She could hear its stories.

But even her Realtor didn’t think she should buy the Federal style farmhouse off Avent Ferry Road, built sometime between the late 1700s and early 1800s.

Luciano did anyway, and for the past three years she has been restoring one part of Holly Springs’ past even as the town’s future sprouts up around her in the upturned clay of new subdivisions.

In fact, a 221-lot subdivision could one day wrap around the house, on land that once comprised a portion of the large farm attached to the house.

Its new streets will reflect the area’s past.

Local builder Bunn Olive is developing the subdivision for the 100 acres that will be called Union Ridge. The name is partly inspired by the fact that Luciano’s home served as a field hospital for Union soldiers during the war.

The Hare sisters — whose family has owned the house and land for the last several decades — sold Olive the land, but it was Luciano who got the house, even though Olive had made an offer to purchase it as well. Jean Goodwin, the sister who owned the house, wanted to sell it to someone who would make it a home.

“I feel good when I drive by now,” said Goodwin, 73.

Goodwin and her three sisters grew up in the house. She inherited the house when her father died in the 1990s.

She kept it as a rental property for a while but felt she wasn’t able to maintain the property anymore.

New owner Luciano has done more than maintain the property. She’s given it new life. Its interior sparkles with bold colors — a purple bedroom and a red kitchen.

Little details still give away its age though. The cliff-steep stairwell to the second floor. The amoeba-like jumble of rooms added to the original four. And the tin roof.

“Have you ever heard rain on a tin roof? It’s wonderful,” Luciano said. A 57-year-old psychotherapist, she also works from home.

Of course the roof needs to be replaced. And a new porch needs to be built. Restoring has not been easy. She has put at least $100,000 into it, doing much of the work herself, self taught by restoring her former home in upstate New York.

But for Luciano all the work is worth it. She loves sitting around thinking about all the stories and lives that have gone on in the home that was built by Needham Norris, a farmer who ran a mill at Bass Lake.

The stories are important to Barbara Koblich as well. Koblich, a Holly Springs town clerk, has been an influential force in naming the subdivision that could one day sit behind Luciano’s house.

Koblich said she talked with Olive about the historical importance of the house and land.

So current plans call for Union Ridge to have streets named after historical figures and facts relating to the property, Koblich said.

Historical names or not, Luciano isn’t so sure how she’ll feel when construction begins on Union Ridge. The subdivision is still waiting for various approvals from the town. When it’s built it will alter the rural landscape that Luciano has come to love.

At that point Luciano sad she may even decide to move on. But if she does, she’ll leave knowing she helped save one part of Holly Springs’ past.