By Karen Olson House
- Introduction
- The interior, exterior and descendants
- Hours, prices and contact information
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Located in Bertie County four miles west of Windsor, Hope Plantation offers glimpses of late 18th- and 19th-century in eastern North Carolina as well as the life of its original owner, former North Carolina governor David Stone. Stone (1770-1818) was quite the Renaissance man, graduating first in his class from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). Though trained as a physician, Stone opted for law in North Carolina. At 19, Stone was a delegate to the 1789 state convention, and went on to serve as a superior court judge, a member of both houses of the U. S. Congress, and governor from 1808 to 1810. He had two wives, 11 children and even found time to design Hope Mansion before dying unexpectedly at the age of 48.
In Stone’s time, operations at Hope included a water-powered grist mill, blacksmith shop, cooper’s shop and weaving houses. Wheat, corn, oats, rye, flax and cotton were grown, and an estate inventory lists 138 African-American slaves. Today, the plantation’s centerpiece is the 1803 mansion, an architectural combination of Federal and Georgian architecture. Restored after years of neglect, it opened to the public in 1972.
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