Walnut Hall (Durham, North Carolina)

Walnut Hall was built by the politician Willie Person Mangum, who served as President pro tempore of the U.S. Senate.[1][2] The house was built as an addition to his father's home, which was built around 1800.[3] The house, originally styled after the nearby Fairntosh Plantation, was constructed between 1842 and 1845 in northern Durham, near Red Mountain, in present-day Bahama.[4][5] Mangum named his 600-acre estate for two large walnut trees growing on the property.[3] The plantation included the manor house, a kitchen, an icehouse, a smokehouse, an office building, a carriage house, a carriage driver's house, several barns, and three houses for enslaved people.[3][6]

backside of the house circa 1870.

Mangum planted various specimens of trees and other plants at Walnut Hall that he procured in Washington, D.C.[3]

Mangum's wife, Charity Cain Mangum, managed the plantation.[3][7] The Mangums enslaved twenty people in 1850, twelve people in 1860, and by 1861 they enslaved four people.[3] Through forced labor of enslaved people, Walnut Hall produced wheat, corn, and tobacco as cash crops.[3] After Mangum inherited debts from his father, his father-in-law, William Cain of Pleasant Grove Plantation,[7][8] saved him from financial ruin.[3] Mangum's wife maintained a rose garden, a rose arbor, a summer house of cedars, and an orchard.[3] Some of the trees on the estate were brought from Pennsylvania by Mangum's grandparents before the American Revolution.[3] Mangum retired from politics in 1856 and remained at Walnut Hall for the remainder of his life.[9]

The 6th North Carolina Regiment Flat River Guards of the Confederate States Army, which included Mangum's son, William Preston Mangum, marched to Walnut Hall before leaving to fight in the American Civil War.[5] Mangum's son died less than a month later, during the First Battle of Bull Run.[3] Mangum died shortly after that, on September 7, 1861.[3] He and his son were both buried in the family cemetery at Walnut Hall.[3][10] Mangum's former teacher, a free black man named John Chavis, is also buried in the Mangum cemetery.[11]

After the death of her husband, Charity Cain Mangum and he daughters continued to reside at the plantation, where they continued to manage the farm while selling off portions of the land to their neighbor, Zachariah Hampton.[3] One of their daughters, Martha Person Mangum, started a girls' school at Walnut Hall in 1863.[3] Martha and her sister, Mary Sutherland Mangum, continued to reside at Walnut Hall until they died in 1902.[3] After the deaths of Mary and Martha, the plantation was placed into a public auction, excluding the family cemetery from the sale, which remained in the Mangum family.[3] Walnut Hall was purchased by William B. Hampton, a neighbor of the Mangum family, for $3,850 for 565 acres.[3] The Hampton family lived at Walnut Hall until 1916, when they moved to Braggtown, after which they rented the house out to various tenants.[3]

By 1929, the manor house had fallen into bad shape. On December 24, 1933, the 1845 section of the house was destroyed in a fire.[3] The property remained in the Hampton family until 1977 when it was acquired by the North Carolina State University's School of Forestry and was added to the adjacent G.W. Hill Forest.[3] The original 1800 part of the house burned down in 1980.[3]