The Lawson House
604 East Franklin Street
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
The Lawson House was most likely constructed in the late nineteenth century by University of North Carolina Professor of Greek Francis Kingsley Ball. Ball was a Harvard graduate and a native of Pennsylvania. He leased the land for $12 a year from the University and obtained a loan for $2,500 for construction of the house. Dr. and Mrs. Robert Baker Lawson purchased the house in 1907. Dr. Lawson (1875-1952), UNC class of 1900, was a physician and athlete who returned to the University in 1905 to serve as the baseball coach, Director of the Gymnasium, and Assistant Professor of Anatomy in the Medical School. During his 43 year career Dr. Lawson served at various times as baseball coach, track coach, and football coach. His obituary referred to him as "a father of basketball in the University." His daughter, Estelle Lawson Page (1907-1983), was an accomplished amateur golfer who in 1935 won her first of seven North and South Women's Amateur Golf Championships. She was among the first group to be inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame. Dr. and Mrs. Woodrow Burns purchased the property from a later owner and painstakingly restored the house to its original beauty. In a continuation of the sensitive care the house has received, the current owners installed a new kitchen and half bath and created a functional and appealing kitchen and family dining space. A small screened porch was also enclosed to create an intimate television and music space. The house is beautifully situated on an almost one acre corner lot in
Chapel Hill's Franklin Street Historic District. Among the specimen plants are a spectacular magnolia that is one of the largest examples in the area and a sycamore grown from a seed taken from a tree that shades Susan B. Anthony's grave in Rochester New York.
Stylistically, the Lawson House is a large Shingle Style bungalow. It is one of the finest examples of the bungalow style in
Chapel Hill. According to M. Ruth Little author of The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, it is likely that an architect
designed this impressive bungalow. The Shingle Style was popular between 1880 and 1900. The style began and reached its highest
expression in seaside resorts of the northeastern states. Fashionable summer destinations such as Newport, Cape Cod, eastern Long Island and coastal Maine had numerous architect-designed cottages in the style. From this fashionable base, well publicized in contemporary architectural magazines, the style spread throughout the country. It never gained the wide popularity of it's contemporary, the Queen Anne style, and thus Shingle houses are relatively uncommon except in coastal New England (Source: Virginia and Lee McAlester, A Field Guide to American Houses, Alfred A. Knopf 2005). The Lawson House has among the most remaining original architectural details of any turn of the century house in Chapel Hill.
- Almost one acre located
in the Franklin Street
Historic District
- Potential for subdivision
subject to governmental
approval
- Walk to UNC and downtown
Chapel Hill
- Architecturally significant
nineteenth century Shingle Style bungalow
- Painstaking restorations
- Original leaded glass windows
- Wonderful first floor library with original pocket doors
- Professionally landscaped with irrigation system
- Brick sidewalks
- Delightful front porch
- Nine fireplaces (some
non-functional)
- Screened sleeping porch
off Master Bedroom
- Large entrance foyer with
fireplace (non-working)
- Screened porch off Living Room
- Large Dining Room with
original wainscoting and fireplace (non-working)
- Professionally designed kitchen
- Security system
- Tankless hot water heater
- Family dining area with
fireplace
- Original heart pine floors and plaster walls in most rooms
- Professional inspection
available
- Back-up generator
Offered at $1,195,000
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