Preservation of Wilson Plans Tea at Scarborough House

Featured in The Wilson Times

In April 2023, The Wilson Times covered an Earth Day fundraiser hosted at Scarborough House to benefit Preservation of Wilson — the local nonprofit dedicated to preserving Wilson County's historic buildings and architectural heritage.

"Tickets are now on sale for Teatime at Scarborough, an Earth Day event to benefit Preservation of Wilson. The Scarborough House Resort will host the event on Saturday, April 22, from 2-5 p.m. Tickets were $60 and include specialty teas, food, entertainment and a sil..."

Read the full article at WilsonTimes.com →

Our Perspective: Why a Wedding Venue Hosts a Tea

It might seem unusual for a private estate wedding venue to host an afternoon tea fundraiser. It isn't, really — at least not for Scarborough House. The 1820 home has always been a community house. Major James Scarborough built it that way in 1820. Generations of Wilson County families have walked through its doors for weddings, wakes, holidays, business deals, and Sunday afternoon visits. The fact that it's now a wedding venue doesn't change what the house has always been: a gathering place.

So when Preservation of Wilson approached Scarborough House about hosting a benefit teatime in spring 2023, the answer was an easy yes. The April 22, 2023 event — Teatime at Scarborough, timed to Earth Day — brought together preservationists, history lovers, and the broader Wilson County community for an afternoon of specialty teas, light food, entertainment, and a silent auction.

The Mission Behind Preservation of Wilson

Preservation of Wilson is the nonprofit working to protect Wilson County's historic architecture — homes, churches, downtown commercial buildings, and the small disappearing details that make a town look like itself rather than like everywhere else. They lobby. They educate. They fundraise. And on Saturday afternoons in April, they put on a tea.

For Scarborough House, the partnership made sense for an obvious reason: the house exists today because of preservation work. When Josh and Meika Darville purchased the property, they inherited a 200-year-old structure that had survived two centuries of weather, pests, modifications, and neglect. Restoring it took years of careful work — historical research, period-appropriate materials, structural engineering, mechanical systems brought up to modern code without compromising the home's bones. Preservation work is not abstract for Scarborough House. It's the literal floor under everyone's feet.

What Teatime Looked Like

The Wilson Times article captured the event itself — a Saturday afternoon, 2-5 p.m., $60 a ticket, specialty teas, light food, entertainment, and a silent auction with items donated by local businesses and community members. The setting was the main house and the gardens, with guests free to wander the grounds, tour the restored interior, and chat with Preservation of Wilson board members about ongoing projects in the county.

For a venue that primarily hosts weddings, Teatime was a chance to open the doors to a different audience — neighbors, history buffs, retirees who remember the house from decades past, families bringing their children to see what an 1820 home looks like up close. Wedding guests rarely get the full tour. Teatime guests did.

The Earth Day Connection

Pairing a preservation fundraiser with Earth Day wasn't accidental. There's a real environmental argument for historic preservation that often gets missed: the most sustainable building is the one that already exists. Tearing down a 200-year-old house and replacing it with new construction generates enormous embodied carbon — the energy already spent quarrying stone, milling lumber, firing brick, and shipping materials in 1820 cannot be recovered. Preserving and adapting historic buildings keeps that carbon locked in place rather than sending more to the landfill and atmosphere.

Scarborough House is, in a real sense, an environmental project. Every couple who books their wedding at the house is celebrating in a building that didn't have to be built. The pavilion was added thoughtfully. The mechanical systems were upgraded with efficiency in mind. The grounds were maintained with native plantings where possible. None of this is the headline story of why couples book a wedding here, but it's a quiet truth underneath the venue.

A Venue That Belongs to Wilson

The April 2023 Wilson Times feature documented something Scarborough House has worked hard to make true: this isn't a closed-off venue that only opens its gates for paying weddings. It's a community institution. The house hosts weddings as its core business, but it also hosts charity events, community tours, vendor open houses, and the occasional cars-and-coffee meet. It's a working part of the Wilson County social fabric.

That matters more than ever as Wilson grows. With downtown Wilson seeing over $25 million in new investment around the Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park, and the new Wilson Warbirds baseball stadium drawing crowds from across eastern North Carolina, the city is becoming a destination. Historic properties like Scarborough House — and the work organizations like Preservation of Wilson do to protect them — are part of what makes Wilson worth visiting in the first place. The whirligigs, the historic homes, the downtown architecture, the new stadium, the restaurants, the breweries — these all feed each other. None of them work alone.

Looking Forward

Scarborough House continues to host community events alongside its core wedding business. Josh and Meika have made this part of the venue's identity from day one — and the hope is that Scarborough House continues to be a place where the broader Wilson community can gather, celebrate, raise money for important causes, and remember why historic buildings are worth saving.

For couples planning a wedding, this matters too. When you book Scarborough House, you're not just renting a building. You're joining a venue that's woven into the community it sits in. Your wedding day is supported by a network of vendors, neighbors, and partners who've been working with the house for years. That kind of community depth doesn't exist at brand-new venues. It can only be earned over time.

For many years to come, Scarborough House plans to keep earning it.

Wedding Inquiries

Couples interested in touring Scarborough House can request a private tour or reach the team directly at weddings@scarboroughhouse.com.

View Wedding Packages → Schedule a Tour → Read More Press Coverage →

Related Coverage

• Down to Business: Scarborough House Focusing on Weddings — Wilson Times, May 2026
• Cars & Coffee Revving Up for Saturday Meet — Wilson Times, August 2023
• 200-Year-Old Home Gets New Life as Event Venue — Wilson Times, October 2021
• Scarborough House Sponsors Whirligig Festival — November 2023

About Scarborough House

Scarborough House is a historic 1820 private estate wedding venue located in Saratoga, North Carolina, approximately 50 miles east of Raleigh. The 18-acre property features the fully restored main house, the open-air Magnolia Pavilion, multiple ceremony locations, and accommodations for the wedding party. Owned and operated by Josh and Meika Darville since 2020, Scarborough House hosts weddings, private events, and community gatherings throughout the year. The venue is widely recognized as one of eastern North Carolina's premier historic wedding venues and is committed to supporting community organizations that share the house's preservation values.

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