The Pelletier House

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Location: Old Bridge Street at New River
                      Jacksonville, NC.
Architectural Style: Greek Revival
Built by: Rufus Ferrand Pelletier

The Pelletier House is the oldest standing structure in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Built on the bank of the New River it was originally built as a home and office. Other rooms were added  later, but were destroyed by a fire in the 1950's.

Rufus Ferrand Pelletier was born March 29, 1824 in Carteret County, NC.. He was one of the founding fathers of Jacksonville, NC. as well as a resident.
Mr. Pelletier was the Postmaster of Jacksonville from 1856-1861. In 1861 his brother William took over as Postmaster. I assume during this time Rufus had gone off to war. Rufus returned and continued as Postmaster from 1873-1879 at which time he became the Magistrate for Onslow County.
Rufus and his brother William settled in Wantlands Ferry where they operated a Turpentine Distillery. Wantlands Ferry became what is known as Jacksonville today.

It was in 1850 that Rufus built a one room structure that still stands today. It is known as The Pelletier House

The house was last inhabited by Eliza, daughter of Rufus, until her death in 1954. It was at this time that the Onslow Historical Society took over the property.

It's hard to make a comparison / contrast to a work of Architecture in our text book. Under The Purposes of Architecture it says that all structures serve a function and this structure did in it's time. It was built on the bank of a river to have easy access to ferry service. The home was located in downtown which made it accesible to the courthouse where Rufus served as The Magistrate. If I had to compare it in any way to a work in our book it would be to Frank Lloyd Wright's style of architecture. Both houses were built and incorparated their surroundings to compliment the home.

I chose The Pelletier House as my final project because I love architecture. I have lived in Jacksonville for almost ten years now. I have passed by The Pelletier House several times and the small house always caught my attention. This gave me the chance to find out the history of the house.

Citations: The first picture was taken from the internet, wkimedia.com

The second picture was taken by a friend of mine Jenna Benden

Third picture was taken from karenleecrenshaw.com

Map provided by googlemaps.com

Information on the subject was taken from wikipedia.com and from Onslow County Historical Society web page

Forth, fifth and sixth pictures were taken by Jenna Benden

Seventh and eightth pictures taken from wikimedia.com

Last picture taken from atticmag.com