Date: c. 1850
5321 Tryon Road, Raleigh Vicinity
Designated 4/19/2010
The triple-A form house on Tryon Road may be modest in appearance, but it is a unique and highly significant piece of the county’s architectural history. The Adams-Edwards House is one of only a handful of mid-nineteenth century yeoman farmer’s houses in Wake County, and the only one known to have a three-room plan. The original 3-room section of the house was built prior to 1850 by Quinton Adams; it contains a large main living area, or “hall”, and two unheated side rooms. For the last quarter of the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth century, the William and Frances Edwards family, also farmers owned the farm and lived in the house. Additions and alterations to the Adams-Edwards House during the period up to ca. 1900 included two successive single-room additions to the west end of the house in the mid- and late- nineteenth century, front and rear porches and some cosmetic remodeling ca. 1880, and an early twentieth-century rear ell at the north end of the house. This work transformed the house into a triple-A cottage with a rear ell.