The 1 1/2-story saddleback Ailey Young House may be the oldest remaining African American historic building in Wake Forest and has connections to one of one of the town’s most important African American citizens, Allen Young. The house was constructed as rental housing around 1875 by Wake Forest College Professor William G. Simmons and was one of several houses along a stretch known as “Simmons Row.” Ailey Young purchased the house and raised her family there. The house was the childhood home of her son, Allen Young, one of the town’s most significant African American educators and entrepreneurs. He taught public school in Wake County until 1905, when he and others organized the Presbyterian Mission School for Colored Boys and Girls. The name was soon changed to the Wake Forest Normal and Industrial School and was the first school for black children in Wake Forest. Allen Young served as its principal, and the school was a thriving private institution in the first quarter of the twentieth century. Allen Young also founded the Presbyterian Church for African Americans and operated a dry-cleaning business that catered to Wake Forest College. Allen Young’s daughter, Ailey Mae Young, a schoolteacher, was the first African American town commissioner, serving in the 1970s.
In 2008, the Town of Wake Forest conducted a Historic Buildings Survey designed to identify the Town’s historic properties. The survey’s most significant find was the Ailey Young House. The historic house coincidentally happened to be located on Town-owned property which had been purchased for cemetery expansion. Due to dense overgrowth, the Town’s administration and the Wake County Tax Office were unaware of the house’s existence; however, community residents had long known of its existence and of its location. Over the years the house suffered fire damage, lost its windows, doors, and front porch and, in recent years, was heavily vandalized. Sitting on high fieldstone piers on a lot just south of Town Cemetery the house consists of two frame pens flanking a very large stone chimney with a brick stack. Between 2009 and 2010, the Town began efforts to stabilize and mothball the house. In 2012, the Ailey Young House was designated a Local Historic Landmark, and the Wake Forest Historic Preservation Commission began raising funds for rehabilitation.
The Wake Forest Board of Commissioners authorized the Commission to conduct a fundraiser for the basic rehabilitation of the Ailey Young house, including a new roof, replacing burned-out structural members and flooring, the reconstruction of the front porch, and the construction of an accessibility ramp to the porch. The Historic Preservation Commission adopted the first Preservation Plan in 2016, the same year that the foundation and first floor were successfully stabilized, including the replacement of interior sheathing, the floor, interior stairs on both the east and west sides, and ceiling joists. In 2017, a CLG grant was awarded to the Town to conduct ground penetrating radar (GPR) of the site and hold a public workshop on archaeology. The following year, a grant from the Jandy Ammons Foundation was received to develop and install interpretive signage on the sidewalk in front of the Ailey Young House.
With another grant rewarded in 2020, the second floor was stabilized, a site survey was conducted, and the porch was designed, completing the rehabilitation. That same year, a paint analysis was performed to determine the original colors; and, evidence of paint on the exterior door frames and siding suggested the house was at one time painted a pale yellow. In 2022, the house was repainted using historically appropriate linseed oil to match its original color. Recent efforts over the past year include a Town of Wake Forest report entitled “Proposed Strategies for Controlling Erosion and Protecting the Archaeological Resources at the Ailey Young House”; and, the completion of a site protection project by the Town to mitigate soil erosion around the house protecting the archaeological components of this unique cultural site.
The Board of Directors of Capital Area Preservation, Inc. is pleased to present a 2023 Anthemion Award to the Town of Wake Forest; Ailey Young House Rehabilitation Steering Committee; Patrick Schell; Integrity Services Group, LLC; St. John Construction Inc.; Ricardo Young for the Restoration and Interpretation of the Ailey Young House, Wake Forest.