Tuesday night the Wake Forest commissioners all agreed to spend a little money, up to $2,000, an investment that may bring a large return in the future.
The money – combined with $1,000 already pledged by the Wake County Historical Society and another $2,000 from the Wake Forest Historic Preservation Commission – will go to mothball a somewhat derelict house, the last example of Reconstruction-era African-American housing in town and one of the few left in the state as well as the only remaining structure connected to Allen Young, a preeminent Negro educator during the Jim Crow years and father of Ailey Mae Young, Wake Forest’s first black town commissioner.
The HPC has asked planner Agnes Wanman to get some firm quotes for the mothballing cost before it commits to its $2,000. A preliminary quote plus a 10 percent contingency said it would cost $4,730 to wall up the doors and windows, cover the roof, cover up the area damaged by a fire in the 1990s and add a plywood door with a lock. Those measures would keep the elements and trespassers out of the house until the town or some other agency can find the money to restore/renovate the house built around 1875.
Ruth Little, the historian and archivist who prepared a report about the history and the architecture of the house, calls it the Ailey Young House because the first Ailey Young was Allen Young’s mother and it was her name on the deed when the widow of Professor William G. Simmons sold the house to her and her husband, Henry, in 1895.
Today the house stands in 20 wooded acres south of Wake Forest Cemetery. When Simmons built the house and several others about 1875 it stood on what was called Simmons Row and was originally designed for two families sharing a central fireplace.
Members of the Wake County Historical Society strongly urged the town to renovate the house for some use or turn it into a memorial or monument when funds are available. Other local groups – the Wake Forest Historical Association, the W.E.B. DuBois Community Development Corporation and the National Alumni Association of the DuBois High School – all sent letters of support but said they were not able to contribute any funds.
Because the history of the house weaves together so many different strains of Wake Forest history, the Gazette editor will publish some of the proposed nomination for the National Register of Historic Places in next week’s issue.
The report makes clear that the house should be eligible for the National Register because of the structure itself and as the birthplace and last remaining building connected to Allen Young and the Young family. “The house has the potential for use as a monument to the Wake Forest African American community, a small unmanned museum or a cemetery office as part of the cemetery if it is restored and landscaped,” Wanman wrote.