A Home at Brunswick: Hepburn-Reonolds Site

A Home at Brunswick: Hepburn-Reonolds Site. . , Brunswick homes were similar in style to those built in the West Indies or Caribbean. The main structure on this lot was quite impressive, measuring about 22 feet by 29 feet with a 10-foot-wide porch across the front. There were also several outbuildings., The basement was partitioned in the middle by a stone wall with a kitchen in the west room. Since two merchants built this house it is believed that the east room served as a storeroom: note the steps leading into Cross Street. The kitchen had a wooden floor and the cellar storage room had a ballast stone floor. On the back side, north of the house, a brick patio was built and may have been used for food preparation as well as other chores., On the first floor, archaeological evidence suggests two rooms, a hall used as a principal living space and a chamber likely used for sleeping. The walls were plastered, and the west room was painted Spanish brown. Access to this floor was outside stairs built at the west end of the porch paralleling the end of the house. After the original had been built, a fireplace was added on the east side of the house to provide heat for the second floor east room., Windows in the house had glass panes, and research suggests they were shattered. The ballast stone cellar foundation was approximately 6 feet high with the remaining exterior covered with weatherboard and probably painted Spanish brown., Like many other houses in town, the building was deserted before it was burned., Archaeological, architectural, and historical data have made possible conjectural drawings of several Brunswick structures., The first record of this lot is when Maurice Moore sold it in 1734 for ten shillings to Hepburn and Reonolds, two "Merchants in Cape Fear ... Half an acre of ground lying on the west side of Cape Fear River and being part of a parcel of land that is allotted and laid out for a town into half acres which half is a corner lot Number 71 and joyns Mr. Nath Moore's front." New Hanover County Deeds, Book AB, p. 7, William Lord, tavern keeper, bought this lot in 1748,"which said Lot with ye appurtenances is now in the possession and occupation of Ralph Bugnion, Mariner with all and singular ye Houses out Houses Edifices Buildings Stables Yard, Gardens Cellars Lights Easements Profits commodities Hereditaments Rights members and Appurtenances whatsoever to the said Lot belonging." New Hanover County Deeds, Book C, pp. 180-182, Foundation and cellar plan, Conjecture of house