After 30 years, the owner of Cary’s Pink House is moving. What she wants for its future.
If you have ever visited downtown Cary, chances are you’ve seen the Queen Anne-style home painted bubble-gum pink.
The long branches of a large oak tree drape over the front of the Guess-White-Ogle House, adding to its grandeur and distinction as one of the oldest homes in Cary.
Built in 1830, before the town was incorporated, the home first stood in the back of the property but was moved up to 215 S. Academy St. in 1903.
Originally painted light green, the residence became known as the Pink House in 1993 when Sheila and Carroll Ogle bought it for $235,000. Sheila Ogle selected Rosia from a palette to paint the home.
“We laugh and say in 1993, we added the Ogle influence,” Sheila Ogle, a Raleigh native and retired businesswoman, said in an interview at her home on Thursday. “We have so many great memories here. ... I just feel like Carroll and I were selected to have this house.”
The Ogles occupied the home for the last 30 years, hosting parties and social events, raising grandchildren, and adding new features, like a full kitchen, back sun room and dining area, office, and a backyard filled with native plants and stones.
After Carroll, an engineer, died in 2014, Sheila Ogle continued their tradition of sharing the Pink House with the community, political candidates, civic and women’s groups, and at one point, as a place for unsheltered people to sleep.
Last month, Ogle sold the Pink House to a law firm, Soleigh Holdings Cary LLC, for $2.46 million, according to Wake County records. Gilda Hernandez, an attorney, and Brian Holste are listed as members of the firm.
In 2019, Ogle wrote a romance novel, “The Pink House,” from the perspective of the house through the various changes throughout the years and Cary’s history. Now that the sale is complete, she isn’t planning to move far from her beloved home. Here’s what she looks forward to for the future of the old house and town.
What is your favorite aspect of the home? Why did you want to share it with the community?
Ogle: When people walk into this house, it feels like the house just wraps her arms around them.
My book is written in the third person. The house wrote the book. It really is from her perspective of when we first looked at the house and she takes you through sitting back on the back part of the property and how she felt when she was moved up to the front part. She talks about how she had the first running water and toilet in Cary and how fine it was to have an inside toilet.
We were so lucky to have this house that we owed it to God to give something back. The way that I knew to do that was to share the house.
The house has seen a lot in the past 30 years you’ve been here and since 1830. What has it been like to see the transformation of the town?
Ogle: It’s been really exciting to see the resurgence of the town. We bought this house in 1993, and there was nothing downtown. We had to go to Raleigh to shop or go to a restaurant. We had two grocery stores and that was pretty much it. Look at what we’ve got now. It’s all exciting.
Fortunately, the developers here are local, and they’re not coming in to do cookie-cutter houses. I think the people that are developing downtown are very thoughtful, even though there are a lot of people who want it to stay like it always was. But if you keep doing the same thing, you don’t get anything better. I think this is better.
Why is it important to preserve and rehabilitate historic landmarks?
Ogle: A few years after we got the Pink House, we bought the Matthews House down the street and that had been empty for a long time.
I thought, Cary really doesn’t have anywhere to do weddings and receptions and corporate meetings. I could just see brides coming down the steps on a red carpet. ... Before that, we had built the old Cary Commons Building, which is where my ad agency was. So we really did the first renovations in downtown Cary. It kind of started the resurgence; we didn’t realize what we were doing.
There’s a way to preserve the history and still have the new. If people could just realize that you could have the best of both worlds. You don’t have to tear everything down. There’s a way to do both. Sometimes people get too carried away with preservation to the point that it’s not a good thing. I think you can be too focused one way and not realize there’s a way you can incorporate the new with the old.
Note: The Matthews House on West Chatham Street is a historic home bought by the Ogles and restored with a grand ballroom and a catering kitchen. The venue hosts weddings, receptions and parties.
What do you want for the future of the Pink House?
Ogle: I had lots of offers on the house when I decided to put it on the market. I didn’t want to sell it to a family to live in because I was afraid they would not open it up to the community like we have. To me, that’s been my greatest joy to be able to share this house with people.
I really don’t know the lady that has purchased the house, I’ve only seen her one time. She sat beside me on the front porch and said, “Mrs. Ogle, I read your book, and I love your house,” and I thought, this is the one.
I know that she will love and take care of this property as much as we have. And that’s what’s important, the legacy of the house.
This story was originally published July 7, 2023 at 10:50 AM.