(Courtesy Cissy Pearse)
It's not clear to me who was the original occupant / owner of the house at 9123 South Lowell Road. In ~1908, James S. Cobb acquired multiple tracts of land near Rougemont Road and South Lowell Road. The metes and bounds descriptions of these tracts ( "from the pile of rocks at Sasquatch's corner...," etc.) make it very hard to decipher which tract was which.
The house at 9123 South Lowell likely predates that acquisition - whether it was ever a landowner house prior to 1937 or a tenant house is unclear.
In 1937, "Cobb Farms" was subdivided and auctioned as smaller (but still large) parcels.
The north fork of the Little River to the left, and the intersection of Rougemont Road and South Lowell Road is towards the left center. Here is a close-up of this intersection.
I've placed an arrow at the house location. In 1937, Dr. Richard L. Pearse acquired multiple (?8-9) of these parcels and recombined them. He and his family lived in the house at 9123 South Lowell after ~1951.
Pearse was an obstetrician / gynecologist who formed the Durham Women's Clinic with Dr. Eleanor Easley after World War II. The Pearse family lived on the farm until ~1958, but continued to own the farm for many years thereafter; Peter Klopher, a biology professor at Duke, and his wife Mary lived on the after after the Pearses moved to Anderson Street.
(Courtesy Cissy Pearse)
(Courtesy Cissy Pearse)
In the 1980s, and in 1992, portions of the farm were subdivided and sold off as development parcels under the name 'Pearsewynd'.
Comments
Submitted by kwix on Mon, 2/20/2012 - 10:43pm
Oooh! The phantom stop sign in the last photo -- a sign of Things to Come...?
It's hard to believe that actual humans would ever name a place they live "Pearsewynd." But there you have it...
Submitted by gary on Tue, 2/21/2012 - 7:05am
Kwix - ah, the Legend of the South Lowell Stop, captured on film!
I'd written this somewhat confusingly as first, as I was confused - the house was never called "Pearsewynd" - a developer who bought it / land, and subdivided it into multiple homesites (upon which there are now houses) with a cul-de-sac, etc. called the development "Pearsewynd." I agree with you, but it also sounds to me exactly like something a subdivision developer would come up with.
GK
Submitted by dan@duke on Fri, 5/12/2023 - 11:45am
I grew up very close by on Rougement Rd. from the mid-80s through early 90s, and I remember walking through the pastures to the Pearse house to fish in their pond. Later I figured out to just walk up Rougemont to South Lowell and go in by the driveway - fewer ticks. I think Dr. Pearse may have still lived there at the time? This was around 1984. I was actually delivered by Dr. Pearse at Watt's Hospital, two years before it closed, and I remember my mother taking me to visit Dr. Pearse at this house. I was fascinated by this neat little cartoonish plastic model airplane he had in his office with propellers that spun by battery power. Dr. Pearse gave it to me to take home!
Add new comment
Log in or register to post comments.