historic carson house museum and interpretive center

Location: Marion, NC

Client: Historic Carson House

Exhibit Designer: Design Dimension Inc.

Design has begun on a new two-level building to be constructed adjacent to the Historic Carson House that will include museum exhibits, a library archive, a reception area, and administrative support spaces. Exhibits in the new building will present a contextual history exhibit of the property including stories of slavery. The new Visitor’s Center will pull ancillary support spaces out of the original house and expand the overall mission to educate the public on the history of the house and the people that inhabited the property.

Historic Carson House History:

Built in 1793, the Carson House is one of the oldest standing structures in Marion, along with the nearby Joseph McDowell House. Large walnut logs were harvested from nearby Buck Creek to construct the massive three-story plantation house.

Between 1804 and 1827, the area now known as McDowell County was a large producer of gold, and people from all over the country came to "strike it rich" before the California Gold Rush of 1849. The 1843 meeting to formally organize McDowell County, from sections of the counties of Burke and Rutherford counties, took place in the home of Col. John Carson. The new county was named after Col. Joseph McDowell, the hero of the American Revolution at the Battle of King's Mountain.

For many years, the Carson House served as a stagecoach inn and social center. Important historical figures such as Davy Crockett, Sam Houston, and Andrew Jackson stopped here. The latter reportedly lost money gambling on the horses that raced at the Carson Plantation. Dan Kanipe, one of the two survivors of General Custer's unit in the Battle of Little Bighorn, lived in Marion. For some time he lived at the Carson House.

The property was bought in the late 1800s by John Seawell Brown and was preserved by three generations of the Brown family. Brown was a three-term North Carolina State Senator who was instrumental in the founding of McDowell County.

The Carson House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.

After extensive renovations, the house was opened to the public in 1964 as a museum and library. The Carson House maintains a unique collection of research materials and books, along with dozens of family histories. The Mary M. Greenlee Genealogical Research and History Room has been a part of the house since the early 1970s and is constantly adding to its archives. Today, The Carson House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is open to the public as a museum. In 2007, it was listed as a certified destination on the NC Civil War Trails Program.