Benvenue is a historic

plantation house A plantation house is the main house of a plantation, often a substantial farmhouse, which often serves as a symbol for the plantation as a whole. Plantation houses in the Southern United States and in other areas are known as quite grand and ...

located near Rocky Mount,

Nash County, North Carolina Nash County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 94,970. Its county seat is Nashville. Nash County is part of the Rocky Mount, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area. History The area ...

. Originally built in 1844, the house was expanded and extensively remodeled to its present Second Empire form in 1889. It is a large -story, three bay by three bay, frame dwelling with a one-story rear ell. It features a steep

mansard roof A mansard or mansard roof (also called French roof or curb roof) is a multi-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope at a steeper angle than the upper, and often punctured by dormer wi ...

with imbricated and floral patterned

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

tiles. Also on the property are the contributing frame kitchen, dovetailed log rootcellar, frame dairyhouse,

smokehouse A smokehouse (North American) or smokery (British) is a building where meat or fish is curing (food preservation), cured with Smoking (cooking), smoke. The finished product might be stored in the building, sometimes for a year or more.spring house A spring house, or springhouse, is a small building, usually of a single room, constructed over a spring. While the original purpose of a springhouse was to keep the spring water clean by excluding fallen leaves, animals, etc., the enclosing str ...

, and a

one-room school One-room schoolhouses, or One-room schools, have been commonplace throughout rural portions of various countries, including Prussia, Norway, Sweden, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Portugal, and Spa ...

house. It was the home of Congressman Benjamin H. Bunn (1844-1907). It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1982.

References

Plantation houses in North Carolina Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in North Carolina Second Empire architecture in North Carolina Houses completed in 1844 Houses in Nash County, North Carolina National Register of Historic Places in Nash County, North Carolina {{NashCountyNC-NRHP-stub