LAURINBURG — For the last few decades the historic Villa Nova house — sometimes referred to as the Capt. Stephen M. Thomas House— has sat empty, being taken over by trees and shrubbery. But now, only a shell remains of the once-grand home.

At around 7:20 p.m. on Sunday, a call came into the Scotland County E-911 Communication Center about the structure being completely engulfed in flames. The devastation didn’t take long.

“It took about two hours from when we arrived to when we left the scene,” said Laurinburg Fire Engineer Christopher Strickland. “The structure was completely destroyed.”

The cause of the blaze is as yet undetermined.

The home had remained empty for several decades after a tornado sometime in the 1980s caused damage to the structure and it was abandoned. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 and was the only surviving brick home from the 19th century in the county.

According to previously published information, the home was built in the 1870s by Capt. Stephen M. Thomas on his cotton plantation that he had begun amassing in 1869. The home was a “two-story, three-bay by one bay, Italianate-style brick dwelling, with one-story gabled roof ells. It has a free-standing one-story brick kitchen connected by a covered passage. It has a one-story front porch with a red and blue patterned grey slate roof,” according to the form from the National Register of Historic Places.

The house was also noteworthy as it was built of brick in an area where brick was usually only used for chimneys and foundations.

Thomas lived in the home until his death in 1903 and, throughout his years as the owner, it was known as a center of elegance and social activity, even hosting a wedding.

The form states, “Villa Nova, the Captain Stephen M. Thomas House, is the most handsome and sophisticated Italianate style house in Scotland County.”

At the time that the form was completed the land was owned by Evans Brother Farms and the home was occupied by the overseer of the large farming operation.

Reach Katelin Gandee at [email protected].