Edgecombe Tourism, NC

pin-icon 500 Main St Tarboro, NC 27886

The Barracks House

The Barracks
1858-61; William Percival, architect; 1100 Albemarle Ave., Tarboro
 
One of Percival’s two surviving suburban villas of the 1850s, the eclectic brick residence is similar in some respects to his Montford Hall in Raleigh.  A complex plan circulates around a central, skylit rotunda.  The architect freely combined Italianate and classical motifs:  the portico features fluted columns taking their order from the Tower of the Winds, the Athenian temple widely emulated by 19thc. American classicists, while the complex roofline and cupola, bracketed eaves, and arched windows give a picturesque flavor.  Named for a former military encampment on the site, the Barracks was built in 1858 for William S. Battle, son of an old planter family and a major investor in Rocky Mount Mills.