Rose Hill is a historic

plantation house A plantation house is the main house of a plantation, often a substantial farmhouse, which often serves as a symbol for the plantation as a whole. Plantation houses in the Southern United States and in other areas are known as quite grand and e ...

located near

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...

Nash County, North Carolina Nash County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 94,970. Its county seat is Nashville. Nash County is now a part of the Rocky Mount, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area, instead of the ...

. It consists of a late-18th or early-19th century dwelling with a Victorian addition. The earlier section comprises the -story, rear wing. The Victorian section is a basically square two-story structure, three bays wide, topped by a gable roof. The front facade features an early-20th century, two-story

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

with fluted

Doric order The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of col ...

columns. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1982.

History

Rose Hill was given in a land grant from

George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...

to the Boddie family in 1762. Nathan Boddie, one of the founders of Nash County, built a manor house on the land for his son, George Boddie, in the late 18th-century. George Boddie owned the property between 1797 and 1842. He left the plantation and 50 enslaved people under the direction of his second wife, Lucy Williams, until his son, Nicholas William Boddie, was of age. Nicholas was likely responsible for the large Victorian additions to the manor house. The plantation consisted of the manor house, a 9,400 acre-farm, and a mill. In 1790, Nathan and George Boddie enslaved forty-five people on the plantation. In 1840, George Boddie enslaved eighty-two people at Rose Hill. In 1860, Nicholas William Boddie enslaved twenty-seven people. Rose Hill now operates as a wedding venue and 830-acre working cattle farm, still owned by the Boddie family.

References

Plantation houses in North Carolina Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in North Carolina Victorian architecture in North Carolina Houses in Nash County, North Carolina National Register of Historic Places in Nash County, North Carolina Tourist attractions in Nash County, North Carolina {{NashCountyNC-NRHP-stub