West Haven Historic District
The West Haven Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. Portions of the content on this web page were adapted from a copy of the original nomination document. [‡]
West Haven Historic District is a roughly twenty-five block neighborhood located approximately one mile west of downtown Rocky Mount and adjacent to the Tar River. This largely intact neighborhood represents the high point of residential development in Nash County following World War I. The neighborhood is one of the first planned developments in Rocky Mount to move away from the grid system. West Haven' s broad curvilinear streets, spacious lawns and initial residences, built in popular variations of the traditional Colonial Revival style, reflected the desire for a sylvan retreat removed from the bustle of the center city.
Developed by local civil engineer, John Wells, the 1928 plan incorporated two multi-acre sites reserved for small parks. Architects Thomas Herman of Wilson and Harry Harles of Rocky Mount, along with local contractors led by D.J. Rose and Samuel Toler built excellent Colonial Revival style houses for prosperous clients. While the Colonial Revival prevailed in the West Haven Historic District, an assortment of Spanish Colonial, Dutch Colonial, and Tudor Revival styles appeared as well. Post World War II houses included more modest Minimal Traditional and Ranch houses.
West Haven Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places for local significance in architecture and for community planning and development. The period of significance begins in 1928 when the first houses were completed in the neighborhood and extends to 1952 when the neighborhood was more than ninety percent developed.
West Haven: Historical Background and Architecture
The first settlers arrived in the Rocky Mount area in the 1740s, when Nash was still part of Edgecombe County. Nash County was carved from Edgecombe County during the American Revolution and named Nash to honor North Carolinian General Francis Nash, who was killed at the battle of Germantown (Fleming, p.7).
The first decades in the new county witnessed residents settling near rivers and creeks, often building gristmills. The natural landscape of the falls provided the power source for the second oldest mill in North Carolina. The bridge over the Tar River and the falls were the dividing line between Nash and Edgecombe counties until the line was moved east in 1871 (Fleming, p.8).
The biggest change to Nash County occurred between 1830 and 1840, when the Wilmington to Weldon railroad was completed. The first train went through to Weldon on March 9, 1840, after construction reached Rocky Mount in 1839 from Goldsboro. Rocky Mount incorporated in 1867 with a population of 300. As Rocky Mount grew at the turn of the century, due to the arrival of tobacco in the late 1880s, a burst of expansion created a sizable business district built from the 1890s into the 1920s. This was generated, in part, by the establishment in the 1890s of the Rocky Mount Tobacco Market. The Atlantic Coastline railroad set up its repair shops in Rocky Mount in 1899 and the population grew from less than 900 to over 12,000 by 1920 (Fleming, p.8).
Rocky Mount developed at a fast pace following World War I, expanding in all directions on the Nash County side of the railroad tracks. New parks, a modern library, a country club, and vigorous home construction reflected the growth. Tracts of bungalows were erected for both white and black railroad employees in segregated districts of the south end. Concurrently, white businessmen and professionals were building large frame homes in wealthy new neighborhoods, such as Villa Place [see Villa Place Historic District], several blocks west of downtown (Mattson, p.29).
In the late 1920s, the exclusive subdivisions of West Haven and Englewood, located one to two miles west of the commercial district, were platted and house lots around Falls Road and Western Sunset Avenue were purchased by many of Rocky Mount's prominent residents. Largely intact today, these upper-income areas represent the high point of residential development following World War I (Mattson, p.29).
Rocky Mount engineer, John T. Wells, was the developer and realtor for the 211 acres of wooded property that was identified in the original 1928 West Haven plat as the W.D. Taylor Estate. Rocky Mount residents still retain memories of Mr. Wells working in his solitary trailer on the site, platting the layout of gently winding streets and spacious lots. His 1928 plan included a number of deed covenants that would help assure continuity of design as well as an atmosphere of bucolic affluence. For example, fifty-foot setbacks were mandatory, and garages were required to face away from the street and out of public view. It was stipulated that no swine would be allowed on the premises, and stables or cow stalls should be built at least ten feet distant from any adjoining lot and that the stables or cow stalls should be built at least 125 feet from the front line of the lots. Like many upper-class neighborhoods in North Carolina, another deed covenant specified that none of the lots in the subdivision could be sold, leased, or rented to any person other than of the Caucasian race (Mattson, p.282).
The West Haven plan also included a picturesque lily pond (no longer extant) and twenty-acres or ten percent of the entire area reserved for small parks. Conservative Colonial Revival house designs, with names such as "Belvedere," "Riveredge," and "Tarover," set the architectural tone of the neighborhood. An advertisement brochure of the day proclaimed: "West Haven is less than five minutes from downtown by car. Convenient gas stations and community stores are just off the property. Only ten minutes walk from the section of servants" (Wells brochure).
Wells sold the promise of quiet, bucolic, suburban living on the western edge of the aggressive railroad town to many of Rocky Mount's business leaders (Mattson, p.282). Early advertising enticed prospective homeowners to the neighborhood by referring to the development as "healthy", "clean", "quiet", "restful", and "beautiful" (The Evening Telegraph, June 8, 1928). Mr. Wells declared: "West Haven is a mecca for those who love the beauty of nature" (The Evening Telegraph, June 21, 1928). In another advertisement he referred to the forest trees, the wide, winding streets and avenues, the parks, the playgrounds, and the spring-fed lake (The Evening Telegraph, June 5, 1928).
For the most part, early property owners in West Haven chose to build conservative Colonial Revival designs. Following on the heels of America's Centennial celebrations, the Colonial Revival emerged in the early 1880s. The style, which borrowed heavily from early American architecture, particularly Georgian and Federal buildings, was largely an outgrowth of a new pride in America's past. Among the leaders of the movement were the partners at McKim, Mead, and White who had made a tour of New England's historic towns in 1878. Although early interpretations of the style tended to be free interpretations with details inspired by colonial precedents, during the first decade of this century, Colonial Revival fashion shifted toward carefully researched copies with more correct proportions and details. Colonial Revival houses built in the years between 1915 and 1935 reflect these influences by more closely resembling early prototypes than did those built earlier or later. The economic depression of the 1930s, World War II, and changing postwar fashions led to a simplification of the style in the 1940s and 50s.
The majority of the traditional Colonial Revival style houses in West Haven Historic District were constructed during the 1930s and 40s, although several were built as late as the early 1960s. The two-story frame or brick symmetrical houses tend to be side-gabled with an accentuated front door, normally with a decorative crown supported by pilasters and often with decorative fanlights and/or sidelights. The cornices are normally part of a boxed roof-wall junction with little overhang and are frequently decorated with dentils or modillions. Porches can be either one-story entry porches with gabled and vaulted roofs supported by simple Doric posts or more elaborate full-height porticos supported by Corinthian columns. Windows are typically six-over-six double-hung sash. The Colonial Revival style residences are scattered throughout the neighborhood, with a good concentration of them along West Haven Boulevard and Piedmont Avenue.
The 1951 Robert Walker House at 515 Piedmont Avenue is typical of many of the Colonial Revival style houses found in West Haven Historic District. The two-story, brick house features a symmetrical three-bay facade with a recessed entrance with sidelights and side panels and a segmental arched wood transom over the door. The house is balanced by exterior end chimneys on the side elevations along with one-story wings on each end. Atypically, this house has a hipped roof and multi-paned first-story windows.
A frame version of the Colonial Revival style dwelling includes the 1950 Edgar Joyner House (322 Piedmont Avenue), a two-story, side-gable house with beaded weatherboard siding. It features typical Colonial Revival style details including dentils at the cornice, a symmetrical three-bay facade, and a pedimented portico supported by classical columns. One-story additions include a side sun porch and a two-car garage.
The John King House at 1512 West Haven Boulevard is an example of a Southern Colonial Revival style house in the West Haven Historic District. The two-story, brick, side-gable house features a symmetrical five-bay facade and a cornice with dentils. The central front door is surrounded by sidelights and a transom with leaded glass. A full-height portico supported by six square-section classical posts and surmounted by a decorative wood balustrade spans the front of the house. The house also features exterior chimneys on both side elevations and one-story wings on each end.
Many of the neighborhood's grander homes were built on premier lots overlooking Wildwood Park, along Waverly Drive and Rivera Drive. The architectural highlight of West Haven was built for Robert D. Gorham, an influential landowner and president of Planters Cotton Oil Fertilizer Company. Located at 1612 Waverly Drive, the Robert Gorham House was designed by architect, Thomas Herman, who designed or remodeled a host of West Haven houses between the late 1920s and 1940s. Known as Waverly Manor, the house features a tiled hipped roof, arched doorways, formal symmetry and classical detailing.
The 1930 Margaret Griffin House (1617 Rivera Drive), also referred to as Pine Hall and located on the corner of Rivera Drive and Wildwood Avenue, qualifies as one of the most imposing homes in West Haven. The two-story brick Colonial Revival style house is laid in Flemish bond. The seven-bay symmetrical facade features decorative stone and brick work, including a stone frontispiece, engaged columns and entablature surmounted with urns and a quoined stone and brick panel over the door. The grounds include a three-car brick garage with segmental wall dormers which echo those on the house, an in-ground swimming pool and pool house, and a low stone wall encircling the property.
Many of the houses in the West Haven Historic District are variations on the Colonial Revival style. The Cape Cod, found throughout the district, is the most common form of a one-story Colonial Revival house. As a form, it originated in the early eighteenth century and continued with few changes through the 1950s. Typically, these brick or frame houses feature gable dormers, steeply pitched roofs, and a symmetrical facade with a central door and classical door surrounds. Many of the Cape Cods in the West Haven Historic District are extended with an additional wing or sun porch on each side elevation.
A number of houses in the West Haven Historic District classified as Cape Cods are larger than the typical Cape Cod house, reflecting the wealth and status of some of West Haven's homeowners. For example, the 1949 E. Selma and Gwendolyn Bullock House at 1519 Lafayette Avenue is typical of the more elaborate Cape Cods found throughout the district. The house features a five-bay symmetrical facade, a recessed central door with side panels and pilasters, a cornice with dentils and three gable dormers. It is balanced with a garage on the east side and a sun porch on the west side. The 1933 Thomas Pearsall House at 1601 Rivera Drive, built for attorney, Thomas J. Pearsall, displays the typical form of a Cape Cod, but is also considerably larger. The brick dwelling features a five-bay symmetrical facade with five gable dormers, a modillion cornice and an elaborate door surround with a swan's neck pediment. Two side wings complete the house.
Desirable lots were also laid out along Wildwood Avenue and Evergreen Road, adjacent to the Tar River. The houses along the river tend to sit farther back from the road and yet they are still a good distance from the river. The Alexander and Sarah Thorpe House, located at 300 Wildwood Road, is a good example of a one-story Colonial Revival. The handsome one-story brick house was built for Alexander P. Thorpe, Jr., an executive officer of several large companies in Rocky Mount. Unlike the symmetrical Cape Cods, the Alexander Thorpe House exhibits a five-bay asymmetrical facade. The house boasts many Colonial Revival details, however, including an entrance with sidelights and flanking pilasters and an entablature with a keystone. The house is enlarged with side wings and an attached garage.
The Leon Epstein House (204 Piedmont Avenue), also known as Neustra Casa, is the only example of a Spanish Colonial Revival style house in the West Haven Historic District. The c.1928 stuccoed house, with clay pantile roofs, features a two-story stair tower with a conical roof and steel casement windows. The dramatically carved arched doors located in the corner tower of the Epstein House are typical of Spanish architecture, as is the small upper story iron balcony.
After World War II, elevating costs of labor and material prohibited the attention to architectural styling that had marked the first wave of home construction. The population of Rocky Mount rose during the postwar years from 25,568 in 1940 to 35,287 in 1950 (Mattson, p.32). Although the Colonial Revival style continued to be a popular design choice for builders through the 1950s and 1960s, the newer houses tended to be less grand than pre-war houses. On a somewhat smaller and more informal scale, Dutch Colonial and Tudor Revival style houses became an attractive alternative to the formal and sometimes imposing Colonial Revival.
Actually a variation of the Colonial Revival style, the Dutch Colonial Revival style house is usually one-story with a steeply-pitched gambrel roof containing almost a full second story of floor space. They usually include either separate dormer windows or a continuous shed dormer with several windows. A good example of a Dutch Colonial Revival style house in the West Haven Historic District can be found in the J. William Joyner House located at 1504 Pinecrest Avenue. Built in 1941, the symmetrical five-bay brick house features a gambrel shingle roof with three gable dormers. A small five-light transom surmounts the central door. Like many houses in West Haven Historic District, the house is extended on either end with one-story, side-gable wings.
The Tudor Revival style, based loosely on a variety of late Medieval English prototypes, ranging from thatch-roofed folk cottages to grand manor houses, became a dominant and affordable style for suburban homes throughout the county during the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. The style emphasizes steeply-pitched, front-facing gables, ornamental half-timbering, and front-facade chimneys. The 1949 Williard Strickland House at 1204 Lafayette Avenue typifies the Tudor Revival style with its steeply-pitched, front-facing, stuccoed gable with half-timbering, its front-facade chimney, and its pointed-arched front door.
As the larger and more desirable lots in West Haven were claimed and built on, the development spread out along the more linear Lafayette and West Haven Avenues where the lots were smaller and more uniform in size. The late 1940s and early 1950s witnessed the construction of many one-story Minimal Traditional and Ranch houses. The Minimal Traditional was a simplified form loosely based on the Tudor Revival style of the 1920s and '30s. Like the Tudor Revival, they generally exhibit a dominant front gable and massive chimneys, but a lower pitch to the roof, while the facade is simplified by omitting most of the period detailing. These houses first became popular in the late 1930s and were the dominant style of the post-war 1940s and early 1950s (McAlester, p.477).
Many of the Minimal Traditional houses in the West Haven Historic District feature a one-story middle section with a gable-front wing on each end. A typical example is the 1952 Roy Phipps House at 1416 West Haven Boulevard. The brick house features a side-gable slate roof with east- and west-side, front-gable wings. The house is also embellished with two gable dormers and an engaged front porch. Another example of a minimal traditional house with front gable wings is the 1951 Frank Meadows House at 1514 Lafayette Avenue. This frame house also includes a one-story middle section with three gable dormers and sidelights surrounding the front entrance. A more typical Minimal Traditional house can be found in the 1950 C. Earl Privott House located at 1407 Pinecrest Avenue. This one-story brick house features a steeply-pitched side-gable roof with a prominent, central gable-front wing. The house is embellished, however, with several Colonial Revival style details including a door surround with pilasters and a broken pediment.
By the early 1950s, the minimal traditional house was being replaced by the Ranch style, which dominated American domestic building through the 1960s. These are one-story houses with very low-pitched roofs and broad, rambling facades. Although some may lack decorative detailing, the Ranch houses in West Haven retain a small amount of traditional detailing, usually evident in the Colonial Revival style door surrounds (McAlester, p.477). The 1951 Carroll Colston House at 1603 Pinecrest Avenue is typical of many of the Ranch houses found in the West Haven Historic District. The one-story frame house features a low-pitched, side-gable roof, an asymmetrical facade and a variety of window sizes and types. A carport is attached to the east-side of the house.
West Haven Historic District remains an intact neighborhood with well-defined boundaries. The winding, tree-lined streets, large landscaped lots, recreational parks, and well-designed houses continue to attract people to this well-planned community. Many of the houses are still owned and occupied by the original homeowner, while others have only changed ownership once or twice.
Community Planning and Development
West Haven Historic District is eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places as one of the first planned suburban neighborhoods in Rocky Mount to move away from the previously utilized grid plan. West Haven developed concurrently with Englewood, which was located on the west side of the Tar River. The West Haven Historic District represents Rocky Mount's third phase of residential growth. The original dwellings in Rocky Mount were built along Main and Church streets, Washington and Franklin streets flanking Main Street and the railroad tracks in the late 1800s. These houses have disappeared as twentieth century commercial development displaced the town's nineteenth century residential fabric. Villa Place, an early twentieth-century development located several blocks west of the gridded commercial district, represents the second phase of residential growth for Rocky Mount. The fashionable Queen Anne, Foursquare, Colonial Revival, and Craftsman style houses in Villa Place symbolize the conservative following of fashion by Rocky Mount's affluent professional and business classes, as well as middle and lower middle-class families from about 1900 to 1930 (Little, Section 8, p.41).
The West Haven Historic District portrays the next phase of residential development. Located approximately one mile from the downtown commercial district, the developer, John Wells, sold the ideals of clean country living to Rocky Mount's upper middle- and middle-class families. The name he chose, West Haven, speaks for itself — a haven on the west side of downtown. The development was the first in Rocky Mount to move away from the grid system. Wide, curvilinear roads were laid out to take advantage of the slightly rolling topography and to give the impression of winding, country roads. Landscaping was also an essential concept to the plan. Wells specified that a minimum number of trees be felled when developing a house site. Consequently, the neighborhood boasts of large numbers of mature trees, shading the houses and lining the streets. Parks, for their beauty and for recreational purposes, were also incorporated into the plan. Tight controls were kept on the type of house that could be built in the neighborhood — each design was to be approved by John Wells.
Mr. Wells' design concepts for West Haven seem to have been influenced by the work of Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., an intellectual leader of the American city planning movement in the early twentieth century. Son of the renown landscape architect and leader of the City Beautiful Movement, Olmsted and his stepbrother, John Charles, followed closely in their father's footsteps. Olmsted, Jr. was particularly concerned with city transportation systems and the integration of parks into residential areas. He felt that comprehensive planning was necessary in order to move streetcars, rapid transit railways, and vehicular traffic in the most efficient manner possible. He advocated that local residential streets be set off from the city's main thoroughfares. Olmsted also lectured on the importance of including parks within walking distance of each resident. He believed that a planned development dedicate a minimum of five percent of the total area for parks (The City Beautiful, Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.).
The West Haven Historic District follows the concepts advocated by Olmsted, Jr. The development was meticulously planned by John Wells to incorporate the ideals of a sylvan setting within a short commute to downtown Rocky Mount. The neighborhood was laid out adjacent to, but somewhat removed from, the main thoroughfares leading into and out of the city, Sunset Avenue and Thomas Street. The curving, random nature of the community's roads were, and still remain, a dissuasion for motorists seeking shortcuts through the development.
Wells also implemented the inclusion of parks into his initial plan for the neighborhood. The original plat reveals two areas of land within the development set aside for parks, Wildwood Park and Taylor Park. These parks are within walking distance for most of the residents and contribute to the park-like ambience of the entire neighborhood. In addition, a scenic lake, originally known as Sunset Lake, was located near the northern entrance to the community. The lake, now known as City Lake, provides a delightful, peaceful retreat for the residents of West Haven, as well as the citizens of Rocky Mount.
The movement for more naturalistic developments was in full swing in the Southeast by the time John Wells began planning West Haven. This was a time period and a generation with a strong appreciation for nature. America's first national parks were established in this era and the conservation movement blossomed. Landscape architects, such as the Olmsted Brothers, sought to bring this consciousness to city planning. The city of Charlotte was the first city in North Carolina to experiment with this concept. In the 1910s, John Nolen, the Olmsted Brothers, and Earle Sumner Draper were hired as part of the drive to make Charlotte a modern city. The Olmsted Brothers were hired to prepare a new plan for the Dilworth neighborhood [see Dilworth Historic District], which had been developed in the 1890s, initially with a grid plan. The first phase of Dilworth presented a mixture of elite and middle-class residences, with the former arranged along the grand boulevards of the neighborhood, and the latter confined to adjacent side streets. The diversity of social groups implied a mixture of architectural styles with Queen Anne, Bungalow, and Colonial Revival houses scattered throughout. The Olmsteds softened the original grid and introduced a web of curvilinear streets to take advantage of the area's topography and provide the pedestrian with a variety of vistas. They also recommended "pocket parks" which, though never materialized in Dilworth, were incorporated by Wells into the West Haven neighborhood (Hanchett, Charlotte's Neighborhood Planning Tradition).
The 1911 Myers Park neighborhood [see Myers Park Historic District], also located in Charlotte, may also have been an influencing factor in the design of West Haven. Designed by John Nolen, who ranked at the top of American designers and planners in the early twentieth century, Myers Park was described by the Charlotte Observer as a "suburb of surpassing elegance and attractiveness." Typical of Nolen's plans, the grand boulevard introduced and defined the development which possessed the requisite number of winding, landscaped thoroughfares. Nolen's plan for Myers Park was widely emulated throughout the South. Its key features included curving streets, a looping main boulevard with trolley tracks running down its central median, abundant parks along low-lying areas, and limited access through a handful of entrances. Architectural styles include Colonial Revivals and Bungalows, along with the largest collection of Tudor Revivals in North Carolina (Hanchett, Charlotte's Neighborhood Planning Tradition).
Earle Sumner Draper, educated at the University of Massachusetts, was hired by John Nolen to oversee development of Myers Park. Draper soon formed his own firm, and by the 1920s was among the half-dozen busiest in the entire United States. Draper's two specialties were upper-class residential areas modeled on Myers Park and mill villages embodying "new town" ideals. Draper was responsible for the planning of Charlotte's Eastover neighborhood in 1927. Located near Myers Park, Eastover consists almost entirely of large two-story upper middle income dwellings built in brick Georgian and Colonial Revival styles with a smattering of Tudor Revivals. Restrictive covenants covering two pages were written into the lot deeds for the Eastover neighborhood [also known as Pharrsdale; see Pharrsdale Historic District]. Houses were to cost a minimum of $4,000 to $15,000, depending on the location of the lot. The property was to be used for residential purposes only and was to be occupied and used by members of the Caucasian race with the exception of domestic servants in the employ of occupants. Garages, outbuildings, and domestic quarters were required to conform to the architectural style of the dwelling. Apartment dwellings were strictly forbidden. Like West Haven, Eastover, had no trolley service. Citizens were expected to own automobiles, and thus Eastover became Charlotte's first exclusive automobile suburb. Similar neighborhoods designed by Draper in North Carolina include Raleigh's Hayes Barton, Durham's Forest Hills, and High Point's Emorywood (Hanchett, The Eastover Neighborhood).
Like Eastover, Draper's design of the Hayes-Barton development in Raleigh appealed to the well-to-do, with its privacy, large wooded tracts, and commuting distance to downtown Raleigh. Similar to Rocky Mount's West Haven neighborhood, the majority of the dwellings built in Hayes Barton consisted of two-story, brick Colonial Revivals with gable roofs and handsome restrained classical details located along curvilinear, tree-shaded streets. Like West Haven, many of the houses were erected during the 1920s and 30s, were designed by local architects, and were inhabited by insurance agents, bankers, physicians, attorneys, salesmen, and administrators who commuted to their jobs in nearby downtown Raleigh (Ross).
By the 1920s, the residential neighborhood, either professionally planned or merely as a collection of individual land-use decisions, had become a major element in American city planning (Goldfield, p.18). The West Haven neighborhood, after more than eighty years of existence, continues to show the results of careful planning and nurturing. It remains one of Rocky Mount's finest residential enclaves, a tribute to the pre-World War II suburban ideal.
References
Fleming, Monika S. Images of America: Rocky Mount and Nash County. Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 1998.
Goldfield, David R. "North Carolina's Early Twentieth-Century Suburbs and the Urbanizing South." Early Twentieth-Century Suburbs in North Carolina, Essays on History, Architecture, and Planning. Eds. Catherine W. Bisher and Lawrence S. Earley. North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, 1985.
Hanchett, Thomas W. "Earle Sumner Draper: City Planner of the New South." Early Twentieth-Century Suburbs in North Carolina, Essays on History Architecture, and Planning. Eds. Catherine W. Bisher and Lawrence S. Earley. North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, 1985.
Hanchett, Thomas W. The Eastover Neighborhood: Charlotte's Elite Automobile Suburb. .
Hanchett, Thomas W. Charlotte's Neighborhood Planning Tradition. .
Little, Ruth and Michelle Kullen. National Register Nomination for Villa Place Historic District, Nash County, North Carolina. North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, 1999.
Mattson, Richard L. The History and Architecture of Nash County, North Carolina. Nashville: Nash County Planning Department, 1987.
McAlester, Virginia and Lee. A Field Guide to American Houses. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1992.
Nash County Deeds.
O'Quinlivan, Michael. Rocky Mount Centennial Commemorative Book 1867-1967. City of Rocky Mount, 1967.
Rocky Mount City Directories (1928-2000). Hill Directory Co., City of Rocky Mount, North Carolina.
Ross, Helen Patricia. Raleigh Comprehensive Architectural Survey, Final Report, June 4, 1992. .
Sanborn Maps (1956), Rocky Mount, North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, NC.
Smith, Margaret Supplee. "The American Idyll in North Carolina's First Suburbs: Landscape and Architecture." Early Twentieth-Century Suburbs in North Carolina. Eds. Catherine W. Bisher and Lawrence S. Earley. North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, 1985.
The Evening Telegraph (Rocky Mount, NC) June 8, 1928 (p.8), June 21, 1928 (p.4), and July 5, 1928 (p.8).
Wells, Jno. J., Presenting West Haven, Rocky Mount's Finest Development. Miami: The Franklin Press, Inc., 1928.
‡ Beth Keane, Retrospective, West Haven Historic District, Nash County, North Carolina, nomination document, 2002, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places, Washington, D.C.
Nearby Neighborhoods
Street Names
Evergreen Road • Glenn Avenue • Lafayette Avenue • Piedmont Avenue • Pinecrest Avenue • Rivera Drive • Shady Circle Drive • Taylor Street South • Waverly Drive • West Haven Boulevard • Wildwood Avenue
