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Houses, farms, parks and cemeteries

Montrose

Montrose is the Graham family estate on St. Mary's Road east of Hillsborough, bought and named in 1842 by William A. Graham, with terraced grounds running down to the Eno River first laid out in the 1850s. After fires in 1862 and 1893, John W. Graham built the present house in 1902; the 1842 law office survives on the grounds.

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 Montrose. Each has been reviewed for relevance; materials held at OCPL appear first.

Held at OCPL

Montrose

Goodwin, Nancy Sanders · 2005 · Duke University Press

Nancy Goodwin's month-by-month account of a year in the gardens at Montrose, the nineteenth-century estate in Hillsborough that she and her husband Craufurd moved to in 1977. Beginning in late January and running through the following January, the chapters record what is in bloom and in progress across the more than twenty acres of gardens she developed there, with a map of the grounds. Published by Duke University Press in 2005, 313 pages; this is the e-book edition.

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

✓ Held at OCPL · 712.609 GOO NC Cardinal UNC Duke NC State Durham Chapel Hill PL Library of Congress Davidson UNCSA

Elsewhere

A Year in Our Gardens

Goodwin, Nancy Sanders ; Lacy, Allen · 2001 · University of North Carolina Press

A year of letters exchanged between two gardeners, Nancy Goodwin at Montrose, her garden and nursery in Hillsborough, and Allen Lacy (1935-2015) in New Jersey, published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2001. 208 pages with illustrations.

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

NC Cardinal UNC Duke NC State Durham Wake Forest Library of Congress

Architectural developments at "Montrose" in the 1850's

Allcott, John V., 1905-1989 · 1965

John V. Allcott's 1965 article on the building campaign at Montrose, the Hillsborough home of William A. Graham, during the 1850s. Allcott connects the work to the architect Alexander Jackson Davis, and the piece runs as pages 85 to 95 of a larger publication, with illustrations.

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

UNC

[Montrose]: Circa 1835 kitchen outbuilding with an herb and heirloom vegetable garden.

Brighton, Avery; Garden Club of America · 1835

Photograph of the kitchen outbuilding at Montrose in Hillsborough, which the caption dates to about 1835, with an herb and heirloom vegetable garden planted around it. Avery Brighton made the image for the Garden Club of America collection at the Archives of American Gardens. Features include boxwood, wrought iron fences and outbuildings.

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

DPLA

[Montrose]: In the Scree Garden large cast iron cooking pots are used as planters.

Brighton, Avery; Garden Club of America

Avery Brighton photographed the scree garden at Montrose in Hillsborough, where large cast iron cooking pots serve as planters. Subjects include cactus, irises, phlox, cookware and rock gardens. The image forms part of the Garden Club of America collection at the Archives of American Gardens.

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

DPLA

[Montrose]: Rock garden with spring woodland flowers and a planted urn.

Brighton, Avery; Garden Club of America

Rock garden at Montrose in Hillsborough, shown with spring woodland flowers and a planted urn, photographed by Avery Brighton for the Garden Club of America collection at the Archives of American Gardens. The garden features naturalized plantings and urns.

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

DPLA

[Montrose]: Shade loving plants grow in the lath house.

Brighton, Avery; Garden Club of America

Avery Brighton photographed the lath house at Montrose for the Garden Club of America, showing shade loving plants growing under its frame. The Hillsborough garden features shade plantings and vines. Part of the Garden Club of America collection in the Archives of American Gardens.

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

DPLA
Show 3 more works

[Montrose]: View through the redwood to old boxwood hedge and house.

Brighton, Avery; Garden Club of America

Looking through a redwood toward the old boxwood hedge and the house, this Avery Brighton photograph records the garden at Montrose in Hillsborough for the Garden Club of America. Phlox, primroses and boxwood are also named. From the Garden Club of America collection in the Archives of American Gardens.

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

DPLA

Hillsborough -- Montrose

Druse, Kenneth

Garden photography by Kenneth Druse of Montrose in Hillsborough, concerning gardens of North Carolina. It belongs to the Ken Druse garden photography collection in the Archives of American Gardens, and Hillsborough is the only Orange County tie the entry offers.

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

DPLA

Hillsborough -- Montrose

Rumson Garden Club; Graham, William A; Graham, Susan Washington; Paxton, Thomas; Garden Club of America

Images and documentation of Montrose in Hillsborough gathered for the Garden Club of America collection at the Archives of American Gardens. The Rumson Garden Club contributed material, and people associated with the garden include William A. Graham, Susan Washington Graham and Thomas Paxton among the people associated with the garden.

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

DPLA

Published by or for this site

Montrose Nursery [catalog].

Montrose Nursery (Hillsborough, N.C.) · Montrose Nursery

Trade catalogs issued by Montrose Nursery of Hillsborough, a horticultural nursery whose plant listings run to several volumes at 22 centimeters. The catalogs record what the nursery grew and offered for sale, so they serve gardeners and anyone studying the plant trade in Orange County.

Included because: Published by or for this site.

UNC

Surveys and maps of the area

Not about Montrose 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

Architectural survey and National Register evaluation of St. Mary's road (S.R. 1002), Orange County, North Carolina

Henry, Geoffrey B. · 1999

Geoffrey B. Henry of GAI Consultants surveyed the historic buildings along St. Mary's Road (S.R. 1002) near Hillsborough in August 1999 and evaluated them for the National Register, for the Orange County Department of Planning. A 53-page report with 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.

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

Books in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection at the Main Library in Hillsborough whose titles, catalog subjects or descriptions are about this site. The Friends’ recommended starting points are labelled.

  • Rebecca Wall Collection · 712.609 GOO Montrose: Life in A Garden Goodwin, Nancy · 2005

    Nancy Goodwin's month-by-month account of a year in the gardens at Montrose, the nineteenth-century estate in Hillsborough that she and her husband Craufurd moved to in 1977. Beginning in late January and running through the following January, the chapters record what is in bloom and in progress across the more than twenty acres of gardens she developed there, with a map of the grounds. Published by Duke University Press in 2005, 313 pages; this is the e-book edition.

Where to look next on the shelf

These books don’t necessarily mention Montrose, 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.

  • 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. The Rev. William Mercer Green builds the first house on the land later called Montrose Around 1827 the Rev. William Mercer Green, rector of St. Matthew's, built the first house on land he had bought that May from William Kirkland, who had acquired it in 1821; the tract had first belonged to James Hogg. William A. Graham bought it in 1842. People: William Kirkland, James Hogg, William A. Graham NC State Historic Preservation Office: Montrose, National Register nomination (OR0050), section 8 · Also: NC State Historic Preservation Office: Hillsborough Historic District Additional Documentation, National Register
  2. 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 NC State Historic Preservation Office: Hillsborough Historic District Additional Documentation, National Register (OR0077ad, 2014), 320 St. Mary's Road, Montrose and William Alexander Graham Law Office
  3. 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 National Register nomination: Montrose, Orange County (2001), pdf p. 11
  4. Architect Alexander Jackson Davis visits Montrose to plan its enlargement Davis, in North Carolina on state work, made a night trip from Raleigh, reached Hillsborough at 2 a.m. on November 10, 1850, and stayed at Montrose from breakfast until 4 p.m. William A. Graham was in Washington as Secretary of the Navy, so Davis sketched the old two-story house and took Susan Graham's suggestions for an addition. People: William A. Graham Internet Archive: John V. Allcott, "Architectural Developments at 'Montrose' in the 1850's", North Carolina Historical Review 42 (1965), p. 88
  5. A. J. Davis sends his plans for enlarging Montrose On February 4, 1851, Davis sent the Grahams plans of both floors and a small perspective view for enlarging Montrose, in Old English and Italian versions built around a great tower and an octagonal library. The drawings went to Mrs. Graham in Washington; the Grahams liked them but later dropped them for a plainer addition. People: William A. Graham Internet Archive: John V. Allcott, "Architectural Developments at 'Montrose' in the 1850's", North Carolina Historical Review 42 (1965), p. 88
  6. 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 shaped by the English gardener Thomas Paxton under the direction of Susan Washington Graham. William A. Graham asked David L. Swain on November 4, 1852 to send the university's gardener, and Paxton worked at Montrose that winter at $1.60 a day; in March 1853 (or 1855) Mrs. Graham asked to keep him another week. People: David L. Swain, William A. Graham NC State Historic Preservation Office: Hillsborough Historic District Additional Documentation, National Register (OR0077ad, 2014), 320 St. Mary's Road, Montrose · Also: Internet Archive: John V. Allcott
  7. The Grahams enlarge Montrose to their own plan instead of Davis's In 1853 William A. Graham set aside the Davis design, which two Raleigh builders found costly and hard to join to the old roof, and contracted with the Raleigh builder Conrad to add rooms across the hall on the west side, verandas front and back, and a nursery at the rear, without the tower. Graham had paid Conrad $500 by October 6, 1853; the work was nearly done in July 1854, and on April 1, 1855 he gave Conrad and Williams a note for $1,256.04, provided they stopped the roof leaking. Payments ran into the fall of 1855. Internet Archive: John V. Allcott, "Architectural Developments at 'Montrose' in the 1850's", North Carolina Historical Review 42 (1965), p. 92
  8. 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. NC State Historic Preservation Office: Hillsborough Historic District Additional Documentation, National Register (OR0077ad, 2014), 320 St. Mary's Road, Montrose
  9. Swain and Graham agree on a peace plan at Graham's Hillsborough house Swain spent the day at Graham's house in Hillsborough, where Graham wrote out a four-point plan calling for the legislature to meet and seek peace talks with the United States, and for the governor to ask Sherman for a halt to fighting. Swain carried it to Raleigh by the morning train, and Vance agreed to try it if General Johnston consented. People: William A. Graham, David L. Swain, Zebulon B. Vance Cornelia Phillips Spencer, The Last Ninety Days of the War in North-Carolina (1866), scan p. 149
  10. Graham and Swain bring Governor Vance word of Lee's surrender at Hillsborough Returning from Raleigh with Sherman's invitation and safe conduct for the governor, Graham and Swain reached Hillsborough on the evening of April 14 and found Vance waiting in Graham's parlor. Neither Vance nor General Hampton had yet heard that Lee had surrendered. Vance chose to answer a summons from Jefferson Davis and left for Greensboro the next morning instead of going back to Raleigh. People: Zebulon B. Vance, William A. Graham, David L. Swain Cornelia Phillips Spencer, The Last Ninety Days of the War in North-Carolina (1866), scan p. 172
  11. 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 NC State Historic Preservation Office: Hillsborough Historic District Additional Documentation, National Register (OR0077ad, 2014), 320 St. Mary's Road, Montrose
  12. 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 Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), October 28, 1893, p. 3 · Also: National Register nomination: Montrose, Orange County (2001)
Show all 19 dated events
  1. John W. Graham builds the present house at Montrose After his 1893 fire, John W. Graham lived in the enlarged law office until 1899, when he let the contract for a new residence on his lot east of town: the two-story frame house that is the core of the present Montrose, the third house on the site. Work began in June and was to be finished by October. People: John W. Graham NC State Historic Preservation Office: Hillsborough Historic District Additional Documentation, National Register (OR0077ad, 2014), 320 St. Mary's Road, Montrose · Also: Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), April 20, 1899, p. 3; Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), June 22, 1899, p. 3
  2. Alexander H. Graham inherits Montrose on the death of his father, John W. Graham When John W. Graham died in 1928, Montrose passed to his son Alexander H. 'Sandy' Graham, later lieutenant governor. People: John W. Graham NC State Historic Preservation Office: Hillsborough Historic District Additional Documentation, National Register (OR0077ad, 2014), 320 St. Mary's Road, Montrose · Also: UNC Commission on History, Race, and a Way Forward, Graham Residence Hall
  3. 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. People: George Watts Carr Sr. NC State Historic Preservation Office: Hillsborough Historic District Additional Documentation, National Register (OR0077ad, 2014), 320 St. Mary's Road, Montrose
  4. 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. NC State Historic Preservation Office: Hillsborough Historic District Additional Documentation, National Register (OR0077ad, 2014), 320 St. Mary's Road, Montrose
  5. 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. NC State Historic Preservation Office: Hillsborough Historic District Additional Documentation, National Register (OR0077ad, 2014), 320 St. Mary's Road, Montrose
  6. 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. People: William A. Graham NC State Historic Preservation Office: National Register Advisory Committee agendas, minutes and approved lists, p. 843
  7. 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. NC State Historic Preservation Office: North Carolina Listings in the National Register of Historic Places, Orange County · Also: National Register nomination: Montrose, Orange County (2001)

Open these in the chronology →

Deeds

4 deeds from the county’s deed books that bear on this site, from Mark Chilton’s published abstracts. The note under each says why: the site’s survey file or National Register nomination cites it, it names the site, or it passes the site’s land along the chain of title the survey traces. Each deed’s page links to its deed-book page at the Register of Deeds.

Search every historic deed →

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 6

Historic sites, markers, and maps

Records of the time 8

Show all 8

Collections and databases

Local help 5

Nearby

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