Montrose

The land on which Montrose sits has historical importance for the town of Hillsborough. Two colonial roads, the Old Halifax Road and the old road to Oxford, colloquially known as the "Old Indian Trading Path," pass through the property. Traces of each remain on the estate. The Occaneechi Indian Village, a seventeenth-century Native American settlement built along the Eno River and re-discovered and excavated in recent years, was also near the current Montrose estate.

The current iteration of the Montrose estate has its origins in 1842, when it became the property of William Alexander Graham, then a United States senator, who would later become Governor of North Carolina, Secretary of the Navy under President Millard Fillmore, a Whig Party Vice-Presidential candidate, and a Confederate States senator. Since the late eighteenth century, the property on which the Montrose estate lies was passed around by other prominent Orange County figures, including University of North Carolina trustee and slaveowner James Hogg, University of North Carolina alumni and professor of belles-lettres William Mercer Green, and university trustee Thomas Ruffin, among others.

From 1842 until 1977, Graham and his descendants occupied the Montrose property. Around 1900, the current Montrose house, a two-story center hall structure with eleven rooms, including two parlors, a dining room, five bedrooms, and two bathrooms, and kitchen, was built. It is not open to the public. Outbuildings on the property include a garage, a kitchen, a smokehouse, an office, and a barn.

The gardens of Montrose, which are open to the public by appointment and with paid admission, are the main attraction of the site. They are maintained by the Montrose Foundation, Inc., and the estate's current owners, Nancy Goodwin and her late husband Crauford (1934-2017). Ornamental plantings vary by season.

Dickinson, Patricia S.. Southern, Michael T.. National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Montrose, Hillsborough, North Carolina. Raleigh, North Carolina. North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office, 2001.

Our History, Montrose. Accessed May 12th 2021. https://www.montrosegarden.org/history.