photo by J. Sinclair

Oak Ridge Male Institute — now known as Oak Ridge Military Academy — was founded by the Society of Friends as a finishing school for boys in 1852. By the late 19th century, the school had become one of the best private institutions in North Carolina under the leadership of two brothers, professors J. Allen and Martin Holt.

As owners and co-principals of Oak Ridge from 1875 to 1914, the pair encouraged expansion, and the school soon boasted business and humanities departments, literary and debating societies, and sports teams that regularly played Wake Forest College (University), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Trinity College (later Duke University) in both football and baseball.

Having secured the school’s prestigious reputation for preparing young men for success, Martin and his wife, Mary, began to imagine a new home adjacent to the Oak Ridge campus. In 1896, the Holts commissioned the prominent and prolific Southern architect Frank Pierce Milburn to design a fashionable residence in the style of the day. Rivaling the homes of the emerging moneyed industrialists, Milburn conceived a towering Queen Anne that would dominate the landscape and become an instant landmark.

Christened “Oakhurst,” the home has architecture that is characteristic of the Queen Anne style at the height of its popularity. Composed of a basic square or rectangle, Oakhurst’s extravagance is manifested in its defining bays, balconies, and towers, while a roofline busy with dormers, turrets, and chimneys completes the home’s picturesque image. With a generous wrap-around porch and vividly modern outline, Oakhurst welcomed many visitors and quickly became the center of the community it presided over.

In 1914, Thomas Early Whitaker, a lawyer, North Carolina legislator, and professor at the school, became the new president of Oak Ridge. Three years later, Whitaker and his wife, Ida, purchased Oakhurst, calling it home until Thomas’ death in 1929.

Oakhurst remained in the Whitaker family until 1981, when Wake Forest University law professor Miles Foy and his wife, Jane, purchased it. Returning to the Triad from Washington, D.C. — where he’d served in the justice department during the Carter administration — Foy recalls that the lavish Queen Anne was “the most interesting property on the market at the time.”

No doubt, the home’s professorial and legal legacy appealed to the former attorney’s sense of precedent. And on the practical side, the historic abode was in fairly good condition for its age, retaining the original stained-glass windows, eight working fireplaces, and elaborately decorative woodwork.

The plumbing needed updating and a makeshift kitchen on the side porch had to be removed, so the Foys introduced the first real kitchen into Oakhurst by remodeling the home’s back parlor. The island and kitchen cupboards are built of bead board that matches the walls and hides the kitchen from plain sight. A hand-hammered copper sink and bronze-finished faucet disappear just as effectively. 

The most extensive renovation the Foys undertook was replacing the old asbestos roof tiles that had been installed at Oakhurst after an attic fire threatened to burn the home. The story goes that the cadets at the institute saw the flames and formed a bucket brigade that ultimately saved the house. Burned timbers were replaced, concealed gutters rebuilt, copper finials remade, and the roof recovered with cedar shingles to match the original. Needless to say, “It was a major project,” Foy notes.

By tradition, Oakhurst is said to have cost $7,500 to build. The bricks were formed and fired on-site and the lumber brought up from South Carolina. But although the home served the institute as a working farm with its orchards, livestock, and fields, all that remains of the larger farm complex is a modest collection of outbuildings behind the house.

Today, Oakhurst survives as perhaps the finest Queen Anne-style home in Guilford County, where it is registered as a Historic Landmark. Dressed in decorative cedar shingling, half timbering, and shimmering pebbles, it stands as a magnificent reminder of a bygone era and a testament to the loving care its residents have bestowed.