We Built This at Wake Forest Historical Museum (April 17 – July 31)

We Built This: Profiles of Black Architects and Builders in North Carolina

Wake Forest Historical Museum
(414 N Main Street, Wake Forest, NC 27587)

April 17, 2024 – July 31, 2024

Wake Forest Historical Museum is hosting the traveling exhibit, “We Built This: Profiles of Black Architects and Builders in North Carolina.” We Built This will be on display through July 31, 2024 during museum hours:

Tuesday – Friday
9:00am – 12:00pm
1:30pm – 4:30pm
closed Saturday – Monday

This traveling exhibit, presented by Preservation North Carolina, highlights the stories of those who constructed and designed many of North Carolina’s most treasured historic sites. Spanning more than three centuries, We Built This provides more than two dozen personal profiles and historic context on key topics including slavery and Reconstruction; the founding of Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Black churches; Jim Crow and segregation; and the rise of Black politicians and professionals.

Experience this extraordinary exhibit, which includes profiles of:

Gaston Alonzo Edwards (1875–1943), the first Black architect licensed in North Carolina. He worked at Shaw University, where he planned and superintended construction of key buildings such as Leonard Medical School Hospital (1910), now Tyler Hall, using students in the construction.

Stewart Ellison (1834–1899), an enslaved carpenter hired out in Raleigh, where he helped construct the North Carolina Hospital for the Insane (now Dorothea Dix Hospital). He became one of the state’s longest serving Black legislators of the 19th century, representing Wake County in five legislative sessions. He was also the first Black citizen to serve on what is now the Raleigh City Council.

William B. Gould (1837–1923), an enslaved plasterer in Wilmington who made his mark on the elaborate plasterwork at the Bellamy Mansion. His initials, WBG, were found on the back of decorative plaster pieces during the 1993 restoration of the mansion.

For more information about We Built This at the Wake Forest Historical Museum, please contact the museum.