Milton Buildings

Milton Buildings

This 1940 photograph shows two substantial buildings in Milton, Caswell County, North Carolina, at the east end of what is known as Milton's "Commercial Row."

The two-story building to the right (beside the large tree), which no longer stands, was the home of Albert G. Ferguson (1832-1905).

The 1893 Sanborn-Perris insurance map of Milton dated 1893 shows what appears to be a one-story brick building just down the street from the frame Albert Ferguson house in this photo (to the right, but not the building the roof of which can be partially seen). In Charles B. Motley’s book, Milton, North Carolina: Sidelights of History (1976) he provides the following:

"There are two schools of thought as to the location of the Milton Branch of the North Carolina State Bank. Some are of the firm opinion that it was in the Walker home, that the State of North Carolina erected this home as a State Bank with living quarters for the banker.

"Others are just as firmly of the opinion that the State Bank was never located in the Walker home but rather on the lot of the home which was later purchased by Albert G. Ferguson, on the corner of Broad Street and Warehouse Street (Sycamore St.). It is said that Ferguson dismantled the portion that was the Milton Branch of the State of North Carolina Bank when he renovated the home.

"The writer is simply passing along opinions and shall leave it to others to determine the location of the Milton Branch of the North Carolina State Bank."

While this article is not about the location of the Milton Branch of the State Bank of North Carolina, the Motley observations may help explain at least part of the Ferguson house construction detail.

One Milton historian reported: "Some years ago, Alice Jacqueline Jones (1925-2017) told me her father, Clyde Ray Jones (1891-1977), told her the round stone steps seen the this photo at the door to the Ferguson house were brought up the street from the old bank by Ferguson when the old bank building was torn down. This brick building does not appear on the 1908 Sanborn-Perris map indicating it was removed between 1893 and 1908."