Preservation Zebulon’s Historic Homes Tour will take you inside six homes and one church. Below you can see a sneak peek of our featured homes and church on tour!
Five of these homes have never been open to the public. From Queen Anne to Colonial Revival to Craftsman houses, enter these Tour homes and explore Zebulon’s rich past from the charming quaint dwellings to grand and elegant showcases, and see how our Town’s leaders lived 100+ years ago.
SEE A WAKE COUNTY LANDMARK HOUSE
Newly designated as a local landmark, the George and Neva Barbee house on West Gannon Avenue is a home on the Zebulon Historic Home Tour.
Contributing to the proposed Zebulon Historic District, this beautiful Craftsman home was individually listed on the National Register in 2007 and as a Wake County landmark in 2020.
The George and Neva Barbee House is an imposing foursquare with a brick exterior featuring bold Craftsman detailing.
The house was built in 1914 by George and Neva Barbee. Charles and DeElla Flowers, Neva’s parents, gave the land to their daughter Neva. Neva’s parents offered a similar real estate gift to Neva’s twin sister Mary Campen, selling Mary the parcel immediately west of the Barbee House on the same day.
The Flowers built their own house nearby, a large Queen Anne home at 503 North Wakefield Street.
(Barbee House Continued)
Dr. George Sprite Barbee in 1916 began practicing medicine in space above the Zebulon Drug Company in the town’s commercial district, occupying the office vacated by Dr. J. A. Strickland when he left town that year, according to the National Register nomination. A first floor room in the house now used as a bedroom was once was an office for Dr. Barbee, who also saw patients in this room. They could access his office from the side door leading onto the porch.
After George Barbee died in 1953, Neva Flowers Barbee sold her house in 1956 to Robert and Frances Mosely Massey, (known as Jeanne), who lived there for 40 years.
Jeanne Massey gave piano lesson in this front room to many in Zebulon. The house’s land extended back to North Street at that time, and locals report that their daughter Frances learned to drive a car in the large back yard. After Robert Massey died, the house had two more owners and then was sold in 2018 to its current property owners, Todd and Allie Gecewicz.
We Thank Our Sponsors
PRESENTING SPONSOR – North Carolina Humanities
GOLD – Dr. Scott and MaryBeth Carpenter
SILVER – Ashbrook Builders, Comfort Master Heating and Air, Dallas Pearce Realty,
Muter Construction, Parrish Realty, Whitley Furniture, Dr. Mike and Sheila Schotzinger, Tommy and Marsha Massey
PROGRAM LISTING PARTNERS – Cut Custom Creations by Todd Gecewicz, Cybergraph Advertising, Olde Raleigh Distillery, Patricia Roberson, Ruth Moss, Zebulon Chamber of Commerce, Zebulon Jewelry and Pawn Shop
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All happy memories of my grandparents’s home on Gannon St. during my early childhood years – it seemed like a castle containing my “mamaw’s” giant piano (she gave lessons). (I don’t think Neva’s “Sis Mary” was actually her twin, though.) The sale of this wonderful home and also the 2nd home of grandmother Neva on North St. was responsible for paying most of my college (UNC) expenses (1965-70). God bless this home and both of my dear grandparents from Zebulon.
George Sprite Barbee III