The Bartlett Mangum House, so named after the original owner, was built in 1908 and is considered a prime example of the Neoclassical Revival style of Victorian architecture. Massive Doric columns flank the front entrance of the two-story structure. A wraparound porch, second floor balcony, dormer windows and the original slate roof capped by iron scrollwork complete the picture. The house, presently listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was originally the seat of Bartlett Mangum’s 80-acre farm and vineyard, with his extensive manufacturing complex across the street. This complex included a sawmill, cotton gin and brickyard.

  When Mangum built his fashionable country house in 1908, Durham was entering a fourth decade of unparalleled growth fueled by thriving tobacco and textile manufacturing industries. Durham’s population soared between 1870 and 1880, growing from 200 to more than 2000. By 1895, the population stood at 8000, and by 1910 had risen to 18,200. Commercial and residential construction grew at the same rapid pace, and this was the basis of the Mangum fortune. Mangum’s decision to manufacture bricks was a wise one, as a series of disastrous fires in the central business district, as well as the city’s increasing prosperity, spurred a change from frame to brick construction. Mangum died in 1927, and his farm was subdivided into dozens of small building lots the next year.

  Mangum’s daughters Bessie and Inez lived in the house until 1956 when, at advanced ages, they were moved to a nursing home. It is said that the ghost of one of the sisters still haunts one of the upstairs rooms. The property was then sold at auction and rented for residential purposes until the early 1960’s. From 1960 to 1963, Arthur D. Thomas, who operated a politically ‘alternative’ bookstore in town, used the first floor for a racially integrated, non-denominational church that counted Duke University faculty and area civil rights leaders among its congregants. After Thomas left the area, the house was named ‘Freedom House’ and rented for a time by a civil rights organization. It was used as temporary housing for transient civil rights activists. From 1968 to 1974 the house was operated as a woman’s consignment clothing store called ‘Victoria’s Closet’.

  The house was first used as a restaurant in 1976. Nina Parrish, a Durham native, operated the Old House Restaurant until 1980. From 1981 to 1982 a Chinese restaurant called The Twin Dragon occupied the house. In 1983, the Pless family bought the building and operated it as Claire’s Café until the early 1990’s. The family then leased the building for a number of years before deciding to sell the property in 1999.

  When husband and wife owners Shane Ingram and Elizabeth Woodhouse purchased the property in August of 1999, they found the building had retained much of its original architectural integrity. Each of the eight rooms in the house contains its original coal-burning fireplace, complete with unique tile, carved wood and mirrored mantelpiece. High ceilings are framed in elaborate woodwork, and the downstairs dining rooms have the original pocket doors as well as beautiful leaded and stained glass windows. The original carved walnut staircase leads to the upstairs dining rooms where Elizabeth found the original heart pine flooring underneath the existing carpeting and refinished them to a beautiful wood glow. One half of the wraparound porch has been screened in for dining, with ceiling fans and a view of the perennial garden. The other half is completed with rocking chairs and a porch swing for the pleasure of guests while waiting for their table or enjoying a cigarette.

  Four Square Restaurant opened its doors in October 1999. The name refers to the style of architecture typical of the latter part of the Victorian era. Houses from the earlier part of the period were asymmetrical, often with turrets, towers, and gabled roofs. The Mangum House, on the other hand, is built in a symmetrical style with a central hallway and four main rooms on each floor, one in each corner. When Elizabeth and Shane purchased the property, they chose ‘Four Square’ as the restaurant name to reflect the classic balance and lack of pretense they embrace as their business philosophy.