North Carolina

We took a private guided tour of the Mordecai House (Plantation) built in 1785, is the centerpiece of Mordecai Historic Park, and is the oldest residence in Raleigh on its original foundation. In addition to the house, the Park includes the birthplace and childhood home of President Andrew Johnson, the Badger-Iredell Law Office, Allen Kitchen and St. Mark's Chapel. The house was named after Moses Mordecai, whose first wife, Margaret Lane, had inherited it from her father Henry. After she died, Mordecai married her sister Ann Lane. In 1824, Mordecai enlarged the house. Moses Mordecai of Bonn, Germany, became one of the original three hundred Jewish families in the United States and one of the few of Ashkenazic Jewish descent. Mordecai descendants owned the mansion property until 1967, when the city purchased the property, turning it over to the Raleigh Historic Sites Commission to supervise and develop as a historic park. The commission was able to obtain many original Mordecai furnishings, as well as preserve the family papers and library.Read more