BY KATHERINE LOFLIN
Every summer, thousands of people visit Cary’s parks, greenways, breweries, and downtown events without realizing they are moving through landscapes layered with centuries of history. Beneath sidewalks, neighborhoods, and recreational spaces lie traces of Revolutionary War families, Civil War-era farms, forgotten roads, early schools, hidden cemeteries, and communities that shaped the town long before Cary became the second most populated town in the county.
Part of what makes Cary’s history so fascinating is how quietly it survives. Unlike other towns where history is concentrated into a single historic district, Cary’s past is scattered throughout the town — beside greenways, tucked in residential cul-de-sacs, overlooked in corners of parks, and woven into everyday landscapes. Some sites are marked and interpreted. Others remain hidden unless you know where to look.
Many of these places reveal a side of the town that even longtime residents often overlook. Cary’s story is not simply one of growth; it is also one of transformation. Historic roads become greenways, farm fields become parks, and family cemeteries endure amid modern development. Beneath each new layer of Cary, traces of earlier generations remain.
Summer is a great opportunity to seek out these places and discover some of the stories and histories still surviving beneath modern Cary.
Let me show you where to look.
The Barnabas Jones Farm | 9701 Penny Road, Cary
One of Cary’s most remarkable historic places is also one of its least known.
Located on Penny Road across the parking lot from Jack Smith Park, the Barnabas Jones Farm preserves one of the area’s last surviving nineteenth-century farmsteads from the Civil War era.
Barnabas Jones was the grandson of Revolutionary War Captain Etheldred Jones, a veteran of battles including Cowpens and Guilford Courthouse who later received extensive land grants in the area. His preferred battle weapon — a sword — remains on display today at Guilford Courthouse National Military Park in Greensboro. Over generations, this Jones family line (because there are many Jones lines in the area) operated farms and agricultural businesses across what would eventually become Cary and beyond into Fuquay-Varina.
The Barnabas Jones Farm includes surviving structures dating largely to the mid-1800s, including the farmhouse, schoolhouse, and enslaved persons’ quarters that stand in quiet testament to the history it represents. According to family accounts, when Union troops marched up present-day Penny Road during the Civil War, the farm was spared through the combined efforts of those on the property — including family members, children, and enslaved people — who helped conceal resources and protect the homestead from loss and destruction.
The surrounding landscape remains part of the experience. A pine-needle-covered path winds through woods that were once cultivated fields. Along the trail grow “Flying Dragons,” known for their yellow fruit and formidable thorns, historically used as a natural cattle fence. Mature trees, open fields, and historic structures combine to create one of Cary’s most evocative historic settings.
Nearby, a small Jones family cemetery sits quietly at the end of a cul-de-sac within a modern subdivision, offering a poignant reminder of the family who once lived, worked, and were laid to rest on their land.
Owned by the Town of Cary, the buildings are not open to the public, but interpretive signs help tell the property’s story during daylight hours.
Hidden cemeteries across Cary are some of Cary’s most powerful historic places, and also its quietest.
Hillcrest Cemetery | 608 Page Street, Cary
Hillcrest Cemetery is one of the most atmospheric places in Cary, and one of the most historic. It is one of the town’s most important historic landmarks and serves as the final resting place for many of the individuals who shaped Cary.
Established in 1840, the cemetery predates the incorporation of Cary by more than three decades and provides a tangible connection to the community’s earliest families and civic leaders. Today, Hillcrest is owned and maintained by the Town of Cary and was designated a local historic landmark in 2014.
The 4.9-acre cemetery contains more than 2,400 burial sites. Among the notable burials are fifteen former Cary mayors; members of the influential Jones, Page, Templeton, Jordan, Maynard, Yates, Ivey, Heater, and Guess families; as well as several prominent educators, business leaders, and community advocates. Visitors can also find the graves of prominent educators, physicians, civic leaders, and business owners whose names continue to appear on local streets, parks, schools, and public buildings in Cary.
One notable absence from Hillcrest Cemetery is Cary founder Allison Francis Page. After helping establish Cary, Mr. Page later founded Aberdeen, North Carolina, where he and his family are buried.
Today, Hillcrest Cemetery remains both an active cemetery and an outdoor museum of Cary history, offering visitors a quiet place to reflect on the community’s past while exploring the stories of the men and women who helped build the town.
A self-guided walking tour developed by the Friends of the Page-Walker is available online and at the Page Street entrance.
Cary First Christian Church Cemetery | 300 West Cornwall Road, Cary
The Cary First Christian Church Cemetery is one of the community’s most important historic sites. Dating to at least 1866, the 1.39-acre cemetery served as a sacred burial ground for African Americans in Cary during and after Reconstruction, long before many public cemeteries were open to African American residents. Today, the cemetery contains approximately 262 burials and stands as a lasting record of the African American families, church leaders, educators, veterans, and business owners who helped build Cary.
Much of what survives today is due to the extraordinary efforts of Miss Sallie Jones, recipient of Cary’s 2024 Hometown Spirit Award. A descendant of several of Cary’s historic African American families, Miss Jones returned to Cary after retiring from a teaching career in Gary, Indiana. Upon her return, she discovered that she could no longer find a family burial ground containing her kin. Determined to prevent the loss of this local history, she spent 25 years commissioning surveys, radar studies, and documentation of more than 160 previously unidentified graves.
Through her efforts and the later efforts of Cary historical researchers Carla Jordan Michaels and Barbara Wetmore, even more African American history of the graveyard was identified and preserved. Collectively, their work ultimately contributed to the site’s designation as the first historic cemetery landmark in both Cary and Wake County.
Today, visitors can explore the cemetery during daylight hours through a self-guided walking tour developed by Cary First Christian Church, the Town of Cary, and the Friends of the Page-Walker available at the cemetery entrance and online. The cemetery stands as a testament not only to those buried there, but also to those who fought to ensure their stories would not be forgotten. Fittingly, Miss Sallie Jones now rests among them.
White Plains Cemetery | 101 Tolliver Court, Cary
Hidden within a quiet Maynard Oaks cul-de-sac lies one of Cary’s oldest surviving burial grounds of one of Wake County’s most influential early leaders.
Dating to approximately 1780, White Plains Cemetery contains the grave of Nathaniel Jones, a Revolutionary War patriot, plantation owner, statesman, and delegate to North Carolina’s 1788 Constitutional Convention. It is the only known burial site of a Revolutionary War patriot within Cary’s town limits.
Nathaniel Jones of White Plains (1749–1815) owned more than 10,000 acres across what is now eastern Cary. In 1792, he even offered land in today’s Cary to be North Carolina’s new capital city, though the state ultimately selected land owned by Joel Lane in Raleigh.
The cemetery contains the graves of Mr. Jones, his wives, and several of his children. It was largely forgotten until his descendants rediscovered it during Cary’s 1971 centennial celebration. Restoration efforts followed, leading to its rededication in 2011 and designation as a Cary Historic Landmark in 2017. Today, the small, fenced cemetery survives almost unnoticed among suburban homes.
It is now maintained by Friends of the Page-Walker, the Daughters of the American Revolution, and other local volunteers.
Higgins Greenway and Cemetery Road | Along Kildaire Farm Road between Cary Elementary School and Shirley Drive
One of Cary’s newest greenway segments follows one of its oldest historic corridors.
The newest leg of Higgins Greenway follows the same path once known as Cemetery Road, where locals would travel to the community burial grounds of Hillcrest Cemetery and the African American cemetery.
As the greenway approaches Hillcrest Cemetery from Kildaire Farm Road, it passes the site of Cary’s first African American church and school. The congregation that became Cary First Christian Church began meeting in 1868 and constructed a church in 1883 near what is now the greenway and previously Cemetery Road. An early school serving African American children was also built nearby along today’s greenway.
Although the buildings no longer survive, archaeological remains and foundation remnants continue to mark the location where generations gathered to worship, learn, and build community.
Higgins Greenway now continues to the historic Hillcrest Cemetery, creating a connection between these two historic sites. The Town of Cary has installed interpretive signage along the greenway to help visitors understand the significance of the site.
The Hidden Rural History of Carpenter | Near the intersection of Morrisville-Carpenter Road and Carpenter-Upchurch Road
Tucked into western Cary, the historic community of Carpenter offers one of the best opportunities to experience what much of Cary looked like before suburban growth transformed the region.
Named for William Carpenter, an early settler in the area, Carpenter developed as a small agricultural crossroads community in the late nineteenth century, serving surrounding farms with stores, warehouses, churches, and agricultural services. Today, Carpenter retains a collection of historic buildings that reflect Wake County’s farming heritage.
The area’s significance was formally recognized in 2000 when the approximately 210-acre Carpenter Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places with some structures within the district also receiving a local Cary landmark designation. The district contains many contributing historic structures, including the Carpenter Farm Supply Company, the C. F. Ferrell Store, farmhouses, warehouses, and agricultural buildings dating primarily from 1895 to 1933.
Carpenter is best explored on foot. Begin at the historic Carpenter Farm Supply Store at 1933 Morrisville-Carpenter Road and explore the surrounding crossroad area by foot.
Good Hope Farm | 1580 Morrisville Parkway, Cary
Good Hope Farm is one of Cary’s most overlooked historic treasures.
Originally part of a nineteenth-century farming landscape, the property preserves the agricultural heritage that defined western Cary. The historic farmhouse, barns, and surrounding open land offer visitors a glimpse into the rural lifestyle that sustained generations of local families.
Today, the Town of Cary operates the site as a community farm and educational center with activities designed for the public, blending historic preservation with sustainability and programming. As a hidden history destination, Good Hope Farm demonstrates how historic sites can remain relevant while continuing to serve the community.
Even downtown Cary contains hidden pieces of local history.
Ivey-Ellington House | 310 S. Academy Street, Cary
The striking Gothic Revival architecture of the Ivey-Ellington House often leads visitors to mistake it for a church. Built as a residence in the early 1870s, it remains one of the rarest surviving examples of Gothic Revival residential architecture in Wake County.
For more than 150 years, the house stood on West Chatham Street. In February 2023, the Town of Cary relocated the entire structure approximately 1,500 feet to its current location to save it from redevelopment.
During restoration, a remarkable discovery was made. As workers removed layers of drywall, they uncovered a dated signature on a wall. The discovery prompted extensive historical research by the Friends of the Page-Walker and ultimately led to the identification of the signer and the story behind the signature.
Today, the Ivey-Ellington House serves as office space for the Town of Cary, but volunteer docents regularly offer tours that reveal the story behind the hidden signatures and the many fascinating chapters of the home’s history.
One of the home’s longtime residents, H.H. Waddell, cast the lone vote against ending Cary’s status as a dry town in 1964, despite a legal threat to Cary by the State of North Carolina if alcohol licenses were not approved. He stated that he simply could not vote for anything that stood to “pollute” Cary. Today, the house sits within Cary’s Social District, where open containers are permitted — a remarkable contrast to Waddell’s vision.
Visitors can also explore the small kitchen garden outside the home or relax at the nearby tables and chairs, making it a pleasant stop for those visiting Downtown Cary Park just across the street.
Downtown Cary Park | 327 S. Academy Street, Cary
Over 750,000 people visit Downtown Cary Park annually, often unaware of the history rooted beneath their feet.
The park is nationally recognized and awarded for its modern design and community spaces, but it also preserves a quieter layer of hidden history. Long before Downtown Cary Park existed, part of the property belonged to Benjamin Oliver “Ben” Savage, a horticulturalist, inventor, and nursery owner who operated Valley Nook Decorative Landscape Nursery and Rose Farm during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Mr. Savage became known locally for cultivating fruit trees, roses, pecans, and ornamental plants. A passionate experimenter, he planted trees throughout Cary and once declared, “I shall plant trees every year as long as I live.” Some of the older pecan trees within the park are believed to be linked to his original plantings.
Today, his legacy remains visible. Interpretive panels tell his story, and wood from some of his planted trees has been repurposed into park benches.
This summer, some of the best places to explore in Cary are not the loudest or busiest attractions. They are the places where Cary’s older stories still survive quietly, waiting to be discovered and appreciated.
Together, these sites represent only a small portion of Cary’s rich historic landscape. Whether hidden among subdivisions, preserved along greenways, or standing in plain sight downtown, these places remind us that history is not confined to museums. In Cary, history is truly everywhere for those knowing where to look.
Dr. Katherine Loflin is a historical researcher, speaker, storyteller, and author of “Hidden History of Cary.” Through her company, The City Doctor Productions, and her newly formed nonprofit organization, The Cary History Experience, she creates presentations, immersive tours, and unique experiences that bring Cary’s rich history to life.
