Summer Villa and the McKay-Salmon House

West of Lillington, in the Sandhills community of Summerville, a small complex of buildings preserves the setting of a 19th century plantation. Summer Villa, begun in 1849 by Reverend Neill McKay, is a two-story frame house that began as Greek Revival and was updated early in the 20th century with a wraparound porch and a pedimented portico in the Neo-Classical Revival style. Behind it stand outbuildings from the mid 19th to the mid 20th century, including a carriage house of about 1850. Across the road is the McKay-Salmon House, a one-story cottage built late in the century for McKay's daughter and decorated with turned and sawn woodwork. McKay was a Presbyterian minister, church historian and university trustee who also held the most enslaved people in Harnett County in 1860, with income drawn largely from turpentine and lumber. The property was listed for its architecture, its link to McKay and the naval stores economy, and its archaeological potential.