Please join Sheila Ogle and the Cary Pink House for a ribbon cutting for the Pink House Post on Saturday, April 2nd from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 215 S. Academy Street in Cary.
The Pink House Post is a memory mailbox that will be installed near the Cary Pink House sidewalk. Inside the box will be a journal for friends to write a note of inspiration, a memory, a poem, a wish for the future or whatever would be honoring of our community. You can also drop off messages in the box.
We will have greetings from friends including our State Auditor Beth Wood, the pink ribbon cutting at noon, and then a chance for Cary Pink House fans to write journal entries.
Adding the memory box to Sheila Ogle’s Pink House is a part of her vision that downtown Cary can be something special. “I want to leave Cary when I am done on this earth with a legacy.” said Ogle. “I want to help Cary, especially downtown continue to grow – to become a center of activity.”
About the Pink House Post
After April 2, the Pink House Post will be self-service with community friends able to open the box for the journal they can write in or leave a note for the Pink House. We hope to share some of the notes and journal entries left in our Pink House Post on our Facebook and Instagram pages. The captured messages may be published in a book.
The memory mailbox is with the creative team to have her name and designs added and will be installed in the days to come. Until then, be thinking about what you want to write in the journal.
The inspiration for the Cary Pink House mailbox comes from “Every Breath” by Nicholas Sparks that tells the story about the Kindred Spirit mailbox at Sunset Beach.
About the Cary Pink House
The historic Guess-White-Ogle House is located in downtown Cary, NC at 215 S. Academy Street. The home was built in 1830, on the national historical registry and received an Anthemion Award for its restoration in 2002.
Although known locally as the Cary Pink House, this home has had many owners throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. In 1880, railroad “roadmaster” Captain Harrison P. Guess and his wife, Aurelia, purchased the land to build the original home from Allison Francis “Frank” Page, Cary’s founder and local businessman.
John White, a local Baptist minister, bought the house from the Guess’ in 1896 and substantially remodeled and expanded it. He transformed the house into a Queen Anne structure by adding a three-story tower to the façade, a front bay window and much decorative woodwork.
Carroll and Sheila Ogle bought the property in 1997 and renovated it, adding onto the house, building the outside steps and repainting the exterior.
In 2019, Sheila Ogle published “The Pink House” to not only tell the story of the renovation but also her memories of living there with her late husband Carroll.
“The book is a little bit about Cary history, but very personal and talks about the process of renovating the house,” Ogle said.
When Ogle writes about her experiences and memories, the Guess-White-Ogle House becomes a character on its own, as “The Pink House” describes in third person how the house felt when Sheila and Carroll first came there and how it felt during events such as Thanksgiving parties.
“I based her on my personality. She speaks and she tells stories,” Ogle said. “The words just came through the house and feels as if you are talking together.”
Copies of “The Pink House” will be available at the April 2nd event for $20.
The Cary Pink House is Ogle’s personal home and not open to the public.
FRS Communications 