Charles H. Willson House

Location: 4109 Oak Ridge Road 

Marker installed: Summer 2019

The Charles H. Willson house is one of the few houses still standing in Summerfield, NC that was constructed before the Civil War. A two-story frame, Greek Revival house built on a stone foundation with a small one-story on the back side, it was originally surrounded by 150 acres of farmland. It’s value at the time was listed at $2,300.

The house was originally constructed by Charles Willson for his fiancé, Nancy Roach in 1858. Charles Willson was the grandson of Hezekiah Saunders, who built and ran the Saunders Inn in Summerfield in 1822. Charles and his fiancé Nancy were married In 1859 and remained married for nearly 60 years before his death in 1918. One of several children, their daughter Clara inherited the house after her mother died at the age of 95 in 1935. Miss Clara sadly was killed in an accident in 1959. She had never married and had no children, having lived in the same house her whole life.

After Miss Clara’s death, the house fell into disrepair. Linda Southard, a Summerfield native and her husband Ben bought the house and then four acre property in 1963 for $13,000. They repaired it and restored it to its present state, adding the modern conveniences of indoor plumbing and electricity. The Southard’s decided to keep the two-story part of the house, which was still in decent condition, and tore down the small one-story back rooms. Bricks from an old kitchen outbuilding, which had burned in a fire some time ago, were used to create a new one-story area containing a living room, bathroom, bedroom, kitchen and small dining room. They left many of the original features of the interior and exterior of the two-story section, however, keeping all the original wood flooring and staircase from 1858. In 1990 they added onto the kitchen to expand the dining room area. 

Today it is filled with many antiques from the early to mid-1900s, lovingly collected by owner Linda Southard. "I just love my house," she said. "... [Buying it] was the best thing we [ever] did." 

(Information gathered from Summerfield resident Mike Southard.)