Rose Hill is a historic plantation house located near Nashville, Nash County, North Carolina. It consists of a late-18th or early-19th century dwelling with a Victorian addition. The earlier section comprises the 1+1⁄2-story, rear wing. The Victorian section is a basically square two-story structure, three bays wide, topped by a gable roof. The front facade features an early-20th century, two-story portico with fluted Doric order columns.[2]
Fountain in the front park at Rose Hill in August 2014
Rose Hill was given in a land grant from George III to the Boddie family in 1762.[3] Nathan Boddie, one of the founders of Nash County, built a manor house on the land for his son, George Boddie, in the late 18th-century.[4] George Boddie owned the property between 1797 and 1842.[4] He left the plantation and 50 enslaved people under the direction of his second wife, Lucy Williams, until his son, Nicholas William Boddie, was of age.[4] Nicholas was likely responsible for the large Victorian additions to the manor house.[4]
The plantation consisted of the manor house, a 9,400 acre-farm, and a mill.[5] In 1790, Nathan and George Boddie enslaved forty-five people on the plantation.[4] In 1840, George Boddie enslaved eighty-two people at Rose Hill.[4] In 1860, Nicholas William Boddie enslaved twenty-seven people.[4]
Rose Hill now operates as a wedding venue and 830-acre working cattle farm, still owned by the Boddie family.[3]
^Kate M. Ohno and Jerry L. Cross (September 1980). "Rose Hill"(PDF). National Register of Historic Places - Nomination and Inventory. North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office. Retrieved 2015-02-01.
