A Blank Canvas:

Take a look inside before our extensive restoration

Preserving History

In summer of 2025 we began restoring the iconic Captain J. F. Alston home. We started with a visit from the North Carolina State Preservation Office. As we walked through the home, we explored the homes history, from hand planed wood molding, to hand painted chimney mortar joints, original Queen Anne wainscoting, and linen back Victorian wallpaper. The information we learned about the home will help us to carefully maintain its historic artifacts for generations to come.

The homes restoration will involve removing layers of ceiling tiles and revealing the original beadboard or Gables original form. The front porch, originally adorned with Queen Anne Victorian trim, will be restored after carefully replacing each singular sawn drop pendant, cross and lattice rail, and sawn openwork balustrade to bring the wraparound porch back to its former glory.

The German wood siding will be restored after removing the vinyl siding. The original shutters, carefully stored in the homes basement by its previous owner, will be repaired and carefully put back on each window. Every piece of siding we uncover tells a story of the past, from the skill of the builders, and heritage and legacy of Pittsboro’s earliest neighbors. Our restoration efforts will balance maintaining the homes character and style while creating a beautiful and comfortable space for our community to use for book clubs, events, meetups and social gatheringsa number of original exterior walls inside the home, suggesting that there are two, and possibly three homes that were pushed together to make the current home we see today. During that time, building homes required hand made nails, hand milled (and later steam powered) milled wood, so tearing down a home was not practical. During our renovations we are uncovering the many clues that tell us about the home, its dating, and a glimpse into life in the gilded age of Pittsboro.