Thomas Day House/Union Tavern
The Thomas Day House/Union Tavern (TDH/UT) in Milton (Caswell County, NC) will become a North Carolina State Historic Site. As such it will join twenty-seven other such sites in North Carolina, including Fort Fisher, Alamance Battleground, Battleship North Carolina, CSS Neuse and Governor Caswell Memorial, North Carolina Transportation Museum, Reed Gold Mine, Bentonville Battlefield, Bennett Place, North Carolina State Capitol, Historic Stagville, Historic Edenton, Thomas Wolfe Memorial, Zebulon B. Vance Birthplace, and Historic Bath.
The DTD/UT will be the first new State Historic Site since Historic Stagville was added in 2002.
What this means for the TDH/UT and Milton cannot be overstated. Under the stewardship of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, the TDH/UT property will be preserved, restored, studied, curated, documented, and interpreted. Initial funding already has been appropriated by the North Carolina General Assembly (with additional funds possible). Through a state-owned nonprofit corporation, the State will assume full ownership and operation. This includes staffing, tours, etc. Presumably, land will be acquired for parking.
A major part of the project is reconstruction of the Thomas Day workshop, which will require archaeological research and excavation to determine the workshop's location (footings, etc.). Having the workshop to supplement the house in which Thomas Day lived will greatly add to site.
On February 9, 2022, a delegation from the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources visited Milton to launch the project.
The TDH/UT already is a National Historic Landmark and is on the National Register of Historic Places. National Historic Landmark designation is the highest historic category recognized by the National Park Service, and includes the Biltmore Estate, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, Fort Fisher, Battleship North Carolina, and the Thomas Wolfe House.
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Marshall, Patricia Phillips and Leimenstoll, Jo Ramsay. Thomas Day: Master Craftsman and Free Man of Color. Chapel Hill (NC): University of North Carolina Press, 2010.
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