3056 Granville Dr
Raleigh, NC, USA

National Register of Historic Places - Fadum House

Statement of Significance:

The 1949 Fadum House is the first Modern design privately executed in the city of Raleigh as a result of the influx of Modernist masters recruited by Dean Henry Kamphoefner (1908-1990) to teach in the School of Design that was established at North Carolina State University in 1948. The appearance of the sweeping wood and glass composition of the Fadum House sharply contrasted to the Revivalist and Neo-Classical vocabulary of the pre-World War II neighborhoods of the city and helped to launch the Modern movement in architecture in Raleigh. Designed in 1949 and finished in the summer of 1950, the Fadum House is one of a small body of work completed in Raleigh by the architect James W. Fitzgibbon (1916-1985), who was one of the galaxies of Modernist stars brought to the school in the late 1940s. The Fadum House is considered the first and perhaps only true example in Raleigh of the Usonian House, a Modern type developed by Frank Lloyd Wright in the late 1930s. The house is also the first example in Wake County of the modern construction system of using structural columns to support a double- cantilevered roof truss grid that shelters spaces contained within brick and glass curtain walls. It has been continuously occupied by its builder, Nancy Fadum, and is virtually in its original condition. In 1951 Architectural Record recognized the Fadum House as one of its Houses of the Year. Although the Fadum House is less than fifty years old, it is an important Raleigh paradigm for the post-War rise of the southern regional Modernist philosophy in architecture that became the signature of the internationally-recognized School of Design at North Carolina State University during the 1950s. It is also an important member of the small, select family of nationally-acclaimed Raleigh buildings designed by Modernist masters from the School of Design during its initial burst of creative ferment in the early 1950s.