Chinqua-Penn Plantation

Chinqua-Penn Plantation is a 23-acre country estate about two miles northwest of Reidsville, in North Carolina's northern piedmont. Tobacco heir Jeff Penn and his wife Betsy developed it in the 1920s and 1930s. The centerpiece is a Y-shaped manor house built from 1923 to 1925 to designs by New York architect Harry C. Ingalls. Its exterior of stone rubble, horizontal logs and slate roofs, made from materials taken from the property, was meant to suit the countryside. Inside, the rooms deliberately mix styles, including Spanish, Italian Renaissance, English Jacobean, Pompeiian and Chinese, using paneling, mantels and columns salvaged from Europe and Asia. The grounds, laid out by a Buffalo landscape architect, include gate lodges, a pagoda beside a pool, a greenhouse, stone sentry houses, a rookery and four distinct gardens. The estate counts 23 contributing resources. It is regarded as one of the few grand early twentieth-century country estates in the state and has been a public attraction since 1966.