Photo Courtesy Judy Knight
NCSDAR Honorary Regent Elizabeth Graham examines the bullet holes.
Our restoration project was featured in the
May/June 2019 issue of American Spirit Magazine.
Photo Courtesy Jimmy Haire Photography
Historic Preservation
Photo Courtesy House in the Horseshoe State Historic Site
Front of the Alston House Before Restoration
The Private John Grady Chapter, NSDAR, celebrated its 65th birthday with a focus on preserving the House in the Horseshoe also known as the Alston House. Both the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution and generous Sanford citizens supported our preservation project for much-needed repairs and exterior painting of our local Historic House in the Horseshoe.
Photo Courtesy House in the Horseshoe State Historic Site
Scraping Off Old Paint
The house was built in 1772 by Philip Alston in a horseshoe–shaped bend of the Deep River. In 1781 a band of colonists was camped on the grounds when the British attacked them. The 1781 bullet holes can still be seen around the doors.
Later the house was sold to Colonel Benjamin Williams, who had served under George Washington in the Revolutionary War and became a four–term Governor of North Carolina. In 1970 the house was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The house now contains colonial and American Revolutionary War period antiques but it is the original bullet holes visible inside the first floor rooms that delight visitors most.
Photo Courtesy Diane Warren Family
The Restored House in the Horseshoe
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