It is a part of local history that has now received national recognition. Built in 1847, the Holliday-Dorsey-Fife House Museum in Fayetteville received a listing on the National Register April 10.

“This is a fantastic thing for Fayetteville. We’re excited about it because it brings added recognition to our historic property and to the city,” said Main Street Director Nancy Price.

The locally famous home is the second structure in Fayetteville to be placed on the National Register. It follows the recognition received by the historic county courthouse on the city square.

Now standing firm in its third century, the current look of the historic home is a result of a massive rebuilding circa 1855 when the house was more than doubled in size.

The house bears the names of the three families who owned it for most of its history.

John Stiles Holliday, a physician and native of Fayette County, built the house and the Holliday family owned it until 1867. John Stiles Holliday’s nephew was John Henry “Doc” Holliday, a dentist and legendary Old West gunfighter.

Solomon Dorsey, a Fayetteville City Council member, owned the house from 1871 to 1903, and the family of Robert E. Lee Fife owned the property from 1910 to 1968.

A striking symbol of antebellum Greek Revival architecture, the Holliday-Dorsey-Fife House Museum is a large, two-story frame structure located one block west of the old courthouse.

It features six Greek Doric columns supporting the full-width front portico. The Georgian-plan house has retained much of its mid-nineteenth-century woodwork, including paneled doors, mantels, window and door surrounds, and wood floors and ceilings.

The house was purchased by the city of Fayetteville in 1999 and is now operated as a regional history museum. The Fayetteville Downtown Development Authority and the museum committee prepared the nomination materials and sponsored the nomination.

“I am very pleased to hear that another historic structure in Fayette County has been placed on the National Register,” said county historian Carolyn Cary. “It indeed has a rich history and is deserving of this recognition.”

Commenting on the historic home turned museum, Price said there are still a lot of area residents who do not know that a quality historic museum is located in the city.

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