Historic Italianate Two-Family Residence in Downtown New Bern, North Carolina

THE C. T. WATSON RENTAL HOUSE — ca. 1890

An Opportunity to Restore a Late-Italianate Survivor in Historic New Bern, North Carolina

306 Metcalf Street • New Bern, NC 28560
$325,000 — For Sale by Owner
Two-family residence • Approx. 1,986 sq. ft. • 4 bedrooms • 2 baths • 3,848-sq.-ft. lot

In a city where history is never very far beneath the surface, 306 Metcalf Street has been part of the New Bern story for more than 130 years.

New Bern was founded in 1710 at the meeting of the Neuse and Trent Rivers and later became colonial North Carolina’s capital. Its streets still preserve an extraordinary collection of Georgian, Federal, Greek Revival, Italianate, and Victorian buildings surrounding Tryon Palace and the old heart of the city.

Among them stands the C. T. Watson Rental House, built about 1890.

For the buyer who has ever looked at an old house and imagined what it could become again, 306 Metcalf presents an especially appealing opportunity: a documented historic house whose exterior character can be thoughtfully restored while its interior can accommodate the conveniences and comforts of modern life, subject to applicable building and use requirements.

Documented by the Tryon Palace Commission

The importance of 306 Metcalf was recognized decades ago when the house was selected for inclusion in Peter B. Sandbeck’s monumental The Historic Architecture of New Bern and Craven County, North Carolina, published by the Tryon Palace Commission.

The 611-page architectural survey documents more than 500 historic structures throughout New Bern and Craven County. On page 404, 306 Metcalf receives its own entry and period photograph.

Sandbeck described the house as a two-story frame residence displaying late Italianate-style detailing, built about 1890 as a rental property for Charles T. Watson, one of New Bern’s prominent dealers in fish and produce.

Watson himself lived next door in the larger Italianate residence at the corner of Metcalf and Pollock Streets.

The architectural survey identifies features that give the house its historic character: the low hipped roof, projecting cornice with sawn brackets, full-width front porch, traditional window openings, and side-hall interior plan. The second front entrance was added when the house was converted to apartments, beginning the two-family arrangement that continues today.

Most unusually, the Sandbeck book preserves a historic photograph of 306 Metcalf itself.

That image provides something many restoration projects do not have: a documented visual reference showing the house’s earlier appearance. For a preservation-minded owner interested in restoring the exterior, the old photograph and published architectural description provide a remarkable starting point.

The house does not need to become a museum.

Its next owner can respect and revive the historic exterior while creating an interior suited to contemporary living. The opportunity is to preserve what the street and neighborhood have known for more than a century while allowing the spaces inside to continue evolving for another generation.

A House Woven Into Family History

The story of 306 Metcalf did not end with Charles Watson.

The property passed through the Watson, Pinnix, and Cox family line before becoming home to the White family.

Darlene and Rosie White grew up at 306 Metcalf. Their childhood was intertwined with the families associated with the property and neighborhood; as girls they knew and played with Ruth and Bill Cox, making the names found in the property’s history part of their everyday lives.

For Darlene and Rosie, 306 Metcalf was not a historic landmark.

It was simply home.

Decades later, that relationship came full circle. In 2004, members of the family who had known and loved the house for so many years became its owners.

And Then There Were the Cannonballs

Some of New Bern’s history has a habit of refusing to stay buried.

According to longtime family recollection, when Darlene was a teenager in the late 1960s or early 1970s, Civil War-era cannonballs were discovered at or near the property.

Darlene remembers that cannonballs were being found elsewhere around New Bern during those years, so the discovery at 306 Metcalf was part of a phenomenon familiar to residents of a city profoundly shaped by the Civil War.

She called authorities.

What followed became family legend.

New Bern city officials, police, and fire personnel arrived, followed by personnel from Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point. The backyard was dug in a search for additional ordnance.

Darlene’s mother, Daisy, was considerably less impressed with the historical significance of the occasion.

She was mostly upset with Darlene for making the telephone call that resulted in authorities digging up her backyard.

More than half a century later, it remains one of those wonderfully human stories that old houses accumulate—a reminder that at 306 Metcalf, New Bern history has sometimes been found quite literally beneath one’s feet.

Looking for Its Next Steward

Today, 306 Metcalf remains configured as a two-family residence, continuing the rental purpose for which Charles T. Watson originally built the house more than a century ago.

The property contains approximately 1,986 square feet, with four bedrooms and two baths in total, on a recorded 3,848-square-foot lot.

Its arrangement offers several possibilities: live in one residence while renting the other, continue its long history as a two-unit rental, or adapt the interior to a future owner’s vision consistent with applicable requirements.

But we believe the most interesting opportunity may be on the outside.

The house still possesses the form, proportions, porch, cornice, roofline, and Italianate ancestry documented by Sandbeck. A new owner with an appreciation for historic architecture could use the published description and historic photograph as guides in bringing more of that nineteenth-century character back to the exterior.

We would particularly welcome a buyer who sees himself or herself not merely as the purchaser of an old house, but as the next steward of one.

This is not simply an old duplex.

It is a house built as a rental more than 130 years ago.

It sheltered generations of New Bern families.

Children grew up here.

History was dug from its backyard.

Its architecture was photographed, researched, and preserved in the historical record by the Tryon Palace Commission.

And today, it offers someone the chance to write the next chapter—restoring the historic face New Bern sees while creating the home they want within.

The C. T. Watson Rental House — ca. 1890
Offered by Owner — $325,000

Serious inquiries are welcomed. Additional photographs, historical documentation, the Sandbeck architectural entry and historic photograph, and showing arrangements are available from the owners.