Happening at the Museum

The condition of the Calvin Jones House

By Jennifer Smart, Assistant Director

The Wake Forest Historical Museum

Can we talk about the broken front rail at the Calvin Jones House? More specifically, let’s address the entire issue of house maintenance. We realize it’s distressing to see the home in apparent disrepair. We’re with you! But we want to assure you this situation is only temporary. It’s not easy keeping a house built in 1820 in tiptop condition. Fortunately, we have help. As the birthplace of Wake Forest University—which was founded here in 1834 as the Wake Forest Manual Labor Institute—the home receives strong university support. Facility crews are scheduled to make repairs over the next few months. They’ll fix the rail, the porch, and the roof. They’ll also tackle sections of the Old Well. The museum is incredibly grateful for this assistance and we’ll post updates on our Facebook timeline as efforts get underway!

While we’re on the subject, now also feels like a good time to fill you in on the wildlife we’re coping with inside the Calvin Jones House. Squirrels find their way through chimneys and gaps more often than you’d think. Last winter, one particular squirrel was clever enough to sneak in a number of times. Each visit, he’d steal pecans from the table display in the dining room, scurry up the third-floor stairs, and leave shells on the steps. This was a problem during the Wake Forest Christmas Historic Home Tour. Just two weeks ago, Executive Director Ed Morris was guiding a group of visitors when he encountered yet another squirrel. This one was hanging out in the second-floor space that’s outfitted as a 1950s student boarding room. Ed chased it onto the front balcony with a broom. Now we’re all on squirrel patrol. On a side note, our new Manager of Community and Academic Learning, Sarah Soleim, is handling the mouse problem. She purchased a set of humane traps and plans to release all smaller rodents somewhere in the woods at Joyner Park.

The Calvin Jones House is a joint operation involving Wake Forest University largely due to the home’s complicated history. The house, exhibit facility, and gardens are part of a four-acre parcel collectively known as the Wake Forest Historical Museum. The lot on which the house is located used to be the Wake Forest College athletic field. When the college moved to Winston-Salem in 1956, a group of local activists (mainly from the Wake Forest Garden Club) approached the college and asked to move the Calvin Jones House from campus to the empty lot. The goal was to preserve the home and its history. Wake Forest College agreed, the house was moved in 1957, and the Wake Forest College Birthplace Society was born. The nonprofit Society has owned and operated the museum ever since. Today’s board includes town residents Durward Matheny, Jill Bright, Donna Pace, Chip Russell, Tim Quigg, and Bob Northcutt, along with dedicated Wake Forest University alumni from Raleigh and the surrounding areas. Daily work is carried out by Ed Morris, staff, and volunteers.

Right now, we’re working on a grant application that would give us funds to catalog each artifact in the Calvin Jones House and use the information to create exciting new tours that incorporate everything we know about the home’s early history. After all, it’s one of Wake Forest’s most recognizable landmarks. When it celebrates its bicentennial next year, we want it just perfect—inside and out.

(The Wake Forest Historical Museum, 919-556-2911, is at 414 North Main Street, Wake Forest. Admission is free. The museum is open from 10 to 12 and from 1:30 to 4:30 Tuesday through Friday, and from 2 to 5 on Sundays if there are volunteers to staff it.)

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