Qualla: Blades House https://qualla.com/blades-house en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:07 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/1/p/blades-house-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Blades House https://qualla.com/blades-house Blades House: Introduction https://qualla.com/blades-house/ Photo credit Tradewinds, CC BY-SA 3.0. Around the turn of the twentieth century, longleaf pine left New Bern by the trainload, the schoonerload, and the bargeload. Eastern North Carolina was being stripped of its old-growth forest, and somebody had to be cashing the checks. In 1907, William B. Blades cashed enough of them to build the house at 602 Middle Street: a Queen Anne extravagance of turrets, gables, wraparound porches, and stained glass, designed by Herbert Woodley Simpson, the local architect who put a Simpson signature on dozens of New Bern's grandest homes. The lumber boom would not last another generation. The house has lasted more than a century.

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Image: Tradewinds | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/1/p/blades-house-wp/dq1p-blades-house-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Blades House: The Lumber King Builds a Castle https://qualla.com/blades-house/ Photo credit Tradewinds, CC BY-SA 3.0. William B. Blades made his money in the same business that drove much of New Bern's wealth at the time: cutting, milling, and shipping the eastern North Carolina pine forests to a world hungry for cheap, strong wood. By 1907, when the Blades House was finished, New Bern was one o...

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Image: Tradewinds | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/1/p/blades-house-wp/dq1p-blades-house-the-lumber-king-builds-a-castle.mp3 0:06 2 full Blades House: Simpson's Signature https://qualla.com/blades-house/ Photo credit Tradewinds, CC BY-SA 3.0. Herbert Woodley Simpson designed the Blades House, as he designed so many of the late-Victorian and Edwardian-era mansions that line New Bern's historic blocks. Simpson trained outside the city and brought a national pattern-book sensibility home with him, but his particular gift...

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Image: Tradewinds | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/1/p/blades-house-wp/dq1p-blades-house-simpsons-signature.mp3 0:06 3 full Blades House: What the Photograph Cannot Show https://qualla.com/blades-house/ Photo credit Tradewinds, CC BY-SA 3.0. Photographs of the Blades House from the early 20th century show a stiff, formal facade with the family arranged in front, the way prosperous families posed in those years. They do not show the staff that kept the house running, the African American cooks, gardeners, and housekee...

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Image: Tradewinds | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/1/p/blades-house-wp/dq1p-blades-house-what-the-photograph-cannot-show.mp3 0:06 4 full Blades House: On the Register, Still on the Block https://qualla.com/blades-house/ Photo credit Tradewinds, CC BY-SA 3.0. On January 14, 1972, the Blades House was added to the National Register of Historic Places, partly on its own merits and partly as a contributing structure within the broader New Bern Historic District. It is privately owned and remains a residence on Middle Street, near where t...

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Image: Tradewinds | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/1/p/blades-house-wp/dq1p-blades-house-on-the-register-still-on-the-block.mp3 0:06 5 full