FEATURE PAGE October 29, 2020

Mark Seibel (left) shows off the front porch he and his crew recently restored at Tanglewood Farm. With him are Frankie and John Hobart, a descendant of the Tomlinsons who built the place in 1835.

Tanglewood Farm undergoing restoration
in the midst of a changing rural landscape

Thomas R. Butchko --- who did most of the work that produced The Historic Architecture of Johnston County, a book published in 2016 by Keep Johnston County Beautiful --- calls it "the finest and most intact nineteenth- and early-twentieth farmstead in the county."

Tanglewood Farm, located on the south side of Cleveland Road about eight miles from Downtown Smithfield, dates back to 1835. Mostly vacant since the death in 2003 of Charles Tomlinson --- the last in a series of family members who lived there --- the house and surrounding farm structures had fallen into disrepair.

The main house as it appeared in the latter part of the 20th Century when it served as the residence of Charles Tomlinson, the last of several generations of Tomlinsons who lived there.
(Photo from The Historic Architecture of Johnston County)

Until now.

Mark Seibel, a hands-on fixer of historic properties, and his wife, Tina Royals, earlier this year purchased Tanglewood Farm from Preservation North Carolina, a non-profit that acquires endangered historic structures for sale to buyers qualified and willing not only to save them but also to restore them in keeping with their original splendor.

In the case of Tanglewood, restoration includes the homeplace, a large mule barn, a bell tower, several other outbuildings, perhaps even a "three hole" outhouse. Mr. Seibel and his Raleigh-based crew have made considerable progress toward the project's completion over the past several months.

Tina Royals and John Hobart inspect the mule barn's interior.

Why Tanglewood?

Explains Tina Royals: "We picked Tanglewood because Preservation NC was able to get it priced low enough to make it possible. At a much higher price, with all the work that the home needed, it wasn’t feasible.

"It is about 20 miles from our current home so the distance was doable for daily work. It included a large enough tract of land to make it attractive," she said.

Tina and husband Mark live on the edge of Raleigh's historic Oakwood neighborhood. The Tanglewood property they purchased for $85,000 (according to Johnston County tax records) covers 4.3 acres.

"We are restoring all of the buildings that are salvageable," Tina continued. "There was a migrant worker house that was mostly demolished when we bought it. Mark salvaged a lot of wood and metal roofing and incorporated it into the main house. Then he cleared that house away because it was dangerous.

"There is a pig barn which is in pretty bad shape. He has also reused some of the wood and found some sinks that we have refurbished and re-used in that barn," Tina noted.

The bell tower, complete with bell,
as it stood in the early 1980s.
(Photo from The Historic
Architecture of Johnston County)

During a recent tour of the property, Mark was proud to point out the dilapidated outhouse attached to the back of one of the decrepit structures. Not sure if he's going to put that back into service or not.

Besides the massive mule barn built more than a hundred years ago, other unique features of Tanglewood that have survived are the groundwater well out front and a bell tower used in days long gone to summon field hands to dinner. Other structures on the property include the original 1835 smokehouse, a chicken house, and a tenant house still occupied as a residence.

Will Tina and Mark "pull up stakes" and occupy the main house once it's up-fitted with modern conveniences?

"We have not decided if we will keep both homes or sell the Raleigh home," she said. "The market in that area is hot right now for sure."

Speaking of hot markets, across Cleveland Road from Tanglewood Farm is a huge new subdivision under development --- a common site in northwestern Johnston County these days --- and all the more reason why efforts to save historic properties that reflect the region's agricultural heritage are worthy of our admiration.

Frankie Hobart walks toward the front of the property where the bell tower and recently rebuilt well house stand near the highway. Across Cleveland Road
is a large new residential subdivision that cropped up almost overnight.

Frankie and John Hobart outside the massive mule barn built circa 1910.

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