The History

Appointed by Wilson.He held the alliance from London.

Born in Cary, North Carolina. Co-founder of Doubleday, Page & Company. Editor of The Atlantic Monthly. Appointed by Woodrow Wilson as Ambassador to the Court of St. James in 1913 — and kept there through the years the world came apart.

From London, he commissioned Garran Hill to be built on his family’s Moore County acres. He named it himself. Page returned from London in December 1918. He did not return to Garran Hill.

“Build the farm, therefore; and let me hear at every stage of that happy game.”

Walter Hines Page · Letter from London · 1915

“The friend of Britain in her sorest need.”

Westminster Abbey · Inscribed 1921

“Well, Frank, I did get here after all, didn’t I?” Aberdeen station · December 1918

Horses. Hounds. Peacocks.Native hollies on every path.

Betty Dumaine kept this land for twenty-five years. Left to Duke University after her death. Advertised in Atlanta and New York. No buyer came. The house waited.

She brought horses to the grounds of Garran Hill -- thoroughbreds, hunters, a life organized around animals and land and the particular pleasure of a place that required real attention. She renamed the property Hollycrest -- for the large native hollies at the front of the house. They are still there.

One horse she buried here. Blue Fox. The stone is still standing in the shade of the trees she planted. The iron post beside the drive still carries the ring. Someone still puts flowers at the grave.