The 1774 Rock House you are approaching at the top of the hill would have been one of, if not the largest and most lavish homes that had ever been built in Mecklenburg County. Once completed, it quickly became a symbol of Hezekiah Alexander’s wealth and power in a region that was sparsely populated by European settlers.
In 1777, just three years after the building’s completion, a local calling themselves “The Mecklenburg Censor” ridiculed Hezekiah’s wealth in a satirical poem published in the local newspaper. In the poem, the fictionalized Hezekiah brags “of giving to the rabble law; / while low they cringe with humble awe. / seeing my grounds by negroes till’d, / and all my chests with dollars fill’d, / a blaze of glory round my head, / my house a little palace made.” In these few lines, the poem describes Hezekiah as a man who sees himself above the rest of the population, and who flaunts his wealth by constructing a palatial house on a plantation staffed by enslaved black laborers.
For better or for worse, this house certainly would have impressed the locals of this area. It follows the Georgian architectural style (named after King George III in England), with its symmetry and proportions meant to reference classical Greek and Roman architecture. The style was popularized in America around 1700, most notably at the Wren Building at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. The Rock House’s stone construction technique is also reminiscent of many stone houses that Hezekiah would have remembered from his younger years in Maryland, which themselves were based on stone mason traditions of the Alexander ancestors in Scotland.
The house contains eight main rooms - four on each main floor - along with an attic and a cellar. The rooms are divided by wooden panels. All said, there is about 3500 square feet of usable space inside the Rock House, making it quite large even by today’s standards. See photo [6] for a blueprint of the first floor to get a sense of the layout of this building.
In addition, its construction out of stone was quite unique for the area, where most houses would have been single room log structures. In essence, the Rock House is a two-foot thick stone structure, making it remarkably stable. The stones for this house were almost certainly quarried by enslaved workers on this site. Though we have not confirmed the exact location from which the stones originated, some speculate they may have been quarried from the bedrock in order to construct the cellar of the structure. There are also a few sites on the property where there is evidence of stone quarrying. The stones historically were held together with daub, a mixture of crushed oyster shells, lime, sand, and clay that functions like mortar and holds the stones in place. Today, a more modern cement-style mortar is used.
As you stand in front of the house (on its South side) you are facing what might be called the “VIP” entrance of the house. This door would have been reserved mostly for dignitaries, politicians, and other important guests who had been invited to the residence. There was once a wagon road that circled in front of the house, which is described in the historical record and has been located in recent archaeological analyses of the site. This was likely the road on which visitors would travel to the house. Once the visitor’s carriage stopped in front of the house, the large stone inset into the grass may have served as a stepping stone known as a “carriage block.”
Down and to the right of the front door, the double-door entrance leads down into the cellar. This would have allowed easy access for enslaved cooks and members of the family who would load bulk goods like grains and potatoes in and out of the cellar. There is another smaller staircase inside the house that also provides access into this space.
As you walk around to the right (East) side of the house, you will see the more casual entrance to the home, which would have been more commonly used by friends and family of the Alexanders. As it does today, this door may have provided easy access to the gardens and other outbuildings such as the privy down toward the creek. There is also a door at the back of the home that provides the most direct route to the external kitchen, and may have been used by enslaved servants entering directly into the dining room. You can get a view of this door from the herb garden, or as you complete your walk on the path back toward the Museum building later in the tour.