Built in 1766 by German immigrant Michael Braun, this two-story Georgian-style house is the oldest structure in Rowan County!
The last of Braun’s descendants moved out of the house in 1904 and it stood abandoned for years – becoming a target for vandals. Eventually, only the granite shell remained. The attached wooden kitchen collapsed onto itself, the glass in all the windows were broken out, and the floorboards on the first level were burned in campfires. The staircase was also cut up for firewood.
Attempts were made by several, including Braun’s descendants, over the years in hopes of saving the structure but the repairs and expenses proved to be too great. Thankfully, Rowan Museum Inc. stepped up in 1959, purchased the house and spent over six years painstakingly restoring with materials dating from the Colonial period. The cradle where Braun’s children slept, a loom, and a few other objects are original to the house – everything else has been donated and predates 1810.