Wayne County NcArchives Photo Place.....Peele-Smith Plantation 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/nc/ncfiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Sue Sewell sewellr@prodigy.net March 5, 2007, 11:54 pm

Source: Family history
Photo can be seen at:
http://www.usgwarchives.net/nc/wayne/photos/peelesmi1032gph.jpg
Image file size: 62.8 Kb

Peele-Smith Plantation Home

Built in 1820, the plantation was owned by Robert Peele and Eliza J. Pipkin 
Peele and after Robert's death, Eliza sold it to William Thomas Smith, her 
son-in-law.

The yellow two story house with two front doors and a chimney at each end is 
the original Peele home. The insides are being restored to as it was 
conditions in 1820. We stood in front of the fire place in the main parlor and 
thought of what it must have been like to stand there in 1861 discussing the 
seccession from the Union and what the coming years would bring.

The house was going to be used for a practice burn for the fire department 
when the folks from Greenville rescued and moved it.  
 
The house was cut into two pieces, top and bottom, the chimneys were bound 
with metal and it was trucked 60 miles to Greenville, NC, where it was 
reassembled. The bricks for the chimneys and pier blocks were numbered and 
replaced as they had been originially. The owners had a paint restorer find 
the originial color from 1820. The color was a pale yellow, off-white trim 
and a cranberry colored door. I believe the shutters were green, which the 
owners are having replicated from a shutter they found in one of the 
outbuildings. The house has two front doors, which I thought might be because 
they were Quakers, but have heard that it was probably because Robert Peele 
was a landowner and used one of the rooms for an office and the other a parlor. 
I think they said that the home was a 4 over 4? Four rooms down and four up. 
I have also heard that the bricks for the pier blocks were from England and 
were ballast in one of the ships.  
 
Robert Peele owned a grist mill and a saw mill, so the milled work on the 
fireplace mantels and other woodwork is exceptional for that time period. Mr. 
Greenfield told us that at one time the plantation was several thousand acres. 
Robert made it through the Civil War in fair shape and helped out the other 
owners in the area. Mr. Greenfield also told us that the house was haunted. 
There are dark stains in the wood at the top of the stairs which is supposed 
to be blood. The wainscotting in the house has feather painting that looks 
like it might have been done by someone on the plantation....in other words, 
not real professional looking. The new owners are carefully removing paint 
that was put over the original in the interior.  The walls are very wide 
boards.

The last time we saw the house was a couple years ago, and at that time the 
owners said they hoped it would be completed the next time we visited. In the 
picture you can see an extension off the back of the house. That is new and 
where the owners live. They had it built so that it is about 1/4 away from the 
original house all the way around. The extension that could be moved are torn off 
and the original house would not be harmed in any way. The doorways into the 
new part are where the windows were in the older portion. Because the house 
was located near a river (Sleepy Creek) they situated the house in a similar 
fashion on the Tar River.

In 1996 we built our retirement home designed by us. I never even knew at that 
time anything of my family. We painted our house the same yellow, off white 
trim and burgundy front door just like the original colors of this family 
home. Our home even resembles the original home.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/nc/wayne/photos/peelesmi1032gph.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ncfiles/

File size: 4.0 Kb