The state is about to start work on a new $5 million visitors center at the House in the Horseshoe, a state historic site that was almost mothballed in 2013 because of state budget cuts.
The home, set in a bend of the Deep River in Moore County about 20 miles from Sanford, was the site of a firefight between a group of local Patriots and Loyalists during the Revolutionary War that ended when the wife of the homeowner marched onto the front porch and called for an end to the foolishness.
Funding for the visitors center is part of the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources’ effort to highlight North Carolina’s role in the war as the nation prepares to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
The state will hold a groundbreaking ceremony Dec. 1 to mark the start of construction on the new facility, to be nearly five times larger than the 1940s house where staff now receive visitors, including thousands of schoolchildren each year.
The new 4,000-square-foot building will include an exhibit gallery, modern restrooms, an expanded gift shop, lobby and office spaces for staff. The gravel parking lot at the site will be paved as part of the project.
The site will be closed for a year while the work is done, the state says.
“For more than two centuries, the House in the Horseshoe has served as a place where North Carolinians come to reflect on our shared past and the events that helped shape our nation,” Kevin Melvin, site manager, said in a press release ahead of the groundbreaking. “This restoration project, along with the addition of a new visitor center and museum, will enhance our ability to tell those stories with accuracy, respect, and community engagement at the heart of our work. We appreciate the public’s patience during this temporary closure and look forward to reopening with a more educational, inclusive, and inspiring experience for all.”
In July 1781, the belonged to Col. Philip Alston, who lived there with his wife, Temperance, and six children. Alston was the leader of a band of colonists who were among those seeking independence from Britain.
Earlier in the month, Alston and his men had been in pursuit of Col. David Fanning, a Loyalist leader, as Fanning and some of his men traveled to Wilmington with a group of prisoners. In their travels, the Alston crowd encountered a Loyalist friend of Fanning’s and whacked him in the head with a rifle butt.
The man lived long enough to tell Fanning who had struck the fatal blow.
To avenge the death, Fanning and his men went to Alston’s home and launched an attack involving musket and rifle fire and verbal insults. From within the house, Alston and his men returned in kind.
Twice, the Loyalists tried to set the house on fire, including sending a burning hay wagon careening toward the structure.
Costumed interpreters at the site say Alston’s wife had tucked her children into the fireplace where the masonry would protect them. When the Loyalists made their second attempt at arson, she had had enough. She stepped onto the porch and demanded a cease-fire, in which her husband had to surrender and promise not to attack anyone else who was faithful to the king.
In 2013, when the N.C. General Assembly was cutting the state budget, cultural resources officials considered closing the House in the Horseshoe to the public, along with three other state historic sites that had relatively low visitor numbers. The Alston house is one of few homes known to be standing from the era of the American Revolution that still bears scars from the war; visitors can poke their fingers into the holes in the white clapboard siding left from the Loyalists’ gunfire.
Ultimately, the state cut operating hours but the House in the Horseshoe remained an active historic site. According to , the site gets more than 17,000 visitors a year.
In 2023, the National Park Service’s Semiquincentennial Grant Program to preserve the home, which was built in 1770 and later served as the home of four-time N.C. Gov. Benjamin Williams. Williams that relied on the labor of 103 enslaved people. He also had a horse-racing track and dabbled in equine breeding.
The work paid for by the NPS grant includes structural repairs, pest control, paint analysis to restore original colors, installing a new HVAC system, new signage and interpretive materials and updating the home’s nomination to the National Register of Historic Places with additional research.
That work will overlap with the construction of the new visitors center.
Saturday, Dec. 6, is the last day to visit the House in the Horseshoe before it closes for the work to begin. The house is open Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and is closed most holidays.
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