Overhills

by Jeffrey D. Irwin, Kaitlin O'Shea

Overview

In the early 1900s, Overhills emerged as an exclusive hunt club hidden among the longleaf pine and wiregrass forest, sandy roads, and rural solitude of the North Carolina Sandhills. Soon becoming the Overhills Country Club, this rustic retreat featured a clubhouse, horse stables, dog kennels, train station, post office, and a golf course designed by the legendary Donald Ross. At its height, Overhills boasted fox hunting, bird hunting, polo, and golf with personal cottages on the property commissioned by William Averell Harriman and Percy Avery Rockefeller. By the era of the Great Depression, Overhills evolved from a country club to a country estate for the family of Percy and Isabel Rockefeller, lasting well into the latter decades of the 20th century. Throughout its history, the resident employees and tenant farmers of Overhills contributed to a unique community in this private southern arcadia.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780738554334
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	10/06/2008
Series:	Images of America Series
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.30(d)

About the Author

Archaeologist Jeffrey D. Irwin and historic preservationist Kaitlin O'Shea have studied Overhills through the Overhills Oral History Project, conducted on behalf of the U.S. Army at Fort Bragg. The photographs featured in this collection date primarily to the 1920s and 1930s; many of these rare images have been provided by former residents and employees of Overhills.

Editorial Reviews

Publication: The Pilot

Article Title: Book Makes You Want to Take a Road Trip

Author: Faye Dasen

Date: 10/12/08



Here are a few books that have ties to North Carolina. Hope there's something here that appeals to our readers.

Interstate Eateries

By D.G. Martin

Our State, 2008, $6.95

After perusing this book and reading about the restaurants to be found just off North Carolina's Interstate highways, readers will want to take a road trip just for the opportunity to try some of them.

Whether you're heading to the mountains on I-40 or down to Florida on I-95, one of these places should appeal to every member of the family.

Many of the restaurants focus on good old North Carolina barbecue — some Eastern-style, with a vinegar-based sauce, and some Western-style, with a tomato-based sauce. Almost all also serve some form of good old country cooking.

The book gives a little history of each restaurant as well as specific directions on getting there when you leave the highway.

I'll just bet D.G., who writes a weekly column that appears in The Pilot, had a great time taste-testing the food at all of these eateries. Wonder if he put on a few pounds?

By the way, D.G. hosts UNC-TV's "N.C. Bookwatch." At 9:30 p.m. Friday, his guest will be Nortin Hadler, author of "Worried Sick: A Prescription for Health in an Overtreated America." If you miss that one, an encore episode will air Sunday, Oct. 19, at 5 p.m.

Overhills

By Jeffrey D. Irwin and Kaitlin O'Shea

Arcardia, 2008, $19.99

This book offers a pictorial history of Overhills, an exclusive hunt club that was sort of tucked away not far from Fort Bragg.

The property, more of a community than an estate, was once owned by members of the Rockefeller family. It was sold to the government in 1997. It was then that Irwin, a cultural resources management expert for the U.S. Army, got interested in telling the story.

O'Shea is the project manager for the Overhills Oral History study, so the duo teamed up to produce this wonderful book of photos, most taken in the 1920s and 1930s when the family came down to enjoy hunting and riding.

Also included are many photos of the families who worked there.

The book gives us a look at a place that is fast disappearing.

1Heart2Heart

By Kimberly Faith Parsons

Xlibris, 2008, $19.99

Pinehurst native Kimberly Faith Parsons bares her soul for all to see in this book, hoping that others can profit from lessons she learned the hard way.

Parsons is the owner of Moore County Kenpo Karate.

Murder in the Copy Room

By Janett Norris Nelson

Authorhouse, 2008, $15.49

This Rockingham native, who now calls Robbins home, has written a mystery in which a death at the local newspaper leads to the exposure of a corrupt local government official.

Contact Faye Dasen at [e-mail] or 693-2475.



At an estate hidden away behind pines and beside a clear pond in western Harnett County, Percy Rockefeller and friends played polo, shot quail, hunted fox and enjoyed a Donald Ross-designed golf course.

The sophistication of the Overhills Estate social set of the 1920s no doubt contrasted sharply with the rural locals, whose lives were probably closer to a hardscrabble "O Brother, Where Art Thou" than to the visitors' "Connecticut weekend casual" lifestyles.

The fascinating history of the estate from its beginnings on up to its sale to the U.S. Army in 1997 is told in words and pictures in the book "Overhills." The history is part of Arcadia Publishing's "Images of America" series.

The authors are archaeologist Jim Irwin and historian Kaitlin O'Shea. They researched the estate through the Overhills Oral History project. Photographs are on each page, and they include pictures of Rockefeller and his family, co-investor Averell Harriman (he became governor of New York and ambassador to Great Britain), Overhills staff members and the estate's homes, horses and hunting dogs

The 128-page softcover book is $19.99.

From the Publisher