103 E. TRYON ST.

Built prior to 1768 on town lot 99. It was originally used as an ordinary/tavern and a dwelling.

1768 Sauthier map excerpt (showing the original site of this house on the right side of Churton Street)

View east, showing structure's original location, indicated by red arrow (circa 1910 postcard excerpt)

1894 Sanborn map excerpt

1900 Sanborn map excerpt

1905 Sanborn map excerpt

1911 Sanborn map excerpt

This structure was moved circa 1928 from the north east corner of E. Tryon and N. Churton streets (when the Esso service station was built) to its present location. The antebellum structure that was at the north east side of the lot was attached to the rear of the colonial structure when it was moved, the chimneys were removed and rebuilt, and new 3-over-1 windows were installed, among other renovations.

1943 Sanborn map excerpt

Image excerpt, view north east (structure at right), circa 1988 (photo by Susan Bellinger)

View north, circa 1990 (photo by Susan Bellinger)

The 1990 booklet Photocensus: A Photographic Survey of Buildings in the Hillsborough, N.C. Historic District Built Prior to 1950 lists the structure as being a Queen Anne style house, built circa 1880. This description was incorrect; however, at the time, the structure had been extensively remuddled and hid its true history behind the numerous modifications (see photo above).

The entire structure was renovated and restored by its current owners (Tom and Diane Magnuson) in 1992-1993, to include a new chimney on the west side of the original structure and new windows on the front. The house is labeled by the front sign as "Mason's Ordinary" with a build date of circa 1754.

From the 2014 Historic Hillsborough Survey:

This one-and-a-half-story, side-gabled house is the front portion of an eighteenth century house built for Catherine Lockhart about 1768 on the adjacent lot at the northeast corner of Churton and Tryon Streets. The house is three bays wide and single-pile with a full-width shed-roofed rear wing and a full-width gabled rear wing that is four bays deep. It has beaded weatherboards, six-over-six wood-sash windows on the façade and in the gabled dormers on the façade, and four-over-one Craftsman-style wood-sash windows on the side elevations. The six-panel door has a one-light transom and is sheltered by a replacement shed-roofed porch supported by chamfered wood posts. The Flemish-bond brick chimney in the left (west) gable is likely a reconstruction. In the early 19th century, the house was owned by William H. Brown, who lived there and kept his shoemakers shop in the house. About 1927, the Esso Company bought the house and the front half was moved to this adjacent site and remodeled in the Craftsman style. The Craftsman-style porch was later removed, a front stoop was added, and the front-gable dormers were reconstructed.

08.14.2016 (G. Kueber)