Saddlebag houses like this one in the Evansdale area were common in the landscape of rural Wilson County as recently as the 1980s. I don’t know who lived in this particular house, but it is typical of those inhabited by tenant farmers, many of whom were African-American.
The basic saddlebag form consists of two rooms side-by-side, each with a front door. This house, however, has four rooms.
The headboard ceiling and walls are likely original, but the door communicating between the two rooms was probably cut through much later.
A view of the back two rooms. The door between these rooms is also likely a later addition.
Photos taken by Lisa Y. Henderson, December 2019.
