Farmhouse Revival
In rural areas, it’s not unusual to drive past abandoned houses and barns, some barely standing. Or, a modern-day equivalent is a virtual drive-by of Abandoned, Old & Interesting Places – North Carolina on the same-named Facebook page. That site reveals haunting photos of buildings and landmarks whose time has come and gone.In Barco, drivers have been treated to a different sight on Route 158 where a 19th century farmhouse built on the only hill in the area has been authentically restored.
The former home of Edmund McHorney, Jr. probably would have been torn down as Currituck County worked to clear away old abandoned buildings, if Reeves Manning hadn’t put it on the North Carolina Preservation list after he bought it from the McHorney family. That saved it from destruction but made it less attractive to prospective buyers who would be forced to restore it.
This did not deter Erica Mason who bought the old house in June, 2013 because she intended to restore it and make it available to the public so people could learn about the simple lifestyle of its long-time owner. In the months since the purchase, she has had a group of skilled craftsmen lovingly restoring the home to its original state reflective of the time period when McHorney lived there. Among other things, this attention to time period means the house will not have electricity or running water.

Erica Mason, curator.
Before she could begin any work on the structure, Mason had to have the building certified as structurally sound for insurance purposes. She hired Martin O’Steen from Kill Devil Hills because “the county couldn’t apply a (building) code to a house built when there wasn’t a code.” O’Steen oversaw the beginning of the work and completed the necessary evaluation for the county.
Based on the notched beam and peg construction methods used in the house, Mason now knows that the house was probably built in the late 1700s or early 1800s, but the house didn’t make its first appearance in county deed books until May 20, 1861 when Edmund McHorney, Sr. purchased the property from Benjamin T. Simmons.
Fenton Construction has worked extensively on the project. According to Mason, Tim Fenton is the “brains behind the job.” At the height of activity on the site, there were six full-time employees. One worker is a boat builder because the techniques used to build the house are similar to those still used to build boats.
For the original construction, the workmen used whatever type of lumber was available in the area. Cypress was used for the beams, juniper for the siding, and heart pine for the framing. Those are the same types of wood that Mason’s builders used.
Mason and her workers located three different sawmills in the Albemarle region to supply the wood. They found the right type of nails at Hertford Hardware, and Mason says, “We bought everything they had.” After that, she found a company in Pennsylvania that made the hand forged nails which she purchased in 50-pound boxes.
McHorney lived in the house from his birth in 1878 to shortly before his death in 1964. He and his parents are buried in a small plot behind the house. A bachelor all his life, McHorney was a man of routines and was a bit “eccentric,” according to his grandnephew Travis Morris, 86, whose real estate business is a short drive from the house.

Edmond McHorney (far left) in an undated family photo
The list of McHorney’s eccentricities include: he owned only spoons, no knives or forks; he slept with a pistol under his pillow; and he took a daily drive in his ‘31 Pontiac to the post office where he would purchase one stamp, then to the store to buy groceries for the day. What he did with the postage stamps remains a mystery.
McHorney was also a simple man who didn’t mind living in the house without water or electricity. He farmed the nearly two acres that the house sits on, raising watermelons, corn for his mule, and sweet potatoes. In many ways, his was a farm very much like others in Currituck County in this time period.
Oyster boats often came down to Currituck from the Chesapeake Bay and carried produce back to canneries in Baltimore. Morris remembers that his uncle sometimes rode those boats to Baltimore, a fact borne out by the discovery of bottles and pottery made in Baltimore and oyster shells that originated in the Chesapeake Bay.
McHorney often ate lunch with Morris and his grandmother, McHorney’s older sister Carrie, who also prepared dinner for him. When McHorney was no longer able to live by himself, he moved in with his sister and remained with her until his death.
Mason has become an amateur historian in the process as she researches the origins of the house and unearths its history and secrets. She carries around a thick binder with documentation and pictures showing the results of her sleuthing into the house’s history, including the McHorney genealogies.
One of the many discoveries Mason and her workers found while working on the house is that it is really two houses put together.
Sometime before 1860, a house located nearby burned. What survived the fire was rolled over to this property and butted up against the rear of the house. No nails were ever used to secure the two houses, something which later led to water damage in the rear part of the house. Visitors can see the original siding where the two houses butt up against each other.
The front part consists of two main rooms on the first floor joined by a smaller room and two bedrooms on the second floor separated by a small room between. The section where the two houses meet is now a breezeway with porches on either side. At the time the houses were joined, Mason said there would have been screen doors there to allow air to flow freely. Behind this area on the first floor is the kitchen. Upstairs are two bedrooms, one of which was used as slave quarters for a few years before the end of the Civil War.

While repairing the chimney, a brick etched ‘1812’ was discovered. (above); Horsehair plaster ceilings were preserved. (below)
Not surprisingly, most of the damage found in the house is in the relocated house portion in the back. While Mason says none of the damage was unexpected, a great deal of additional time was required to shore up the rear of the house which had settled one foot. Mason estimates that about 90% of the rear of the house had to be replaced, including beams, wall studs, headers, floors, and some window framing.
The most significant water damage is believed to have been caused by 1954’s Hurricane Hazel. After Hazel came the termites, but the damage was confined to the rear of the house and apparently was of little concern to the house’s occupant.
Repairing and restoring an old house always brings surprises and challenges. In the front of the house, the six-foot ceilings and walls were covered with horsehair plaster. In order to authentically complete the repairs, Mason went to a nearby farm to collect horsehair which was then mixed with limestone and sand to prepare the plaster for the walls. She has left one small area open so that visitors can see the original horsehair plaster pieces.
New window frames are being handcrafted for the original glass. Also, the original screens will be authentically replaced with brass screening and copper tacks. While working to repair one of the chimneys, a brick with “1812” suddenly appeared in the rubble. It doesn’t have a manufacturer’s name on it so Mason doesn’t know if it was part of the house or brought from another site.
Mason hopes that school groups will be able to visit the site as a “living history” museum.
Still to be completed are construction of a modern “privy,” or outhouse, behind the building using original materials salvaged from the old siding. As word of the project has spread, many people from the area have donated period pieces and furnishings.
The house will be furnished with items from the period of McHorney’s life, but there will also be interpretive displays of artifacts found on the grounds, including a Civil War bayonet. The latter supports Mason’s research that the house was used by the Union as a convalescent home for soldiers and an intelligence-gathering location. The breezeway area will be furnished with medical items from the Civil War to showcase this part of the house’s history.
Mason’s labor of love has been funded from her private funds. She won’t say how much the restoration has cost, just that it was “a lot.” Visitors will be asked to make a donation to help with the upkeep of the property, but Mason has already declared, “I will take care of it until I die.”
The unveiling of the McHorney house restoration was held May, 2015. For information about upcoming events or to schedule a tour contact Erica Mason, Curator at: 252.619.4906 or mchorneys.com. The house is located at 4429 Caratoke Highway in Barco, NC just north of Currituck BBQ. ♦
Jane Elfring is originally from Washington, DC and is a freelance writer and photographer living in Northeast North Carolina. She has also lived in New Jersey, Alaska, and Virginia. CORRECTION: While our article states that Reeves Manning purchased the house from the McHorney family, other records indicate that home ownership transferred through the estate of Edmund McHorney's niece, Reeves Manning's mother.