Toney and Nellie Strayhorn House

The Toney and Nellie Strayhorn House is a rare surviving example of a nineteenth-century farmhouse that has remained in the same African American family since its construction. The house reflects Toney and Nellie Strayhorn’s experience, which was both typical and atypical of African Americans in Orange County, North Carolina in the post-Reconstruction Era. Both were born enslaved and although Toney had been a sharecropper, he and Nellie amassed their own farm holdings and built a home that expanded as needs demanded and means provided. The house began as a one-room log house, a typical form for yeoman farmers in Orange County. Its evolution to a two-story I-house with a central cross gable follows local vernacular patterns.   The Strayhorn’s hard work and determination allowed them to keep the farm and a measure of independence. Their purchase of the farm and continued family ownership has come despite significant obstacles to Black land ownership and retention.

The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in May 2026.  The nomination was prepared by Hanbury Preservation Consulting with financial support from Orange County and Preservation Chapel Hill.