North Carolina Architects and Builders - A Biographical Dictionary

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Bragg, Alexander (1815-1877)

Birthplace: Warrenton, North Carolina, USA
Residences:
  • Warrenton, North Carolina
  • Alabama
Trades:
  • Carpenter/Joiner;
  • Builder
NC Work Locations:
  • Raleigh, Wake County
  • Wake
Building Types:
  • Public
Styles & Forms:
  • Greek Revival

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Biography

Alexander Bragg (June 1, 1815-Dec. 10, 1877), a builder in North Carolina and Alabama, exemplified the antebellum emigration from North Carolina to the Old Southwest, following a path taken by architect William Nichols several years earlier. Alexander ("Sandy") Bragg was born in Warrenton, a son of carpenter Thomas Bragg, Sr. and Margaret Crossland, and probably learned his trade from his father. In 1835, Alexander Bragg provided the design for Raleigh's Wake County Courthouse, a columned, temple-form brick edifice. Superintendent of construction was a Raleigh builder, William White. In the late 1830s or early 1840s Bragg moved to Alabama, following his brother John. There he enjoyed an active building career and planned and built numerous Greek Revival and Italianate buildings. He married in North Carolina a Miss Southall, and in Alabama Martha Newell Nunnelee (1848), with whom he had five children. He was variously identified in the United States Census as a carpenter in 1850, a mechanic in 1860, and a house carpenter in 1870. Copies of two of Bragg's Alabama account books, detailing minor carpentry projects and including a price schedule for piece work, are preserved at the Alabama Department of Archives & History. Among other existing Alabama structures, Bragg is credited with the 1859 Wilcox County Courthouse.

Author: Robert Gamble.

Published 2009

Building List

Wake County Courthouse (Raleigh, Wake County)

Wake Raleigh

1835

Contributors:
Dates: 1835-1837
Location: Raleigh, Wake County
Street Address: Fayetteville St., Raleigh, NC
Status: No longer standing
Type:
  • Public
Images Published In:
  • Elizabeth Reid Murray, Wake: Capital County of North Carolina, Vol. I, Prehistory through Centennial (1983).
  • Elizabeth Reid Murray and K. Todd Johnson, Wake: Capital County of North Carolina, Vol. II, Reconstruction to 1920 (2008).
Note:

The antebellum Wake County Courthouse was a temple form Greek Revival building.
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Alexander Bragg's Work Locations

Bibliography

  • Bragg family stones, Camden Cemetery, Alabama.
  • Lizzie Wilson Montgomery, Sketches of Old Warrenton, North Carolina (1984).
  • Elizabeth Reid Murray, Wake: Capital County of North Carolina, Vol. I, Prehistory through Centennial (1983).
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