Tiles from Overhills Estate, Linda Carnes-McNaughton

Diversity in Décor: Fireplace Tiles and Murals from the Overhills Estate on Fort Bragg

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Watch the Recorded Lecture

 

Dr. Linda Carnes-McNaughton is the Program Archaeologist and Curator for the Cultural Resources Management Program at Fort Bragg and formerly the Archaeology Supervisor for NCDNCR Historic Sites Section. Dr. Carnes-McNaughton will speak about her recent archaeological research at the Overhills Estate, a lavish vacation home and hunt club for the Rockefeller family which was eventually sold to the Army and incorporated into Fort Bragg. Several residences were built on the estate, along with support structures and landscape features geared towards recreational activities of seasonal visitors. At its pinnacle, the furnishings of these domestic buildings represented affluence. Of particular interest were built-in decorative elements, some dating to the late seventeenth and mid-eighteenth centuries, which remained in situ once the estate changed ownership. These tiles and murals testify to a penchant for indoor art. As the buildings pass into the archaeological record, destroyed by cultural and natural processes, the remains of these artworks now become artifacts of remembrance.