For the Residential Rehabilitation of the Adams-Scott House, 1220 Daladams Street, Raleigh
The Adams-Scott House is a remarkably intact c.1900 vernacular home with Victorian detailing and is one of the oldest homes in Raleigh’s Fuller Heights neighborhood. A one-story front-gabled house clad in plain weatherboard with a brick foundation and steeply-pitched asphalt shingle roof, the Adams-Scott House was originally part of a multi-parcel property owned by Dallas Adams, the namesake of Daladams Street. Adams served as a medic in the Confederate Army. Enlisting in 1862, he was assigned to Townsend’s Company; and, later, to Wallace’s Company, both local North Carolina guard units. He studied pharmacy, and by 1870 was serving as the “drug clerk” at the Dorothea Dix Hospital, then known as Dix Hill Asylum, which had opened in 1856.
After the then owners of the property passed away in 2009, the house sat vacant for the next seven years until it was purchased by John McCombie and Adriana Pardo in November 2016. This project was carried out in its entirety by its new owners, with the two of them completing nearly all of the rehabilitation work. The exterior remains relatively unchanged, except for deteriorated wood siding and trim, which was replaced in kind. Originally, the floor plan consisted of two bedrooms at the front of the house with a living room in the rear. The basement level included a living room, a kitchen, and a third bedroom. With no central heating or air-conditioning until this rehabilitation, the previous owners lived mainly in the basement level, using the main floor as workshop space. As part of the rehabilitation, the kitchen was moved from the basement to the main floor and the former kitchen space converted into a master bathroom to serve the master bedroom. The main floor was opened up to combine living room, kitchen, and hallway while retaining a guest bedroom. Original plaster walls were retained elsewhere and exposed beams with lath ghost marks echo where the walls once stood. Outdated electrical and plumbing fixtures were replaced and a new HVAC system installed, supporting both levels of the house. Original heart-pine flooring was refinished, and original millwork was meticulously restored or replaced in-kind. All original doors and hardware have been retained or repurposed somewhere in the house. Needless to say, this project was a labor-of-love for the owners that put a lot of their own blood sweat and tears into making this historic house – recently designated as a Raleigh Historic Landmark – their home.
The Board of Directors of Capital Area Preservation, Inc. is pleased to present a 2018 Anthemion Award to John McCombie and Adriana Pardo for the Residential Rehabilitation of the Adams-Scott House, 1220 Daladams Street, Raleigh.