Click Photograph for a Larger ImageThe exterior of the Holderness-Paschall-Page House (Fig. 36), Yanceyville vicinity (No. 109) is representative of the entire Caswell County Boom Era group, but the flanking one-story side wings with smaller versions of the entrance porch give the house more monumentality than the typical example. This house represents the highest development of the Greek Revival style farmhouse in Caswell.
Photo 109. Holderness House. ca. 1851. Handsome Boom Era Greek Revival sytle house with hip roof, exterior end brick chimneys, pedimented Doric entrance porch. Unusually distinguished example due to the flanking one-story wings, each with a smaller version of the central entrance porch. The voluptuous mantels and stair rail are stylistically attributed to famed local cabinetmaker Tom Day. The unknown archtect who built this house is said to have also built the front block of the nearby Bartlett Yancey House.Referring to the 10 December 2006 CCHA Historic Homes of Yanceyville tour, the Greensboro News-Record newspaper made the following observations:
One of the tour homes will be the Holderness House on U.S. 158 West, a Greek Revival structure featuring a porch with Doric columns. According to an association press release, the house's "voluptuous mantels and stair rail'' may have been the work of Thomas Day, a now revered 19th black furniture maker who lived in the small Caswell town of Milton. The association says the Holderness Home "represents the ancestral roots of the prominent Greensboro Holderness family, and over the years with other old Caswell County families." The Holderness family, which also has roots in historic Tarboro in eastern North Carolina, included the late Howard Holderness of Greensboro, president of what's now Jefferson-Pilot Corp. and his wife, Anilein Holderness, an early member of the University of North Carolina Board of Governors. Also, Willie Holderness was a prominent Greensboro attorney.Source: Greensboro News-Record, 17 November 2006.
Which member of the Holderness family built this house is now known. It is William Henry Holderness (c. 1820-1890). He lived in Caswell County at the correct time and had the resources to finance such a grand structure.
To see more on the Holderness, Paschall (also seen as Paschal), and Page familes go to the Caswell County Family Tree.
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Other county families owned and operated the Holderness farm. The Barnes family purchased the farm in the late 1860s from the Holderness family. The Barnses moved to Richmond and sold the farm to the George Dailey family in the late 1800s. In 1911 John Paschal and his wife Henrietta Netty Hodges Paschal purchased the farm, then containing 432 acres, the fourth family to live in the William Henry and Sarah Holderness House.
John Paschal died in 1932, and Netty lived there until her death in 1964. She raised her niece Clyde Carrithers, whose mother had died. After Clyde’s marriage to Ludolphus Page, a dentist, the couple and their children lived in the house with “Aunt Netty.” Upon Netty’s death in 1964, Clyde inherited the house and farm.
In 2011 the house and home tract of six and three-quarter acres was sold by the Page Family Trust to Howard Holderness Jr., a Greensboro physician, and his wife Mary. Howard is the great-grandson of William Henry Holderness.
His grandfather, George Allan Holderness (1867-1947), was born in the house in 1867 but grew up in Thomasville and Snow Hill, North Carolina. George Allan moved to Tarboro in the 1890s, where he established the Carolina Telephone and Telegraph Company, which served a large part of eastern North Carolina, and became a wealthy businessman. He was also president of the Virginia-Carolina Chemical Company in the 1920s, chairman of the board of Pamlico Savings & Trust Company in Tarboro, and a large cattle farmer. In addition, Holderness was involved with the startup of the Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Company.
After graduating from Harvard Business School, his son Howard Holderness began working for Jefferson Standard in 1925 and later was president of the company until his retirement in 1967. Howard’s son Dr. Howard Holderness Jr. and his wife have been carefully restoring the house with the assistance of a number of area craftsmen.
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Holderness House History
Architectural historian Ruth Little-Stokes estimates the Holderness House was built around 1851, possibly by the same "architect" who built the front block of the Bartlett Yancey, Jr., House nearby. Page family members, whose family once owned the house, give the date as 1852.
The current owner is Dr. Howard Holderness, Jr., M.D., of Greensboro, North Carolina. He was born May 25, 1939, in Guilford County, North Carolina, to Howard (Chick) Holderness (1902-1992) and Adelaide Lucinda Fortune Holderness (1913-2013). Howard (Chick) Holderness apparently never lived in Caswell County, North Carolina.
The father of Howard (Chick) Holderness, thus being the grandfather of the current owner of the Holderness House, is George Allen Holderness (1867-1947). If the Holderness House was indeed built in or around 1851 (say, 1852), the grandfather of the current owner was not the builder.
Note also that the given name Howard did not enter the Holderness family until George Allen Holderness (1867-1947) married Harriet Howard (1871-1930) and the couple had a child: Howard Holderness, Sr., (1902-1992), father of the Holderness House's current owner.
Thus, we must go back another Holderness generation, to the great grandfather of the current owner to find a Holderness who may have built the Holderness House in Caswell County. This is William Henry Holderness (1819-1890). He was living in Caswell County at the time and apparently had the means to build such a substantial structure. At the time of the 1860 Federal Census, William Henry Holderness owned real property valued at $18,000 and personal property valued at $18,600. Whilliam Henry Holderness was Caswell County's "salt commissioner."
William Henry Holderness (1819-1890)(built the Holderness House)
George Allen Holderness (1867-1947)
Howard (Chick) Holderness (1902-1992)
Dr. Howard Holderness, M.D. (born 1939)(currently owns the Holderness House)
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Other county families owned and operated the Holderness farm. The Barnes family purchased the farm in the late 1860s from the Holderness family. The Barnses moved to Richmond and sold the farm to the George Dailey family in the late 1800s. In 1911 John Paschal and his wife Henrietta Netty Hodges Paschal purchased the farm, then containing 432 acres, the fourth family to live in the William Henry and Sarah Holderness House. John Paschal died in 1932, and Netty lived there until her death in 1964. She raised her niece Clyde Carrithers, whose mother had died. After Clyde’s marriage to Ludolphus Page, a dentist, the couple and their children lived in the house with “Aunt Netty.” Upon Netty’s death in 1964, Clyde inherited the house and farm.
In 2011 the house and home tract of six and three-quarter acres was sold by the Page Family Trust to Howard Holderness Jr., a Greensboro physician, and his wife Mary. Howard is the great-grandson of William Henry Holderness. His grandfather, George Allan Holderness (1867-1947), was born in the house in 1867 but grew up in Thomasville and Snow Hill, North Carolina. George Allan moved to Tarboro in the 1890s, where he established the Carolina Telephone and Telegraph Company, which served a large part of eastern North Carolina, and became a wealthy businessman. He was also president of the Virginia-Carolina Chemical Company in the 1920s, chairman of the board of Pamlico Savings & Trust Company in Tarboro, and a large cattle farmer. In addition, Holderness was involved with the startup of the Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Company. After graduating from Harvard Business School, his son Howard Holderness began working for Jefferson Standard in 1925 and later was president of the company until his retirement in 1967. Howard’s son Dr. Howard Holderness Jr. and his wife have been carefully restoring the house with the assistance of a number of area craftsmen.
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