Wedding DJ at The Mason Street Manor in Franklinton, NC

The Space

This Queen Anne mansion was built between 1902 and 1904 by local contractor J.H. Whitfield for Dr. John H. Harris, a Franklinton physician. His wife, Lula Timberlake Harris, drew up the original plans before her sudden death in 1902, and a Raleigh architect finished the design so construction could go forward. The house stayed in the Harris family until it was sold in 1969, and it has carried two names since as an event venue, most recently reopening as The Carolina Manor House in October 2023 after a full renovation.

The house itself is textbook Queen Anne: a two-story rectangular frame building with a tall, steep deck-and-hip roof, projecting bays, gables, dormers, towers, and a one-story wraparound porch, and it earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. Beyond the mansion, the 10-acre property adds a 4,400-square-foot Grand Hall, an underground bourbon and wine cellar, a garden chapel, an amphitheater, and four treehouse cabins, so the historic house is really just the entrance to a much larger complex.

Capacity & Layout

The Grand Hall seats up to 200 and comes with a built-in bar, a surround sound system, and its own catering prep area, making it the natural choice for the main reception. Ceremony options run from the intimate to the enormous: Lula’s Wedding Chapel, named for the woman who designed the house, holds up to 120 guests in a garden setting, while the amphitheater, with dedicated staging and graduated seating, can hold up to 700.

The Bourbon and Wine Cellar beneath the manor seats up to 25, small enough for a rehearsal dinner or a cocktail hour separate from the main event, and it features a handcrafted bar built from reclaimed wood salvaged from the house’s original construction. Guest counts can be adjusted up to 30 days before the wedding, giving a couple room to finalize numbers without locking in a final headcount too early in the planning.

Amenities

Four rustic treehouse cabins, each raised six feet off the ground with a private deck and firepit access, sleep up to four guests apiece and give the wedding party true on-site lodging rather than a shuttle to a nearby hotel. A bridal suite with a full bathroom and two closets and a separate hair and makeup suite with a styling bar handle getting-ready needs, while the groom’s suite occupies the attic with a 75-inch TV, a foosball table, and its own bar.

Couples can bring their own caterer at no additional charge, using the Grand Hall’s built-in prep area, or work with the venue’s bar packages, which start at $25 per person for beer and wine with licensed bartenders included. The outdoor patio measures 60 by 60 feet under fixed umbrellas, and the Grand Hall’s garage-style doors open fully to connect that patio to the indoor reception space directly.

Location & Getting There

The property sits on 10 acres in Franklinton, with century-old oak trees across the grounds and enough separate outdoor spaces, the garden, the amphitheater, the patio, that a couple can spread ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception across three genuinely different settings without ever leaving the property or renting a second location for photos.

The Grand Hall’s garage-style doors mean the reception can run fully open to the patio for an indoor-outdoor feel or closed for a contained, climate-controlled room, and its built-in surround sound system gives a DJ a real head start on coverage; for outdoor ceremonies at the amphitheater or Lula’s Wedding Chapel, sound has to compete with open air and tree cover, so amplification is worth planning for rather than assuming a small portable setup will carry to 700 seats.