Wallingford Road

Located near Reeds Gap in the northwest corner of Durham, the Bartholomew-Mattoon House is surrounded by a wooded, residential neighborhood.

Notable Features

The facade features six-over-nine sash on the first floor and three-over-three “eyebrow” windows on the second floor, which are characteristic of local Greek Revival architecture. The facade sash exhibit louvered shutters as does the six-over-nine sash throughout the rest of the main block. A modern entrance portico featuring a gable roof supported by square posts protects the facade entrance. A substantial single story ridge-to-street, gable-roofed ell has been added to the south elevation of the original block. ‘

Historical or Architectural Importance

Set on the south side of Wallingford Road, the Bartholomew-Mattoon House was erected in the transitional Federal/Greek Revival style ca. 1820. Two stories in height, the five bay facade is capped with a ridge-to-street, asphalt-shingled gable roof. The clapboarded post-and-beam frame rests on a brownstone foundation.
Noyes Dana Bartholomew (1785-1869) of Wallingford built this house ca. 1820 on six acres he received from Moses Robinson. Noyes was the son of Andrew Bartholomew who operated an extensive farm in Wallingford near the Durham town line. A soldier in the War of 1812, Noyes was later responsible for laying out the town of Newberg, Illinois. Shortly before he migrated west, Bartholomew sold the property to Isaiah Mattoon of Durham in 1825. Isaiah, a farmer, quit-claimed the house to his son Alva in 1831 and shortly thereafter it was sold out of the family. The farm passed through a number of hands until Alanson Nettleton purchased it in 1840. Nettleton (1817-1898), a native of Killingworth, farmed the land until 1860. German immigrant John Asman, who purchased the property in 1861, operated a turkey farm and is said to have had the first commercial frozen locker in Durham. In 1884 Asman built his son, William, a house on the western half of the six-acre lot (see: William Asman House) and sold it outright to him in 1906. William obtained his father’s house in 1913 and upon his death in 1944 both homes were sold out of the family.
The Bartholomew Mattoon House significance as a well-preserved example of a Federal/Greek Revival style farmhouse erected in the early nineteenth century.