Liberty Hall (Kenansville, North Carolina)

Built in the early 1800s, it was the home of North Carolina state senator and militia general James Kenan for whom the town is named.

There were constant visitors and guests at Liberty Hall, and the motto that became associated with the house once hung as a needle point in the hallway "he who enters these open gates never comes too early or leaves too late".

According to Thomas Kenan of Chapel Hill, an eighth-generation descendant of the original settler, income from the Liberty Hall plantation was primarily from sales of timber, pinch tar, and turpentine.

In August 1901, Liberty Hall hosted the wedding of Annie's niece Mary Lilly Kenan and the "Father of Miami", Henry Flagler.

Flagler was one of the richest men in America at that time, whose notable achievements included founding Standard Oil Company with John D. Rockefeller and putting the railroad through Florida.

[6] One of Flagler's wedding gifts to Mary Lilly was a white marble mansion in Palm Beach, Florida called Whitehall, which is open to the public as a museum.

At Mary Lily's death she left the house to her nephew Owen Hill Kenan, a survivor of the 1915 sinking of the RMS Lusitania.

Liberty Hall was structurally sound and full of priceless family heirlooms but needed much work done before it could be opened to the public.