"The Dr. Gary House" or "The Benjamin B. Camp House"

The historic Murfreesboro residence known as the "Dr. Gary House" is currently for sale.

Photographs and a description of the house (list price $399,000) can be viewed on the United Country Realty site.


I recall once having to give a tour of the Dr. Gary house to descendants, and not being able to find much of a written history. However, I recently came across something Thomas Parramore wrote in 1975. His research at the time left some questions unanswered (perhaps they remain unanswered ??) but I thought it might still be interesting to post his research anyway.

"This property was sold by James W. Hill in 1879 to Kader Biggs, a merchant from Martin County. Biggs sold it in 1881 to Cornelia Grimes and Mrs. Grimes, I believe, sold it to Dr. John Turner Eldridge. The 1881 deed states that Hill bought the property from heirs of Benjamin B. Camp (see Deed Book K, p. 228, at the court house).

Benjamin B. Camp was a native of Connecticut who came to Murfreesboro around 1821 and became a business partner of Joseph G. Rea, in "Rea and Camp's" store. They were also ship owners. Camp was colonel of Murfreesboro's militia unit, the "Governor's Guards', which escorted Lafayette in 1825. He died on October 9, 1833, at the age of 39.

Dr. Thomas O'Dwyer's diary for July 29, 1825 records that "Dr. O'Bryan called & says he sold his lot & buildings to J.G. Rea for B. Camp for $950." O'Bryan had offered the place to O'Dwyer on July 7th, "as he declines the Practice of Phisic & wishes to move to the Westn. Country - decline purchasing as I would rather sell." It is not certain that this is the same property that was sold by Camp's estate to Hill, but it could be.

In the 1845 Tax Census of Murfreesboro, James W. Hill is listed as owner of one piece of property valued at $120. He was also co-owner with Lewis T, Spiers, of "Hill & Spiers" general store at the northeast corner of Sycamore and Main, valued at $500.

The brick said to have been found in the main chimney bearing the numbers 1766 should not be taken as evidence of the antiquity of the house. The brick may have come originally from some other structure and the numbers may not refer to a date at all. It may originally have been a one-story, four-room house, as is thought, but there is no house in Murfreesboro that can safely be regarded as having been built before 1810. Earlier dates are claimed for many of the present structures there, but none will stand the test of critical analysis. When Murfreesboro was laid off in 1787, there is reason to believe that there was nothing in the vicinity except the Murfree home, which probably stood near the old landing. William Murfree sold the land to the state, 97 acres, for $1000, a price which suggests that the town-site itself was devoid of any structure. The "Dr. Gary House" stands to the west of this 97 acre tract, on land annexed to Murfreesboro in 1825, and it is conceivable that somebody had a small house on the site before 1787. But conceivable is by no means good enough to satisfy the purposes of historical scholarship.

The likelihood is that Dr. Lawrence O'Bryan built this house around 1822, or acquired it from someone who had built it only a short time earlier. In the light of our present information, the house might appropriately be known as the "Benjamin B. Camp House."

The Camp family seem pretty well to have been wiped out in 1833. Joseph R dying on Oct 2, Leonidas on Dec 25, and Juliet E. on Jan 22. J.R. was aged 5, and Juliet aged 12.

Thomas Parramore
9/18/75