The Ailey Young house was built in 1875 by Professor William G. Simmons of Wake Forest as a part of a group of tenant farm houses known as “Simmons Row.” After his death in 1895, his widow, Mary Elizabeth, sold the house to Ailey Young, a married African-American woman. Ailey and her husband, Henry, raised their 13 children in the house, including son Allen Young, founder of the first school for African-American children in Wake Forest. The house is also the oldest-known African-American house in Wake Forest. Please join us as we discuss the culmination of a partnership between public, private, and government stakeholders to rediscover and protect this important part of North Carolina heritage.
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