Cooleemee

Cooleemee is a historic estate and plantation house on the Yadkin River in Davie County, North Carolina, between Mocksville and Lexington. The property is located at the end of Peter Hairston Road, formerly reached from the surrounding rural road network, and is best known for its nineteenth-century house, its long association with the Hairston family, its archaeological record, and its designation as a United States National Historic Landmark. The name has roots in the history of the Creek peoples. Colonel Jesse A. Pearson, who participated in the capture of Creek people during the War of 1812, is said to have applied the name Cooleemee Hill to his plantation after returning to North Carolina. The name is associated with a Creek place called Kulimi or Cooleeme and is commonly interpreted as referring to a place where white oaks grow. In 1817, Peter Hairston purchased the approximately 2,500-acre Cooleemee Hill plantation from Pearson. The Hairston family subsequently became closely associated with the property and continued to own the house into the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The principal surviving building is an Anglo-Grecian Villa constructed between 1853 and 1855 for Peter Wilson Hairston and Columbia Stuart Hairston. Its unusual plan takes the form of a Greek cross, with four wings extending from an octagonal central core. The design was based on a published architectural pattern by William H. Ranlett that appeared in The Architect and was later reproduced in Godey's Lady's Book. The house was built using roughly 300,000 bricks manufactured on site. Its architecture, rather than commercial activity, is the central reason for the property's historic importance. Cooleemee also reflects the economic and social history of the antebellum American South. Tobacco was the plantation's principal crop, and records from 1860 list twenty-three slave dwellings on the property. The Hairston family history includes both Black and white branches connected through slavery, and later family reunions have brought members of those branches together at Cooleemee. The history of the property therefore encompasses plantation agriculture, enslavement, inheritance, family continuity, and the changing interpretation of historic sites. The estate reached approximately 4,200 acres at its peak. By 1997, about 1,900 acres remained, including farmland and approximately two miles of Yadkin River frontage. That year, the Hairston family donated a conservation easement to the LandTrust for Central North Carolina, helping limit development and preserve the landscape. The river corridor supports a wide range of birdlife, with more than 200 species reported in the surrounding area. Cooleemee was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1978 in recognition of its architectural significance. Its history has also been documented through family memoir, historical research, architectural recording, and archaeology. Approximately 175 arrowheads found west of the Yadkin River at the plantation represent multiple Indigenous peoples and periods, with dates ranging from roughly 7000 BCE to the eighteenth century. These discoveries place the plantation landscape within a much older history of human occupation. Cooleemee is therefore not a conventional consumer brand or operating company; it is a historic place name associated with a preserved architectural and cultural property.

Cooleemee's recorded history begins with the plantation known as Cooleemee Hill. Colonel Jesse A. Pearson is credited with establishing the plantation and naming it after a Creek place associated with the term Kulimi or Cooleeme. The name is generally explained as meaning a place where white oaks grow. Pearson's connection to the War of 1812, including the capture of Creek people, is part of the complicated colonial and military context behind the property's name. In 1817, Revolutionary War veteran and North Carolina legislator Peter Hairston acquired the approximately 2,500-acre plantation for $20,000. The Hairston family expanded and maintained the estate, which eventually reached approximately 4,200 acres. Tobacco became its principal agricultural product. By 1860, the plantation included twenty-three dwellings for enslaved people, demonstrating that its agricultural operation depended on enslaved labor. The property's later interpretation must therefore address both its architectural achievements and the coercive social and economic system that sustained it. The present plantation house was built between 1853 and 1855 for Peter Wilson Hairston and Columbia Stuart Hairston. Designed in the Anglo-Grecian Villa style, it follows a Greek-cross plan with four equal wings connected to an octagonal central space. The design was derived from a published architectural pattern by William H. Ranlett, first printed in The Architect in 1847 and later reproduced in Godey's Lady's Book. The construction used approximately 300,000 bricks produced at the site, making the house a substantial expression of nineteenth-century plantation wealth and architectural ambition. The Hairston connection continued after the Civil War and into modern times. The family included Black and white branches whose relationships were shaped by slavery and its aftermath. In 1986, Peter Wilson Hairston published an account of the family's enslaved people, contributing to later efforts to document the lives of people whose experiences had often been omitted from plantation histories. Historian Henry Wiencek's 1999 book The Hairstons: An American Family in Black and White further examined the family's history, including its extensive slaveholding and involvement in slave trading. Family reunions involving Black and white descendants have remained part of the site's continuing cultural significance. Archaeological evidence indicates that the land's history substantially predates the plantation. About 175 arrowheads discovered on the western side of the Yadkin River were classified by archaeologists associated with the University of North Carolina and the North Carolina Archaeological Society. The artifacts represent different Indigenous peoples and periods, ranging from approximately 7000 BCE to the eighteenth century. Some specimens are estimated to be between 8,000 and 8,500 years old, while the oldest, a Hardaway point, is dated to approximately 9000 years ago. The property was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1978 because of the significance of its architecture. In 1997, the Hairston family placed a conservation easement with the LandTrust for Central North Carolina. At that time, the estate retained about 1,900 acres of farmland and roughly two miles of Yadkin River frontage, a reduction from its historic maximum. The easement helped protect the house and surrounding landscape from development. Peter Wilson Hairston died in February 2007 in the same house and bed in which he had been born. Cooleemee remains primarily a historic property and cultural landscape rather than a commercial brand.

• 1999

  Publication of The Hairstons

  [1]Cooleemeeen.wikipedia.org

  Henry Wiencek published a history of the Hairston family, the plantation, and the family's Black and white branches.

• 1997

  Conservation easement established

  [1]Cooleemeeen.wikipedia.org

  The Hairston family donated a conservation easement to the LandTrust for Central North Carolina, protecting the remaining estate from development.

• 1986

  Publication on the family's enslaved people

  [1]Cooleemeeen.wikipedia.org

  Peter Wilson Hairston published a book concerning the history of the people enslaved by the Hairston family.

• 1978

  National Historic Landmark designation

  [1]Cooleemeeen.wikipedia.org

  Cooleemee was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark for the architectural significance of its plantation house.

• 1860

  Documented enslaved-quarters population

  [1]Cooleemeeen.wikipedia.org

  Records listed twenty-three dwellings for enslaved people at Cooleemee, where tobacco was the principal crop.

• 1855

  Completion of the plantation house

  [1]Cooleemeeen.wikipedia.org

  The Anglo-Grecian Villa built for Peter Wilson Hairston and Columbia Stuart Hairston was completed during the 1853–1855 construction period.

• 1817

  Peter Hairston acquires Cooleemee Hill

  [1]Cooleemeeen.wikipedia.org

  Peter Hairston purchased the approximately 2,500-acre Cooleemee Hill plantation from Jesse A. Pearson.

• 1812

  Pearson's War of 1812 association

  [1]Cooleemeeen.wikipedia.org

  Colonel Jesse A. Pearson participated in the capture of Creek people during the War of 1812, a context later connected with the naming of Cooleemee Hill.

A preserved historic estate associated with antebellum plantation architecture, the Hairston family, African American and white family history, Indigenous archaeology, and conservation of the Yadkin River landscape.

1. 1Cooleemeeen.wikipedia.org