Herd of goats from the Goat Squad move into historic Longview-Poe House in Raleigh for restoration

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- A herd of 15 goats from The Goat Squad has moved into the historic Longview-Poe House in Raleigh.

The home, which sits on 15 acres, was built in 1925 by Dr. Clarence Poe and his wife, Alice Aycock Poe.

Dr. Poe was one of Raleigh's early visionaries.

The Poe family donated the property to WakeMed in 2011 and since then, the house has gone through extensive restoration and currently is used as offices for the Wakemed Foundation and other events.

This summer, the restoration phase moves outside with goats helping to clear the last five acres of land where gardens once grew on the property.

"This is the history of the east side of Raleigh," explained Tom Cavender, VP of Facilities and Construction at WakeMed.

"We embarked two years ago on the grounds refurbishment and our partnership with the Wake County Garden Club," Cavender added. "We've partnered with the club to be able to restore the grounds to its original luster back in the late '20s. We found the original drawings from the NC State of Landscape Architecture and they've been working on it the last 12 months volunteering hours and hours of time to clear out the brush."

The eco-friendly goats will spend their summer eating through the invasive plants on the grounds so the next phase of restoration can begin.

"Part of the deforestation process is to clear the grounds so we can have walking trails for patients, families, and staff to be able to utilize this when it is tied to greenway," Cavender added.