Dunvegan, also known as the Norfleet-Cochran House, was built in 1845 by Holly Springs founding father and influential merchant Jesse Peters Norfleet (1814-1889) and his wife Jane C. Norfleet (1820-1864). Norfleet was originally a cabinetmaker from Virginia who settled in Holly Springs and married Jane Carlock, the daughter of a wealthy local landowner. The Norfleets raised their family in this house, including their daughter Ada Norfleet Rand (1842-1896) who eventually married Henry Oscar Rand (1838-1892), another important Holly Springs merchant. Ada and Henry’s son, Frank Rand (1876-1949) went on to found the International Shoe Company in St. Louis.
In 1861, the Norfleet family traded residences with James House, who lived across town in what is now known as the Rand-Norfleet House. Over the next 25 years, the house was owned by James House (from 1861 until 1865), Phillip Poynter (from 1865 until 1870), John T. Brown (from 1870 until 1876) and Samuel Frank (from 1876 until 1886).
In 1886, the house was bought by T. F. Sigman, who owned the house for over 30 years, until 1920. During this period, in 1903, the house was radically altered (see picture above of the original house in c. 1900) by noted German-born architect Theodore Link. Link, whose other architectural works include the St. Louis Union Station (1894), the Mississippi State Capitol (1903), the International Shoe Company building (1910) and most of the Louisiana State University campus (1920), removed the original full-length front porch with decorative balustrade and added a more traditional Greek Revival single-bay portico with front gable.
In 1920, the house was sold to Samuel Vadah Cochran Sr. (1887-1971) and his wife Marguerite Cochran (1896-1960). After Cochran Sr.’s death in 1971, the house was inherited by his son, Samuel Vadah Cochran Jr. (1918-1995), a professor at the University of Memphis who was also a noted artist. Cochran Jr. and his wife Doris lived in the home, which Cochran decorated with beautiful murals inside and gardens outside. After Cochran Jr.’s death in 1995, his widow Doris continued to live in the house. The Cochran family renamed the house to “Dunvegan” after the Scottish town located on the Isle of Skye.
Dunvegan is a one-and-a-half story raised basement frame Greek Revival cottage, with interior end chimneys, a front gable with frieze and corner pilasters. The single-bay portico is supported by Tuscan columns. A cast iron fence on a brick base surrounds the property. One of the more unusual items found on the grounds of the house are two large planters, which are actually the surviving capitals from the long-destroyed Pointer House.
Hill Country History 
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