Isaac J. Collier (b. ca. 1810) was a cabinetmaker, carpenter, and contractor who worked in Chatham and Orange Counties from the 1830s into the 1850s, often in partnership with other artisans. Like many small-town and rural woodworkers, he combined trades in furniture making and building. He was one of several antebellum local artisans who...

Conrad and Williams was a firm established in 1850 by John W. Conrad of the Conrad Family of builders and John Wilson Williams. It was founded to accomplish a major project and continued in business for several years. The firm, like the Conrad Family, constructed some of the most important and advanced buildings in...

Jacob W. Holt (March 30, 1811-September 21, 1880) was a Virginia-born carpenter, builder, and contractor who moved to Warrenton, North Carolina, and established one of the state's largest antebellum building firms. His work covered several counties in North Carolina and Virginia. Drawing upon popular architectural books, he developed a distinctive style that encompassed Greek...

Joseph (Joe) Nichols (ca. 1822-after 1880) was a mulatto house carpenter in Hillsborough, who spent his early years as the highly valued slave of the noted local builder John Berry, then worked as a free man for Berry and for himself after emancipation. Like Berry, he worked mainly in Hillsborough and Orange County, but...

William Nichols (1780-December 12, 1853), an English-born house carpenter, architect, and engineer, worked in North Carolina from 1800 until 1827, during which time he planned and built some of the state's finest and most advanced buildings. The first resident architect in North Carolina since John Hawks, he was also the first North Carolina architect...

Martin Palmer (ca. 1742-Oct. 31, 1832), a prominent Orange County house carpenter and joiner, is one of the few 18th century builders whose name is linked with specific projects in and around the Piedmont town of Hillsborough. From the 1770s onward Palmer lived in a Quaker farming community north of Hillsborough. According to research...

Kendall B. Waitt (Waite) (September 13, 1811-December 10, 1893), a carpenter and cabinetmaker active in Chapel Hill, was a native of Massachusetts who worked on building projects at the University of North Carolina, most notably as contractor with Isaac J. Collier to build the additions designed by Alexander Jackson Davis for Old East and...

Thomas A. Waitt (Waite) (ca. 1808-1855), was a carpenter and builder from Medford, Massachusetts who was active in Raleigh and at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. When Waitt came to North Carolina is not known. He was probably a kinsman to builder Kendall B. Waitt, also of Medford. Thomas Waitt's earliest...