Mission Impossible: Good morning, Rocky Mount – Your mission should you choose to accept it, involves finding D.J. Rose Residential Homes

Perhaps you are a familiar with the Mission Impossible TV Series and Movies.                    Just for fun, here is a sound clip to click on. In a moment I will disclose your mission, please accept.    I promise not to disavow you!

Oak Park, IL. may have Frank Lloyd Wright, but here in Rocky Mount, NC we have D. J. Rose. We need to create a D.J. Rose Society, but with a better name. This is not about planting roses, but about honoring the residential architecture that Mr. Rose has left us. I haven’t worked out the details of the ‘society, I just know that this legacy is worthy of our attention. For instance….. we could publish a brochure for self-guided tours that tell the D. J. Rose story, or have a ticketed event over several days at Christmas with seated tea in one of the homes or elsewhere. Profits from events could be given to an owner of a Rose home for a maintenance project. Current home owners would become charter members of this ‘society.’ along with D.J. Rose enthusiasts.  However, there is a problem.

The inventory of Rose homes is incomplete. YOUR mission  is to help me locate as many of the Rose homes as possible. Ask around, follow any lead, think of older family members who can help. In upcoming posts about several Rose homes, the photographs I have taken, unprofessional as they may be, will help you see why it is important that we find these homes and celebrate them. Frank Lloyd Wright lives on; we must make sure D. J. Rose does too. Please leave any information or ideas you have in the COMMENT section at the bottom of this post. Scroll Down….If you are not FOLLOWING this blog, why not start today so you don’t miss the upcoming D.J. Rose posts.

Once the best approach is settled upon to honor this legacy, we will have created something lasting in the community honoring the past while building a future that includes D.J. Rose, his work and architecture. FYI: The links below are previous posts I have written about D.J. Rose.

Earlier posts: Who was D.J. Rose?  –  D.J. Rose-Movie Star or Contractor?  –                        D. J. Rose-Leading Character in the Rocky Mount Story