{"nrhp_refnum":"75001298","name":"Lea Laboratory","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary campus","address_restricted":false,"city":"Wake Forest","county":"Wake County","state":"NC","lat":35.98138820100007,"lon":-78.51147851799999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1975-05-29","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Lea Laboratory is a brick Colonial Revival building on the former Wake Forest College campus in Wake Forest, Wake County, North Carolina, now the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary campus. It was built in 1887-1888 to designs by Baltimore architect John Appleton Wilson.","why_significant":"It is the oldest surviving building of the original Wake Forest College campus and was one of the first chemical laboratories on a Southern college campus. The nomination calls it the earliest known example of the Colonial Revival style in North Carolina, with Victorian details such as Queen Anne chimneys showing a transitional design.","narrative":"Lea Laboratory is a brick building on the north side of the green at the old Wake Forest College campus, now the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Designed by Baltimore architect John Appleton Wilson and finished in 1888 at a cost of $13,000, it has a two-story pedimented central block flanked by one-story wings joined by recessed hyphens. Walls are laid in Flemish bond under slate roofs, and nine tall chimneys reflect Queen Anne taste. It was named for Sidney Slade Lea, a Caswell County tobacco farmer who funded it, and his wife Fannie. The building housed chemistry, with biology and mineralogy in the east wing, and an observatory was added on the roof in 1900. Gables were added to the wings in 1920. Other early campus buildings were destroyed or razed, leaving it the oldest survivor after the college moved to Winston-Salem in 1956. The nomination calls it the earliest known North Carolina example of Colonial Revival design.","period_of_significance":"1887-1888","architect_builder":"John Appleton Wilson","architectural_style":"Colonial Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed as unoccupied on the form; the old Wake Forest campus serves as the Southeastern Baptist Seminary.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:58:55.834822-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/60/7225/47722560/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/75001298.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"03001301","name":"Wake Forest Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/north-carolina/wake-forest-historic-district-03001301/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47722560","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lea_Laboratory","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q20679807"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/wake-county/lea-laboratory-75001298/"}