Skip to main content

Preserving the Rich History in Zebulon

Places

About our Logo

Published August 20, 2026

By MaryBeth Carpenter

The lunette window, found in the gables of the John D. Finch house, is also seen throughout Eastern North Carolina in homes built from 1870 to 1920. The lunette is a half- moon shaped space filled with glass.

The lunette window seen again and again in homes of this region is a stylized sunrise, with the bottom portion half circle representing the golden sun, and the four panels rising above it displaying stained glass rays of blue, green, red and purple, as the colors of the rainbow. This symbolizes the breadth of resources offered by our state from the blue of its lake and coastal waters, to the green of tobacco and cotton fields, to NC’s red clay soil and finishing in the purple flowers of corn and soybean crops and also representing the wisdom and creativity of its people.

The John D. Finch house on E. Horton Street, is the home of Preservation Zebulon and over five years this house has been under restoration. Three lunette windows adorned the gables of the house, but several color ray panels were missing when the home was purchased by its owners in 2015. The lunette windows have been re-built to precisely match the original ones and have been re-installed in the home.

For more info on the window restoration see: https://johndfinchhouse.com/2020/06/15/lunette-windows-in-rainbow-colors/

Related stories

Places

EC Daniel House

Zebulon gains its first private home to become a Wake County Landmark.By MaryBeth Carpenter ZEBULON – The E.C. and Elvah Daniel house ...

Read the story
People

Three Florists Bloomed Over the Years in Zebulon

By MaryBeth Carpenter Dwain Driver, owner and operator of Lovallo Florist, has worked in the business of comforting, uplifting, and supporti...

Read the story
Places

Jernigan Furniture

Another Legacy Furniture Store Takes Whitley Building By MaryBeth Carpenter Jernigan Furniture, a Goldsboro-based family furniture business ...

Read the story
SUPPORT THE WORK

Zebulon's history stays here because people keep it here.

Membership and gifts fund the films, the tours, the plaques, and the archive. None of it comes from the Town.