Ready for a bigger house? Why settle for another house when there’s an entire historic town for sale in rural North Carolina for just $500,000?
The picturesque remains of an entire “lost” community are located near Jordan Lake and include a general store, boarding house, and post office.
Erected in the 19th century, the abandoned community of Merry Oaks is the last vestige of the agrarian villages that once dominated rural North Carolina, but have now been razed to make way for more modern developments.
Located on 3.3 acres of land, Merry Oaks continues to evoke images of an America that has long ceased to exist.
Merry Oaks ceased to be an official postal address in the 1950s.
The community of Merry Oaks is 150 years old, the agrarian village was founded in the 19th century.
The property sits on 3.3 acres of lush North Carolina land and can be purchased for $500,000, cheaper than many homes in Raleigh.
This 150-year-old town, tucked away on a country road, has old wooden porches, on top of which are rocking chairs that creak when you sit in them. There are tall ancient pillars, green farmlands and old oak trees.
The community takes you back in time, when tired farmers rolled their tobacco after a long day at the plow, and villagers gathered in the street or at the local church to exchange stories and gossip.
Merry Oaks, which is near the freeway, is listed for just $500,000, far less than the cost of a home in Raleigh.
On Saturday, real estate agents will host an open house (open town sounds more accurate) that will give prospective buyers the opportunity to inspect the Merry Oaks community.
According to Merry Oaks’ Zillow page, “the boarding house, post office and general store have welcomed weary travelers on horseback, artists and writers alike.”
Merry Oaks is one of the last farming communities that once dotted the New Hope River Valley, which is now submerged beneath the waters of Jordan Lake.
Nearby communities such as Seaforth and Pearidge have been lost to Jordan Lake, and their buildings, which once teemed with life within them, now lie underwater.
When the lake level dropped in 2023, eerie vestiges of old houses, railway tracks and roads were seen.
North Carolina’s lakes have claimed many ghost towns, and Merry Oaks is not entirely an exception. His mill, a mill that once served the entire community, now sits beneath the lake.
The children of the community used to jump with ropes made of vines.
By the 1950s, the community had decreased in size and no longer existed as an official address.
The porches creak with every step, just as they did 150 years ago.
It makes the remaining Merry Oaks property even more special and valuable.
In its golden years, before people started moving away and before the lake began swallowing up large tracts of land, Merry Oaks was a place full of life.
There was a one-room schoolhouse, a lakeside mill, a blacksmith shop, a railroad, and a train station.
The village was surrounded by a forest of lush oak trees and the villagers enjoyed simple pleasures.
Donna Aiello, a real estate agent with LPT Realty, the agency selling the property, said WRAL News, ‘When farmers came out of the fields and organized lively parties and dances. At the end, one challenged the rest to an exciting horse race around the oaks.
The Yates clan owned the General Store, where villagers could go to buy their sundries. A descendant of the Yates family recalled that her great-great-grandmother used to ride into town every day in her wagon to take up her teaching position at the school.
On quiet Saturday afternoons, children jumped with ropes made from vines or played baseball with handmade hickory bats.
But in the early 20th century, around the time of World War I, a secondary school across the Haw River in Moncure began to attract many students. Merry Oaks High School closed in the early 20th century.
The population began to move away and stores, including Yates General Store, were forced to close or relocate.
And in the 1950s, the Merry Oaks post office was merged with the New Hill and Moncure post offices, and Merry Hills was no longer an official address.
In recent years, local residents have worked hard to preserve what remains of Merry Oaks. Through extraordinary effort, they were able to save the property’s historic church, which was in danger of being demolished for a planned highway expansion.
The property once had a mill, which has since been flooded by Jordan Lake, but still features a general store, boarding house, and post office.
Merry Oaks remains untouched by time, and real estate agents hope whoever buys the town will choose to preserve it rather than demolish it.
Realtors hope that whoever purchases this property will choose to preserve it and not demolish it.
Merry Oaks’ legacy could live on, perhaps in the form of a wedding venue or a quaint Airbnb. It could also become a country music venue, where musicians could play fiddles and strum guitars and resurrect the ghost of the old Merry Oaks community.
“I think in this area, because there’s so much growth and we have so many developers coming in and tearing down areas, preserving this little part of North Carolina would be something very special,” Aiello said.
“We hope someone who loves history and has a passion for restoration will come and see the beauty of this property.”