Penderlea Homestead Museum

Influential Wilmington businessman Hugh MacRae proposed the Penderlea farms project in 1933 to the U.S. Department of the Interior's Division of Subsistence Homesteads. MacRae sold 4,700 clear-cut acres to the U.S. government to get the project started. In 1936, 6,000 adjoining acres were acquired for the project's expansion.

Participants could lease a farm for just $60 annually, including a barn, wash and smoke house, hog pen, corn crib, chicken coop and even the relatively new conveniences of running water and electricity.

Early Penderlea Homestead farmers produced truck crops for market, including sweet potatoes and tobacco.

Residents collided as a community at the heart of the homestead, a 23-acre school campus including teacher housing, a community store and buildings, cannery, mills, and hosiery and furniture factories.

In 1944, the Farmers Home Administration acquired the project from the federal government and began the process of subdividing the land and selling the property to private farmers.

Many homesteaders were able to buy the farms they worked. The mills and factories were sold to private businessmen.

Ninety-nine original homestead farms remain today under individual ownership.

This restored New Deal farm in western Pender county is open for tours on Saturdays between 1 and 4pm, and an annual Homestead Days celebration mid-summer. No fee is required, but donations are appreciated.

Visit our Depression Era Photos of Penderlea Farms Homestead.