{"nrhp_refnum":"99000461","name":"Powers, Isaac M., House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"NC 1154, 0.8 mi. S of jct. of NC 1154 and NC 4","address_restricted":false,"city":"Wallace","county":"Duplin County","state":"NC","lat":34.73383766000006,"lon":-78.03333279199995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1999-04-15","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Black"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-story, single-pile, center-hall frame house with Greek Revival features, built about 1878 in rural Duplin County near Wallace, North Carolina, for Isaac Murray Powers, with an early twentieth-century smokehouse behind it.","why_significant":"The house is significant under Criterion B for its link to Reverend Isaac Powers (1850-1936), a formerly enslaved man who became one of the first Black landowners in Duplin County, a Reconstruction-era political speaker and a Baptist minister. It is also significant under Criterion C as a well-crafted example of the center-hall house type with Greek Revival details and distinctive hand-carved door surrounds and mantels.","narrative":"Built around 1878 near Wallace in Duplin County, this one-story frame house was raised by Isaac Murray Powers, who was born into slavery in 1850 and later became a landowner, Republican speaker and Baptist minister. Powers bought ten acres in the mid-1870s and built the house from materials on the land: timbers and weatherboards from the property's trees, and brick piers and chimneys made from its clay. The center-hall plan has square rooms on each side, Doric porch posts, sidelights at the front door, cornice returns and hand-carved door surrounds and mantels. A rear kitchen ell burned in 1979, but the house has changed little otherwise, and an early twentieth-century smokehouse stands behind it. Powers eventually owned about 200 acres in Duplin and Pender counties, helped establish the Burgaw Institute, and raised seven children to adulthood in the house. It was listed for his life story and for its craftsmanship as a modest but distinctive rural dwelling.","period_of_significance":"C. 1878-1936","architect_builder":"Powers, Isaac Murray (builder)","architectural_style":"Greek Revival","criteria":["B","C"],"status_note":"Described as in good condition with little alteration since construction; a rear kitchen ell was destroyed by fire in 1979. Still used as a single dwelling.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:57:50.65452-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/89/7176/47717689/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/99000461.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47717689","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_M._Powers_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q18358291"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/duplin-county/powers-isaac-m-house-99000461/"}