Penn Family

Named for the chinquapin, a dwarf chestnut tree, Chinqua-Penn Plantation was built by Thomas Jefferson "Jeff" Penn and Margaret Beatrice "Betsy" Schoellkopf (Schwill) Penn during the 1920s. The large house reflected their lifestyle of entertaining and traveling, and it showcased the art and furniture they collected from around the world. The plantation's grounds evolved into an exotic horticultural collection of both native and imported plants. The Penns ran a dairy at Chinqua-Penn as well.

Jeff Penn was the son of Frank Reid Penn (originally from Penn's Store, Virginia) and Annie Spencer Penn. Jeff moved to Reidsville, North Carolina, with his parents at six months old. His father and uncle started the Penn Tobacco Co. in 1875. Jeff worked for the family business until 1911, when the Penns sold the company to American Tobacco. Jeff turned his attention to stock and bond brokerage after the sale. He relocated to Buffalo, New York, where he met his first wife, Genevieve Schoellkopf Penn, daughter of Louis Schoellkopf and Myra Lee Horton Schoellkopf. They married in 1915 and lived in a house on Chapin Parkway. Jeff met Genevieve through his sister, Mattie Irwin "Penn" Schoellkopf, who had married Paul A. Schoellkopf Sr., Genevieve's cousin, in 1911. Genevieve had a son from previous marriage, Henry vom Berge. Her first husband died of thyphoid. Genevieve bore three children with Jeff, but only one survived past infancy. Genevieve died as a result of childbirth and a flu epidemic in 1919. Jeff and Genevieve's only surviving son, Spencer Schoellkopf Penn, died in 1921 at the age of four after contracting polio.

After the deaths of both his wife and son, Jeff Penn remarried, choosing another Schoellkopf as his bride. Margaret Beatrice "Betsy" Schoellkopf Penn was Paul A. Schoellkopf Sr.'s sister (and Genevieve's cousin), and her father Arthur Schoellkopf was chairman of the board of Niagara Falls Power Company, a venture in which Jeff Penn also had a hand. Betsy had been divorced from her first husband, Julius Schwill, a Chicago millionaire, in 1922. She had no children from her first marriage. Jeff and Betsy wed in 1923. According to the Schoellkopf family history, Jeff gave Betsy a choice between living in Buffalo and moving to Reidsville, North Carolina, to a parcel of land he had bought in his hometown around 1911. Betsy chose North Carolina, and the Penns spent much of the 1920s perfecting their new home there.

Jeff and Betsy lived happily together at Chinqua-Penn for nearly twenty years, until Jeff Penn's death in 1946. Betsy (1881-1965) made arrangements with the University of North Carolina system to maintain the house and its furnishings after her death, at which time Jeff Penn's will stipulated that the house and other assets would be split between Betsy's niece and nephew, Jasmin Trembley and Paul Schoellkopf Jr., and two of Jeff's nieces and nephews, Harriet Ann Boyd and Elmore Willets (children of Lucy Penn Willets). The heirs supported Betsy's plan, because none had plans to use the house as a residence and the four were reluctant to divide the estate. Betsy also gave the UNC system a $750,000 endowment and financed the construction of a 4-H center on the Chinqua-Penn grounds.

The University of North Carolina, Greensboro, managed the estate and kept it open to visitors from 1965 to the late 1980s, when the museum closed for the first time. Management duties were transferred to North Carolina State University, and NCSU reopened the house shortly thereafter but was forced to close the museum again in 1991 due to funding issues. After the residents of Rockingham County, North Carolina, refused a tax increase to maintain the house, a task force was formed by local leaders, most notably Libby Cole, then-director of the Reidsville Chamber of Commerce, to reopen the plantation, and they later established themselves as the Chinqua-Penn Foundation. In April 1993, the foundation gained recognition for the house as a National Historic Landmark, and the Rockingham County Tourism Development Authority subsequently offered about 10 percent of their revenues to promote Chinqua-Penn. In 1994, the state approved funding to reopen Chinqua-Penn, which would be managed by the foundation although NCSU still owned the property. The Chinqua-Penn Foundation operated the historic site for a little over ten years before funding issues forced them to close its doors once again. Although NCSU still operates the Betsy-Jeff Penn 4-H Educational Center on the property, the university sold the residence to a private owner in 2006.

From the guide to the North Carolina State University, Office of Finance and Business, Chinqua-Penn Plantation Records, 1863-2002, (Special Collections Research Center)