John A. Mason House

The historic John A. Mason House in Chapel Hill (Chatham County) is a property where a Tenant/Caretaker lives in the property and is responsible for regular property maintenance and part of the road leading to the house, in exchange for a substantially lower than market rate monthly rent.  Certain expenses and labor may be reimbursed with submission of appropriate documentation being provided to Preservation North Carolina.  The Tenant/Caretaker role is currently filled at this time.

Property Information:

Before Rehabilitation

The approximately 2,700 square feet 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house is located on a 8.628-acre parcel and is owned by the US Army Corps of Engineers and leased to the State of NC Property Office via the Department of Cultural Resources.  The NC Wildlife Commission has oversight of the surrounding lands including eagle research.  The property is located on a peninsula of Jordan Lake south of Chapel Hill and Durham.  It is surrounded by horse trails and game lands, where hunting is allowed outside a perimeter from the house.  It’s a lovely, heavily-wooded area and only accessible through locked gates down a long gravel drive.

Jordan Game Lands map is available at https://www.ncwildlife.org/Portals/0/Hunting/Game-Land-Maps/Piedmont/Jordan.pdf.

After Rehabilitation

Preservation North Carolina managed the restoration of house in the late 1990s and is the official sub-lessee.  Our role is to ensure the continued preservation of the property by having a preservation-minded caretaker residing at the property to provide its upkeep.

The National Register nomination with architectural and historical information is available at https://files.nc.gov/ncdcr/nr/CH0003.pdf.