North Carolina Architects and Builders - A Biographical Dictionary

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Dick, Thomas (fl. 1760s)

Residences:
  • Brunswick, North Carolina
Trades:
  • Carpenter/Joiner
NC Work Locations:
  • Brunswick Town, Brunswick County
  • Brunswick
Building Types:
  • Religious;
  • Residential
Styles & Forms:
  • Georgian

St. Philip's Church [Brunswick]

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St. Philip's Church [Brunswick]

Title: St. Philip's Church
Citation:
Tim Buchman, "St. Philip's Church," Tim Buchman Photographs, 1988-1998 (Buchman), Built Heritage of North Carolina: Historic Architecture in the Old North State, North Carolina State University, Libraries, Special Collections Research Center
Source:

Biography

Thomas Dick (fl. 1760s), carpenter, is the only builder identified as having worked in Brunswick, the prominent but short-lived colonial port on the Cape Fear River. In 1762 he was mentioned as a carpenter "who wrought at his excellency the Governor's" a large two-story house with broad piazzas--evidently Governor Arthur Dobbs's house, Russellborough, which was later inhabited and described by Governor William Tryon. In 1762 Dick undertook completion of the roof of St. Philip's Church, the imposing brick church now preserved as a ruin at Brunswick Town State Historic Site. Thomas Dick was listed in tax records in Brunswick and New Hanover counties from 1762 through 1769. There was more than one man in the colony by this name. One was a loyalist whose lands were confiscated and sold; another served in the American Revolution and subsequently lived in South Carolina. Probably still another Thomas Dick appeared in Guilford County in the 1790s and later. Which (if any) of these was the colonial carpenter is not known.

Author: Catherine W. Bishir.

Published 2009

Building List

Russellborough (Brunswick Town, Brunswick County)

Brunswick Brunswick Town

1760

Contributors:
Dates: Ca. 1760
Location: Brunswick Town, Brunswick County
Street Address: Brunswick, NC
Status: No longer standing
Type:
  • Residential
Title:
Citation:
Source:

St. Philip's Church (Brunswick Town, Brunswick County)

Brunswick Brunswick Town

1754

Contributors:
Dates: 1754-1768
Location: Brunswick Town, Brunswick County
Street Address: Brunswick, NC
Status: Standing
Type:
  • Religious
Images Published In:
  • Catherine W. Bishir, North Carolina Architecture (1990).
  • Catherine W. Bishir and Michael T. Southern, A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Eastern North Carolina (1996).
  • Frances Benjamin Johnston and Thomas Tileston Waterman, The Early Architecture of North Carolina (1941).
Note:

Under construction for many years, the large brick church was the grandest in the colony and featured a broad Venetian window. It was burned in 1776 and has been stabilized as a ruin at Brunswick Town State Historic Site.

View larger image and credits

St. Philip's Church

Title: St. Philip's Church
Citation:
Tim Buchman, "St. Philip's Church," Tim Buchman Photographs, 1988-1998 (Buchman), Built Heritage of North Carolina: Historic Architecture in the Old North State, North Carolina State University, Libraries, Special Collections Research Center
Source:

Thomas Dick's Work Locations

Bibliography

  • Catherine W. Bishir, North Carolina Architecture (1990).
  • Robert J. Cain, ed., The Colonial Records of North Carolina, Volume 6 (1981).
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