Guess-White-Ogle House

The Guess-White-Ogle House is a 3-story frame house located at 215 South Academy Street in Cary, NC. It is the finest, most intact and best-preserved example of Queen Anne-style architecture in the Downtown Cary National Register Historic District. The house has been in Downtown Cary for nearly 200 years. It is also an example of a dwelling that represents several different architectural styles and tastes of the day, expanded over time. The house was originally built in 1830 by Harrison and Aurelia Guess, on land purchased from Frank Page, Cary’s founder. Apparently a traditional two-story Greek Revival dwelling originally, it is said to have been a two-story I-house, a common vernacular house type throughout Wake County, embellished with modest Greek Revival detailing.

Although known locally as the Guess House, the house was built in several stages beginning in the mid-19th century, and it had many owners throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. The house was expanded and remodeled in the Queen Anne style in the late 19th century and is Cary’s most prominent example of Queen Anne architecture. John White, a local Baptist minister, bought the house from Guess in 1896 and substantially remodeled and expanded it. He transformed the house into a Queen Anne structure by changing the facade, adding a three-story tower to the facade, a front bay window and much decorative woodwork, including patterned shingles, and finials. The top sashes of all of the front windows have small colored-glass borders characterized by the Queen Anne style. Cary local tradition tells the story of White building a tower so that he could look out over the town while writing his sermons. The current owners, Carroll Ogle and his wife Sheila Ogle, bought the 3,900+ sqft house in 1997 and restored it to its former glory for use as their private residence. The house was designated a Wake County Landmark in 2008 and received an Anthemion Award for its restoration in 2002.