Historic Oak View

Historic Oak View, also known as the Williams-Wyatt-Poole Farm, is a 19th-century historic farmstead and national historic district located east of downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Oak View features an early 19th century kitchen, 1855 farmhouse, livestock barn, cotton gin barn, and tenant house dating to the early 20th century. The Farm History Center located on site provides information to visitors regarding the history of the Oak View and the general history of farming in North Carolina. Aside from the historic buildings, the site also features an orchard, a honey bee hive, a small cotton field, and the largest pecan grove in Wake County.HistoryHistoric Oak View traces its history to a land purchase by Benton Southworth Donaldson Williams in eastern Wake County in 1829. This land was purchased from Arthur Pool for $135 and included 85 acres with several outbuildings none of which remain today. Williams continued to acquire land and holdings over the next 30 years; eventually including the land that houses Oak View's oldest building, the kitchen. In 1855, Williams completed construction of a two-story Greek Revival I house which would become the centerpiece of Oak View farm for the next century.At its pre-Civil War height in 1860, the Williams family owned 10 slaves and produced 27 bales of Cotton per year. Cotton was considered "King" of the South leading up to the Civil War, and even afterwards many farmers including the Williams greatly increased their cotton production. By the 1880s, 93 percent of Wake County farms, including Oak View, produced cotton with the Williams family growing 82 bales of cotton a year. Following the Civil War, Williams was selected to be one of the four delegates representing Wake County at the 1868 North Carolina Constitutional Convention. His long-held Unionist views made him few friends in Raleigh during the Civil War, but his close association with Governor Holden ensured his place in deciding North Carolina's future through the Reconstruction. Of the four Wake County delegates' homes, only Oak View has survived.