720.975 BIS A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Piedmont North Carolina Bishir, Catherine W. · 2003

      Catherine W. Bishir and Michael T. Southern's field guide to the historic buildings of the North Carolina Piedmont, arranged county by county from Wake and Franklin in the east to Mecklenburg and Gaston in the west. The Orange County section takes in Hillsborough, Chapel Hill and Carrboro along with the rural county, with entries on individual buildings and maps for finding them. Published 2003, 596 pages with illustrations and maps.

    • Foundational · NC 720.975 HILLSBOR Hillsborough Historic District Inventory 2006

      An inventory of the buildings in the Hillsborough Historic District, dated 2006. It concerns historic buildings and the buildings and structures of Hillsborough. Useful for anyone checking a particular property in the town's historic district.

    • Start here · NC 720.975 BEL Photocensus: A Photographic Survey of Buildings in the Hillsborough, N.C. Historic District Built Before 1950 Bellinger, Susan McArtor · 1991

      Susan McArtor Bellinger's photographic survey of the buildings in the Hillsborough Historic District put up before 1950, self-published in Hillsborough in 1991. Arranged as a guidebook, it records houses and other structures in photographs. 142 pages with illustrations.

    Show 1 more
    • Rebecca Wall Collection · 917.565 DUL The Pelican Guide to Hillsborough, Historic Orange County, North Carolina Dula, Lucile Noell · 1989

      Lucile Noell Dula's guidebook to Hillsborough and its historic buildings, published by Pelican in 1989. It pairs a tour of the town with notes on its history, in 128 illustrated pages with a bibliography. Part of the Wall Local History Collection.

    Land, family and burial records

    • Foundational · NC 333.3 DUNAWAY Hillsborough, North Carolina History of Town Lots: The Complete Reference Guide Dunaway, Stewart E. · 2013

      Stewart E. Dunaway worked through Hillsborough, N.C., lot by lot, giving each town lot a synopsis of its history, a plat showing where it sits and transcripts of the deeds he could locate for it. The second issue runs to 720 pages with illustrations, maps and facsimiles.

    • Rebecca Wall Collection · NC 333.3 DUNAWAY Hillsborough, North Carolina History of Town Lots: Addendum 2015 Dunaway, Stewart E. · 2015

      Stewart E. Dunaway's 2015 addendum to his history of Hillsborough's town lots, adding deed records arranged by lot number and further town history, with the expansion of the 1890s covered for the first time. Self-published in North Carolina as version 1.0, 446 pages with illustrations, facsimiles and maps. Topics include deeds, court records, land titles and real property in Hillsborough.

    • Foundational · NC 333.3 IND An Index to the Town Lots of Hillsborough: Orange County, North Carolina 1982

      An index to the town lots of Hillsborough, Orange County, compiled in 1982 as a guide to the deeds and court records that trace each lot's ownership.

    Show 2 more

    In the chronology

    1. Sterling Harris builds the house on East Queen Street later called Heartsease Sterling Harris built the one-and-a-half-story core of the house about 1786. Polly Burke bought it in 1810 and added a bay, and Dennis Heartt's family named it Heartsease after 1837. People: Dennis Heartt Hillsborough Historic District National Register Additional Documentation (2014), pdf p. 142
    2. Polly Burke buys her house on East Queen Street Mary Williams Burke, the only child of Governor Thomas Burke, bought a modest house on East Queen Street in Hillsborough for four hundred dollars on June 5, 1810, when she was twenty-eight. She added the east bay to the house, which was later enlarged and named Heartsease. NCpedia (Dictionary of North Carolina Biography): Burke, Mary ("Polly") Williams
    3. Mary W. Burke deeds her Queen Street house to George Johnston, keeping one room Governor Thomas Burke's daughter Mary W. Burke sold her East Queen Street house and lot, later called Heartsease, to George Johnston for one dollar and kept the use of one room for herself. The next year Johnston gave up his claim for the same sum. People: George Johnston, George Mulholland Johnston NC State Historic Preservation Office: Heartsease, National Register nomination (OR0009), p. 5
    4. Polly Burke's Queen Street house passes to Dennis Heartt's family Mary W. Burke, daughter of Governor Thomas Burke, moved to Alabama in 1837. On May 4 of that year James Webb, acting as her attorney, sold her East Queen Street house for $750 to Caroline and Henrietta Heartt, daughters of the Hillsborough Recorder editor Dennis Heartt. The whole Heartt family lived there, the house came to be known as Heartsease, and the Heartts added the two-story west wing soon after the purchase. People: James Webb, Dennis Heartt NC State Historic Preservation Office: Heartsease, National Register nomination (OR0009), p. 5 · Also: Open Orange: Heartsease
    5. Dennis Heartt's family adds a two-story wing to Heartsease After buying Polly Burke's Queen Street house in 1837, the family of Recorder editor Dennis Heartt named it Heartsease and built a two-story Greek Revival wing on its west side about 1840. People: Mary “Polly” Burke Hillsborough Historic District National Register Additional Documentation (2014), pdf p. 142
    6. The 1850 census finds Dennis Heartt's printers and apprentices living at Heartsease The 1850 census listed editor Dennis Heartt's household at Heartsease with his two daughters, his son Edwin with his wife and small daughter, two young printers, and four boys aged eleven to eighteen entered as students who were probably apprentices at the Hillsborough Recorder. People: Dennis Heartt NC State Historic Preservation Office: Heartsease, National Register nomination (OR0009), p. 5
    7. Heartsease is listed in the National Register On April 11, 1973 the National Park Service listed Heartsease in Hillsborough in the National Register of Historic Places. NC State Historic Preservation Office: North Carolina Listings in the National Register of Historic Places, Orange County · Also: NC State Historic Preservation Office: Heartsease, National Register nomination (OR0009)

    Open these in the chronology →

    Research sources

    Sources cited in this site’s history, National Register documents, and places to get research help. Research guide: Research a house or property.

    Background

    National Register files 5

    Historic sites, markers, and maps

    Records of the time

    Collections and databases

    Local help 5

    Nearby

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    Two mice reading back to back against a leaf, with the hand-lettered words Friends of the Orange County Public Library
    Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026