The Builder Who Shaped Rocky Mount: Remembering D.J. Rose

David Jeptha Rose, 1861–1940

Every town has its heroes, the ones whose work still surrounds us and continues to shape the life of the community. In Rocky Mount, one of those heroes is D.J. Rose.

More than a builder, he was an architect of place, a craftsman whose vision helped turn a small tobacco market town into a city with proud landmarks and enduring beauty. His story is worth remembering, because in remembering him, we remember Rocky Mount itself.

In the last blog post, we admired the Beaux-Arts bank building on Main Street, one of the many gifts left to Rocky Mount by the contracting firm of D.J. Rose and Son, Inc. I have written about Mr. Rose more than a few times.

Because his story still speaks to our sense of place, I am bringing three short blog posts forward again. These posts reveal not only his life and character but also the lasting impact of his work, which continues to shape Rocky Mount’s architecture and identity today.

Who was D. J. Rose? The Setting of His Story – Part 1

David Jeptha Rose (1861–1940)

In writing about David Jeptha Rose, the protagonist in today’s story, it is my pleasure to honor him. I hope to renew your interest and give reason anew to care about him. We must have a setting that gives us a sense of the world he inhabited.

Let’s step back in time by exiting through the back of the proverbial Narnia wardrobe. When we emerge from the fur coats and step out, we find ourselves in Rocky Mount, NC. It is 1890 and David Rose, at twenty-nine years of age, has relocated from rural Johnston County and the farm where he was born.

Our hero in this story, in his late teens and early twenties, developed a talent for carpentry and building. He arrives in Rocky Mount, then a town of only 650 people, and establishes the D.J. Rose and Company.

What has brought David to Rocky Mount? I’d like to believe he recognized that the arrival of the Rocky Mount Tobacco Market in the 1880s was already bringing opportunity. As the century turned, tobacco transformed the town into a center of commerce and growth. Rose placed himself at the right place at the right time, ready to build.

D.J. Rose – Movie Star or Contractor? – Part 2

I could make up a story about D.J. Rose and tell you he was a movie star. Based on his photograph, would you doubt me? This strikingly handsome man has long settled into his place on the family tree, yet he is not forgotten. I’ve gazed at his portrait, hoping Mr. Rose would reveal himself.

Instead, he sent me searching for facts to imagine his surroundings. We know he arrived in Rocky Mount in 1890 at age 29. Benjamin Harrison was the 23rd President (1889–1893), elected after conducting one of the first “front-porch” campaigns, delivering short speeches to delegations that visited him in Indianapolis.

Amazing people were also born in 1890: Dwight Eisenhower, Rose Kennedy, Agatha Christie, Charles de Gaulle, and Boris Pasternak. It was an era pregnant with possibility.
And what of the world Rose stepped into?

Imagine the clothes men wore, the popular songs between 1890 and 1920, the churn of industry and invention. Rose fit into this turning point in American life, where small towns like Rocky Mount were poised for change, and builders like him would give shape to that change in brick, stone, and timber.

D.J. Rose – Leading Character in the Rocky Mount Story With An Invitation – Part 3

Another spring unfolds. Days warm, flowering trees unfurl, and they catch us by surprise when glimpsed through the garden. Something stirs in us this time of year, a longing for things past. We close our eyes and remember moments we would like to experience again. Perhaps sitting beside a parent listening to them read aloud, or being a teenager waiting for a first kiss.

Whatever this nostalgic time-traveling is about, it takes us back to younger days: playing with neighborhood kids, catching fireflies in a jar, spending the night with a grandmother who baked the best chocolate cake in the Mill Village.

We remember walking along the Main Street of our youth, filled with cars and people shopping, greeting one another, waving at the train as it passed by. We wish family and friends were still alive to answer the questions we now have for them.

If only we could spend time with D.J. Rose, the leading character in the story I’ve been telling you. Think of what we would learn from this young man, who over time made a lasting contribution to Rocky Mount. The future that is being reimagined today is partially built upon the architectural assets he and his company left behind.

Think of Mr. Rose’s spirit in the Ricks Hotel, the original Masonic Temple on Main Street, the May and Gorham building, or the Rocky Mount Municipal Building. He is there in the walls of the Peoples Bank building, the First Methodist and First Presbyterian Churches, the Planters Cotton Seed Oil factory, the Railroad Passenger Station, including the added second and third floors.

His mark remains on Rocky Mount’s first electric power plant and water plant, the Sunset Avenue Water Plant, portions of the Power Plant, and significant sections of Rocky Mount Mills. Schools such as Abraham Lincoln, R.M. Wilson, and Edgemont were also built by his hand.

The firm he founded, D.J. Rose and Son, Inc., is the oldest continuously operating general contracting firm in North Carolina, and to this day proudly maintains North Carolina General Contractors License Number 27.

D.J. Rose was one of the first heroes I discovered in the story of Rocky Mount. I have carried the awareness of his talent with me ever since. I regret that I never knew him, but I’m grateful for his fabulous family who carried on his business and his name.

By reprinting these three posts, I hope to bring him more fully into your awareness. The mark he left on Rocky Mount is everywhere, in stone and brick and timber. For me, he is never far away.