Henry Brown.
Henry Brown was born in Virginia in the early 1800s. By the 1840s, he and his father had relocated to Raleigh and started a business manufacturing furniture. Eventually, they began to make coffins as well, and established the H. J. Brown Coffin House, still visible today at 200 S Salisbury Street. The business model shifted, and the Coffin House became a funeral home. The Brown-Wynne Funeral Home is still operational in Raleigh today. It’s the oldest business in the city, and the only established before the Civil War.
The Brown House.
The H. J. Brown Coffin House remained a family business for generations. At the turn of the century, it was managed by Fabius “Fab” Brown, Henry’s grandson. Fabius and his wife, Flo, purchased the land in 1915, and by 1918 had built and moved into The Brown House at 1310 Hillsborough.