Bain House

Bain House, ca. 1890

In 1879, Benjamin L. Bitting declared bankruptcy and his property was auctioned. At that auction, his sister, Lucy Bitting Bain purchased the lot upon which this house stands. No mention of a house was made in the deed, but the advertisement for the sale of Benjamin Bitting’s property included three tracts of land: two larger tracts and one 2-acre parcel with a house. The lot that Lucy Bain bought was just a little less than two acres. The half-acre discrepancy between the deed and the advertisement may represent the area used to create the street that runs long the property’s southwest edge.[1]

1879 ad for the sale of B.L. Bitting's property

Lucy Bitting Bain was the daughter of Anthony Bitting and Mary Wilkerson Bitting. The Bittings had been prominent and wealthy landowners in the Germanton and Rural Hall areas since Germanton’s establishment. Thomas Hare Bain was a Raleigh native, and the son of a prominent Raleigh family headed by William and Martha Bain. Presumably, the couple met through the marriage of Lucy’s brother, Benjamin Bitting, to Thomas Bain’s sister, Mollie Bain, in 1858. Thomas and Lucy married in 1869, and it is not known where they lived between 1869 and 1879, but in 1877, Thomas purchased a lot in Germanton from the estate of John W. Bitting.  This lot was on the old courthouse square, suggesting that Mr. Bain was engaged in some sort of commerce. Two years later, Lucy bought this property at auction.[2]

The 1880 census records Thomas, age 33, and Lucy, age 38, living on Main Street with their daughter, Amy, age 7. Thomas was a minister and their household also included Frannie Beck, who was a twenty-two-year-old, African American cook.[3]

In 1889, the Winston Western Sentinel reported that “On last Saturday about 10 o’clock a.m., the alarm of fire was given and the dwelling-house of Mr. T. H. Bain was on fire. It is not known how the fire originated, but in less than an hour, the building was entirely consumed.”[4] The existing house likely dates from a ca. 1890 reconstruction and is either an entirely new building or an extensively updated rehabilitation of the earlier dwelling that was on the lot when Lucy Bitting Bain purchased it.

In any case, the Bains continued to live in Germanton after the fire, and in 1891, the Bains sold this property, which included a house. The couple remained in Germanton, however, and Thomas ran a successful mayoral campaign in 1893. In 1895 the Greensboro Patriot reported that “Mr. T. H. Bain and family, old residents of this place [Germanton], have moved to Rural Hall to make their future home. Luck to you, Bro. Bain.”[5]

In the meantime, D. H. Petree bought the house in 1891. Mr. Petree was a Christian minister (Church of Christ), and the son of Riley Frost Petree, a successful farmer. D. H. also ran a general store in Germanton, which failed in the summer of 1892, leaving him $2,500 in debt. Later that same year, D. H. married Germanton native, Roberta Crews, but in 1895, D. H.’s debts caught up with him and the house was auctioned as part of a settlement with Odell Hardware, which, presumably, was one of D. H.’s creditors.[6]

D. H.’s brother, N. O. Petree, purchased the house at auction. N. O. Petree was Nathanial Petree, who was a well-known attorney and long-time Clerk of Court, and in December of 1895, the Greensboro Patriot noted that he was “making noticeable improvements to the Bain property.”[7] It appears that N. O. Petree lived in Danbury during this period, making it likely that he leased this house out. D. H. Petree, meanwhile, had relocated to Lagrange in Lenoir County, N.C.[8]

In 1907, Petree sold the house to L. M. and Carrie McKenzie.[9] L. M. McKenzie was a prominent merchant in Germanton who built at least one and possibly two other houses in Germanton.

In 1920, the McKenzies sold the house to M. F. and Carrie James. Eventually, the house ended up in auction as part of an estate settlement, and B. L. and Bertha Jeffords won the house. Mr. Jeffords was an insurance salesman and he died here in 1975. Mrs. Jeffords moved away, and the Jeffords’ son sold it to Richard and Brenda Porter in 1977. Since then, the house passed through a few more ownerships, and it is now rental property.[10]

The Bain House is a one-story, Victorian-era dwelling with two forward-facing gables. It typifies the type of houses built across North Carolina in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century when the region's industrialization was making construction less expensive through mass produced building components like porch posts and windows. The porch posts have been replaced, but it originally featured turned posts and scroll-work brackets. Original, two-over-two sash windows remain, but the original wood siding has been covered with vinyl. The house stands above a full basement which includes two plastered rooms, one of which likely served as a kitchen. Aside from the addition of vinyl siding, changes to the porch posts, and the replacement of the original wood shingle roof, the house appears much as it did in the turn-of-the-century photos below.

Bain House, possibly ca. 1907.

This photo came from Bud Hill, the son of Mable McKenzie Hill and this appears to be the McKenzie Family, likely taken around the time they purchased the house. If it is the McKenzie family, those pictured are, from left to right: L.M. McKenzie, Carrie, Helen (age about 2), Sarah (age about 5), Mable (age about 10), and an as-yet unidentified African American girl who probably worked for the family. Below, a photograph of the rear of the house shows the same family, but with the addition of a small boy standing beside Mr. McKenzie. This child cannot be accounted for; the McKenzies had a son, born in 1910, but if this were taken around 1912, the other children would be much older. Aside from this child, however, everything else points to this as a photo of the McKenzie family. 

If you have any further clues to the identities of the people in this photo, please use the contact form at the bottom of the page to contribute to the accuracy of this post. 

Sarah Woodard David, 2016

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[1] Laura Phillips, Bain House Architectural Survey Site Form, SK 296; Greensboro North State, May 1, 1879, page 3; and T.J. Brown and N.F. Sullivan to L. A. Bain, Stokes County Deed Book, 31, 442, recording a transaction from May 17, 1879, August 24, 1885.

[2] Family history accessed via ancestry.com; gravemarkers accessed via findagrave.com; and B. L. Bitting to T. H. Bain, Stokes County Deed Book 25, page 381, November 26, 1877.

[3] U. S. Census Records, 1880, accessed via ancestry.com.

[4] Winston-Salem Western Sentinel, April 18, 1889, page 1.

[5] Winston-Salem Union Republican, May 4, 1893, page 2, and Greensboro Patriot, October 16, 1895, page 2.

[6] T. H. and L. A. Bain to D. H. Petree, Stokes County Deed Book 33, page 365, October 27, 1891; Wilmington Morning Star, July 1, 1892, page 1; The Biblical Recorder (Raleigh), September 14, 1892, page 7; and Joel Fulton, Sherriff, to N. O. Petree, Stokes County Deed Book 36, page 623, September 2, 1895.

[7] Greensboro Patriot, December 11, 1895, page 2.

[8] U.S. Census Records, 1900, accessed via ancestry.com.

[9] N. O. and M. J. Petree to L. M. and Carrie McKenzie, Stokes County Deed book 48, page 575, February 14, 1907.

[10] L.M. and Carrie McKenzie to M.F. and Carrie James, Stokes County Deed Book 69, page 88, November 12, 1920; M.F. and Carrie James to L.K. and Sallie Matthews, Stokes County Deed Book 75, page 376, April 15, 1927; Marshall Matthews to B.L. and Bertha Jeffords, Stokes County Deed Book 91, page 392, August 14, 1936; Robert Jeffords to Richard and Brenda Porter, Stokes County Deed Book 253, page 885, June 24, 1977; and Stokes County Deed Book 376, page 1825.