Restoration Post American Civil War Housing
Built sometime between 1870 and 1875, the Ailey Young House is one of the few remaining examples of early African-American domestic architecture in Wake County. Its “saddlebag” design—two rooms sharing a central chimney—was practical, affordable, and typical of the era. But what makes this house extraordinary is not its shape it’s the fact it survived all this time.
Ailey Powell Young and her husband, Henry Young, raised several children here—including Allen Young, who would go on to co-found a school that shaped hundreds of Black lives during the Jim Crow era. Its original wood siding, hand-hewn beams, and footprint remain largely intact. Few homes of this type—simple working-class dwellings built and lived in by African-Americans shortly after Emancipation—still stand anywhere in the region. That alone makes it historically irreplaceable.
Brouns and Co. were contacted by the Historic Preservation Commission of the Town of Wake Forest to help with the restoration of this historic house. It was an honor to be a small part of the legacy, helping maintain the great history of African-American education in the region.
