JamesTown, NC

1. Quaker & Abolitionist Roots – False-bottom Wagon
The Mendenhall Homestead in Jamestown was built by the Quaker Mendenhall family (Richard Mendenhall, c. 1811) and became a center for anti-slavery and manumission efforts.
One particularly notable artifact: the site preserves a false-bottom wagon that local Quaker youths sometimes used to help transport escaping enslaved people, as part of Underground Railroad activity.

2. “Lydia” — The Ghost of Jamestown Bridge
Local folklore tells of a ghost named Lydia, a young woman in white, who is said to haunt underpasses of bridges in Jamestown (one over East Main Street and another abandoned one). hitch a ride, only to vanish when approached.

3. Jamestown’s Historic District & Key Old Structures

• The Jamestown Historic District, encompassing roughly 70 acres, has many contributing buildings from the early 19th century — including the Richard Mendenhall Plantation buildings, the Jamestown Friends’ Meeting House, and buildings tied to Dr. Shubal Coffin’s early medical practice.

• The former Jamestown High School (built in 1915 in Classical Revival style) is listed on the National Register and was rehabilitated & reused in the mid-1980s.

• The Gardner House, built in 1827 near Jamestown, features a “double chimney with an arch-link” and is associated with a gold mine on its property, the Gardner gold mine.