The Razing of the Jacob Derickson House

I have here a wonderfully quick follow-up to the Dericksons of Kiamensi post. In that post I came to the conclusion that the house owned by the Highway Department and shown in a 1941 photograph must have been the original Derickson house in this area. I also guessed by looking at it that it may very well have dated all the way back to Jacob Derickson in the 1820's. Finally, I estimated that the house had been torn down by the state in the early 1960's. Turns out I was right on almost every point.

Hours after I posted the story, newspaper-story-finder-extraordinaire Donna Peters sent me this article, taken from the March 15, 1958 edition of the Wilmington Morning News. It details the Highway Department's destruction of the building to allow for expansion of their Kiamensi Yard. The article confirms that this was, in fact, the Derickson's house. The writer claims that it had been standing for 150 years. If literally true, then it would predate Jacob Derickson's purchase of the property. My guess, however, is that "150 years" was an off-the-cuff estimate. If it were Jacob's, it would certainly be more than 100 years old by then, closer to 130. That's close enough for me. Below is the rest of the article, which also mentions the "old Pilling mansion", which is the Mansion House we know. It sits on the south side of Kiamensi Road, just east of Powell Ford Park. You can click on the article to see a larger version.