This report was written on September 13, 1983

1. Name and location of the property: The property known as the Old Alpha Cotton Mill is located at 311 E. 12th St. in Charlotte, North Carolina.

2. Name, address and telephone number of the present owner of the property:

Consolidated Engravers, Inc.
Box 33216
Charlotte, N.C., 28232

Telephone: 704/333-0365

3. Representative photographs of the property: This report contains representative photographs of the property.

4. A map depicting the location of the property: This report contains a map which depicts the location of the property.

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5. Current Deed Book Reference to the property: The most recent deed to this property is recorded in Mecklenburg County Deed Book 2385, Page 365. The Tax Parcel Number of the property is 081-033-08.

6. A brief historical sketch of the property: This report contains a brief historical sketch of the property prepared by Dr. William H. Huffman, Ph.D.

7. A brief architectural description of the property: This report contains an architectural description of the property prepared by Lisa A. Stamper.

8. Documentation of why and in what ways the property meets the criteria set forth in N.C.G.S. 160A-399.4.

 

a. Special significance in terms of its history, architecture and/or cultural importance: The Commission judges that the property known as the Old Alpha Cotton Mill does possess special significance in terms of Charlotte-Mecklenburg. The Commission bases its judgment on the following considerations: 1) the Alpha Cotton Mill, erected in 1888-89, was one of the first cotton mills in Charlotte and assisted in creating the momentum which transformed Charlotte into one of the leading textile manufacturing centers in the United States; and 2) the Old Alpha Cotton Mill is the earliest extant mill complex in Charlotte which was constructed by the D. A. Tompkins Company and which introduced installment plan capital creation in the textile industry of Charlotte.

b. Integrity of design, setting, workmanship, materials, feeling and/or association: The Commission contends that the attached architectural description by Miss Lisa A. Stamper demonstrates that the Old Alpha Cotton Mill meets this criterion.

9. Ad Valorem Tax Appraisal: The Commission is aware that designation would allow the owner to apply for an automatic deferral of 50% of the Ad Valorem taxes on all or any portion of the property which becomes “historic property.” The current appraised value of the 5.740 acres of land is $170,020. The current appraised value of the improvements is $1,013,700. The total current appraised value is $1,183,720. The property is zoned I3.

Date of Preparation of this Report: June 6, 1984

Prepared by: Dr. Dan L. Morrill, Director
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Properties Commission
1225 S. Caldwell St. Box D
Charlotte, N.C., 28203

Telephone: 704/376-9115

 

Historical Overview  

by
Dr. William H. Huffman
January, 1984

The Alpha Mills company was one of three cotton mills organized in the years 1888-9, the Alpha, Ada and Victor mills, all of which were built by the D. A. Tompkins Co., and their construction signaled a rapid increase in Charlotte’s industrial growth, based on cotton, as part of the general expansion of the New South in the 1880s. The first mill in the city was the Charlotte Cotton Mills, which began operation in 1881, and this, along with Charlotte being strategically located in the heart of a growing cotton trading and manufacturing area, lured the entrepreneur Daniel Augustus Tompkins (1852-1914) to Charlotte. In 1884, Tompkins established the D. A. Tompkins Co. with R. M. Miller, Sr. for the purpose of building and supplying the machinery for cotton mills in the region. The fortuitous combination of Tompkins’ energy and foresight being applied in the right time and place resulted in the construction of over one hundred cotton mills and two hundred cotton oil plants (cotton oil was a waste product until Tompkins turned it into a major industry) in the Piedmont over a thirty-year period. New South industrialization of the Piedmont owed a great deal to Tompkins and his company. ¹

 

 

D. A. Tompkins The Alpha Mills was first organized in January, 1888, when, at a meeting of the “Charlotte Manufacturing Company” at the office of E. K. P. Osborne, it was decided that there would be a novel public subscription of the stock as follows:

 

It was moved that on Saturday, the 7th day of January, 1888, from four to eight o’clock p.m., the subscribers to the capital stock of the company be requested to call at the store of C. Scott, on College Street, and sign the constitution and by-laws, and pay in fifty cents per share on their stock, of which twenty-five cents is the initiation fee and twenty-five cents is the first installment of dues, and the weekly payments will be made at the same place from four to eight o’clock each Saturday. ²

So far as is known, this was the first mill in the region to offer its stock on a weekly installment plan.

The company was formally incorporated on January 23, 1888, and the records show the following as shareholders (of par value of $100 each): E. K. P. Osborne, 25 shares; W. W. Ward, 30 shares; C. Scott, 10 shares; E. T. Cansler, 10 shares; T. L. Siegle, 10 shares; J. R. Erwin, 10 shares; J. W. Cobb, 10 shares; J. H. Van Ness, 20 shares Wm. Maxwell, Jr., 10 shares. ³ E. K. P. Osborne (1845-1894) was president of the new concern, John L. Brown was vice-president, and R. J. Sifford, secretary and treasurer. Osborne, who was a lawyer and native of Fayette County, Alabama, was elected to the Charlotte Board of Aldermen in 1884, and in 1887 to the state legislature as a Mecklenburg delegate. He also had the distinction of organizing, in 1887, Charlotte’s first streetcar system. The horse-drawn line was eventually sold to the Charlotte Consolidated Construction Company, the developers of Dilworth, which installed new electric trolleys and extended the lines. ⁴

By 1889, Calvin Scott, at whose wholesale grocery store the cotton mill was organized, was vice-president, John L. Brown having become head of the rival Ada Manufacturing Company. The mill, which then manufactured warps and yarns 20’s to 30’s (a type of unfinished, or “gray” goods), had been built at the corner of East Twelfth and “A” Streets (A Street was also the Southern Railroad right of way). ⁵ It consisted of a one-story brick mill building with basement (housing carding, spinning, reeling and warping operations), a cotton warehouse and a waste house. A number of frame one-story houses for the workers were built near the mill, some of which remain today.

About 1893, Calvin Scott (1832-1897) moved up to the office of president, since E. K. P. Osborne retired and moved from the city because of ill health. Born in Alamance County, Scott first engaged in commerce in Chapel Hill, and during the Civil War served as a lieutenant in a company from that town. Toward the end of the hostilities he was captured at Hanover Court House and imprisoned in Ohio. After the war, Scott came to Charlotte as a railroad agent, then time, Charlotte’s growth as the hub of the central Piedmont textile industry continued unabated for two more decades.⁸

In 1901, the Alpha Mill itself underwent a major transformation when it was bought out by a corporation headed by Hiram D. Wheat of Gaffney, S. C., and the name changed to the Orient Manufacturing Co. Instead of a yarn mill, the operation was refitted to be a weaving mill to produce fine finished goods such as madras cloth, sateens, jenos and momie cloth. For this purpose, the capacity of the plant was greatly enlarged by the construction of a two-story brick building next to the original one. It included a corner tower characteristic of many New England mills, a feature which still makes the structure stand out of the ordinary. Construction of the new building and equipping it required an investment of $250,000, a considerable sum for the time. The power plant was completely remodeled and equipped with two Sioux 300 horsepower engines and new boilers from Burlington, Iowa. Upon completion, the revamped mill could boast 20,000 spindles and 500 looms (the latter furnished by the D. A. Tompkins Co.), making it “one of the most complete mills in the South for making twisted yarns … and for weaving fancy cloth…” Orient started up its new operation about January 1, 1902. ⁹

For reasons that are not known, Orient Manufacturing went into receivership in 1905 after only three years of operation, and the mill was bought by the Calvine Manufacturing Co., a concern that was organized that year by E. A. Smith. ¹⁰ Edward Arthur Smith (1862-1933), a Baltimore, Md. native, came to Charlotte in the 1880s as the traveling representative for Thomas K. Carey and Son, an industrial supply firm in Baltimore. In 1889, the same year the Alpha Mill was built, E. A. Smith, D. A. Tompkins and R. M. Miller, Jr. organized the Charlotte Supply Company to furnish textile mill machinery and parts to the growing industry. In 1900, the three sold their interest in the supply firm, and Smith built and headed the Chadwick mill west of Biddleville (1901) and the Hoskins in 1904 (Hoskins was his mother’s family name). By 1907, he was president of the Calvine, Chadwick, Dover, Hoskins, and Louise mills in the Charlotte area, and later built mills in Rhodhiss, NC (1910) and Kings Mountain, NC (Phoenix, 1915). ¹¹ In the following year, 1908, Smith began to consolidate his interests by organizing the Chadwick-Hoskins Co., which then took over the Calvine operation.

With some additions and changes as noted in the architectural description, the plant operated until 1946 as the Chadwick-Hoskins Mill No. 3, when the company merged with Textron-Southern, Inc. ¹³ Thereafter, the mill operated under Textron-Southern (1946-1948), a new Calvine Cotton Mills, Inc. (1948-1952) and Smitherman Cotton Mills (1953-1955). ¹⁴ In 1955, the present owners, Consolidated Engravers Corporation, moved their operation to the 12th Street site. ¹⁵ Organized in 1936 as the Carolina Textile Engraving Co. by John Ladley, the company, which engraves patterns for the printing of textiles, floor coverings, and similar materials, formerly occupied the old Wade Loft building on 6th Street. ¹⁶

Although on the inside of the old mill buildings one will find state-of-the-art computer engraving equipment, the exterior still retains most of its late nineteenth and early twentieth century textile mill appearance. As the most intact of the city’s original mills, its historical place as a remaining part of the industry which was the principal reason for the economic and physical growth of the city is an important one.

 

 

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NOTES

¹ Dan L. Morrill, “A Survey Of Cotton Mills in Charlotte,” Charlotte Mecklenburg Historic Properties Commission, 1979; William H. Huffman, “A Historical Sketch of the Charlotte Supply Company,” Charlotte Mecklenburg Historic Properties Commission, 1983.

² Charlotte Democrat, Jan. 6, 1888, p. 3.

³ Record of Corporations, Book A, p. 86.

⁴ Charlotte Observer, May 15, 1894, p. 4.

⁵ Charlotte City Directory, 1889, p. 46.

⁶ Charlotte Observer, April 10, 1897, p. 1.

⁷ See note 1; Charlotte Observer, Dec. 28, 1897, p. 3.

⁸ Ibid.

⁹ Charlotte City Directory, 1902, p. 32; Record of Corporations, Book 1, p. 237; Charlotte Observer, Oct. 27, 1901, p. 5.

¹⁰ Record of Corporations, Book 1, p. 514; Deed Book 237, p. 633, 23 Dec. 1905. The name “Calvine” is thought to be from one of the women of the Scott family, who was also possibly related to another mill family, the Cramers. See note 16.

¹¹ Charlotte City Directory, 1907, p. 245; see note 1; Charlotte Observer, May 1, 1933, p. 1.

¹² Record of Corporations, Book 2, p. 313; Deed Book 237, p. 633, 14 Oct. 1908.

¹³ Deed Book 1216, p. 303, 30 Sept. 1946.

¹⁴ Deed Books 1292, p. 8, 3 Jan. 1948; 1604, p. 597, 1 Jan. 1953.

¹⁵ Deed Books 1752, p. 527, 28 March 1955; 2178, p. 137, 8 July 1960; 2385, p. 365, Dec. 1962.

¹⁶ Interview with John Ladley, Charlotte, N.C. 10 August 1983.

 

 

Architectural Description  

by Lisa A. Stamper

The Alpha Cotton Mill, erected by the D. A. Tompkins Company c. 1889, is located on E. Twelfth Street between the Southern Railroad and N. Brevard Street. Since 1889, the Alpha Mill has grown from a single, one-story mill to a three building plant with several small additions and outbuildings. Today the mill is used by Consolidated Engravers Corporation primarily to produce engraved cylinders which are used to print textiles. Although only a small portion of the original 1889 mill is still intact, all the primary early twentieth century buildings are in very good exterior condition. The interiors have been altered significantly over the years; however, the Alpha Mill is a well preserved example of Charlotte’s participation and growth in the textile industry.

The original Alpha Mill consisted of one primary mill building with basement, one cotton warehouse, and one waste house. The mill was built to produce greige yarns. The one-story brick mill was basically rectangular with a pitched roof, its ridge-line parallel to N. Brevard Street. It had many tall, thin windows. The mill building was located on the southwest corner of the property. The warehouse was also rectangular and was located to the rear of the mill. The warehouse had a platform which connected it to the mill and which was next to the railroad tracks (parallel to N. Brevard Street) for easy unloading and loading. The rectangular waste house had a central dividing wall creating two separate houses. It was located between the warehouse and N. Brevard Street.

According to the 1900 Sanborn Map, a service tank and well were located on the eastern corner of the mill building. The mill used water for steam heat and power, plus an automatic sprinkler system. The sprinkler system was an innovative new fire protection feature of the mill. Although it was not required by law to install these systems it was advantageous to the owners of the mill since they then secured substantially lower insurance rates. Lighting was electric. Coal fuel was used to produce the steam. The coal was brought directly from rear railroad tracks, which ran parallel to E. Twelfth Street, to the boiler by an individual track which ran beside the southeastern side of the cotton warehouse. A coal trestle was located at the end of this track. The area on the southeastern side of the mill was eventually filled and paved, covering the well, Southern Railroad track sidings and the coal trestle, all of which had long been obsolete.

The mill building contained carding, spinning, reeling, and warping operations. A small office was located off to the side near the front of the mill. The rear of the building contained the picker room and the boiler. The unengaged chimney stack was to the rear of the mill. The interior plan was typical of the American textile operation where all activities were contained under one roof. The English system had various outbuildings for different operations.

The only section of the original 1889 structure still intact is the chimney stack and the boiler room. The rest of the building was believed to be beyond repair and demolished by the Consolidated Engravers Corporation. They built a one-story, flat roofed, brick building replacement on the original mill foundations. However, the newer building was not designed to look like the original, and it does not.

In 1901, when the Orient Manufacturing Company decided to expand the mill’s production to include weaving, an addition, which more than doubled the plant, was required. A two-story brick building complete with a decorative three-story brick tower was constructed to the southeast of the original mill. The original service tank was demolished. The addition was rectangular and connected to the original structure only in the rear where the boiler room was enlarged and the chimney enclosed. Also, a 130,000-gallon reservoir was placed east of the existing well and a 50 foot steel tower and 20,000-gallon tank, which replaced the original service tank, was erected to the rear of the mill.

The 1905 Sanborn Map shows that the 1889 mill was used by the Orient Manufacturing Company for twisting (located in basement) and weaving (located on first floor) operations. The first-story of the newer mill was used for weaving, spooling, and warping. The second-story was used for spinning and carding.

The square brick tower, located on the southern corner of the 1901 mill, was purely a decorative element. It only contained a wide, three-story stair case. Many mills used towers as an aesthetic focal point to their property. The tower still stands in need of only minor repairs. On its E. Twelfth Street (southwestern) side, a bronze plaque in commemoration of the Chadwick-Hoskins Company’s employees who fought in World War I was once proudly displayed. The plaque has since been taken inside the mill for security.

The “roof” of the tower is defined by corbelling underneath crenelles. This helps give the tower a majestic appearance. The exterior walls of the tower seem to be recessed from its corners, adding to the perceived height of the structure. More corbelling is employed within the top of the recess.

Although the interior of the tower contains three levels, the exterior appears to have only two levels. This is done by the placement, shape, and size of the openings. On the southwestern side, a wide, round arched doorway allows one to enter the tower. It has a four-course surround with a corbelled outer course. The half-circle above the late twentieth-century door contains small square glass panes. Above the door opening are two symmetrically placed windows . They have a slight arched shape and six-over-six-over-six lights. The original wooden sash frames are still intact. Above these windows a concrete filled rectangular recess might have once held a sign. The N. Brevard Street(southeastern) side of the tower is similar to the southwestern side; however, there are two windows instead of a door at the first-level, and there is no concrete filled recess. The northwestern side, which is attached to the mill, has a small, plain rectangular window near its top. The top half of the northeastern side of the tower resembles the southern sides of the tower, but its bottom half is covered by a wooden lean-to shaped addition which contains air conditioning units.

All of the 1901 mill building is presently intact, and its exterior is close to its original condition. However, the interior has been considerably altered without concern for historic integrity. The brick is of American bond creating walls that are approximately twenty-four inches thick. The mill and tower have been painted a uniform light gray color.

Some of the windows have been filled with concrete blocks. The concrete is not flush with the exterior brick wall so the slightly arched window openings have not been visually lost. The wooden window frames are all only several years old, but they were patterned after the original eight-over-eight-over-eight light windows. The sills are of concrete. The windows are evenly spaced and form one row on each level which extend across the total width of each facade.

The low-pitched roof has been repaired. The original simple, sturdy wooden brackets are a continuation of the roof’s wide, thick supporting beams. The wide, wooden eaves are also original.

Sometime between 1905 and 1911, more changes were made to the property. The mill was expanded from 13,126 spindles and 501 looms in 1905 to 10,048 spindles and 505 looms in 1911. To house this expansion, the 1901 cotton warehouse was replaced with a two-story rectangular addition connecting to the rear of the original 1889 mill. A new and larger cotton warehouse was constructed where the waste house used to be. Two new waste houses were located to the rear of the new mill. Also, the reservoir was expanded to hold 150,000 gallons. A straight drive was placed between the mill buildings and the mill houses on N. Brevard Street.

The interior usage was again altered from 1905 to 1911. The basement usage of the 1889 structure was changed from twisting to storage. The picker room was converted to the cloth room and the new picking room was moved to the rear of the 1901 building. It appears that the ceiling of the new picker room was lined with iron metal sheeting at this time (the iron sheeting exists today), and a first-level wall was put in to create the new room (the wall has since been removed). The rest of the first level of the 1901 building was being used for only carding while the second level was being used for spinning. The new mill was being used for weaving on the second level while the first level was vacant, probably for future expansion.

A comparison of the 1911 and 1929 Sanborn Maps shows that a few changes were made to the Chadwick-Hoskins Mill No. 3 within that time frame. First by 1929, the reservoir contained 200,000 gallons of water; an increase of 50,000 gallons. Second, a row of “auto houses” (no longer standing) was built behind and to the east of the warehouse. Also, the Chadwick-Hoskins Co. was described as a manufacturer of sheeting.

Because of the change in activities in the plant by 1929, the interior use of the spaces changed. The cloth room became the drawing room and the front half of the weaving area became cloth storage. The rest of the areas were described as Main Mill, Main Mill No. 2, and Main Mill No. 3; therefore, the activities in these buildings are unknown.

The newest mill strongly resembled the 1901 mill’s construction and style. It was also made of brick. Its roof was also slightly pitched and of wood. The roof’s brackets were also a continuation of the beams; however, brackets of the newest mill were cut to be slightly more decorative. The windows, although slightly wider were also slightly arched and evenly spaced just as those of the 1901 building were.

Today, the windows of the Chadwick-Hoskins mill building have been filled with concrete blocks as some of tile 1901 windows were. The building has been painted light gray, as have the rest of the early buildings. The roof has been repaired retaining its original shape and decorative features. A post-1952 rectangle one-story addition has been constructed on the northwestern side of the mill. This addition is made of concrete blocks and has a flat roof.

The newer cotton warehouse was at least twice the size of the original. It was two stories high with an elevated wooden platform which was connected to the warehouse at the rear and continued around the side to be parallel to the railroad siding. The roof was slightly pitched with the ridgeline running perpendicular to the railroad siding. The warehouse was constructed of wood with brick foundation and a brick fire wall which divided the warehouse in half. A squarish brick walled opening picker room was built within the first floor southwest corner of the warehouse. The floors were of concrete, and large, round wooden columns supported massive beams. Large double-doors which slid on a track allowed easy access and removal of cotton bales. These doors had diagonal wooden siding and were located on the first-and second-levels in the front, rear, and N. Brevard Street side of the warehouse.

Presently the warehouse is being used for storage. The interior has had many columns and much flooring replaced with little consideration for the original appearance. The exterior has not changed as much. Only the rear section of the elevated platform remains, a concrete platform was placed at the front of the warehouse sometime between 1911 and 1929, and sometime after 1929 a one-story, small rectangular room was constructed of brick on the southwestern front site of the warehouse.

As early as 1900, mill houses were built on both sides of N. Brevard Street and across from the mill on E. Twelfth Street. A small mill village was located behind the houses on N. Brevard Street. The mill houses across E. Twelfth Street and on the northwestern side of N. Brevard Street no longer exist. The rest of the mill village, approximately twenty houses, still stands. It has potential for recreating the ambiance of a historic neighborhood from Charlotte’s textile mill past as well as adding to the historic character of the existing mill buildings.

The early twentieth-century Alpha Mills buildings are in stable condition and the contrast between the old and new in these buildings prove that the historic character of a city can be preserved without inhibiting progress. Although the interiors have been modernized to accommodate the highly advanced operations, for which Consolidated Engravers Company presently uses the buildings, the exterior buildings and outbuildings retain the historic character and ambiance of a early twentieth-century cotton mill. Also, this particular mill visually tells the story of Charlotte’s rapid textile growth.

 

This report was written on November 5, 1986

1. Name and location of the property: The property known as the Walter L. Alexander House is located at 523 Clement Avenue, Charlotte, North Carolina.

2. Name, address and telephone number of the present owner of the property: The owner of the property is:

Mr. Daniel G. Clodfelter & wife, Elizabeth K. Bevan
523 Clement Ave.
Charlotte, N.C., 28204

Telephone: 704/331-1000

3. Representative photographs of the property: This report contains representative photographs of the property.

4. A map depicting the location of the property: This report contains a map which depicts the location of the property.

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5. Current Deed Book Reference to the property: Two parcels are included in the Walter L. Alexander House. They are:

 

Tax Parcel Number	Deed Book Reference
127-013-05	Book 4746 Page 287
127-013-23	Book 4777 Page 544

6. A brief historical sketch of the property: This report contains a brief historical sketch of the property prepared by Ms. Dorothy Frye.

7. A brief architectural description of the property: This report contains a brief architectural description of the property prepared by Thomas W. Hanchett.

8. Documentation of and in what ways the property meets the criteria for designation set forth in N.C.G.S. 160A-399.4:

 

a. Special significance in terms of its history, architecture, and/or cultural importance: the Commission judges that the property known as the Walter L. Alexander House does possess special significance in terms of Charlotte-Mecklenburg. The Commission bases its judgment on the following considerations: 1) the Walter L. Alexander House, erected in 1915, is the grandest residence dating from the 1910’s in the streetcar suburb of Elizabeth; 2) the Walter L. Alexander House has had a distinguished list of owners, including Walter L. Alexander, William C. Wilkinson, and Admiral Percy W. Foote; and 3) the Walter L. Alexander House is part of a cluster of homes (it, the John Baxter Alexander House, and the Jennie Alexander Duplex) which once formed a unique family complex in the Elizabeth neighborhood.

b. Integrity of design, setting, workmanship, materials, feeling, and/or association: The Commission contends that the architectural description included in this report demonstrates that the property known as the Walter L. Alexander House meets this criterion.

9. Ad Valorem Tax Appraisal: The Commission is aware that designation would allow the owner to apply for an automatic deferral of 50% of the Ad Valorem taxes on all or any portion of the property which becomes “historic property.” The current appraised value of the improvement on Parcel 127-013-05 is $77,980, for the .562 acres of land, $13,000, making the total appraised value $90,980. The parcel is zoned R6MF. The current appraised value of the .248 acres of land in Parcel 127-013-23 is $8,500. The parcel is zoned R6.

Date of Preparation of this Report: November 5, 1986

Prepared by: Dr. Dan L. Morrill
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Properties Commission
1225 S. Caldwell St., Box D
Charlotte, N.C., 28203

Telephone: 704/376-9115

 

Historical Overview  

by Dorothy Frye
August 1984

The Walter L. Alexander house at 523 Clement Avenue in Charlotte, built in 1915 for the son of Charlotte banker and real estate developer W. S. Alexander, is a somewhat scaled-down but refined version of the John B. Alexander house next door, at 509 Clement Avenue. Like its neighbor, it is an elegant variation of the bungalow design, with a wide, wraparound front porch rounded at one end to form a pavilion seating area. The front door sidelights and transom are of heavy beveled glass placed in intricate variations of the diamond pattern; windows throughout the house–including the basement–repeat the theme. In use since the 1940s as an apartment house, it is now being reconverted to a single-family dwelling by its present owners, attorney Daniel Clodfelter and his wife, Elizabeth K. Bevan. In order to prevent overdevelopment of the Clement Avenue property, he has also purchased a strip of land 541 x 200 ft between his house and the J. B. Alexander house next door from Koch-Segal Corp., who had planned to build additional condominium units on that property. ¹ With the assistance of interior decorator Calvin Hefner, the Clodfelters are restoring the interior to its original state, modernizing only where restoration is not practicable. ²

In January 1915, Walter Lamar Alexander purchased a large lot, 246 x 76, x 246 x 115 ft, on which to build his home. ³ It was part of an entire block that had originally been purchased in 1906 from the Highland Park Company by Walter’s uncle, J. B. Alexander. ⁴ It had changed ownership several times during the interim; its various owners included Carrie Maie and F. O. Landis, W. B. Huntington, contractor W. J. Crowell and his wife Julia, and Harriet E. and Richard D. Thomas. ⁵

Some kind of structure may have been built on the property before it was sold by John B. Alexander; City Water Department records show that a tap application for 523 Clement Avenue was submitted in 1908 by Vance Improvement Company and plumber T. C. Toomey. ⁶ However, construction of the present house must have begun early in 1915, since a contract drawn up in March of that year between the Alexanders states that Walter L. Alexander is the owner of “a certain lot adjoining the said lot of John B. Alexander, fronting 115 feet on Clement Avenue, upon which the said Walter L. Alexander is now building a residence.” ⁷ In April 1915, Walter Alexander was able to complete the purchase of five additional lots facing Clement Avenue next to his homesite. ⁸ These five lots, which had formerly been part of the Oakhurst Land Company property ⁹, were owned by Frank R. McNinch, who had just lost his bid for the Democratic nomination for Mayor of Charlotte to Colonel Thomas L. Kirkpatrick in Kirkpatrick in a close race. (McNinch ran in the next election and won, serving as Mayor from 1917 to 1920.) ¹⁰ McNinch had purchased the lots from Carolina Realty Company five years earlier, but had not built on them. Although the home of Walter Alexander did not extend over into these lots, the two closest to his house remained vacant until recent years. John B. Alexander had originally invested in the lots with Walter, but then sold his half-interest to Walter in September 1915. ¹¹

Walter Lamar Alexander was born in Charlotte in 1884, the son of Walter S. and Minnie Ramser Alexander. He married Ernestine Bridges of Wilmington, North Carolina, and they had two children, Preston Stewart and Ernestine Lamar. ¹² Walter Alexander attended North Carolina A&M College (now N.C. State University) and graduated from Davidson College in 1904 . At the time he built his home, he was working as a salesman for his father in the Southern Real Estate Loan and Trust Company. ¹⁴ However, he left Charlotte around 1919 to live in Blowing Rock, North Carolina, where–as a successful land developer–he built the Mayview Manor Hotel, a prestigious resort. ¹⁵ He died in 1925 of an apparent heart ailment at the age of 41, while in Charlotte for a visit. ¹⁶

When Walter Alexander moved to Blowing Rock in 1919, he sold his home on Clement Avenue to William Cook Wilkinson, president of the Merchants and Farmers National Bank, and his wife, Rosalie Booker Wilkinson. From then until Mrs. Wilkinson’s death in 1943, it was the Wilkinson family home. ¹⁷ W. C. Wilkinson was born in Charlotte in 1866, the son of Thomas Jefferson Wilkinson of Tennessee and Laura Wilson of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. His father was a tailor by trade, and W. C. rose from “self-respecting poverty” to a position of wealth and prominence. At the age of 16, he took a job with the Merchants and Farmers National Bank and worked there for 48 years, becoming president of the bank by January 1919 and one of Charlotte’s most prominent citizens. He is perhaps best known for his work as head of the State Highway Commission for the 6th District. Wilkinson Boulevard, a twenty-mile road built in 1926 between Charlotte and Gastonia, and considered one of the best highways of that period, is named for him. He was also president of the Charlotte Bonded Warehouse Company, of Elizabeth Mills, Inc., and of the Lowell Mills at Lowell, North Carolina, as well as director of the Mechanics Building and Loan Association. ¹⁸

Rosalie Hamlett Booker Wilkinson, born in Martinsville, Virginia in 1868, was the daughter of John W. and Adelaide Hamlett Booker. She married W. C. Wilkinson in 1888, and they had five sons and two daughters: W. C. Jr., T. Harvey, Lawrence H., James W., George B., Laura (Mrs. W. R. Hopkins) and Mrs. Rosalie W. Haynes. After W. C. Wilkinson died in May 1930, his wife continued to live in the home, joined during the last few years of her life by two of her children, Mrs. Rosalie Haynes and George B. Wilkinson. ²⁰ At her death in 1943, the property at 523 Clement Avenue was left to her four surviving children, Rosalie Haynes, and James W., George B., and Thomas H. Wilkinson. ²¹ They house remained in their possession until November 1944, when it was sold to Mildred Myatt Aycock. ²²

Richard Noble Aycock and his wife, Mildred Myatt, had come to Charlotte in 1942 when he became treasurer of Rulane Gas Company. He was born in 1886 in Johnson County, North Carolina, and had become a school teacher at age 17. In 1918 he became the first National Bank Examiner in North Carolina, and lived in Raleigh. Later, he became vice-president of the First National Bank of Gastonia and business manager of Glenn Mills in Lincolnton, North Carolina. He and his wife had one daughter, Jane, and four sons, Richard N. Jr., William L., Everett, and Daniel Aycock. ²³

In 1946, the Aycocks sold the house to Rear Admiral Percy W. Foote and his wife, Genevieve C. Foote. ²⁴ Adm. Foote had retired in 1936 after a distinguished career in the U.S. Navy. Among his honors were the Order of the Crown, personally awarded to him by King Albert of Belgium in 1919, and the Distinguished Service Cross given him by President Woodrow Wilson. He also served as an aide to Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels from 1918 to 1921. After his retirement he served as Commissioner of the Pennsylvania Motor Police Force before moving to Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Adm. Foote was born at Roaring River, North Carolina in 1879, and was the son of Confederate Army Major James H. Foote, a founder of Wake Forest College. ²⁵ Until Adm. Foote and his wife bought the home, it had remained a single-family residence. However, in 1947 three couples were living there in addition to the Footes: Cyril and Eloise Jones, Russell and Virginia Smith, and Dr. Julian Neel and his wife, Phoebe. ²⁶

Dr. Neel was a resident physician at Charlotte Memorial Hospital. Between 1947 and 1958, a series of tenants are listed in the Charlotte City Directory at that address with Adm. and Mrs. Foote–sometimes with as many as five apartments being occupied. ²⁷ Adm. Foote died in 1961, and his widow apparently went to Hawaii to live. She sold the house to Mr. and Mrs. Calvin Gibson and to two brothers, Arthur Pue, Jr. of Charlotte and Charles Leslie Pue of Hillsborough County, Florida. ²⁸ The Gibsons apparently never lived in the house, and in 1963, when they sold their interest in the house to the Pue brothers, were living in Fulton County, Georgia. ²⁹ Charles and Arthur Pue, Jr., were the sons of Arthur Pue, Sr. of Clarksville, Maryland. Their mother, Leslie Gray Pue, was living in Charlotte at the time of her death in 1976, but her burial was in Brunswick, Georgia. Of this family, only Arthur Pue, Jr. lived in the Alexander house during their ownership; he was salesman for Engineering Sales Associates. ³⁰ In 1965 the house was sold to Francis R. Samaha, assistant supervisor for Ford Motor Company in Charlotte, and his wife, Martha . ³¹ They lived in the house until 1969 when it was sold to David L. and Maria Ditroi Douglas. The Douglases were later divorced, and Maria Douglas was awarded the deed to the house as part of the settlement . ³² Maria Ditroi Douglas was a native of Hungary, and two of her sisters, Miss Lili Ditroi and Mrs. Emil Mascovits, also settled in Charlotte. ³³ Maria died in 1980, and in her will she named her eldest daughter, Nora Drye, as trustee of her estate. The property at 523 Clement Avenue remained in trust until 1983, when her children, Nora (Drye), David Paul, Michael Barry, and Maria Lili Douglas sold it to Daniel G. Clodfelter and his wife, Elizabeth K. Bevan. ³⁵ Dan Clodfelter, an attorney with Moore, Van Allen and Allen, is the son of Billy G. Clodfelter of Thomasville, North Carolina, and Lorene Wells Clodfelter of Rocky Mount, North Carolina. His father’s family were among the earliest settlers in the Thomasville area in the 1800s. Elizabeth K. Bevan, who works for First Union National Bank, is from Sumter, South Carolina, where her mother’s family–the Dabbs–lived for many generations. Her father is from a Welsh family in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The Clodfelters have one daughter, Julia. Dan Clodfelter, a member of the City-County Planning Commission, has served for about seven years on the Board of Directors of the Elizabeth Community Association, which actively works for the preservation of the Elizabeth neighborhood. ³⁶

 

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NOTES

¹ Mecklenburg County Register of Deeds, Deed Book 4777, Page 544 (18 January 1984).

² Daniel G. Clodfelter, personal interview by Dorothy Frye, 21 August 1984.

³ Deed Book 340, page 205 (23 January 1915).

⁴ Deed Book 216, page 16 (4 September 1906).

⁵ Deed Book 248, page 356 (23 November 1909); Deed Book 280, page 524 (22 December 1911); Deed Book 290, page 22 (8 February 1912); Deed Book 290, page 87 (6 March 1912).

⁶ Charlotte City Water Department, Tap Application No. 2336, 7 January 1908.

⁷ Deed Book 337, page 511 (27 March 1915).

⁸ Deed Book 337, page 510 (23 February 1915); Deed Book 334, page 596 (29 April 1915).

⁹ Deed Book 257, page 618 (5 April 1910); Deed Book 257, page 682 (5 April 1910).

¹⁰ Charlotte Observer, 14 April 1915, pp. 1, 6; Blythe, Legette, and Charles L. Brockman, Hornets’ Nest: The Story of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. (Charlotte: McNally of Charlotte, 1961), page 449.

¹¹ Deed Book 340, page 593 (17 September 1915).

¹² Mecklenburg County Record of Deaths, Book 23, page 227; The Charlotte Observer, 10 September 1925, page 9, and 11 September 1925, page 5. These two sources differ in the spelling of Walter L. Alexander’s mother’s name; it is either Ramser or Ramsey.

¹³ Charlotte Observer, Ibid.; Alumni Catalog of Davidson College, 1837-1924. (Charlotte: The Presbyterian Standard Publishing Co., 1924), page 156.

¹⁴ Charlotte City Directory, 1916.

¹⁵ Charlotte Observer, 10 September 1925, page 9.

¹⁶ Ibid.; Record of Deaths, Book 23, page 227.

¹⁷ Deed Book 399, page 637 (13 August 1919); Charlotte City Directories, 1920-1943.

¹⁸ Charlotte Observer, 12 May 1930, pp. 4, 5; Ibid., 5 December 1937, Section 3, page 9; North Carolina, special limited supplement. (The American Historical Society, Inc., 1927), page 9; Record of Deaths, Book 37, page 469.

¹⁹ Charlotte Observer, 12 May 1930, pp. 4, 5; Ibid., 12 March 1943, Section 2, pp. 1, 13.

²⁰ Charlotte City Directories, 1942-1944.

²¹ Mecklenburg County Clerk of Superior Court, Will Book V, page 189; Will Book 2, page 517.

²² Deed Book 1126, page 527 (1 November 1944).

²³ Charlotte City Directory 1945/46; Death Records, 1983, page 3559; Charlotte Observer, 25 December 1983, page 10-B.

²⁴ Deed Book 1221, page 311 (29 November 1946).

²⁵Charlotte Observer, 24 June 1961, page 8-A; The Heritage of Wilkes County, Wilkes County Genealogical Society, Mrs. W. O. Absher, ed. (Winston-Salem: Hunter Publishing Co., c. 1982); Death Records, 1961, page 987.

²⁶ Charlotte City Directory, 1947.

²⁷ Ibid., 1947-1958.

²⁸ Deed Book 2279, page 591 (22 November 1961); Death Records, 1961, page 987.

²⁹ Deed Book 2463, page 3 (7 October 1963). The City Directories do not list Calvin and Charlotte Gibson as residents of 523 Clement; they lived at 1233 East Boulevard, Apt. 44, in 1963.

³⁰ Charlotte City Directory, 1965; Charlotte Observer, 22 November 1976, page 7-A; Estate File 77-E-107.

³¹ Deed Book 2678, page 572 (25 August 1965); Charlotte City Directory, 1965.

³² Deed Book 3113, page 590 (31 July 1969); Deed Book 3746, page 860 (4 April 1975).

³³ Charlotte Observer, 7 January 1980, page 4-C.

³⁴ Ibid.; Estate Files 80-E-84, 80-E-1622.

³⁵ Deed Book 4746, page 287 (3 November 1983).

³⁶ Daniel Clodfelter, ibid.; Charlotte Observer, 15 May 1982, page 16-A, and 1 November 1983, page 1-B.

 

Architectural Description  

by Thomas W. Hanchett
July 1986

The Walter L. Alexander House is a large two and a half story residence whose broad roofs, wood shingle siding, and rustic stone trim show the architectural influence of the Bungalow style. Along with its near-twin., the J. B. Alexander residence next door, the Walter L. Alexander House ranks as the grandest residence dating from the 1910s in the streetcar suburb of Elizabeth. Today the exterior, interior, and large tree-shaded lot (complete with servants cottage) look much as they did after Walter L. Alexander moved in about 1915.

W. S. Alexander, chief developer of the Elizabeth neighborhood, conceived Clement Avenue as one of the suburb’s grand streets, a broad boulevard that would connect Seventh Street to Central Avenue. The connection was never made, and today Clement Avenue remains a handsome, tree-shaded by-way, retaining the elegance which most of Charlotte’s main streets have lost in the age of automobile traffic. The two dwellings which dominate the street were erected for members of the developer’s family. John Baxter Alexander, W. S.’s brother, built the house at 509 Clement Avenue in 1913. Walter L. Alexander, W. S.’s son, was evidently so impressed by the house that he copied it for his own residence at 523 Clement Avenue two years later.

In massing, the Walter L. Alexander House is basically a gable-roofed, two-and-a-half story rectangle, enlivened by asymmetrically placed two-and-a-half-story gabled wings at the front (east) and north sides, and two hip-roofed rear wings. The roof is sheathed in asphalt shingles, and features front and rear gabled dormers, plus a small decorative front gable. Near the center of the main ridgeline is a small stone chimney, and a larger interior chimney rises at the south side of the house. Eaves extend far out beyond the walls of the house, and are supported by large brackets built of square timbers.

Exterior walls are covered in wood shingle siding and windows have wide, plain surrounds. Most are double-hung sash units with a single lower pane and multi-paned upper sash with the mullions arranged to create a series of interlocking diamonds. In the main front and side gables, windows are arranged in a tripartite form that represents a variation on the Palladian Window.

At the first story, a huge porch shelters the entire front of the house. Its wide-eaved roof is supported by square pillars of rough-hewn stone. The balustrade has flat wooden balusters. The porch wraps around the north side of the house, and then extends to form a porte cochere over the driveway. At the south side the porch extends beyond the edge of the house to form a semicircular nook, then wraps around the north facade connect with a one story enclosed sunporch, whose bay-windowed form echoes the porch curve. The rear of the house also has porches, at the first and the second story level. They are skillfully interwoven with the two rear wings, until all becomes one form.

Before venturing inside the residence, we will take a look at the yard and servants cottage. The Walter L. Alexander house sits on an oversize lot, a bit further back from the street than most Elizabeth residences. This siting is very important, because the surrounding greenery gives the house a spaciousness and rusticity that complements its rustic Bungalow architecture. Today the yard is plainly landscaped with grass and trees and a minimum of shrubbery, but probably once had carefully manicured gardens. At the rear of the lot is the servants house, one of the largest such structures of its era surviving in Charlotte. It is a full-sized one-and-a-half story Bungalow, as big and well detailed as many middle class dwellings of the day. It has a gabled roof whose bracketed eaves and gabled side dormers echo the main house. Also like the main dwelling, the cottage has wood shingle siding, double-hung windows with diamond-shaped upper panes and wide surrounds, and a broad front porch (with wood columns on brick piers, rather than stone). The cottage appears to contain three living units. It has a small, shed-roofed addition on the west side.

Returning to the main house, we will examine the interior. Its design matches the Bungalow exterior — handsomely detailed throughout with high ceilings and wide, plain moldings and wainscoting, but with none of the intricate ornament characteristic of the earlier Victorian era. Despite the dwelling’s years as rental property, little has changed. This is especially apparent in the main downstairs rooms and in the second-floor hallway, where the fine varnished woodwork survives unpainted. Even the early electric switched, brass plates with pushbuttons, remain in use throughout the house.

One enters through the front door (the door itself is not the original one) into a large corner-entry hall. Exterior windows here have beveled glass in their upper panes, said to be leaded with copper to best split the morning sun into rainbows. The space is dominated by a massive fireplace of red brick. To the right, a French door opens to the port-cochere. Waist-high paneled wainscoting rings the walls. The ceiling is criss-crossed by beams. The blond wood floor is trimmed by two strips of dark wood near the edge of the room, which form an ornamental design at each corner. At the rear of the entry hall is the grand stair, located near the exact center of the house. The stair features wainscoting, a curved banister with square balusters, and a chunky, square newel post. At the back of the stair area on the first floor are closets, an opening for what was once a dumb-waiter, and a door to a porch that is now an enclosed utility room.

The two other main first floor spaces– the dining room and the library — open off to the entry hall. To the left, through a large pocket door, is the dining room. Its wainscoting is nearly five feet high, broken at one side by a built-in china cabinet with beveled glass doors and vintage electric lighting. The ceiling has beams like those in the entry hall and the floor has an identical ornamental border. Adjoining the dining room is the sun porch. It has unusual, sliding, double-hinged exterior windows, as well as an early screen door. Behind the dining room was the kitchen and pantry. This area has been completely rebuilt over the years with new walls and fixtures. Returning to the entry hall, we can move right and toward the rear of the house through a small pocket door into the library. It also has a beamed ceiling and ornamented floor. The room is dominated by an angled fireplace whose hooded mantel is supported by massive curved uprights. Wainscoting here is five feet high, and there is a built-in bookcase along the rear wall. Next to the bookcase is a door to the original downstairs bathroom, which retains its high tile wainscot and original fixtures.

On the second floor is a wainscoted central hallway with a window seat at either end. On each side of the hall is a four-room suite, consisting of a front bedroom, a shared bath, a back bedroom, and a sleeping porch. Each bedroom has a closet with a built-in bureau. The bedrooms also retain their brass sconces and ceiling fixtures. The north bathroom still has its original high tile wainscoting, pedestal sink, and unusually long tub, while the south bathroom has recently been remodeled. The north front bedroom was probably intended as the master bedroom, for it alone has a fireplace. The fireplace has a white tile hearth, cast iron coal grate, and a plainly designed mantle flanked by pilasters. Close inspection shows that the pilasters are surprisingly not solid, but rather are hinged to reveal several small cupboards inside.

From the second floor hallway, the stair rises to the small third floor, nestled under the roof. Unlike most big houses of the period in Charlotte, this space is fully finished, and in fact surpasses downstairs detailing in one room. Pilasters flank a central hallway. On the south side is a bedroom and closet, similar to those on the second floor. On the north side is a spectacular room with five foot high paneled wainscoting and a window seat along one wall. Its highlight is its parquet floor, which mixes light and dark woods in one main pattern and one border pattern. It is a showpiece of the woodworker’s art, unexpectedly tucked away under the eaves.

The house also has a half basement. It is divided into several rooms, and may have once held a servant’s apartment.

Related items…

This report was written on November 5, 1986

 

1. Name and location of the property: The property known as the Jennie Alexander Duplex is located at 1801-1803 East Eighth Street, Charlotte, North Carolina.

2. Name, address and telephone number of the present owner of the property: The owner of the property is:

Mr. Lyman Welton & Wife, Katherine S. Holliday
1803 E. Eighth St.
Charlotte, N.C., 28204

Telephone: 704/374-0294

3. Representative photographs of the property: This report contains representative photographs of the property.

4. A map depicting the location of the property: This report contains a map which depicts the location of the property.

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5. Current Deed Book Reference to the property: The most recent deed to this property is recorded in Mecklenburg County Deed Book 4307, Page 755. The Tax Parcel Number of the property is: 127-013-01.

6. A brief historical sketch of the property: This report contains a brief historical sketch of the property prepared by Dr. William H. Huffman.

7. A brief architectural description of the property: This report contains a brief architectural description of the property prepared by Thomas W. Hanchett.

8. Documentation of why and in what ways the property meets the criteria for designation set forth in N.C.G.S. 160A-399.4:

 

a. Special significance in terms of its history, architecture, and/or cultural importance: The Commission judges that the property known as the Jennie Alexander Duplex does possess special significance in terms of Charlotte-Mecklenburg. The Commission bases its judgment on the following considerations: 1) the Jennie Alexander Duplex, erected in 1922, might be the oldest suburban residence in Charlotte which was initially designed as a duplex; 2) the Jennie Alexander Duplex was designed by James Mackson McMichael, an architect of local and regional importance; 3) the Jennie Alexander Duplex is the only known example of McMichael’s residential architecture which survives in Charlotte and is most probably the only example of a McMichael-designed duplex extant in Charlotte; and 4) the Jennie Alexander Duplex is part of a cluster of homes (it, the John Baxter Alexander House, and the Walter L. Alexander House) which once formed a unique family complex in the Elizabeth neighborhood.

b. Integrity of design, setting, workmanship, materials, feeling, and/or association: The Commission contends that the architectural description included in this report demonstrates that the property known as the Jennie Alexander Duplex meets this criterion.

9. Ad Valorem Tax Appraisal: The Commission is aware that designation would allow the owner to apply for an automatic deferral of 50% of the Ad Valorem taxes on all or any portion of the property which becomes “historic property.” The current appraised value of the improvement is $83,800. The current appraised value of the .459 acres of land is $14,000. The total appraised value of the property is $97,800. The property is zoned R6MF.

Date of Preparation of this Report: November 5, 1986.

Prepared by:
Dr. Dan L. Morrill
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Properties Commission
1225 S. Caldwell St. Box D
Charlotte, N.C., 28203

Telephone: 704/376-9115

 

 

 

A Historical Sketch of the Jennie Alexander House  

by
Dr. William H. Huffman
September, 1986

Walking or riding along East Eighth Street on the part that passes through the tree-shaded Elizabeth neighborhood, one encounters a house on the corner of Lamar Avenue that is rather different most of its neighbors. The duplex at 1803 East Eighth is the former residence of Jane J. (Jennie) Alexander (1861-1932), who had the house built in 1922.

Jennie Alexander was born in Monroe, N.C. at the beginning of the Civil War in 1861. She was the daughter of Dr. Cook Alexander (d. 1882) and Sarah Coburn Stewart Alexander (d. 1902), who had moved to Charlotte from Union County prior to the hostilities, but removed to Monroe for the duration. After the war, the Alexanders returned to Charlotte, where they eventually established themselves as one of the wealthiest and most prominent families of the city. Jennie Alexander, her three brothers (Walter Stewart, William Coburn, and John Baider), and two sisters (Lucy and Mary) all bought and sold real estate in the city, but brothers W. S. and J. B. became two of the most important real estate developers in turn-of -the-century Charlotte.¹ It is said that W. S. Alexander (1858-1924) was the first in the city to make the real estate business a profession. In 1899, with Peter Marshall Brown (1859-1913), he organized the Southern Real Estate, Loan and Trust Company, and served as its president from 1908 until his death in 1924, when his brother J. B. Alexander took over the top post. Through his control of the Highland Park Company, W. S. Alexander began the development of the first part of the Elizabeth neighborhood in the late 1890s, in the area on each side of Elizabeth Avenue. By the time the electric trolley line was extended from the Square to Elizabeth College at the top of the hill a mile south of the city in 1903, development of the suburban area began to move at a faster pace.

Two areas just to the north of Elizabeth Avenue began development in 1900, Piedmont Park and Oakhurst, and in 1904, through the Highland Park Co., John B. Alexander and his nephew, W. L. Alexander (Walter’s son) opened up an extension of the original Elizabeth Avenue development to the southeast, which they called Elizabeth Heights. In the Teens and Twenties, many of the city’s prominent citizens as well as outer middle class families built houses in the Elizabeth neighborhood. ³

In 1906, John D. Alexander bought a whole block of land in the Elizabeth Heights section from the Highland Park Company for $3,600.00, which was bounded by Clement, 8th and Lamar on three sides, and the Oakhurst development on the fourth (roughly where Ninth Street would be if it went through). He intended this block to be where he and his family would build their homes, and in 1913 he built a spacious one for himself on the corner of Clement and 8th Avenues.⁵ Two years later, nephew W. L. Alexander built his own on Clement just up from Eighth Street⁶ and in 1921, Jennie Alexander bought a 100 x 200 foot on the comer of Lamar and Eighth from J. B. for her new house.⁷

To design the new residence, Jennie Alexander hired J. M. McMichael, one of the city’s leading architects James Mackson McMichael (1870-1944) was a Pennsylvania native who came to Charlotte in 1901. He was best known for many of the fine churches he designed in his career, many for black congregations. In Charlotte, some of his most important commissions include the old Charlotte Public Library (now demolished), and its companion building on North Tryon Street, the former First Baptist Church, now Spirit Square, the Little Rock A.M.E. Zion Church, now the Afro-American Cultural Center; the Tabernacle A.R.P. Church on Trade Street, the Myers Park Presbyterian Church, St. John’s Baptist Church on Hawthorne Lane; and the North Carolina Medical College building at Poplar and Sixth Streets. In all, McMichael designed twenty-two churches and some one hundred eighty-seven buildings in the Charlotte area, and hundreds more throughout the country. ⁹ For her residence, Jennie Alexander had McMichael design a duplex, which is believed to be the first one in the city.¹⁰ After its completion in 1922, W. S. Alexander’s unmarried daughter, Minnie, moved in with her Aunt Jennie in what they named The Pines.¹¹ The other part of the house was rented to various tenants. For ten years Jennie Alexander enjoyed the peaceful living in that serene part of Elizabeth.

At her death in 1932, Jennie Alexander, who was an active in the Presbyterian Church through her membership in First Presbyterian, as were the other members of her family, willed money to a number of Presbyterian missions and institutions, but her real estate was divided between her brother, J. D, and her nephew.¹² For the next twenty years, the house remained in the ownership of her heirs, who in 1952 sold it to Thomas and Comelia Haughton. The present owners bought the property from Mrs. Haughton, then a widow. in 1980. ¹³ The Jennie Alexander House, through its association with the Alexander family, its place in Elizabeth, and designed by J. M. McMichael is an important thread in the fabric of the city’s history.

 

Notes

¹ Charlotte Observer, Apr. 18, 1932, p. 4; May 30, 1924, p. 1.

² Ibid; Charlotte Observer, July 28, 1943, p. 12.

³ Thomas Hanchett, “Charlotte Neighborhood Survey”, Charlotte Mecklenburg Historic Properties Commission, 1984.

⁴ Deed Book 216, p. 16, 4 Sept. 1906.

⁵ Brochure, “A Tour of Historic Elizabeth”, Charlotte Mecklenburg Historic Properties Commission, 1984.

⁶ Ibid.

⁷ Deed Book 454, p. 158, 18 Nov. 1921.

⁸ City of Charlotte building permit 3505, 22 Dec. 1921.

⁹ Information on file at Charlotte Mecklenburg Historic Properties Commission; brochure, Historic Architecture Foundation,Washington, D. C, 1984.

¹⁰ Ibid.

¹¹ Charlotte Observer, May 30, 1924, p. 1.

¹² Will Book W, probated, 22 Apr. 1932.

¹³ Deed Book 1559, P. 123, 29 May 1952; Deed Book 4307, p. 755, 30 May 1980.

 

 

 

ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION  

By Thomas W. Hanchett

The Jennie Alexander Duplex is one of three large dwellings built in this block during the 1910s- 1920s for members of the Alexander family, the family who guided the development of the surrounding “streetcar suburb” of Elizabeth. Like the J. B. Alexander House and the W. L. Alexander House around the corner on Clement Avenue, Jennie Alexander’s residence shows influence of the Bungalow architectural style. It is a two-story weatherboarded structure, built as a”side-by-side” duplex,with wide bracketted eaves and chunky brick-columned porches. In both its interior and exterior, the dwelling remains in very good original condition, and the original servants’ quarter (also a duplex) may still be seen behind the house.

The Exterior:

The Elizabeth neighborhood boosted a number of owner-occupied duplexes in the 1920s, particularly on Greenway Avenue, but the Alexander Duplex is by far the largest example of the genre. The duplex sits on a slight rise at the corner of East Eighth Street and Lamar Avenue, with both units fronting on Eighth. The main block of the house consists of a two-story rectangle with a two-story wing set back at each side. A pair of large one-story front porches nestle in the niches created by the set-backs. The “west unit” of the duplex has a small, gabled, one-story kitchen and porch wing at the rear. The “east unit” has a larger rear kitchen wing, plus a one-story hip-roofed library wing which extends from the east side of the duplex.

The main block of the structure has hip roofs. The unusually wide eaves are supported by paired triangular brackets made of large squared timbers. There are two brick chimneys located between the units: an interior chimney near the center of the front roof, and an exterior chimney at the center of the rear facade. Windows have wide surrounds edged in simple molding. Panel blocks are added below the corners of the surrounds for a decorative effect. The windows themselves are double-hung sash units, and most have six panes in the upper sash with one large pane in the lower. An exception is found in the first-floor front facade, which has a pair of tripartite windows, each made up of a central six-over-one-pane unit flanked by two four-over-one-pane units. By the way, the library wing at the east side of the house has windows and surrounds which match the main structure, which is an indication that the wing may have been part of the original design.

The front porches of the duplex are prominent architectural features. Thick red brick columns with corbelled decoration at the tops support the corners. On each set of columns rests a flat porch roof, supported by both curved and triangular brackets. A simple balustrade with square balusters rings the roof, allowing it to be used as a balcony, and in fact a door opens onto it from the upstairs hall. A similar balustrade protects the main level of the porch. Brick steps lead from each porch down to a concrete sidewalk to the street, and this brick blends into the brick of the structure’s foundation.

The Yard and the Servants’ Quarter:

Before moving inside the main house, we will look briefly at the yard and at the Servants’ quarter. The main house sits back from Eighth Street approximately forty feet, in line with its neighbors, and near the center of its lot. Along Eighth Street and Lamar Avenue there is a low concrete wall approximately a foot high with a curved front face. Such walls were found elsewhere in Charlotte’s desirable early-twentieth century neighborhoods, including Dilworth and Fourth Ward, but rarely survive in good condition today. Behind the house is a new wooden fence shielding a newly landscaped back yard. In the back yard is the original servants’ house, a one-story gabled structure similar in form to mill housing of that day. Simple brackets in the eaves and weatherboarded wall section of the main house. The dwelling was originally a duplex, with two front doors. Today the doors remain, but the interior has been gutted and rebuilt under the design direction of owner Katie Holliday as a “bed and breakfast” unit. This early 1980s remodeling also included complete rebuilding of the quarter’s front porch, extension of its rear garage, and addition of a standing-seam sheet metal roof.

The Interior of the “West Unit”:

Looking first inside the “west unit,” we enter through the front door into a stair hall. It contains its original light fixture, a hanging globe. A handsome stair winds up the outside walls. It has a heavy balustrade and square newel with paneled sides and a bowl-like carved top piece. From the stair hall, doorways open into the living room, the dining room, and the breakfast room, giving the first floor an open feeling which is reinforced by the light spilling in from the many windows.

The living room at the front of the house has a wide molded baseboard and a small molded cornice,motifs which are carried throughout the house. A fireplace with a effirgian mantle of red brick and white wooden molding dominates the east wall. French doors in the opposite wall open onto the front porch. The north wall is actually a large opening to the dining room. The opening is flanked by a pair of large square Bungalow-style columns, and is topped by an oversized frieze and cornice. Moving through this opening, one enters the dining room. It continues the decor of the living room, and retains its original cast-metal hanging light fixture. Next to the dining room is a breakfast room, somewhat larger than the “breakfast nooks” typically found on houses of this vintage. The current owners have a molded chair rail here which blends well with the original trim. Behind the breakfast room is the kitchen, the only major room with no cornice molding. The kitchen sink unit and stove appear to date from the 1940s. One corner of the room was long ago walled off for a toilet. At the back of the kitchen is one door to a small pantry, and another door to the small enclosed rear porch.

Upstairs in the “west unit” is a stair hall containing a closet, a door to the front porch roof, and doors to the bedrooms and bathroom. Doors are four-panel units with two small upper panels above two long lower panels. The front bedroom is the master bedroom. It contains a Doric-columned mantel over a fireplace with a cast iron coal grate. A pair of simple electric sconces next to it were designed to light a dressing table. The room contains one closet. Behind the master bedroom is a similarly-sized second bedroom, also with a closet but without a fireplace. The current owners have cut a new door from this room into the “east unit” of the duplex, allowing passage from one side of the duplex to the other. Across the hall from the back bedroom is a much smaller room that may have originally served as a sewing room or child’s bedroom. At the back of the hall is the well-appointed bathroom. It retains its original tub, toilet, white tiled wainscoting, and built-in medicine cabinet with an unusual mirrored “Dutch door.” The only major change have been new sconces flanking the medicine cabinet, and a new pedestal sink in recent years.

Dissimilarities Between the “East Unit” and the “West Unit”:

According to the current owners, a thick brick wall separates the two sides of the duplex, providing a sound and fire barrier. The “east unit” of the duplex is identical to the “west unit” in its molding and mantles, but slightly different in its floor plan. On the first floor, the dining and living rooms are almost the same, except that they are separated by French doors rather than a columned opening. The current owners have added a molded chair rail in the dining room. The stair hall is similar, but the stairs wind in a different direction. Next to the stair hall is the library, not found in the “west unit,” with its own bathroom (original fixtures and tile –except for a new sink — match those seen elsewhere in the house). Behind the stair hall and next to the library is a breakfast room of quite different layout than in the “west unit.” The breakfast room contains an original built-in china cabinet. Behind the breakfast room is a spacious kitchen, with a new chair rail, and with rear doors that lead to a pantry and to an enclosed rear porch. On the second floor of the “east unit,” the two main bedrooms are similar to those already described. But the bathroom is slightly bigger and there is no “sewing room” opening off the upper stair hall. Instead a small room that may have been a nursery opens off the bathroom.

 

For more information…

Survey & Research Report: John Baxter Alexander House

Survey & Research Report: Walter Alexander House