This report was written on 29 January 1992
1. Name and location of the property: The property known as the John W. Sheppard House is located at 601 North Poplar Street, Charlotte, in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.
2. Name, address and telephone number of the present owner of the property: The owner of the property is:
Mr. Joseph Ashley Parlier
601 North Poplar Street
Charlotte, North Carolina 28202
Telephone: (704) 358-1464
Tax Parcel Number: 078-031-06
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 maps which depict the location of the property.
5. Current Deed Book Reference to the property: The most recent deed to Tax Parcel Number 078-031-06 is listed in Mecklenburg County Deed Book 6526 at page 417.
6. A brief historical sketch of the property: This report contains a brief historical sketch of the property prepared by Ms. Paula M. Stathakis.
7. A brief architectural description of the property: This report contains a brief architectural description of the property prepared by Ms. Nora M. Black.
8. Documentation of why and in what ways the property meets criteria for designation set forth in N.C.G.S. 160A-400.5:
a. Special significance in terms of its history, architectural and /or cultural importance: The Commission judges that the property known as the John W. Sheppard House does possess special significance in terms of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. The Commission bases its judgment on the following considerations: 1) the John W. Sheppard House was completed by 1899; 2) John W. Sheppard was one of the first university-trained professional pharmacists in the United States; 3) John W. Sheppard joined with J. P. Woodall to open the Woodall and Sheppard Drugstore in 1896 at the corner of Trade and Tryon Streets; 4) the John W. Sheppard House was owned and maintained by the family of Edith Sheppard Shaw until 1961; 5) the John W. Sheppard House has survived through the years with most interior appointments, such as wood paneling, stained moldings, and wooden pocket doors, intact and in very good condition; 6) the John W. Sheppard House has many exterior appointments, such as original front doors and full facade porch, intact and in very good condition; 7) the John W. Sheppard House is architecturally significant as one of the best examples of the Free Classic, Queen Anne style house in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County; and 8) the John W. Sheppard House is one of only a few houses that is original to site and orientation in Fourth Ward.
b. Integrity of design, setting, workmanship, materials, feeling and /or association: The Commission contends that the architectural description by Ms. Nora M. Black included in this report demonstrates that the John W. Sheppard 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 a designated “historic landmark.” The current appraised value of the improvements is $141,060. The current appraised value of Tax Parcel 078-031-06 is $99,840. The total appraised value of the property is $240,900. The property is zoned UR1.
Date of Preparation of this Report: 29 January 1992
Prepared by: Dan L. Morrill in conjunction with Ms. Nora M. Black
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission
The Law Building, Suite 100, 730 East Trade Street
P. O. Box 35434
Charlotte, North Carolina
Telephone: 704/376-9115
P.M. Stathakis
The John W. Sheppard House at 601 North Poplar Street was built in 1898 and 1899 by John W. Sheppard. Sheppard, a native of Cedarville, New Jersey, came to live in Charlotte in 1896. In that year, he and his partner, J.P. Woodall, bought the Reese and Robertson Drugstore on the Northwest corner of Independence Square. 1 Sheppard received his degree in pharmacy from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. After completing an internship at the prestigious Philadelphia firm of Henry C. Blair, Sheppard moved to Memphis, Tennessee and worked for James A. Robinson with his friend J.P. Woodall. 2 Two years later, Sheppard and Woodall decided to go into business for themselves. After touring several Southern towns for potential business opportunities, Sheppard discovered Charlotte. He was “so pleased with the town and the people” that he wrote his friend Woodall and urged him to come see Charlotte for himself. 3
The Sheppard and Woodall Drug Store
In 1899, Sheppard returned to Cedarville, New Jersey to marry his childhood sweetheart, Anna Stanton Mulford. Their wedding, held on October 10 at the Mulford home, was described by the Cedarville paper as an elegant affair. The paper also noted that after their “wedding tour”, Mr. and Mrs. Sheppard would reside in Charlotte, “in their furnished home now awaiting them.” By 1899, Sheppard was clearly well established, and, in accordance with the gentlemanly practice of the day, was able to provide a home for his wife in advance of her arrival. 6
Sheppard acquired the lot at 601 North Poplar Street on February 22, 1898 from William and Lillie Morse, who lived on the adjacent lot, and from Thomas and Eliza Davis. 7 Sheppard’s lot was originally part of the 100′ x 198′ lot owned by the Morse family. The Morse family acquired the land in 1892 for $2500.00. A house already occupied the lot, built by the previous owner of the property, Joe McClure. (McClure died in 1885 and according to legend, haunted the Morse house.) Sometime between 1892 and 1898, the Morse family decided to divide the lot. To accommodate this decision, they moved the house from the middle of the lot to the half away from the corner, and ultimately sold the corner half to Sheppard for $1000.00. 8 Unlike many houses in Fourth Ward, the John W. Sheppard House was an original part of the neighborhood and occupies its original site.
When John Sheppard built his house in Fourth Ward, Charlotte was still a walking city. The commercial core was at the center of town, and immediately flanking this core were the homes of the wealthiest citizens. Since everyone walked to work, only the most prestigious and prosperous people lived close to their jobs. Unlike the present spatial arrangement of Charlotte, the finest homes were found at the edge of the commercial district; on Tryon and on Trade Streets.
The middle class occupied the area immediately behind the upper class. Fourth Ward was a middle class neighborhood, and was situated near enough to town for its residents to walk to work. Sheppard bicycled to work everyday, as did many of his Fourth Ward neighbors. The working poor were relegated to the outer fringes of this residential arrangement. 10
John and Anna Sheppard had three sons and one daughter. Tragically, all three sons died in childhood; James died at age 6 of spinal meningitis, infants John and Louis died of colitis when the family was on summer vacation in New Jersey. 11 Daughter Edith survived, and she and her parents were a typical family in the neighborhood. Mr. Sheppard was a professional man; Mrs. Sheppard tended the house with the help of her day servant Ora McIlwee; and Edith was sent to school and spent most of her youth amusing herself with her friends in Fourth Ward.
Edith’s best friend was Mildred Morse, who lived next door. Edith, Mildred, and other girlfriends; Katherine Blakely, Mary and Margaret Blair, and the Grandy sisters played together and grew up together in Fourth Ward. As young girls, Edith and Mildred played see-saw on a loose plank in the fence that separated the Sheppard and Morse yards. They also crawled on their bellies exploring under the Morse house and cut paper dolls out of magazines. One afternoon, Mildred and Edith found a rat in the Sheppard’s garage. Mildred, showing off for Edith, poked the rat in the face, and the rat bit her finger. Mrs. Sheppard had to administer first aid. Such dangerous pursuits were not generally the norm; Edith and Mildred and their friends liked to go to the movies. For a quarter they could catch up on the weekly installments of serials such as the “Perils of Pauline” and have enough money left over for ice cream. Because there were so many neighborhood churches, Edith and her friends could frequently find weddings to attend. The fact that the girls were not formally invited to most of these ceremonies did not trouble them; they found that they could observe most weddings undetected. 12
Edith Sheppard attended the neighborhood schools- Bethune Elementary and Brevard Street High School. Edith also attended college at a time when few girls were allowed to leave home and pursue higher education. She graduated from Swarthmore College in 1923 with a degree in History and returned to Charlotte to teach third grade at the Elizabeth School for two years. In 1925, Edith married Thomas Willard Shaw, also a graduate of Swarthmore. Her wedding was held at home; the ceremony took place in the front parlor with approximately fifty guests in attendance. 13
Edith and her husband moved to New Jersey after their wedding and also lived in Maryland before returning to Charlotte in 1934, prior to the birth of their third son, Robert. The Shaws moved back to 601 North Poplar to stay with John Sheppard (Anna Sheppard died in 1932). Edith Shaw raised her sons in the same house and neighborhood where she grew up. The Shaw boys attended Bethune Elementary School, and later attended Alexander Graham Junior High School (when it was located on Morehead Street) and Central High School.
Edith’s sons enjoyed growing up in Fourth Ward as much as she did. They played baseball and football in various vacant lots in the neighborhood. The boys and their friends were adept at sneaking rides and small pieces of ice from the ice man. They tied tin cans to car bumpers (this was best done when cars waited at stop signs at night) and tried to hit the Poplar Apartments with marbles shot from slingshots from their bedroom windows. 14
The Shaw boys were also able to enjoy the companionship of their grandfather until his death in April of 1955. John Sheppard used to take them for walks to the train station, and would also walk them to Sunday School and to church when they were young. Sheppard offered his grandsons gold watches if they did not smoke or drink before their twenty-first birthday. 15
The John W. Sheppard House remained with the Sheppard family until 1961. The property was subsequently purchased by Mrs. Robert Neal. The Neal family maintained the property and kept the house in good condition during the years that the rest of Fourth Ward declined.16 The present owner, Joseph Ashley Parlier, acquired the property in 1991. Parlier has refurbished most of the house back to its original style, and uses the house as his private residence and as a bed and breakfast. This restoration has not been unusually difficult because the house was never allowed to fall into disrepair.
Notes
1 Charlotte Observer, section three, September 13, 1942, “Interesting Carolina People” by Mrs. J.A. Yarbrough.
2 Sheppard and Woodall were among the first wave of university-trained professional pharmacists in the United States. The professionalization of the discipline began in Germany in the mid-nineteenth century, and expanded into British and American universities by the late nineteenth century. Further information about this issue may be found in Charles Singer and E. Ashworth Underwood, A Short History of Medicine. New York: Oxford University Press, 1962.
3 Charlotte Observer, September 13, 1942.
4 Clipping from Charlotte Observer, 1896, n.p. from the files of Mr. Robert Shaw, grandson of John W. Sheppard. Interview with Robert Shaw, 1-10-92.
5 Charlotte Observer, September 13, 1942. Interview with Mrs. Edith Shaw, daughter of John W. Sheppard, 1-10-92.
6 Wedding Announcement from the Cedarville, New Jersey newspaper, October 11, 1899. Property of Robert Shaw.
7 Deed 123-581, County Court House.2-21-1898. Register of Deeds, Mecklenburg County.
8 Copy of letter of Mildred Morse McEwen to Mrs. Robert Neal (former owner of 601 North Poplar), May 19, 1976. Copy property of Mr. J. Ashley Parlier, present owner of the property. Deed 123581.
9 Thomas Hanchett, Charlotte and Its Neighborhoods. The Growth of a New South City. 1850-1930. Unpublished manuscript compiled for the Charlotte Mecklenburg Historic Properties Commission.
10 Ibid. This kind of pattern is described here in general terms, but is a fairly accurate description of late nineteenth century Charlotte and of other cities in the preindustrial phase of their development. For further discussion of the transitions in the spatial arrangement of urban areas see David Ward, Cities and Immigrants. A Geography of Chance in Nineteenth Century America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1971; David R. Goldfield and Blaine A. Brownell, Urban America. From Downtown to No Town. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1979.
11 Interview, Robert Shaw and Mrs. Edith Shaw.
12 Interview, Mrs. Edith Shaw. Mildred Morse McEwen, Growing Up in Fourth Ward, Charlotte, N.C.: Heritage Printers, 1987, pp. 50, 67, 77-78.
13 Interview with Edith Shaw, Charlotte Observer, October 7, 1925, p. 20.
14 Interview, Robert Shaw.
15 Ibid. The Sheppards and the Shaws attended Second Presbyterian Church, which at this time was located on North Tryon Street next to Montaldo’s.
16 The Charlotte Observer described 601 North Poplar Street as “one of Fourth Ward’s best kept homes” in 1974, when interest in reviving the downtown suburb was initially publicized. The Charlotte Observer, December 1, 1974, sect. D-1. Mrs. Neal was featured in a story about the house in 1976. In this story, Mrs. Neal described the fine construction and detailed work in the house. This article also describes the Neal’s interior changes to the house which included red wall to wall carpeting downstairs (red carpet was intended to evoke the house’s Victorian heritage) and paneling that covered the plaster walls. Parlier has removed both of these features in his attempt to restore the house to its original form. The Charlotte News, May 15, 1976, “Victorian Classic” by Edie Low, n.p.
Prepared by: Ms. Nora M. Black
The John W. Sheppard House is located in Charlotte’s Fourth Ward on the north side of North Poplar Street at the intersection of West 9th Street. During the era of rebuilding in Fourth Ward, the City of Charlotte closed several streets to reduce cut-through traffic. One of those closed was West 9th Street on the southwest side of the John W. Sheppard House. A small “pocket park” with a noisy fountain and benches fills the narrow area once used by cars. The driveway is located toward the rear of the lot at a point where West 9th Street remerges beyond the “pocket park” seen from North Poplar Street. The front or south facade of the house faces North Poplar Street; the rear or north facade overlooks the side of an adjacent house. The house is located on a rectangular-shaped lot (roughly 48′ wide by 104′ deep) owned by Mr. Joseph Ashley Parlier. A low retaining wall runs along the south side of the tract facing North Poplar Street.
The John W. Sheppard House is a Victorian House built in the Queen Anne style. The house is a subtype of the the Queen Anne style called the Free Classic typed Houses built between 1860 and 1900, the last decades of the reign of Britain’s Queen Victoria, are usually referred to as “Victorian.” The advent of balloon frame construction, replacing heavy timber construction, simplified the home building industry making it easier to add bays and overhangs and to construct irregular floor plans. Industrialization in the United States allowed large factories to mass produce wire nails, doors, windows, siding, and decorative details; the growing railroad system carried these mass-produced items throughout the country. 2 The John W. Sheppard House displays many of the benefits of the era including the projecting bays; the dormer and its decorative details, and the cross-gables of the varied roofline.
The ground plan of the John W. Sheppard House is a compound plan with irregular projections from the principal mass. The house presents an asymmetrical, two-story elevation to North Poplar Street. The front-view is dominated by the one-story porch that encircles half of the first floor and the two-story cutaway bay. The band of shingles at the wall-roof juncture and in the gable ends adds the wall texture variation that is common in the Queen Anne style. The mansard roof with lower cross gables is a common roof type found in this style.
Exterior
The John W. Sheppard Houses has three types of siding: original horizontal board siding, Masonite siding, and wood shingles. The Masonite siding was applied in the 1970’s by the Neal family, the owners at that time, to replace deteriorated horizontal board siding. The Masonite siding was cut down in width to match the original siding. Wood shingles form a band around the main block of the house at the roof-wall juncture. A narrow band of molding, painted eggplant as an accent, tops a single wide board that serves as a cornice dividing the horizontal siding from the wood shingles. Narrow corner boards terminate at the single board cornice. The cross gable ends are covered with wood shingles; the shingles are even laid at an angle to meet the fascia and shingle molding. The exterior of the house has a palette of seven colors including the cream-color of the trim and grey-green, the predominant color.
The mansard roof is tripped and dual-pitched with a steep lower slope. It encloses a large attic; however, the attic does not provide usable space to the interior of the house. Two interior brick chimneys with corbeled tops pierce the slate roof. The roof is supported by rafters of rough cut timber; the random width boards forming the roof sheathing are 3/4″ thick. The original slate roof is laid in a simple, coursed pattern with four-course decorative bands cut and laid in a fish scale pattern. The metal ridge caps are finished with tall slender finials. The ledge-like, boxed eaves contain interior gutters which carry roof runoff to the downspouts. The high cost of repairs to a slate roof are well known to the current owner, Mr. Parlier. He paid $6100 in 1991 to repair his slate roof. 3
Many of the windows in the John W. Sheppard House contain the original leaded glass. Most are double hung wooden sash; each sash contains a single large pane of glass. Custom-built, aluminum-framed storm windows have been added to conserve energy; they are painted white to match the simple window casings. Originally the house had interior screens to provide protection from insects. Only three of those screens are still in place. Both the front bay and the west bay have a shallow rectangular stained glass window over a rectangular main window of a single pane of beveled glass. A cantilevered wall extension (with curved support bracket) on the east side of the house contains a single square stained glass window.
The front elevation is three units wide with the widest unit being the two-story cutaway bay. The cutaway bay, characterized by the walls of the bay receding under the corners of the gable, is located on the southwest corner of the front facade. The front entry forms the center unit; a single window completes the first floor of the front facade. The second story center unit is composed of two square windows with each having a St. Andrew’s cross combined with a Greek cross. The last second story unit, on the southeast corner, has an oval stained glass window with a keystone detail at both the top and bottom of the wooden casing. The shingled gable end of the attic story (over the cutaway bay) has a three part decorative element; the oval-headed stained glass window flanked by wooden vents lends a Palladian look. A dormer with shaped front decorated with flat jigsaw cut trim is located in the attic story just off the centerline of the house. Its asymmetrical location, contrasting colors, and stained glass add a distinctive, although characteristic, touch to the lively Queen Anne facade.
The one-story porch extends across the front of the house, wraps around the bay in a quarter circle, and extends halfway down the west side of the house before terminating in a steep, narrow stairway. Engaged pilasters with moldings of contrasting colors flank the bay. The roof of the porch is supported by Tuscan columns raised to the level of the porch railing on brick pedestals. The porch railing is a simple wooden balustrade. Bands of molding painted in contrasting colors add interest to the otherwise plain architrave. The porch is floored with tongue and groove boards painted hunter green. It has a ceiling of beaded board painted soft blue. Four concrete steps, flanked by brick piers, lead to the porch. Although the exact age of the light fixtures is unknown, it is believed that they were installed when electricity was installed in the house.
The front entry has a wooden screen door, decorated with a Greek key design, that has been converted to a storm door. The owner simply replaced the screen with glass. The knob on this door bears an inscription that says it was patented in 1898. The inner door is also of wood with three lower wooden panels, a middle panel of glass, and one high wooden panel. The hardware is original.
The John W. Sheppard House has no porch on the back or north facade of the house at this time. Originally, the house had a large first floor porch enclosed with lattice and a second floor sleeping porch. The- framework of that porch has been enclosed with the same siding as the rest of the house. The back door, which not original, is approached by a single flight of steps running parallel to the back of the house.
Interior
The interior of the John W. Sheppard House has not been modernized to any great degree. The beautiful paneling, balustrade and woodwork were never painted. This can be explained by the fact that the house remained in the same family for many years. The descendants of Mr. Sheppard had little desire or inclination to change the house of their forebears. Most of the historic fabric is not only intact but visible. The rooms have original pine moldings and original hardware for the wooden interior doors. Walls are of plaster; however, the plaster ceilings were so damaged that they had to be covered with sheetrock. The ceilings are approximately 11′ high throughout the house. Tiger oak was used for the flooring on the first floor while pine was used on the second floor. Stained glass windows have a stylized floral motif portrayed in opalescent glass. Some of the stained glass windows are copies made when the originals were said to be far beyond repair. Several original sconces, reminders of the gas light era, are still in place in rooms and hallways.
The front door opens to a large entry hall; an open staircase to the second floor is to the right (east) of the door. The entry hall is striking in appearance. Pine paneling, with a rich honey stain, encloses the closet at the base of the stairwell. A built-in bench, of the same wood, has a seat that lifts to reveal a storage area. The wainscot matches the paneling. A fireplace adds a welcoming touch to the entry hall. The fire surround is of stained pine with laurel wreathes used as decorative elements. Tucked beside the fireplace is a small projecting window seat with a stained glass window. The square newels on the first floor and the landing have laurel wreath decorations; each newel corner is beaded. Urns top each newel.
To the left (west side of the house) when standing at the front door is the guest parlor. It is approximately 14′ by 16′ although it appears larger because of the bay. There are fixed stained glass transom lights over the windows. The focal point of the guest parlor is the delicate fire surround with oval mirror. The maple fire surround has tall slender columns on each side of the fireplace; each column supports a disc designed to hold a plant or a knickknack. Pale green, rust and ivory tiles (looking almost like marble) surround a black cast iron fireplace insert. This is the only fireplace in the house that is not usable. It was closed in 1915 when the boiler was installed to provide central heat. Privacy could be provided for the guest parlor by closing the 9′ tall pocket doors. The seven-panel doors, made of pine, are still operable.
From the front door, a person could continue through the entry hall past the the guest parlor to the family sitting room also on the west side of the house. The family sitting room is approximately 16′ by 18′ and has a bay with a door that opens onto the west side of the porch. This bay also has a fixed stained glass transom light over the center window. The fire surround has slender posts supporting two shelves. One shelf is high, placed above the rectangular mirror, while the other shelf is above the the fire tile surrounding the fireplace opening. This fire surround has a much sturdier feel than that of the guest parlor. The simple floral wreath and dentil molding lend it a masculine air. Brown and white tiles surround a cast iron fireplace insert which has a floral motif. A large closet (with a window to provide light) is adjacent to the family sitting room.
The dining room is approximately 16′ by 15′ and is located on the east side of the house beyond the entry hall. The fireplace occupies the south wall of the room to share a chimney with the entry hall fireplace. The fire surround is flanked by Ionic columns which support a single shelf; laurel wreathes provide a decorative element. Variegated beige tiles surround the fireplace opening; a cast iron fireplace insert repeats the laurel motif. A plate rail with small support brackets surrounds the dining room. An original corner cupboard stands in the northwest corner of the room. A radiator from the butler’s pantry, complete with a top warming section, has been moved to the dining room.
The dining room has a doorway leading to a butler’s pantry. This room has not undergone rehabilitation. The cracked plaster and layers of old paint speak to the true age of the John W. Sheppard House. A smaller storage pantry is located to the west side of the butler’s pantry. To the rear (north side) of the butler’s pantry is the kitchen. The kitchen was partly renovated several years ago, but the cabinets, sink, and floors are not in good condition. The original plaster walls and pine wainscot are covered with sheets of paneling. The kitchen does have an original built-in pie safe with an unusual pass-through door to the storage pantry.
The last room on the first floor is the enclosed back porch. It is located on the northwest corner of the house. At the extreme northwest corner of the enclosed porch is a bathroom. Originally installed by the Sheppards, it was for the sole use of the maid who worked for the family. The fixtures have been replaced in recent years. The tongue and groove flooring and the beaded board ceiling are original finishes. An item of interest is the wood conduit found on the back porch.
The front staircase climbs from the entry hall to a landing large enough to accommodate a grandfather clock. The stair continues to climb into an opening that reaches the full height of the second floor ceilings. Two oval stained glass windows, one on the south wall and one on the east wall, provide light in the stairwell. The balustrade has simple turned balusters. The long single-run stair ends in a room sized landing on the second floor. The second floor has a double newel, each topped with a carved ball rather than the urns used on the first floor and landing. A service stair is located at the rear (north end) of the house. That stair, unlike the main stair, is narrow, winding and dark.
The second floor landing has plaster walls with a pine wainscot. It also has the original plaster ceiling. The rounded plaster corner turning from the landing into the second floor hallway was rebuilt by the current owner. The second floor landing has one of the original gas sconces mentioned earlier. It is located on the south wall of the landing adjacent to a door to the trunk storage room. One day, early in the life of the house but after the installation of electricity, someone left the door to the trunk storage room open against the globe of the sconce. A large scorch mark on the door attests to the hazard of living with open flames during the gas light era. When Mr. Sheppard saw how close he had come to losing his beloved home to fire, he ordered the gas line to the sconces disconnected immediately. 5
The room with the scorched door off the second floor landing is located over a portion of the entry hall. It was originally used to store the trunks used by the Sheppard family for their long summer trips. The current owner converted the trunk storage room into a bath to be used by guests of the bed and breakfast. The trunk storage room has the two windows with crosses mentioned in the exterior description of the front facade. The windows, called “pie windows” by the current owner, were rebuilt to the original look using an early photo of the house.
To the left (west) of the second floor landing is a bedroom overlooking North Poplar Street. This room contains a piece of the original stained glass which the current owner found and purchased. The stained glass window hangs in front of a clear glass window located high in the bay. The second bedroom on the west side of the house overlooks West 9th Street. Situated above the family sitting room, it was originally Mr. John W. Sheppard’s bedroom. In fact, Mr. Sheppard died in this bedroom in April of 1955. Mr. Sheppard’s room has an adjacent closet with a window to provide light. Both of these bedrooms have received a fresh coat of paint and are used as guest rooms.
A third bedroom is located on the east side of the house. It has not been repainted yet. In the future it will be spruced up to receive guests of the bed and breakfast. A narrow closet, located in the northeast corner of the room, has a shelf with a semicircular cut-out sized to accommodate the opening closet door.
Unlike the elaborate fireplaces of the more public first floor, the bedroom fireplaces have simpler wooden fire surrounds with cast iron fireplace inserts. The color of the fire tiles is varied. Again the predominant decorative motif is that of laurel and stylized vegetation.
The only entrance to the attic is a trap door in the ceiling of a closet located between Mr. Sheppard’s bedroom and the back service stair. The bathroom on the east side of the upstairs was the only bathroom when the house was constructed. It has not been refurbished. A high-back sink protected the walls from splashes.
The fourth bedroom, formerly the sleeping porch on the rear (north) side of the house, is encircled by original windows. However, the ceiling has been lowered to allow insulation to be placed between the original ceiling and the new ceiling. Inexpensive paneling has been installed on the walls. The current owner plans to return this area to its original condition as time and money permit.
The John W. Sheppard House was constructed without a basement. The installation of central heat in 1915 necessitated the digging of a room-sized cellar to hold a boiler to serve the radiators. It is roughly the size of the library and has brick walls and a concrete floor. The original boiler has been removed. The house now has an electric central air conditioning system and a natural gas furnace. One damaged chimney has been repaired recently.
Conclusion
The John W. Sheppard House is an intact example of a Free Classic, Queen Anne style house from the last years of the 19th century. It is one of the few houses in Fourth Ward that is original to its site and its orientation to the street gird. The finishes and decorative details of the John W. Sheppard House stand in contrast to those of the simpler farmhouses moved to Fourth Ward during urban redevelopment. It can provide insight into the town houses that businessmen new to Charlotte and North Carolina constructed with wealth accumulated during the rise of the New South.
Notes
1 Virginia & Lee McAlester, A Field Guide to American Houses (New York, 1986), 264-265.
2 Ibid, 239.
3 Interview with Mr. J. Ashley Parlier,current owner; 12 January 1992.
4 Interview, as in #3.
5 Interview, as in #3.
Survey and Research Report on the Victor Shaw House
- Name and location of the property: The property known as the Victor Shaw House is located at 2400 Mecklenburg Avenue in Charlotte, North Carolina.
- Name and address of the current owner(s) of the property:
The current owner of the Victor Shaw House is:
Annette Mauney Randall, Ph.D.
2400 Mecklenburg Avenue
Charlotte, NC 28205
- Representative photographs of the property: Click here to view representative photographs of the property.
- A map depicting the location of the property: This report contains a map depicting the location of the property. The UTM coordinate for the property is: 17 518553E 3898472N
- Current deed book reference to the property: The most recent deed to the Victor Shaw House can be found in Mecklenburg County Deed Book 4947, page 688. The Tax Identification Number for the property is 095-05-544.
- A brief historical sketch of the property: This report contains a brief historical sketch of the property prepared by Lara Ramsey.
- A brief architectural description of the property: This report contains a brief architectural description of the property prepared by Lara Ramsey.
- Documentation of why and in what ways the property meets the criteria for designation set forth in N.C.G.S. 160A-400.5.
- Special significance in terms of its history, architecture, and/or cultural importance. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission judges that the Victor Shaw House possesses special significance in terms of Charlotte-Mecklenburg. The Commission bases its judgment on the following considerations:
- The Victor Shaw House was the residence of Victor Shaw, who was mayor of the city of Charlotte from 1949 to 1953. Victor Shaw and family moved into the house at 2400 Mecklenburg Avenue in 1944, just a few years before Shaw became mayor, and lived there during his two terms of office.
- Shaw campaigned on a platform that stressed progress and development (appropriate themes for a booming post-war Charlotte), and his administration saw the completion of Independence Boulevard, construction of a new central administration building at Morris Field and, most importantly, plans for a new municipal auditorium and civic center.
- Within the first year of his first term, Shaw had secured a $3 million bond to finance the Charlotte Coliseum and Ovens Auditorium. Shaw also assembled the Coliseum Committee, which was headed by J. B. Ivey Co. Vice-President David Ovens. With Shaw’s backing, the Committee chose a site along the newly-completed Independence Boulevard, selecting A.G. Odell Associates to design both buildings. Although the coliseum and auditorium would not be completed until two years after he left office, Victor Shaw was able during his administration to procure the money and the plans for the complex.
- Integrity of design, workmanship, materials, feeling, and association.
The Commission contends that the architectural description prepared by Lara Ramsey demonstrates that the Victor Shaw House meets this criterion.
- 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 that becomes a designated “historic landmark.” The current appraised value of the Victor Shaw House is $671,300.00—$318,800.00 for the building, $352,400 for the land, and $100.00 for additional features.
Date of preparation of this report: March 8, 2004
Prepared by: Lara Ramsey
2436 North Albany Avenue, Apt. 1
Chicago, IL 60647
Statement of Significance
Summary
The Victor Shaw House, constructed c.1928, is a property that possesses local historic significance as the home of Victor Shaw, mayor of the city of Charlotte from 1949 to 1953. When Shaw was sworn in as mayor in early 1949, the city was undergoing a period of rapid economic and physical expansion. Charlotte’s government had been attempting in the years after World War II to deal with the city’s ever-increasing demand for housing, infrastructure for new suburban neighborhoods, and an improved and expanded system of roads. In his two terms as mayor, Shaw helped to continue programs begun by his predecessor, H. Herbert Baxter, that were designed to address these issues. Shaw continued with plans to extend the newly-opened Independence Boulevard west and pushed forward with the construction of a new administration building at Morris Field. In addition to continuing the work begun by Baxter’s administration, Shaw also developed several of his own programs, including a $10,000 beautification project for Old Settlers’ Cemetery.
By far the most important tasks undertaken during Victor Shaw’s administration was funding and planning for the Charlotte Coliseum (now Cricket Arena) and Ovens Auditorium. Shaw had his sights on building a municipal auditorium—a project that Herbert Baxter had tried and failed to get off the ground—from the first day of his campaign for mayor. Shaw appointed a special commission to oversee the selection of a design and site for the coliseum and auditorium, and succeeded in pushing through a $3 million bond referendum to fund the construction of the complex. Although, due to a series of complications, the buildings were not completed until two years after Shaw had left office, his administration was credited with getting the ball rolling on the project.
During his two terms as mayor of Charlotte, Victor Shaw and his family called the brick Colonial Revival residence at 2400 Mecklenburg Avenue home. Located on a spacious lot in the Club Acres section of Plaza-Midwood, the house was constructed c. 1928 by Duke Power engineer James W. Knowlton. The simple but impressive house is typical of the types of houses built for upper class Charlotteans who were just beginning to move into the neighborhood in the 1920s and 1930s. With its sweeping, two-and-one-half-acre lot (one of the few not to be further subdivided into smaller plots), simple detailing, elaborate entrances and elegant public rooms for entertaining, the house was an ideal residence for Mayor Shaw, who owned the property from 1944 to 1954.
Historical Background Statement
Victor Shaw
The years following World War II were filled with rapid economic and physical expansion in Charlotte and other cities across the United States. The challenges facing Charlotte’s city government in the post-war era generally revolved around the ever-increasing demand for housing, and the emergence of the automobile as the dominant form of transportation within the city and across the country. The tasks of providing the infrastructure for the expanding neighborhoods and improving and adding to the system of roads within the city were complex, and for the first time, Charlotte’s government began to address seriously how to control and direct the city’s growth. In addition to dealing with housing and transportation problems, city officials were also pushing for a number of civic projects aimed to build Charlotte’s reputation as a modern urban center.
When Victor Shaw was inaugurated as mayor of Charlotte in April 1949, all of these issues were at the forefront of the city’s politics. Independence Boulevard, begun under the administration of Shaw’s predecessor Herbert Baxter, was partially opened in the same month the new mayor took office.[1] The city had just completed a ten-square-mile annexation in January (the first in a line of annexations that would push the limits of the city ever outward and sharply increase its population). The Charlotte Planning Board’s recently completed Master Plan Outline for Charlotte, North Carolina, the second master plan of the city’s history, recommended extending municipal water and sewer lines into the newly annexed area, as well as widening and extending the city’s roads and creating more parking options. The plan also called for a series of civic projects that “aimed at enhancing the current growth” of the city, including a new administration building at Morris Field (Douglas Airport) and a civic auditorium.[2]
Victor Shaw had never held an elected office before becoming Charlotte’s mayor. Although a relative newcomer to the city’s political arena, Shaw was no stranger to the city itself, or to its people. A third generation Charlottean, Shaw was born January 20, 1888, in a small house on East 7th Street. His grandfather, Robert Shaw, moved to Charlotte from New Jersey and worked as a tanner and saddler. Robert’s son William was born in the city in 1848, and joined the Charlotte Artillery Company at the beginning of the Civil War, at the tender age of 13.[3] In 1869, William married Mary Elizabeth Presson, and the couple had ten children, one of which was Victor Shaw.[4]
Following in the family tradition, William Shaw opened his own tannery just north of where Brookshire Boulevard rises over North Tryon Street today. Victor grew up helping his father shape the leather for saddles and horse collars. He attended Major Baird’s School for boys on N. College Street through the sixth grade, and received no further formal education.[5] During World War I, Shaw served as an Air Corps lieutenant in France; by the time he returned to Charlotte, his father had switched from selling saddles for horses to selling tires for automobiles. Victor settled into working at Shaw Tire, then located at the corner of 6th and College Streets, helping to build the company into one of the largest tire distributors in the city.[6] In 1920, Shaw married Elsie Aileene Babbitt, a young nurse from Franklinville, N.Y. who had come to teach nursing at Presbyterian Hospital. The couple had two children, Victor, Jr. and Elsie Babbitt.[7]
Victor Shaw was not only a native to Charlotte and a successful businessman; he was also an active citizen within the city. Soon after he returned from World War I, Shaw became the second commander of Charlotte’s American Legion Post 9. In 1938, he was appointed chairman of the Mecklenburg Civil Service Commission by State Supreme Court Justice William H. Bobbitt, who was resident judge of the county Superior Court at the time. Shaw held the post for two years. Shaw was also an active member of several fraternal organizations in Charlotte.[8]
Even with his family history and business acumen, Shaw was a surprising opponent for veteran politician and three-term incumbent mayor Herbert H. Baxter. Shaw ran on a platform of continued progress for Charlotte—in a statement made at the beginning of his campaign, Shaw claimed that “the next two years will be of paramount importance to the advancement of Charlotte and the well-being of its citizenry,” and stressed that “our forward progress must be maintained.”[9] This platform was not markedly different from Baxter’s; yet Shaw racked up over twice the number of votes cast for Baxter in the city’s primary. With Shaw as the only mayoral candidate on the municipal ballot, the official election was only a formality.[10]
The new mayor was an interesting character, known for his distinguished but slightly unusual manner of dress and his efficient manner of speaking. Shaw, in his early 60s during his term as mayor, struck a handsome figure, with his head of thick, wavy, white hair and immaculate suits. Dick Young, a journalist at the Charlotte News and a longtime friend of Shaw’s, recalled “He looked like a million dollars, always.”[11] Shaw always wore custom-tailored suits with checked vests and brightly colored bow ties. He was also known to wear gray spats to the office every day.[12] Although generally gregarious and quite fond of telling anecdotes, Shaw was also known for the brevity of his speeches as mayor. His inaugural speech was, the Charlotte News noted “the shortest on record.”[13] Dick Young recalled “He wasn’t really much of a speaker when he became mayor, but . . . it wasn’t long before he became very effective—and people remembered him because he told good stories and sat down.”[14]
As mayor, Shaw continued or expanded upon many programs that had been set forth by Baxter’s administration. Most of these government projects were long-term and ongoing, and many would later be passed on to succeeding administrations. In February 1950, the full length of Independence Boulevard (from Monroe Road to East Morehead Street) was opened to traffic; within weeks of the opening of this new cross-town boulevard, surveys began on possible routes for a southwest extension that would link up to Wilkinson Boulevard.[15] The building of Independence was just the biggest and most impressive of a number of programs—large and small—designed to improve Charlotte’s system of roads. During Shaw’s time as mayor, the city put a significant amount of money toward paving and repaving streets, putting in sidewalks, increasing parking, and widening some existing roads.[16] Another issue at the top of the City Council’s list was extending water and sewer lines into the newly-annexed portions of the city. Mayor Shaw also continued the development of Morris Field, a former World War Two airfield, which had been returned to the city through Baxter’s efforts.[17] During Shaw’s tenure as mayor, construction of a new administration building for the fledgling airport was begun.
In addition to these grander schemes, Mayor Shaw also had a few smaller pet projects that he worked—with varying degrees of success—to realize. Shaw took a personal interest in the Old Settlers’ Cemetery downtown, which was beginning to show signs of neglect. As Dr. Dan Morrill recounts in the Survey and Research Report for the property, “The first order of business was to determine ownership of the property, which was discovered to be that of the city. Mayor Shaw then persuaded the City Council to spend over $10,000 to do landscaping, lay cement walkways, install electric lights and put in a fountain. The beautification project was completed in early 1953 . . .”[18] Shaw, who had a fascination with elephants, also tried to convince the council of the pressing need for a municipal zoo. Shaw was never able to sway the council on the idea, and the closest the mayor got to getting his elephant was the elephant’s ear that an amused citizen sent to him. The mayor kept the ear in his office at City Hall for the rest of his term.[19]
The Charlotte Coliseum and Ovens Auditorium
By far the most important tasks undertaken by Victor Shaw during his time as mayor were the funding and planning of the Charlotte Coliseum (now Cricket Arena) and Ovens Auditorium. In a way, this project was also a continuation of the Baxter administration. In 1947, a proposal for a municipal auditorium and coliseum was put before the City Council, and a $2.5 million bond referendum was set for October 28th. Baxter argued that the construction of these buildings was essential for the future growth of Charlotte. The mayor had very specific ideas about how the project should play out. He asserted that two buildings—one for sports events, the other for cultural events—were necessary, and that a single multi-purpose structure would prove inadequate. Baxter was also convinced that the buildings should be constructed as a complex, on a site that would provide parking and easy access.[20] Unfortunately, Baxter had no plans or even a location to show to the citizens of Charlotte before the referendum. There seemed to be too much uncertainty surrounding the project, and the bond issue was defeated.
Almost two years later, Victor Shaw picked up the call for a municipal auditorium and coliseum during his campaign for mayor. In fact, the project became one of the most important issues on his platform. An article in the April 4, 1949, edition of the Charlotte Observer listed answers of the three mayoral candidates to questions about issues ranging from rent control to slum clearance. Shaw replied only to the questions concerning a bond referendum for a municipal auditorium.[21] Almost immediately after his inauguration, Shaw began weighing the options for the auditorium. Initially, Shaw—a longtime Shriner—entered into negotiations with the organization to place a 3500-seat auditorium within its Oasis Temple on South Tryon Street. The plan was fraught with problems—the city would have to provide elevators, utilities and maintenance of the entire building, and would be forced to hand over title to the building if they failed to do so. When the story broke in September 1949, many Charlotteans were justifiably upset, and Shaw quickly abandoned the plan.[22]
Shaw switched tactics, asking the City Council to appoint a special commission to select an appropriate location, as well as the architect and designs for the buildings. Shaw appointed David Ovens, Vice-President and General manager of J. B. Ivey Co. and President of the Charlotte Community Concert Association, to head the committee. The group went to work searching for an appropriate location and designer for the complex. In May 1950, the committee selected A.G. Odell and Associates to design the two buildings.[23] With mayor Shaw’s support, the committee finally found an ideal parcel with 1000 feet of frontage along the newly-constructed Independence Boulevard. The lot was large enough for both buildings, with room left over for parking. Its position along the eastern end of Independence also assured that traffic congestion would not be a problem.[24]
With both an architect and a location, the City Council set a $3 million bond referendum (approximately $2.5 million of which would go toward building the coliseum and auditorium) for October 14th. This time the bond issue passed; and the council moved forward, purchasing the parcel on Independence and appointing a Coliseum Authority to oversee the construction and (eventual) running of the facilities.[25] Unfortunately, the project soon encountered several snags, including several delays in construction due to steel shortages and a subsequent federal ban on amusement buildings. By the time these restrictions were lifted, the City Council discovered that estimates for the project far exceeded the amount of money available from the first bond referendum. By the time a second bond for $1 million was proposed for June 1953, Victor Shaw had left office.[26] Construction began soon after the second bond passed, and the complex opened to the public in 1955.
Although the Charlotte Coliseum and Ovens Auditorium were completed a full two years after Victor Shaw’s term as mayor ended, plans for the complex solidified under his administration. The $3 million bond passed during Shaw’s first term ensured that the project would eventually be realized. The selection of a site along Independence Boulevard, on the outskirts of the city, helped to draw business and people out of the center city along the new cross-town road, and the designs developed by A.G. Odell would help to put Charlotte on the map as a truly modern city. The planning of the coliseum and auditorium established Victor Shaw as a progressive leader of post-war Charlotte.
The Victor Shaw House
During his two terms as mayor, Victor Shaw and his family called the two-story Georgian Revival house at 2400 Mecklenburg Avenue home. The house stands in the Club Acres section of Plaza-Midwood, near the Charlotte Country Club. Organized by a group of prominent Charlotte businessmen in 1910, the country club was the city’s first golf course. Hoping to capitalize on the new club, F. M. Laxton (one of the shareholders in the country club), developer Paul Chatham, banker Word Wood, and Duke Executive W. S. Lee formed the Mecklenburg Realty Company and began laying out Club acres, a new subdivision just to the west of the golf course.[27] Mecklenburg, Matheson, and Belvedere Avenues were quickly platted within the subdivision, but buyers were few and far between. The reasons for Club Acres’s glacial development were shared by the other subdivisions that made up Plaza-Midwood—the neighborhood was far from downtown; it was further hemmed in by the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, which ran at grade along Central Avenue and caused frequent delays for commuters; and its small trolley line was separate from the Southern Public Utilities Company line that ran downtown, requiring passengers to transfer between the two lines in order to get to and from the center city.[28]
In order to attract buyers, the Mecklenburg Realty Company was forced in 1919 to rescind the original deed restriction for the subdivision that stipulated lots were to be no smaller than one acre—developers in other Plaza-Midwood subdivisions used similar measure to help sell lots.[29]
With the arrival of the automobile, the problems of distance and trolley lines that had plagued Club Acres and the rest of Plaza-Midwood in their early years became largely irrelevant. During the 1920s and 30s, the neighborhood began to attract members of the upper class, who could afford the latest form of transportation. As historian Thomas Hanchett observes in his history of Plaza-Midwood,
In the late 1920s and 1930s Mecklenburg and Belvedere avenues belatedly began to attract members of the city’s leadership circle. Among them were cotton processor A. L. Boyle who built a Colonial Revival house designed by William Peeps at 2415 Mecklenburg (1928), Carolina Trust Company vice-president Benjamin J. Smith at 2448 Mecklenburg (1928), lawyer Robert E. Wellons at 2300 Mecklenburg (1932), WBT radio program director Charles Crutchfield at 2331 Mecklenburg (1943), and real estate leader William Tate at 2826 Belvedere (1939).[30]
The Victor Shaw House was constructed on lot #26, located at the intersection of Matheson and Mecklenburg Avenues and one of the original parcels offered by Mecklenburg Realty Company. George Stephens, an early developer of Myers Park, and his wife Sophie, originally owned the lot. In 1928, the lot was sold to James W. Knowlton, a Duke Power engineer, and his wife Marie Wheeler.[31] The Knowltons were quite familiar with the neighborhood—the family had been living just down the street at 2320 Mecklenburg Avenue. Their modest frame house had been built in 1918, and was among the first houses in the subdivision.[32] According to a long-time resident of Club Acres, Knowlton hired the J.A. Jones Construction Company to build the two-story, brick, Colonial Revival residence.[33]
Victor Shaw purchased the house from James Knowlton in August 1944.[34] The stately residence, set back far from the street on its sprawling lot, was an ideal home for Shaw, his wife, and their two children. The family stayed in the home through Shaw’s two mayoral terms, and sold the house to real estate attorney Robert A. Wellons and his wife in 1954, one year after Shaw left office. The house had three subsequent owners before being sold to its current owner, Annette Mauney Randall (and her husband John Dainotto) in early 1985.[35]
Physical Description
Site Description
The Victor Shaw House is located at 2400 Mecklenburg Avenue in the Plaza-Midwood Neighborhood of Charlotte. The house sits on a 2.588-acre lot on the south side of Mecklenburg Avenue, facing north onto the street. Set approximately in the middle of the lot, the house is reached by a gravel drive that runs along the western side of the property, curving around to the rear double garage. The parcel is relatively flat, with a slight downward slope running southwest along the east edge of the back yard. A small fishpond is located in the backyard, on the eastern edge of the property near the house. The pond dates back to the construction of the house.
Architectural Description
Colonial Revival residences abound in Plaza-Midwood and other Charlotte neighborhoods—the style was popular across the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries—and the Victor Shaw house is a typical example of the kinds of Colonial Revival houses built in the 1920s and 30s. The house consists of a side-gable main building flanked by two smaller, side-gable wings. The main section of the house is two stories tall and approximately three bays wide. The one-story wing on the west side of this center section is approximately one bay wide, while the corresponding east wing is one-and-one-half stories tall and approximately two bays wide. These east and west sections are roughly one bay deep, and the center section of the house is approximately two bays deep. The resulting footprint for the entire structure is narrow and irregular. To the west of the house sits a one-and-one-half story garage. The front-gable structure is clad in the same brick used on the house, and is joined to it by a one-story connector sheathed in siding. Two paneled garage doors take up most of the south wall of the garage; a small apartment occupies the attic space above.
The exterior walls and some load-bearing interior walls of the house are constructed of 17” structural clay tiles. These tiles, while commonly used in early twentieth century commercial construction, are rarely found in Charlotte’s residences. The exterior of the house is clad in red face brick laid in common bond, with a simple soldier stringcourse running along the north and south elevations of the main section and east wing of the house. Grey slate tiles cover the roof of the house and the garage. A corbelled brick chimney rises from the east gable of the main section of the house, matched by a false chimney on the west gable to give an appearance of symmetry. On the façade (north elevation) of the main section of the house, a simple cornice ornamented with a row of dentils runs underneath the roofline.
Windows in a variety of shapes and sizes regularly punctuate the exterior elevations of the house. The majority are six-over-six, double hung windows covered with exterior storms. Most of these windows are unadorned, with only simple brick soldier-courses serving as decorative lintels. On the main house, the windows are regularly and symmetrically placed along the first and second floors of the north and south elevations; the windows on the first floor of the east and west wings are surrounded with large, rounded arches. The walls between the arch and the window are covered with stucco. These rounded arch surrounds are an unusual feature, and one not seen on most Colonial Revival designs. The first floor window on the north elevation of the garage and the large second-floor window on the south elevation of the main house are more conventional examples of rounded arch windows. The attic levels on the east and west elevations of the main house are marked with quarter-circle windows on each side of the chimneys, and half-circle, louvered windows are located under the gables of the east and west wings. Gabled dormer windows pierce the roofline on the north and south elevations of the west wing, the north elevation of the east wing, and the center bay of the center section’s south elevation.
Large, elaborately ornamented entrances dominate both the north (façade) and south elevations of the main house. Each entrance is centered along the first floor of the elevation. The entrance on the façade is slightly more ornate, with its swan’s neck pediment and rounded finial. Small wood pendants accent the dentiled cornice just below the pediment. Two fluted pilasters flank the doorway, rising to simply molded columns. The paneled wood door is protected by a simple screen door, and topped with a leaded glass transom. Two glass lanterns sit on either side of the entrance. The south elevation entrance features a fan light with radiating panes set under a basket weave arch. The doorway is centered underneath the fanlight, and has the same paneled wood door seen on the façade entrance. Flanking the doorway are sidelights, each with four glass panes.
Both the north and south entrances open into the main stair hall of the house. The half-turn staircase dominated the narrow room, with the first run of the stair hugging the east wall. The curtail step at the base of the staircase supports the curved newel post. Below the simple wood handrail, twisted wrought iron balusters alternate with smooth iron rails marked with a center diamond. A chair rail located approximately three feet from floor runs along the walls of the room, and wide dentil moldings mark the meeting of walls and ceiling. A small arched doorway located at the north end of the west wall of the stair hall leads through a short hall and into a small, unadorned breakfast room. Passing through a doorway on the west wall of the breakfast room, one enters into the kitchen. Located in the small west wing of the house, the kitchen features a secondary staircase that runs behind the north wall of the room. A simple wood door separates the stairwell from the kitchen. A doorway on the south wall of the breakfast room leads into the dining room, which can also be reached through a wide entrance located at the south end of the stair hall’s west wall. The room features the same chair rail and dentil molding seen in the hall. Wide oak boards cover the floor of the dining room.
To the east of the stair hall is the large parlor, which stretches from the front (north) to back (south) wall of the main house. Again, the oak flooring, dentil molding, and chair rail are present in the room, and simple rectangular panels outlined with simple molding mark the walls above the chair rail. One of the two fireplaces in the house is centered along the east wall of the room; a wood mantel, simply decorated with low-relief festoons and urns, surrounds the firebox. At the north end of this same wall, a doorway leads into a small study, which takes up the east wing of the house. The second fireplace is located in the southwest corner of this room.
The second run of the main staircase leads to the second floor of the house. A carpeted center hallway runs east to west along center of this floor, with a series of bedrooms leading off from the hall. The east end of the floor, which takes up the upper story of the east wing, houses the master bedroom and bathroom. A second bedroom and bathroom are located on the north side of the hall, in the center of the main house. Another bedroom is across the hall, on the south side of the house. The door to the kitchen staircase is located at the west end of the hall, along its north wall. The hallway terminates at the west side of the house with a small room located in the attic of the east wing. These rooms generally lack the elaborate detailing seen in the public rooms on the first floor of the house.
Another flight of stairs leads up to the expansive attic space of the main portion of the house. A wood door pierced by fifteen rectangular glass panes leads into the unfinished attic space. From this space, one can see the structural clay tiles that make up the exterior walls of the house.
The Shaw House has changed only slightly since its construction in the early 1920s. The most substantial alteration to the house occurred in 1960, when Joseph Wright (its third owner) added onto the rear of the east wing in order to extend the study (referred to as a “den” in the building permit) and make room for the master bathroom.[36] A one-story, screened in porch was also added to the back of the east wing. A set of sliding glass doors was installed along the south wall of the master bedroom to provide access to the flat roof of the porch. Despite these changes, the Victor Shaw House has retained its architectural integrity, and appears much as it did over 80 years ago.
[1] Dr. Dan Morrill, “The Road that Split Charlotte,” Parade, 2 May 1982, p. 19.
[2] Sherry Joines Wyatt and Sarah Woodard, Final Report: Post World War II Survey, http://www.cmhpf.org/postww2survey.htm.
[3] Dr. Annette Randall, “A Brief Family History of Victor Bryson Shaw (b. January 20, 1888/d. August 11, 1966), Mayor of Charlotte, 1949-1953,” (unpublished paper), 1.
[4] Ibid.
[5] “Colorful Victor Shaw, Ex-Mayor, Dies at 77,” Charlotte Observer, 12 August 1966.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] “Ex-Mayor Shaw Dies Here at 78,” Charlotte News, 12 August 1966 (no page number—given to author by Dr. Annette Randall).
[9] Ibid.
[10] Legette Blythe, “Shaw Wins Mayor’s Race,” Charlotte Observer, 26 April 1949, section 1 page 1.
[11] Charlotte News, 12 August 1966.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Dick Young, “New Administration Takes Helm at City Hall,” Charlotte News, 9 May 1949 (no page number—given to author by Dr. Annette Randall).
[14] Charlotte News, 12 August 1966.
[15] “Independence Boulevard Now Officially Opened,” Charlotte Observer, 2 February 1950, Section2/Page 1.
[16] Hal Tribble, “City to Rush $3 Million Bond Election Plans,” Charlotte Observer, 25 May 1950, Section 2/Page 1.
[17] “City Officials Work to Speed $500,000 Job,” Charlotte Observer, 4 February 1950, Section 2/Page 1.
[18] Dr. Dan L. Morrill, “Survey and Research Report on Old Settlers’ Cemetery,” prepared 3 January 1984, http://www.cmhpf.org/S&RR/settlers.html.
[19]Charlotte Observer, 12 August 1966.
[20] Paula M. Stathakis, “The Ovens Auditorium and Charlotte Coliseum (Original): Historical Essay,” (part of the Survey and Research Report on Ovens Auditorium and Charlotte Coliseum, prepared 30 July 1990), www.cmhpf.org/surveys&rcoliseum.htm.
[21] “Candidates Give Mayoral Views,” Charlotte Observer, 9 April 1949, Section 2/Page 1.
[22] Stathakis.
[23] Hal Tribble, “Contract will be Submitted to Governing Heads Today,” Charlotte Observer 12 May 1950 (no page number—taken from clipping file at Special Collections, J. Murray Atkins Library).
[24] Stathakis.
[25] Ibid.
[26] Ibid.
[27] Thomas W. Hanchett, “Plaza-Midwood,” http://www.cmhpf.org/educationneighhistplazamidwood.htm.
[28] Ibid.
[29] Ibid.
[30] Ibid
[31] Mecklenburg County Deed Book 687, Page 186.
[32] Hanchett
[33] Notes by Dr. Annette Randall on conversations with H. G. Glasgow.
[34] Mecklenburg County Deed Book 1129, Page 177.
[35] Mecklenburg County Deed Book 4947, Page 688.
[36] Charlotte Building Permit for 2400 Mecklenburg Avenue, 17 August 1960.
SURVEY AND RESEARCH REPORT
ON
The Davidson Cotton Mill
- Name and location of the property: The property known as the Davidson Cotton Mill is located 209 Delburg Street, Davidson, North Carolina.
- Names and addresses of the present owners of the property:
Davidson Cotton Mill LLC
PO Box 2270
Davidson, NC 28036
Duke Power Company
Tax Department PB05B
422 South Church Street
Charlotte, NC 28242-0001
- Representative photographs of the property: This report contains representative photographs of the property.
- Maps depicting the location of the property: This report contains a map depicting the location of the property.
- UTM coordinate: 17 513713E 3928945N
- Current deed book and tax parcel information for the property:
The Tax Parcel Number for the Davidson Cotton Mill Milling Building is 00326108. The most recent reference to this property is recorded in Mecklenburg Deed Book 08463 – 650.
The Tax Parcel Number for the Transformer House associated with the Davidson Cotton Mill is 00326219. The most recent reference to this property is recorded in Mecklenburg Deed Book 02248-305.
- A brief historical sketch of the property: This report contains a brief historical sketch of the property.
- A brief architectural description of the property: This report contains a brief architectural description of the property.
- Documentation of why and in what ways the property meets criteria for designation set forth in N. C. G. S. 160A-400.5:
- Special significance in terms of its history, architecture, and/or cultural importance: The Commission judges that the property known as the Davidson Cotton Mill does possess special significance in terms of Charlotte-Mecklenburg. The Commission bases its judgment on the following considerations:
1) The Delburg Cotton Mill, the forerunner to the Davidson Cotton Mill, represented a new era of industrial development in Davidson that occurred concurrently with similar development within Mecklenburg County as a whole.
2) The Delburg Cotton Mill formed part of the newly-diversified economic base in turn of the 19th-20th century Mecklenburg County. The new diversified economy rested on agriculture, manufacturing and processing, marketing and distribution, and banking; pillars that accelerated the growth that made Mecklenburg County the booming financial center of the Carolina Piedmont.
3) The Delburg Cotton Mill and the the Davidson Cotton Mill, like other industrial and manufacturing endeavors in Davidson, encouraged rural to urban migration, increasing the town’s population and offered an alternative to cash crop farming in the area
4) The Davidson Cotton Mill Milling Building is among the best preserved cotton mill buildings in Mecklenburg County, and is significant as a well-preserved example of the mill buildings associated with the small towns in Mecklenburg County.
6) The Southern Power Company Transformer House appears to be one of the few surviving examples of an early 20th century power transmission buildings in Mecklenburg County.
5) The Davidson Cotton Mill Milling Building demonstrates the innovations in terms of architecture, power, and transportation that evolved in cotton mill design in first half of the 20th century.
- Integrity of design, setting, workmanship, materials, feeling and/or association: The Commission contends that the physical and architectural description which is included in this report demonstrates that the Davidson Cotton Mill Milling Building meets this criterion.
- 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 a designated “historic landmark.”
The Milling Building: The current total appraised value of the improvements is $3,682,300. The current appraised value of the lot is $405,100. The current total value is $4,087,400
The Transformer House: The current total appraised value of the improvements is $11,000. The current appraised value of the lot is $17,100. The current total value is $28,100.
Date of preparation of this report: February, 2004
Prepared by: Stewart Gray and Dr. Paula M. Stathakis
Historical Overview
Contextual Statement: The Development of the Cotton Manufacturing Industry in Mecklenburg County.
In the ante-bellum period, Mecklenburg County possessed a variety of underdeveloped natural resources that ultimately formed the building blocks for the county’s economic maturity. Cotton agriculture, infrastructure improvement through railroads and bridges, inexpensive labor, and proximity to the waterpower of the Catawba River laid the foundation that supported the county’s transition into the economic hub of the Carolina Piedmont. However, the potential of these resources were not fully realized until the late nineteenth century. Historians of Mecklenburg County agree that that its location in the Piedmont region was a principal aspect in its transformation from a small hinterland courthouse town to the primary industrial center of the region.[1]
Cotton processing and manufacturing concerns were rare in the county in the ante-bellum period. Industrial development was largely hindered by a lack of capital and subscribers, and was overridden by the region’s focus on agriculture. Only a few textile mills existed in the area before the Civil War. The first textile mill built in Mecklenburg in 1848 by William Henry Neel along the Catawba. The Rock Island Manufacturing Company was also organized in 1848, but both mills closed before the Civil War.[2]
In 1856, geologist Ebenezer Emmons recommended that entrepreneurs and industrialists consider the section of the main trunk of Catawba River between the Tuckasegee Ford and the great Horse-Shoe bend for the great potential of water power. At this location, a high island divides the river. The fall at Mountain Island was twenty-two feet, “sufficient to secure the most important advantages to such manufacturing establishments as its favorable position may demand.” Emmons recommended improvements such as locks and dams up river from the Horse-Shoe bend to enlarge the possibilities for river trade and water power for manufacturing sites located along this stretch of the water.[3]
In spite of this endorsement, industry was slow to develop in Mecklenburg County and in the Piedmont region as a whole, because the wealthy were not inclined to invest it in manufacturing; they preferred to put it in agriculture and export trade.[4] In the decades after the Civil War, economic recovery was slow and painful, and it was not until the 1880s that local investors and entrepreneurs began to capitalize on the county’s natural attributes and resources.
This change in the county’s economic fortune occurred slowly; and even at the height of its manufacturing output, the county remained largely agricultural and rural in character. Although Charlotte made significant advances in the post-Civil War period, it did not develop to the extent as much as other southern cities. In 1870 there were no major manufacturing concerns in Charlotte even though two major railroad lines converged in the city.[5] In a general report about the state’s economic prospects, Vice-Consul H.E. Heide wrote, “The majority of the cotton and woolen manufacturing manufacturies are situated in the central portion of the State, where numerous rivers and water courses furnish almost unlimited water power. Nearly all the industries of the state are in a very backward condition owing to the want of capital to develop its great natural resources. The greater part of the available capital the State possessed was lost in the late civil war.”[6]
This economic languor would soon give way in the wake of an outpouring of entrepreneurial and manufacturing initiatives that were based in agriculture, the primary pillar of the county’s economic base. Cotton was the core from which most of Charlotte’s new economic enterprises of the late nineteenth century developed. Cotton would be stored, marketed, and processed in and around Charlotte. Textile engineering and machinery firms with legions of blue and white-collar workers would find jobs in Charlotte. Railroads transported cotton products out of the area; and some of the profits from all of these activities would be seen in the development of the downtown area, of new streetcar suburbs, in the increase of the retail and service sectors, and in the growth of new industrial zones on the margins of the city.
By the late nineteenth century, Mecklenburg farmers, like most Piedmont farmers, devoted a substantial part of their crop to cotton — a marked shift in agricultural patterns from the ante-bellum period during which most small farmers practiced subsistence agriculture. By 1896, over one-half of the cotton produced in North Carolina was grown in 28 counties, and most of it was grown in and around Mecklenburg.[7] In addition to the proximity of a healthy cotton crop, Charlotte began to develop the other essential components that would support the new economic reality that was apparent by the late 1870s. Railroad lines destroyed during the war were restored; and two new lines were added to the network that served the county by 1873, making six operational lines by mid-decade.[8] By this time Charlotte already had five banks, making it a regional financial center.[9] By the early 1880s, Charlotte mayor Col. William Johnston introduced a program to pave, or macadamize city streets. Concurrent with this program, county agencies began a similar plan to improve county highways. New taxes paid for most of these programs, and convict labor was used for the construction.[10]
Thanks in part to improvements in agriculture, banking, and infrastructure, Charlotte began to assemble its manufacturing base. By 1873, the city had 36 manufacturing establishments, and the number of these increased to 66 as early as 1877. However, city leaders lamented that in spite of this progress, Charlotte still had no textile mill. In an attempt to encourage the addition of textile mills to the city’s industrial landscape the Board of Aldermen passed an order in 1873 stating any cotton or woolen mill built in Charlotte would be tax exempt.[11] The Aldermen got their wish in 1880 when R.M. and D.W. Oates established the Charlotte Cotton Mills. In contrast to the earlier cotton mills in Mecklenburg, Charlotte Cotton Mills was a subtantial factory with 6240 spindles. The Daily Charlotte Observer hailed it as a “new departure” from the factory style usually seen in Charlotte and predicted that it would not only contribute to the city’s fortunes, but that it was a harbinger of things to come.[12]
By the early 1880s, industrial growth in Charlotte became more assertive, and this expansion was inspired and directed largely by entrepreneurs who were not Charlotte natives, but who became synonymous with Charlotte in its new identity as a New South City. The new movers and shakers in town were educated entrepreneurs who understood how to capture Charlotte’s potential, and more importantly, how to finance it.
Notable among this new breed of civic leaders were Edward Dilworth Latta and Daniel Augustus Tompkins. Both Latta and Tompkins redirected Charlotte’s disorganized enthusiasm for change, growth, and progress. They understood the necessity of breaking the region’s reliance on farming, especially on an agricultural system that operated largely through crop liens and tenancy. Instead they emphasized industrialization, urbanization, and scientific agriculture as the viable alternatives of a prosperous future.[13]
Tompkins opened a branch of the Westinghouse Machine Company of Pittsburgh in Charlotte in 1883, and by 1884 opened the D.A. Tompkins Company, a premier manufacturer of textile machinery, and a principal supplier of textile equipment to southern textile mills.[14]Tompkins wore many hats in Charlotte; he was an engineer and a businessman; he owned three newspapers; and he wrote extensively on the topic of cotton, cotton processing, the construction and management of textile mills, and how to raise the capital to build new factories. In his how-to manual for aspiring mill investors, Tompkins contended that the “average Southern town underestimates its ability to raise capital to build a cotton factory. Cotton mill property like all other property is cumulative. No town could raise the money at once to pay for all the property in it. When the author first went into business in Charlotte, N.C., in 1884 there was but little cotton manufacturing in the South, and in Charlotte but one mill. The author at once formulated a plan for enabling small towns to raise capital for manufacturing.” [15]
By the early twentieth century Mecklenburg County had grown in prominence as a major marketing, manufacturing, and distribution center of regional significance. In 1924, the number of spindles in Mecklenburg cotton mills ranked third behind Gaston and Cabarrus Counties.[16] Mecklenburg County entered the twentieth century with a much stronger and more diversified economic base than it had in 1870, and clearly change had come rapidly and perhaps dramatically to the region. Certainly by the turn of the century one sees fewer complaints of war related impoverishment and more interest in the hustle of the new pace of life that was first evident in town by the 1890s. The hum of the mills became part of the rhythm of life in Charlotte and in the smaller surrounding towns and villages of Davidson, Cornelius, and Pineville. Mecklenburg never had as many mills as some neighboring counties, such as Gaston and Cabarrus, but the cotton and textile industry were an essential component of the county’s and the city’s economy.
Cotton Manufacture in the town of Davidson and the Delburg/Davidson Cotton Mill.
The small town of Davidson, a rural hamlet and home to Davidson College (established 1837), was incorporated on February 11, 1879 under the name of Davidson College. In 1891, the town shortened its name to Davidson. Davidson is situated in the northern part of Mecklenburg County and at the turn of the twentieth century was separated from Charlotte by 22 miles of railroad track or by 20 miles of county road. The gulf between the two towns was filled with farms and long stretches of empty road.[17]
Like much of the rest of Mecklenburg, the town economy of Davidson was initially based on agriculture and shop keeping. Davidson College also supplied a number of professional and service jobs for the town. In the late nineteenth century, the small town branched into industrial production with the establishment of the Linden Cotton Factory in 1890 (later operating under the name of the Linden Manufacturing Company and the Carolina Asbestos Company). [18]
The success of the Linden Mill was an inspiration. During this period in the South, the construction of any industrial or manufacturing complex was a visible and tangible sign of progress. Townspeople typically responded to the addition of such buildings to the landscape with approval. According to the Davidson College Magazine, local businessmen were pleased with the prospects of this mill and were immediately anxious to build another.[19] Within a year, the magazine reported happily in an article titled “Our Village is on a Boom” that the new cotton mill had been built by the depot, and had necessitated widening the streets. The subsequent opportunities for employment meant that there was not a vacant house to be found in the town.[20] This enthusiasm was reaffirmed in the next month’s issue, in which the magazine asserted in an article titled “Our Cotton Mills are Still Booming” that the town had 2008 spindles and more on the way.[21] By 1893, the magazine reported that the Linden Mills were working to capacity and that a new cotton gin would be built on Concord Avenue.[22]
The town’s desire for industrial expansion was satisfied, although slowly. The Southern Cotton Seed Oil Company opened its doors in 1899.[23] By 1900, Davidson could boast of a handful of manufacturing and processing businesses. The Linden Manufacturing Company was in full operation with 7000 spindles and 70 employees. In addition to the Southern Cotton Oil Mill, the Davidson Milling Company (a flour mill) formed part of the town’s new economic landscape.[24]
Two thousand bales of cotton were sold at Davidson annually in the first years of the twentieth century.[25] As the Linden Mill operated successfully, investors soon organized to build another mill. The Delburg Cotton Mill Company filed a Certificate of Incorporation on July 8, 1907. The mill was organized to buy and sell cotton, wool, and other raw materials and to manufacture these into yarns for clothing and other fabrics. The corporation was also authorized to develop water, steam, and other types of power and to develop pole lines for the transmission of electric power and to utilize and sell power. The capital stock of the corporation was $100,000.00 and was divided into 1000 shares. The corporation could organize and begin business when $11,000.00 of shares had been subscribed. This was accounted for by the sale of 55 shares to J.P. Munroe, 50 shares to W.R. Greg, and 5 shares to A.B. Young. The corporation was limited to 30 years.[26]
The Davidson College Magazine anticipated the completion of the new cotton mill (the Delburg, later known as the Davidson Cotton Mill), which was under construction near the depot at the intersection of Delburg and Watson Streets and would open its doors in January 1908.[27] The Charlotte Daily Observer noted in January 1908 that the mill was still under construction and when completed the mill would be a modern facility with the most up-to-date equipment, using electric power, automatic fire extinguishers and water hydrants outside the mill. The mill also had a 140,000-gallon water tank that it would share with the Linden Mill.[28] The mill was initially serviced entirely by rail, and early Sanborn Maps show no roads leading to the mill. Loading docks were oriented toward the rail lines.
In the previous month, the magazine had published an article titled “Cotton Mills and the South.” This article weighed the merits of the recent spate of industrial development in Davidson and in the region as a whole and questioned the long-term value of increased emphasis on cotton manufacturing. “We feel the Southland is awakening from her long sleep…” and that two dangers lurked in the midst of progress. The first is that too many mills were being built too quickly, or faster than the acreage of cotton, or the “demand for cotton goods will justify.” Secondly, the promises inherent in rapid industrialization would result in a flight from the fields to the mills, making “…farms deprived of hands and at the same time the children who would grow up in the country are brought to the cotton mill to the almost utter destruction of theirs hopes for the future.”[29]
In Davidson, as in mill communities across the South, the Linden and the Delburg filled with many workers seeking a change from the hardscrabble farm life. The majority of small farmers in the region were hostage to the whim of global cotton market prices and were tethered to the land by the cycle of debts they owed to local merchants, bankers, and factors. Many farm laborers left the fields for the factories in hopes that regular hours and cash wages would improve their standard of living. Life in any mill was always hard. Hours were as long as work on the farm. Mills were hot in the summer and cold in the winter; the air was always full of lint; and the din of machinery was incessant. Unlike farm labor, which varied according to the season, the pace and pattern of mill labor was monotonous and the mill hand’s day was governed by the clock and the whistle. Although mill workers were usually paid in cash and mill companies often provided housing, a laborer’s wages rarely covered the bare necessities of living expenses.
Mill life proved to be as difficult as farm life, but mill workers formed communities that were the source of their religious and cultural worlds as well as their working world. Mill hands lived in company housing and often had their own gardens in the summer. Some kept cows, hogs, and chickens. Baseball was a major summer pastime for mill workers, and they met for games on Saturday afternoons at a ball field near the present Sadler Square. Many were loyal Davidson College sports fans.[30]
The Delburg Mill expanded with the construction of an addition in 1914.[31] An amendment filed in 1920 shows that the Board of Directors adopted a resolution on June 10, 1920, to increase the authorized capital to $1,000,000.00 to be divided into 10,000 shares worth $100.00 each. The thirty-year limit to the corporation was changed to an unlimited period.[32] Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps show the mill had doubled in size by at least two additions by 1925.
By 1923, the Linden Mill and the Delburg Mill merged, creating the Delburg- Linden Company. As of 1923, the capital stock of the company was $240,000.00, and the company operated as the spinners of high-grade knitting and tire fabric yarns.[33] In July 1923, J.P. Munroe, president of Delburg-Linden Mills, sent a letter to the stockholders informing them he was negotiating with Martin Cannon with reference to selling him the mill. Munroe did not think that he would be able to sell the mill for what the property was worth, but he believed that it was worth it to sell the mill at any price owing to “…conditions in the mill business are such with labor conditions uncertain, money commanding high rates of interest, cotton constantly fluctuating in price, yarn buyers comparatively scarce and hard to please, that considering all these things, I myself am willing and anxious to sell at some price even though that price be considerably below par.”[34]
The post World War I economic boom of the 1920s was deceptive. In the years immediately following the war, the transition to a peacetime economy resulted in a chaotic period during which soaring inflation undermined the stability of the early twenties. By 1922, the general economy appeared to be in recovery if not in an unprecedented boom. However, looming beneath the surface of the prosperity of the Roaring Twenties were several “sick industries” among them, agriculture and textiles. These so-called sick industries never recovered during the boom years of the 1920s and were harbingers of the Depression years before the economic catastrophe occurred.
Stockholders of the Delburg –Linden Mill were notified of a special meeting to be held on August 23, 1923 to determine if the company should be sold to Martin Cannon. The arrangement was for Cannon to purchase the mill for $242,500.00 of which $42,000.00 to be paid in cash and the remainder in preferred stock of the prospective corporation. Cannon and associates would pay $100,000.00 into the prospective corporation.[35]
After Cannon purchased the mill, the name was changed to The Davidson Cotton Mill. The mill’s officers were Martin L. Cannon; president, J.F. Connor; vice-president, E. Sanvam; secretary; J.G. Barnhardt; buyer, and D.W. McLemore; superintendent. The old Linden Mill facility was closed and used as a cotton warehouse. Davidson Cotton Mill was incorporated in 1923 and by 1924 had 14,688 spindles and 39 cards, and capitalized stock of $325,000.00.[36]
The Davidson Cotton Mill struggled through the Great Depression and into the 1940s. A letter from the company secretary and treasurer, C.W. Byrd, to former Davidson College professor Dr. Henry Louis Smith illustrates a measure of the mill’s problems. Dr. Smith, a stockholder, had written to the mill inquiring when dividends would be paid. Byrd answered that in 1936, the company had a deficit of $125,000.00 and according to North Carolina law; no dividends could be paid until the deficit was wiped out. By 1941, the company had a surplus of $26,753.00, but did not anticipate paying dividends because of projected heavy taxes.[37]
The mill enjoyed a run of post World War II prosperity and was owned by some local businessmen including a Mr. Potts. But the mill closed in 1950. The building lay idle until Bridgeport Fabrics, a Connecticut company, purchased it around 1954. Bridgeport Fabrics operated in the old milling building until around 1962 and produced webbing and zipper backing. When Bridgeport Fabrics closed operations in the old milling building, the company began producing other products in a new facility that incorporated parts of the cotton mill’s warehouse/dye house across the Delburg Street.[38]
The mill building was quiet for many years, serving mostly as a warehouse. Davidson College purchased the property in the 1970s and used it for storage.[39] In 1996, an investment group, Davidson Cotton Mill, LLC purchased the property. The milling building has been renovated for high-end shops, offices, and restaurants. A condominium complex has been built adjacent to the project.[40]
Architectural Description
The Davidson Cotton Mill consists of several brick industrial buildings located on Delburg Street north of the historic center of the Town of Davidson. The mill is located between Watson Street and the Norfolk Southern Railroad line that runs north-and-south through the town from Charlotte to Statesville. The mill began as the Delburg Mill, and was built in 1907 adjacent to the rail line. The site slopes away from the rail line to the south and the west. A neighborhood of frame houses associated with the mill is located along Watson and Delburg Streets to the north and west of the mill.
The Delburg Mill was originally composed of two principal buildings. The larger of the buildings was the proper mill, and to the north was a smaller warehouse building. The milling building is generally intact and has been incorporated into the larger mill building associated with the Davidson Cotton Mill. The one-story masonry mill building is tall despite having a very low-pitched roof, and its brickwork is laid in American Bond with five rows of stretchers for each row of headers. The building is six bays wide and was originally twenty-two bays deep. The gabled façade is symmetrical and consists of six large segmental-arch windows. The milling building was divided into two sections with a shallow “picker house” room at the front of the building, and a large open floor in the rear that contained the machinery for winding, reeling, and carding. The picker house and the rest of the building are separated by a brick firewall that projects in steps above the roof. On the north elevation extensive corbelling was required to extend the firewall past the eaves. The original entrances to the mill are located in the first and fourth bays of the north elevation. The entrance in the first bay opened into the picker house, and the second entrance opened into the milling area. Both entrances are distinguished by round-arch openings with decorative corbelling. The roof is supported by large timber rafters, set about six feet apart, with rounded ends that extended past the exterior walls to support the eaves. Two rows of chamfered wood posts run the length of the building, supporting the roof framing. This heavy type of timber framing came to be known as “slow burn” construction. During a fire massive timber framing tended to char but retain much of its strength, whereas iron framing would more easily fail in a hot building fire. Slow burn construction was promoted by the New England Mutual Fire Insurance Companies and was popularized in North Carolina by the influential mill builder and designer D.A. Tompkins. Timber purlins connect the rafters and support beaded plank roof decking. In the front picker house, purlins project past the façade to support the front eave. A small room is attached to the center of the buildings south façade that may have contained toilets.
| North Elevation Detail | Original Entrances on the North Elevation |
| Corbelled Firewall |
Access between the picker house and the rest of the building is limited to a single doorway originally equipped with iron doors on a tilted tracks, designed to seal-off either section of the building in case of a fire. One of these doors remains in place. It appears that the interior walls were coated with stucco.
A small brick wing extends from the milling building’s south elevation, setback one bay from the façade. The wing housed a machine shop, and at one time an office. Because of the sloping topography of the site, a basement room could be constructed under the office housing the heating plant. A firewall separates the machine shop from the rest of the wing, and again the firewall forms a parapet that extends past the eaves on the wing’s east and west elevations. Unlike earlier mills, the Delburg Mill was designed as an electric powered mill, and required a relative small boiler for heating. The furnace chimney (demolished) was located on the wing’s west elevation. A wooden platform (demolished) extended from the Machine Shop to the railroad tracks.
The cotton warehouse to the north of the milling building has been greatly modified. A 1915 Sanborn Map Company map shows a simple rectangular building with a small “opener room” attached to the building’s east elevation. A single parapet wall on the west side of the present building may be the only vestige of the original building. A smaller cotton waste building (demolished) was located to the south of the milling building.
| Cotton Warehouse (Altered) |
To the north of the warehouse sits the only other original building from the era of the Delburg Mill, a two-story power transformer building. The 1915 Sanborn Map lists the building as the “Southern Power Company Transformer House.” This tower-like Romanesque Revival Style building features two tall segmental arched openings on the south elevation, with three smaller round-arched window opening perched above and highlighted with corbelled brick work. The east elevation faces the railroad tracks and is pierced with three low segmental arched openings, a doorway centered between two windows, at ground level, and five round vents near the eave. The building is sheltered by a hipped roof, topped with a metal ventilator.
| Transformer House |
The Delburg Mill was expanded greatly between 1907 and 1924, when it was sold and renamed the Davison Cotton Mill. The first addition appears to have been an extension of the milling floor with the construction of eight additional bays extending from the mill’s west elevation. The construction and materials of this first addition appear to be nearly identical to those used for the original building. Again, large timber rafters extend past the brick walls, which are regularly pierced by segmental-arch window openings. But whereas the original mill building was constructed over a crawlspace, the sloping topography of the site allowed for a full basement level under the first addition. The only variance from the original design of the mill building was the addition of a large monitor roof to both the addition and the original building. The four-foot tall twelve-light windows of the monitor were mechanically operated and probably did much to illuminate the interior of the mill and ventilate the space. The lack of furring strips along the top of the rafters in the addition, and their presence on the rafters in the original section, would indicate that the monitor roof was installed when the addition was added.
| North Elevation Detail of Different Window Opening Types |
A second larger expansion, probably completed before 1924, added another eighteen bays to the west elevation of the milling building. A full basement level was constructed under this addition, nearly doubling the size of the mill. The basic construction method of thick solid masonry walls laid in American Bond continued, and again the same large-timber roof system was employed. However, gone were the segmental-arched window openings, replaced by openings that ended at the roof deck on the side elevation, and flat-topped openings that relied on metal lintels in the west elevation and the basement level. It is likely that the windows from the original building and the first addition were replaced during the second expansion. The windowsills on the older sections of the building appear to have been raised to the level of the newer windows. Steel framed twenty-four light windows with operable vent-sections may have replaced the original wooden double or triple hung windows. In contrast to the low-gabled east elevation, the new six-bay-wide west elevation is a full two stories with a step-parapet wall. More toilets and an elevator shaft protrude as a tower from the south elevation of the new section. By 1925 a conveyer belt connecting the picker house to the cotton warehouse had been added. Change had also occurred around the machine shop. The earlier chimney had been demolished on the west elevation, and a new chimney (since demolished) had been constructed on the east elevation. A large flue, perhaps for a forge, was also added. The office by this time had been moved to its own building, since destroyed, north of the mill building. A second warehouse (demolished after 1996) was erected to the south of the milling building. The new warehouse was of frame construction, covered with metal siding, and topped with a hipped roof.
| Detail of South Elevation |
| West Elevation |
Sanborn maps indicate that by 1925 a loading dock was located on the west elevation. This would have indicated a change in the nature of transportation associated with the mill. While the original Delburg Mill may have depended solely on the railroad for the transportation of manufactured goods, it is likely that by 1925 some of the product of the mill was being carried by trucks.
While the milling building underwent modifications throughout the 20th century, by 1925 the building had generally been developed into its present form. Change, however, did continue at the Davidson Cotton Mill with a radical alteration of the cotton warehouse between 1925 and 1937. The warehouse was expanded to the north, and was divided to create a “dye house” that shared the space. The office building shown on 1925 Sanborn Maps had been demolished and replaced by a new frame construction office building to the west of the original site.[41] The only change to the milling building itself was the addition of a now-demolished one-story shed addition to the south elevation adjacent to the elevator and toilets. Sometime after 1937 a low shed-roofed brick addition was added to the south elevation of the machine shop wing.
By the 1950’s the complex was no longer operating as a cotton mill. Around 1954 Bridgeport Fabric began using the milling building to produce webbing and the fabric backing used in zippers. At this time the lower section of the milling building was used for shipping, receiving, and as a warehouse. All materials and products entered and left the building through the loading dock on Watson Street via trucks. Production of these materials ended around 1962. Bridgeport Fabrics continued other operations across Delburg Street at a new facility that incorporated parts of the old cotton warehouse/dye house.[42] The only extant early 20thcentury features of the cotton warehouse/dye house are parapeted fire walls that rise out of the sprawling mix of later additions.
The milling building was used as a warehouse until 1996 when the building was purchased and the process of rehabilitation began. The machine shop wing, the picker house, and part of the main floor were converted to a restaurant. During this process the deteriorated floor of the picker house was replaced with concrete. The remainder of the milling building was converted to offices on the main and basement levels. Office partitions have been built in such a way that the timber frame of the building is exposed and highlighted. The floors in the rest of the mill building were also in a deteriorated state and have been skimmed with a light-weight concrete. At the time the building was purchased in 1996, all of the windows had been covered in plywood. The metal-framed windows installed sometime before 1925 were removed and replaced with insulated divided-light windows that replicated the configuration of the lights in the ca. 1925 windows. No original exterior doors survived. Before the renovation several industrial door openings had been cut into the brickwork. One of these openings was glazed and used as an entrance to the restaurant area. Other openings were restored back to the original fenestration. A mid-20th century loading dock on the south elevation adjacent to the machine shop has been replaced with stairs; and a wheelchair ramp, and an exterior stair tower has been attached to the building’s south elevation between the elevator tower and the southwest corner of the building.
Architectural Significance
The milling building associated with the Davidson Cotton Mill is significant as one of the best preserved early-20th century cotton mill buildings in the small towns of Mecklenburg County. The only other cotton mill in Davidson is the Linden Cotton Mill, which has been significantly altered. Other mills, such as the Chadwick-Hoskins Mill No. 5 in Pineville, have been so altered that they can no longer be easily interpreted as an early 20th century cotton mills, while other mills such as the Cornelius Cotton Mill have been altogether lost. The Anchor Mill in Huntersville is perhaps equally significant in terms of the development of the county’s small towns; however at this time the Anchor mill is in a deteriorated state.
As the Delburg Mill, the mill was among the earliest in the county to be designed as an electric powered mill. Highland Park #3, built in Charlotte a few years earlier, was touted to be the first in the area to be designed to be powered by electricity and not coal fired steam. While retaining much of the historic material associated with its early incarnation as the Delburg Mill, the milling building demonstrates the development and expansion of cotton milling in the first half of the 20th century. The Davidson Cotton Mill also demonstrates the evolution of industrial transportation in this county. Built specifically in 1907 to be service by the rail lines, the factory had by 1925 been modified to accommodate the new mode of industrial transportation, trucking.
[1] See, for example, Thomas W. Hanchett, Charlotte’s Textile Heritage, available on line atwww.cmhpf.org/educationhanchetttextile.htm; Hanchett, Sorting Out the New South City, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998; Dan L. Morrill, Cotton Mills in New South Charlotte, available on line at www.cmhpf.org/educationtextilehistory.htm; Morrill, A History of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, available on line at www.danandmary.com.
[2] Hanchett, Charlotte’s Textile Hertiage.
[3] Ebenezer Emmons, Geological Report for the Midland Counties of North Carolina. North Carolina Geological Survey, (New York: George P. Putnam and Co., Raleigh: Henry D. Turner, 1856), pp. 7-9. North Carolina Collection, available on line at www.docsouth.unc.edu
[4] Hanchett, Charlotte’s Textile Heritage.
[5] Carolyn F. Hoffman, The Development of Town and Country: Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, 1850-1880, (Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Maryland, 1988), p. 201.
[6] R.E. Heide, Report of Vice-Consul Heide,on the Resources, Trade and Commerce of North Carolina, (Wilmington, N.C., 1875), pp. 9-10. North Carolina Collection.
[7] North Carolina Board of Agriculture, North Carolina and Its Resources, (Winston: M.I. and J.C. Stewart, Public Printers and Binders, 1896), p. 158. North Carolina Collection.
[8] Morrill, A History of Charlotte and Mecklenburg, Chapter 7.
[9] Hanchett, Sorting Out the New South City, p. 24.
[10] Daniel Augustus Tompkins, Cotton Mill. Commercial Features. A Text-book for the Use of Textile Schools and Investors. With Tables Showing Cost of Machinery and Equipments for Mills Making Cotton Yarns and Plain Cotton Cloths, (Charlotte, N.C. Published by the Author, 18990, p. 144
[11] Hoffman, The Development of Town and Country, pp. 202-203. According to Dan Morrill, A Survey of Cotton Mills in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, July 1997. www.cmhpf.org/essays/cottonmills.html, cotton mills were built in the county in the Steel Creek township in the 1850s, and in the Providence township in 1874; the first textile mill in Charlotte was not built until 1880-81.
[12] Morrill, Survey of Cotton Mills, p, 2.
[13] Ibid.
[14] Ibid., p. 3.
[15] Tompkins advocated selling shares in an installment plan, a scheme that he had worked out in his days as a machinist at the Bethlehem Iron Works in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He published this plan in several manufacturers’ periodicals, such as the Manufacturers’ Record, and was able to demonstrate that several southern cotton mills were established through this system.
[16] Edgar Thompson, Agricultural Mecklenburg and Industrial Charlotte. Social And Economic. (Charlotte: Queen City Press, 1926), p. 137.
[17] Daniel Augustus Tompkins, A History of Mecklenburg County and the City of Charlotte. From 1740-1903, vol. II, (Charlotte: Observer Printing House, 1903), p. 195.
[18] Mary Beaty, Davidson: A History of the Town from 1835-1937. Contracting part of the words Iredell and Mecklenburg created the name Delburg.
[19] Davidson College Magazine, March 1890, vol. V no. 7, p. 41.
[20] Ibid., October 1891, vol. VII, no. 1, p. 28.
[21] Ibid., November 1891, vol. VII, no. 2, p. 61.
[22] Ibid., October 1893, vol. IX no. 1, p. 33.
[23] Beaty, Davidson.
[24] Tompkins, A History of Mecklenburg , p. 196.
[25] Ibid.
[26] Mecklenburg County Courthouse, Record of Corporations Book 2 Page 256.
[27] Davidson College Magazine, December 1907, p. 202.
[28] Charlotte Daily Observer, January 13, 1908.
[29] Ibid., November 1907, pp. 113-114.
[30] Bill Brannon, Mecklenburg Gazette, “The Way It Was,” nd.
[31] Thompson, Agricultural Mecklenburg, p. 144.
[32] Record of Corporations Book 6 Page 187.
[33] Special Collections, Davidson College Library, Folder: Linden Manufacturing Company, Davidson N.C.
[34] Ibid., Letter, July 31, 1923 from president J.P.Munroe to stockholders.
[35] Ibid., Notice of Special Meeting of Stockholders of the Delburg-Linden Company, August 23, 1923.
[36] Thompson, Agricultural Mecklenburg, p. 144.
[37] Special Collections, Davidson College Library, Folder: Davidson Cotton Mills, 1933-1943. Letter from C.W. Byrd to Dr. Henry Louis Smith, October 21, 1941.
[38] Interview, Stewart Gray with former mill employees John Fisher and Ruben McIntosh, February, 2004.
[39] Amy Ledbetter, Mecklenburg Gazette, “Mill to Get a Facelift,” February 19, 1997.
[40] Doug Smith, Charlotte Observer, “Historic Davidson Cotton Mill to be Offices, Shops, Condos,” March 2, 1996, p. 2D.
[41] Interview with John Fisher who worked at the mill in the 1950’s, 2-29-04.
[42] Interview with Rubin McIntosh who worked at the mill in the late 1950’s, 2-29-04.