Est. 1870 · One of the earliest substantial Second Empire mansions in North Carolina · Built 1869-1870 for Confederate Col. Jonathan McGee Heck and family · Distinctive tower with spiral staircase and trap door · National Register of Historic Places (1972) · Contributing structure to the Blount Street Historic District
Construction of the Heck-Andrews House began in 1869 for Colonel Jonathan McGee Heck, a former Confederate officer, and his wife Mattie. The mansion was completed in 1870 and stands today at 309 North Blount Street in what is now the Blount Street Historic District. The Second Empire style, with its distinctive mansard roof, was new to the post-Civil War American South, and the Heck-Andrews House is widely cited as one of the earliest substantial examples in North Carolina.
The family raised thirteen children in the home. The most distinctive surviving feature, frequently noted in local architectural writing, is a tower with a unique spiral staircase and a trap door at its top.
The Andrews family acquired the house later in the 19th century and retained it for decades. In the 20th century the property passed through additional ownership, with its final private resident being Gladys Perry. The State of North Carolina eventually moved to acquire the surrounding Blount Street properties for state office use; Perry refused to sell. After an extended legal contest, the State took the property and removed Perry in 1987; she died not long afterward.
The Heck-Andrews House was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. After years of vacancy and slow deterioration the building was renovated; it currently serves as office space for the North Carolina Association of Realtors. The home is a recurring stop on Raleigh's downtown ghost-tour itineraries.
Sources
- https://files.nc.gov/ncdcr/nr/WA0020.pdf
- https://www.greatraleightrolley.com/history-lessons/2019/10/1/4xvb7o47as5abc1bfhyys4q3n22m3o
- http://goodnightraleigh.com/2015/12/a-storied-structure-the-heck-andrews-house-inside-out/
- https://usghostadventures.com/raleigh-ghost-tour/heck-andrews-house/
- https://www.midtownmag.com/ghosts/
Reported sense of presenceSightings believed to be Gladys Perry, the last private residentPersistent investigator nightmares including a 'body beneath the basement' image
Gladys Perry is the central figure in the Heck-Andrews ghost story, but her presence in the lore is rooted in a real, documented social history. Born in 1907 and orphaned of her father before her fourth birthday in 1911, Perry was the last private resident of the Heck-Andrews House by the late 20th century. The State of North Carolina began acquiring Blount Street properties for state office expansion in the late 1970s, and Perry refused to sell. By the mid-1980s the Heck-Andrews House was the only privately owned home remaining in the run. After an extended legal contest, the State formally took the property in 1987 and moved Perry to an apartment elsewhere in Raleigh, where she died not long afterward.
Local accounts published in the 'Goodnight Raleigh' blog and in Soul Intent Arts' 'The Dead Time' essay describe Perry, in her later years, powdering her face white in the belief that being mistaken for a ghost would let her go about downtown undisturbed. She was widely seen rummaging through trash barrels on Blount Street in the 1970s. After her removal she became known locally as 'The Ghost of Blount Street.'
The paranormal claims tied to the house itself are thinner. According to the Soul Intent Arts piece, a shaman invited to read the property reported recurring nightmares for weeks after the visit, including a dream image of a body beneath the basement floor calling out 'with wild loneliness.' Visitors have reported sensing the presence of the home's last resident. The US Ghost Adventures Raleigh feature and Midtown Magazine's 'Capital City Ghosts' both repeat these accounts and the building is a regular stop on commercial walking tours.
The paranormal lore here is single-sourced and impressionistic. The richer story is the social one — a woman in her eighties forced from her home by eminent-domain pressure — and the lore frames the building as carrying that history rather than asserting documented hauntings.
This venue is an active private office building (NC Association of Realtors) and not open to the public — appreciate from the public sidewalk on N Blount Street only.
Notable Entities
Gladys Perry (informally identified; final private resident)
