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Popular Styles of the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries (2.1.1.1.2)

Georgian and Federal (2.1.1.1.2.1)

Because Elizabeth City was established in 1793, and almost all of its earliest dwellings were replaced as the town grew during the early and mid nineteenth century, traces of the Georgian and Federal styles are extremely rare in the community. Evidence of the Georgian style, popular in North Carolina during the second half of the eighteenth century, is exhibited by an overlooked outbuilding at 404 East Church Street. Built ca. 1800 probably as an office or kitchen, it retains a molded cornice and rounded window sills displaying robust Georgian profiles. Reflecting the building's construction date very late in the period of Georgian fashion, some of the woodwork, primarily the three-part window surrounds, have profiles that begin to exhibit the lighter proportions and more delicate moldings of the newly popular Federal style, which developed as an American adaption of the British Adamesque style.

Three houses display elements of the Federal style, although all have been considerably updated in other styles. The Grice-Fearing House (200 South Road Street, ca. 1798, ca. 1840) was originally a two-story single-pile, side-hall-plan dwelling later enlarged to double-pile and two-and-a-half stories tall. Its Federal elements include molded exterior sills and a corner stair in the hall that is partially enclosed with raised panels. Even though the exterior of the Shirley-Armstrong House (1011 West Main Street, ca. 1793) was considerably remodeled in the Colonial Revival style ca. 1920, the interior retains a three-part Federal style mantel and an elegantly proportioned stair with ramped handrail. A notable Federal stair with turned newel also remains in the Dr. William Martin House (405 East Church Street, ca. 1811).