Esther Ivey: The Nancy Jones house was prominent at the end of the Civil War. It was a stagecoach stop along Chapel Hill Road that connected Raleigh and Hillsborough. The governors of South Carolina and North Carolina met there, and the South Carolina governor said, "It's been a damn long time between drinks." It became a famous quote.

I was born in 1890. We moved to the Ivey/Ellington House on Chatham Street when I was an infant. It looked different then. A tree blew down in a storm and tore off the front porch, upstairs and downstairs. When Mr. Waddell bought it, he did not replace the porch. Our house near the school was originally called the Raven house. It was dark green and had two gables but no porches. Several people lived there before we did. Rev. Raven was the first minister of First Methodist Church.

The Rufus Jones house was where the library is now. Captain Harrison Guess built the Guess-Ogle house. Then John E. White built the front portion onto it after 1896. He was a Baptist minister and had his study in the tower. He wanted to look out over the town while preparing his sermons. The Guess family lived next to him. The Yarboroughs lived there, too.

Mary Belle Phillips: Just up a piece from the new train station was the old station for the Seaboard and the Southern trains. The railroad tore that down, then built one that looks just like it. The old house just beyond Ashworth's Drugstore was here in 1918, as was the house at the end of Academy Street, so they must be over a hundred years old. The Dry house looks just like it did when we came to Cary in 1918.

Robert Godbold: The old school building at the head of Academy Street requires a lot to restore it. Before work began, the dental molding around the front was gone. The columns were two-thirds the size they were originally. The auditorium and stage were still there, with footlights and a projection room. We used to have plays in that auditorium at night. Everybody in town went there. A professional group came and put on a play. They charged 25-cent admission. The classes put on plays. I've seen that auditorium packed.

Jerry Miller: The Waldo Rood house is now the Guess-Ogle House. Waldo Rood lived there a long time ago. He was the mayor in 1957. I wanted to buy that house, but it was too expensive. I thought that would make a beautiful art gallery. The owner had gutted it and took the back completely off the house. The flooring had rotted and it was a mess. Then the Ogles bought it and made a beautiful place. They fixed it right. They have been mighty generous to let people use that house for various events.