Wake County's oldest dwelling is the Joel Lane House, also called Wakefield, built in 1769 and now a restored home and museum. This is the oldest dwelling in Wake County, and inside you’ll find collections of 18th century artifacts and period furnishings that help you imagine life here two centuries ago. The grounds include a detached middle-class home built circa 1790, a formal city garden, and a period herb garden that together recreate the rhythms of an early plantation complex.
The house is named for Joel Lane, known as the "Father of Raleigh" and the "Father of Wake County. In the late 1760s Lane settled at Wake Cross Roads in colonial Johnston County, now in present-day central Wake County; his plantation manor stood on a small hill overlooking the future site of Raleigh. Lane owned thousands of acres, sat in the colonial General Assembly, and successfully lobbied to create Wake County in 1770, when the area was a sparsely settled wilderness.
The county was named "Wake" in honor of Margaret Wake, wife of colonial Governor William Tryon. The stone foundation at your feet leads out to the garden beds and the detached 1790 house nearby.