{"nrhp_refnum":"70000474","name":"Mordecai House","other_names":["Mordecai Historic Park"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Mimosa St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Raleigh","county":"Wake County","state":"NC","lat":35.792755441000054,"lon":-78.63309828799999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1970-07-01","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A frame dwelling in Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina, begun about 1785 as a hall-and-parlor house and later enlarged with a two-story Greek Revival section, now a museum set within a small park.","why_significant":"The house was built about 1785 by Joel Lane for his son Henry, on land near where Lane sold 1,000 acres for the new capital city. The Greek Revival south addition is an extant example of work by architect William Nichols. The house is also tied to the Mordecai family, prominent in North Carolina law, education and business.","narrative":"Mordecai House in Raleigh began about 1785 as a simple hall-and-parlor frame dwelling built by Joel Lane for his son Henry. Seven years later Lane sold 1,000 acres nearby for the new capital city. The house takes its name from Moses Mordecai, who married two of Henry Lane's daughters in turn. Before his death in 1824 he hired architect William Nichols to enlarge it. Nichols added four rooms facing south in the Greek Revival style, making the house L-shaped and turning its orientation to the south. The south front has a two-story pedimented portico with Ionic columns above Doric. Inside, older mantels recall designs from William Salmon's Palladio Londinensis. The addition is noted as a surviving example of Nichols's work. Descendants of the Mordecai and Little families lived here until 1967. The Raleigh Historic Sites Commission then acquired the house with many original furnishings, plus the family papers and library, and began restoring the interior as a museum.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Joel Lane (original house, c. 1785); William Nichols (Greek Revival addition)","architectural_style":"Greek Revival (south section); earlier hall-and-parlor frame dwelling with Federal-influenced mantels","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed in good condition, altered but on its original site; owned by the Raleigh Historic Sites Commission, used as a museum, with interior restoration under way at the time of nomination.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:58:55.898754-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/90/7225/47722590/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/70000474.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/70000474/fb3e605664-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/70000474/fb3e605664-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Mark Turner","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Historic_Mordecai_House-Raleigh-NC-13_Sept_2010.jpeg\" rel=\"noopener\">Mark Turner</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Historic_Mordecai_House-Raleigh-NC-13_Sept_2010.jpeg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"97001668","name":"Mordecai Place Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/north-carolina/mordecai-place-historic-district-97001668/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47722590","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordecai_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6909611"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/wake-county/mordecai-house-70000474/"}