Batts House and Outbuildings
Why it's listed
Built about 1880 for physician and justice of the peace Dr. Dempsey Bryan Batts, this two-story frame house sits on a rural parcel about seven miles north of Tarboro, facing west toward US Highway 258. It replaced an earlier Federal-era house destroyed by fire. The T-shaped plan has a wide central hall with a curving cantilevered staircase, a three-sided bay window, a wraparound porch with a sawn balustrade, and molded window crowns. Interior features include pine floors, twelve-foot ceilings, simple post-and-lintel mantels, and marbleized and wood-grain painting on doors, baseboards and mantels. The property also includes a one-story doctor's office and a small dairy from about 1880, and several outbuildings. Three early nineteenth-century plank buildings, a smokehouse, woodshed and corn barn, are built of horizontal cypress planks joined by dovetail notches, a method the nomination describes as increasingly rare in the region. The house is regarded as one of the county's most intact late-nineteenth-century farmhouses.
Significance in brief: The nomination argues the house is one of the most intact late-nineteenth-century rural farmhouses in Edgecombe County and an excellent example of the Italianate style, with original interior finishes such as marbleized and grain-painted woodwork. It also argues that the early nineteenth-century plank outbuildings, built of twelve-inch cypress planks with full dovetail notching, are increasingly rare in eastern North Carolina.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · National Archives catalog entry. NRHP reference 06000226, listed April 5, 2006. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-haiku-5-5, prompt v1.1-2026-10-29, confidence medium).
Key facts
| Address | E side of US 258 N, 2.05 mi. S of NC 1513 5098 US 258 N, Tarboro |
|---|---|
| County | Edgecombe County |
| Listed | April 5, 2006 |
| Reference number | 06000226 |
| Resource type | Building |
| Period of significance | ca. 1810-1880 |
| Architectural style | Italianate |
| Criteria |
|
| Areas of significance | Architecture |
| Level of significance | Local |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | The outbuildings and house are described with some elements in fairly good condition and one dilapidated corn barn; the original metal roof has been replaced with composition shingle. |
| Acreage | 0.9 |
| Coordinates | 35.94727, -77.49814 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
National Register listing is honorary for a privately owned home: it does not by itself restrict what an owner may do with their own money, and it does not require public access. Restrictions come from local landmark or historic-district ordinances, which are separate (how they differ).
Owner-occupied houses are not eligible for the 20% federal rehabilitation tax credit, which applies to income-producing buildings, but many states offer credits for homeowners. Listing also opens the door to preservation easements and to buying a plaque. Start with what listing means for homeowners, renovating a listed house and selling one.
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.
Sources and further reading
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places database (snapshot May 2026), reference 06000226.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking only; text not reproduced here)
- Wikidata Q19460402
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.