Union Tavern is a historic tavern and workshop on Broad Street in
Milton, North Carolina
Milton is a town in Caswell County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 166 at the 2010 census. It is adjacent to the Virginia International Raceway, just across the state line in Virginia.
The town's name was derived from its beginn ...
. It is a rare example of a well-preserved early 19th-century Federal period tavern, and is further notable as the workshop of
Thomas Day Thomas Day may refer to:
Sports
* Tom Day (rugby union) (1907–1980), Welsh rugby union player
* Tom Day (American football) (1935–2000), American football player
* Tom Day (footballer) (born 1997), English footballer
Others
* Thomas Day (wri ...
(c. 1801–1861), a
free person of color
In the context of the history of slavery in the Americas, free people of color (French: ''gens de couleur libres''; Spanish: ''gente de color libre'') were primarily people of mixed African, European, and Native American descent who were not ...
who was one of North Carolina's leading cabinetmakers. The building was designated a
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
in 1975.
It is located in the
Milton Historic District.
Description and history
The Union Tavern is located in the center of the rural community of Milton, on the south side of Broad Street (
North Carolina Highway 57
North Carolina Highway 57 (NC 57) is a primary state highway in the U.S. state of North Carolina and a semi-rural traffic artery connecting Roxboro to a few small-to-medium-sized towns in The Triangle region north of the cities of Du ...
), between Palmer's Alley and Ler's Alley. It is a 2-1/2 story brick structure, set close to the road, with a gabled roof. Its front facade is six bays wide, with three entrances, each set in a round-arch opening with a fanlight above. Windows are rectangular sash, with stone sills and brick lintels. An enclosed single-story porch extends across the left (east) side, and there is a single-story ell to the rear. The interior of the building has retained some of its original features, despite repeated alteration of the rooms for different uses.
Thomas Day was born in Virginia in 1801, a free person of color. By 1818 he had begun to work as a cabinetmaker, and in 1823 he moved to Milton, where he purchased and adapted this building as his studio and workshop. His skill as a craftsman was widely regarded: he catered to North Carolina's wealthiest residents, and was by mid-century operating the state's largest workshop. He was notable for training white apprentices, other free blacks, and the slaves of nearby slaveholders, and for his own ownership of slaves. When he married a free woman from Virginia, the state legislature exempted her from the state's ban on the entry of free blacks after he threatened to move. He is also said to have done the woodwork in the local church, on condition that he be permitted to sit in the area normally reserved to whites.
See also
*
*
References
External links
*
*
{{National Register of Historic Places in North Carolina
Historic American Buildings Survey in North Carolina
Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in North Carolina
National Historic Landmarks in North Carolina
Buildings and structures in Caswell County, North Carolina
National Register of Historic Places in Caswell County, North Carolina
Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in North Carolina