309 N Blount St
Raleigh, NC, USA

National Register of Historic Places -Heck-Andrews House

Statement of Significance:

The Heck-Andrews House was among the first major houses built in Raleigh after the Civil War. The large, elaborately ornamented Second Empire house may be said to have set the tone for the many fine houses which in the years that followed made North Blount Street Raleigh's most fashionable residential avenue.

Jonathan McGee Heck, a Morgantown, (West) Virginia, lawyer born May 5, 1831, was commissioned a lieutenant colonel in the Confederate army on May 9, 1861, by John Letcher, governor of Virginia, and was responsible for raising and equipping the 31st Virginia Regiment. During the early years of the war, Heck was apparently captured and paroled, after which he and his wife Mattie spent some time in Raleigh, North Carolina, where Heck was a partner in the North State Iron Works and a company manufacturing bayonet. The Hecks made their home on a large plantation they had purchased in Warren County, North Carolina. When the war ended, Heck was in Raleigh where he signed amnesty papers. Unlike many who had lost their fortunes during the war, Colonel Heck emerged with substantial holdings and continued to engage in a variety of business ventures that apparently flourished.
On May 31, 1869, Mrs. Heck purchased from Kenneth and Susan S. Raynor a lot at the southwest corner of Blount and North streets in Raleigh. On July 22 she signed an agreement with Raleigh contractors Wilson and Waddell to build a three-story house, with tower, slate and French roof, all materials to be of the very best, and to be put up in the very best manner according to the plans and specifications [of] the Architect Applegate [G. S. Apple get]." On the same day, with the same contractors, Colonel Heck signed an agreement to build a similar house, without a tower, in Ridgeway, Warren County. Nothing is known of this Ridgeway house, but construction of the Blount Street building, referred to as Mrs. Heck's house, soon began. The original estimate of time and cost proved to be too low, and on April 11, 1870, an additional contract was signed to give further time and money, providing that Wilson and Waddell "keep not less than ten hands employed constantly upon the building until its completion."

The Hecks made their home in the elegant Blount Street residence. Among the nine children they raised there was Fannie Exile Heck, long- time president and organizer of the Woman's Missionary Union of the Southern Baptist Convention. Colonel Heck died February 10, 1894, and in 1916 Mrs. Heck deeded the house to her daughter Mattie. Mattie Heck Boushall and her husband sold it to A. B. Andrews, a prominent Raleigh lawyer. Andrews was the son of the first vice-president of the Southern Railroad who built the Andrews-Duncan House next door. It is said that Andrews bought the Heck house at the insistence of his wife, Helen. Mrs. Andrews died before they could move in, reportedly while making arrangements for the refurbishing of the house, and Mr. Andrews lived there alone until his death. On October 15, 1948, the house was purchased by Julia Russel and is now owned by her daughter, Gladys R. Perry.

The Heck-Andrews House stands as a superb example of the flam- boyant Second Empire style popular throughout the country after the Civil War. Marcus Whiffin's description of buildings of the style as "tall, boldly molded, and emphatically three-dimensional in effect" is particularly apt. As well as embodying the hallmarks of this style, the Heck-Andrews House, with its dramatic tower, has a memorable individualism all its own. Along with its neighbors to the north and east, the Andrews-Duncan and Hawkins- Hartness houses, it is a significant and imposing embodiment of the exuberance and variety of the best of Victorian architecture.