In 1854, when bank executive Dolphin Alston Davis built this home and the one next door at 127 W. Bank St., they were identical Federal-style homes. Each had two rooms down and two up with a staircase between the first-floor rooms. After D.A. Davis’s death, his son, Orin Datus Davis, had the home remodeled in the American Queen Anne style. The front rooms were enlarged and a slate roof and wide wraparound porch added. Asymmetry was in vogue in the late Victorian era ó a turret with pyramidal roof was built on one end and a front-facing gable on the other. A kitchen, bathroom, downstairs bedroom and dining room were also part of Orin Davis’ late 19th early 20th century remodeling.
If you are counting fireplaces, every room ó upstairs and down ó has one. The house descended in the Davis family until the death of Miriam Hunter in 1986. Barbara and Mark Perry are the fourth owners of the home. They purchased the home in February 1996 and, at Mark Perry’s suggestion, the home was on OctoberTour eight months later. At the time, Mark Perry was executive director of Historic Salisbury Foundation. Throughout the home are impressive collections of Chinese and Japanese art, decorative boxes and North Carolina quilts.