218 North East Street
Raleigh, NC, USA

National Register of Historic Places - Heck-Lee, Heck-Wynne, and Heck-Pool Houses

Statement of Significance:

The three Heck Houses (not to be confused with the Heck-Andrews House at 309 North Blount Street), whose imposing appearance belies their small scale, are outstanding examples of bold domestic design in a plain vernacular late nineteenth and early twentieth century neighborhood. The architect or builder of the houses combined harmoniously the essentially Second Empire massing with Eastlake-style ornament and Stick-style exterior articulation of the wall and roof ribs. The designer's talent is further manifested by his ability to produce a design which when multiplied three times, did not degenerate into repetitive bore dom; rather, the trio of small Victorian houses forms one of the most delightful architectural complexes in the state.

Deed research indicates that the three mansard-roof houses were built between 1871 and 1875 by Colonel Jonathan M. Heck, an enterprising business- man from West Virginia who moved to Raleigh about 1865 and proceeded to acquire their substantial tracts of land. On April 24, 1871, Heck purchased 25 acres of land for $6,705 and had a plat drawn up by John A. Johnston dividing the tract into numbered lots, three of the se lots being those which the houses occupy. The structures were evidently completed simultaneously, for they were sold on consecutive days: the lot on which the house numbered 218 North East Street stands was bought by Caroline S. Pool on April 8, 1875, for $4,500; the lot on which the house numbered 503 East Jones Street stands was bought by Jennie L. Lee on April 9 for $3,850; and on the same day the lot on which the house numbered 511 East Jones Street stands was bought by Elizabeth W. Wynne for $3,850. Dry's 1872 "Bird's Eye View of the City of Raleigh" shows that Jones Street had been extended eastward beyond East Street one block, but only a small gabled house occupies the lot where the 503 East Jones Street house now stands. The three houses were therefore built between 1872 and 1875.

Construction on Heck's own residence (Heck-Andrews House, National Register January 20, 1972), a lavishly ornamented Second Empire town house whose plans and specifications were drawn up by the architect G. S. Appleget, was begun in 1869. The three smaller houses are far more modest, but their similarity both in overall massing and in detail to the Heck-Andrews House suggests that Heck's mansion or Apple get himself may have influenced their design. The same contractors and workmen involved with Heck's town house may have built these speculation houses as well. Hamill and Weir, who plastered the Heck-Andrews House in 1871, actually owned the lot on which the 503 East Jones Street house stands between February and June, 1873. The houses share a number of architectural features with the Heck-Andrews House: the curvilinear sawn work ornaments of the windows surrounds, the chamfered frieze, the arched dentil eave molding, and the mansard roof and mansard tower with gabled and hooded dormer windows.