HAMILTON C. JONES HOUSE

This report was written on May 7, 1986

1. Name and location of the property: The property known as the Hamilton C. Jones House is located at 201 Cherokee Rd., Charlotte, North Carolina.

2. Name, address and telephone number of the present owner of the property:
The owner of the property is:
James A. Risser & Wife, Virginia G.
201 Cherokee Rd.
Charlotte, NC 28207

Telephone: (704) 375-3608

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

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

5. Current Deed Book Reference to the property: The most recent deed to this property is recorded in Mecklenburg County Deed Book 4231, page 532. The Tax Parcel Number of the property is: 155-074-01.

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

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

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

 

a. Special significance in terms of its history, architecture, and/or cultural importance: The Commission judges that the property known as the Hamilton C. Jones House does possess special significance in terms of Charlotte-Mecklenburg. The Commission bases its judgment on the following considerations: 1) the initial owner of the house, Hamilton C. Jones III (1884-1957), was a prominent attorney, jurist, civic leader, and, from 1946 until 1952, member of the United States House of Representatives; 2) the Hamilton C. Jones House was designed by Martin Boyer, an important figure in the history of architecture in Charlotte-Mecklenburg; 3) the Hamilton C. Jones House is one of the finest local examples of the Tudor Revival style of architecture; and 4) the Hamilton C. Jones House occupies a pivotal position in terms of the townscape of Eastover, one of Charlotte’s premier suburbs, designed for the E. C. Griffith Company by Earle Sumner Draper.

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

9. Ad Valorem Tax Appraisal: The Commission is aware that designation would allow the owner to apply for an automatic deferral of 50% of the Ad Valorem taxes on all or any portion of the property which becomes “historic property.” The current appraised value of the improvements is $245,560. The current appraised value of the 1.699 acres of land is $81,000. The total appraised value of the property is $326,560. The property is zoned R12.

Date of Preparation of this Report: May 7, 1986

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

Telephone: (704) 376-9115

 

Historical Overview

From its beginning, the house at 201 Cherokee Road has been known as “The Stone House.” It was just a handy reference to the people who used the house as a landmark, but to many others who have been more intimately associated with the house, it is an affectionate term.

This house was among the earliest built in Eastover and has to be its finest example of the Tudor style, and one of Charlotte’s finest. There are only scattered examples of Tudor style architecture in the Eastover subdivision, as most of the early houses are red brick Georgian revival. The development of Eastover began in 1927 by the E. C. Griffith Company and was seen as being a competitor for the already established Myers Park.^l The land originally included in the subdivision came from two dairy farms. Two hundred and seventy-three acres were purchased from McD. Catkins and the remaining forty-three acres came from Miss Cora Vail.² The design of Eastover was done by E. S. Draper & Associates. Earle Sumner Draper started his career as John Nolen’s resident landscape architect in George Stephens’ development of Myers Park. Since then he had become a prominent planner in the Southeastern United States.³ Cherokee Road was planned as and still is the backbone of the Eastover neighborhood. Eastover was Charlotte’s first exclusive automobile suburb.⁴ All the previous ones had street car service available, including neighboring Myers Park, which at the time it was built was considered to be in the country. The development of Eastover did much to seal the fate of the growth patterns of the city. This suburb along with Myers Park “firmly established the southeast edge of Charlotte as the city’s prime residential area.”⁵ In 1929, the land at the corner of Cherokee Road and Fenton Place was purchased from the E. C. Griffith Company and deeded to Bessie Erwin Jones, the wife of Hamilton C. Jones, a prominent Charlotte lawyer and politician. This acquisition included three lots, two facing on Cherokee Road and the third with frontage on Fenton Place.⁶ A fourth adjoining lot with frontage on Cherokee Road was purchased the same year by the Jones’s from B. S. Blanton and wife, Rose M. Blanton.⁷

Hamilton C. Jones was born in Charlotte on September 28, 1884. He was one of six children born to Hamilton C. Jones, Jr. and Sophia Convere Myers Jones.⁸ His father, H. C. Jones, Jr., was noted for his gallant military service as an officer throughout the Civil War. He was wounded twice, captured by the Yankees and held prisoner for over a year. He moved to Charlotte in 1867 to practice law. In 1869 he was elected to fill an unexpired term as a state senator and was again elected in 1870. Grover Cleveland appointed him to be the United States District Attorney for the Western District in 1885.⁹ In the opinion of LeGette Blythe and Charles Brockmann: When the final quarter of the nineteenth century began, three of the most influential men in Charlotte were W. P. Bynum, Hamilton C. Jones, Sr. and Clement Dowd.”¹⁰ Sophia Myers was the daughter of Colonel William R. Myers, one of Charlotte’s leading entrepreneurs in the second half of the nineteenth century. One of his philanthropic deeds was the donation of eight acres of land to the fledgling Biddle Memorial Institute, later to become known as Johnson C. Smith University.¹¹ This established the institution at its present location. The land Colonel Myers gave to his son, John Springs Myers, later became the development of Myers Park.

Sophia’s father gave her a lot at 406 E. Trade Street,¹² the area then known as Stumptown. The house built on this lot is where Hamilton C. Jones was born and raised. He had fond memories of Stumptown and the many prominent families of Charlotte that lived there at the time. The YWCA now stands on this land. ¹³ Hamilton C. Jones graduated from the University of North Carolina and then earned a law degree from Columbia University in New York City. He returned to Charlotte in 1908 and established himself as an attorney at law. In 1913 he became a judge in the City Recorder’s Court and later was an assistant United States District Attorney in Charlotte. He was “influential in drafting and securing passage of the necessary legislation legalizing a special Juvenile Court” in Charlotte and became the first judge of this court , which was the first one to operate in the state. ¹⁴ Other legal and political activities Mr. Jones was involved in included being chairman of the Mecklenburg Democratic Executive Committee, president of the North Carolina Bar Association and the Mecklenburg Bar Association. He was a state senator for two terms and from 1946-1952 he represented the Tenth Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives.¹⁵

The social concerns this man had are obvious in his legal and political involvements, but did not stop there. He was continually reaching out to help others and giving of himself. He served as president of the Family Service Association, chairman of the Executive Committee of Thompson Orphanage president of the Charlotte Rotary Club a trustee of University of North Carolina, and vice chairman of the Charlotte Memorial Hospital Authority. As a member of the board of St. Peter’s Hospital in Charlotte, he, along with B. J. Blythe, put much effort into merging St. Peter’s into a new municipal hospital. Thus, Charlotte Memorial Hospital was formed.¹⁶ Hamilton C. Jones died August 10, 1957. Bessie Smedes Erwin was the wife of Hamilton Jones. She was the daughter of William Allen Erwin, the textile magnate who founded Erwin Mills in Durham. Mr. Erwin gave his hunting preserve to Duke University, where the new campus was built.¹⁷ Bessie was the granddaughter of Dr. Albert Smedes, the founder of St. Mary’s School for Women in Raleigh.¹⁸ Bessie Erwin Jones was also a very socially-conscious person. Her activities involved work with Good Samaritan Hospital, Thompson Orphanage and St. Peter’s Episcopal Church. She was a member of the Halifax Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. ¹⁹ Mrs. Jones passed away April 14, 1966. Construction of the house at 201 Cherokee Road, at the intersection of Fenton Place, was begun in 1929. The architect was Martin E. Boyer and the general contractor was Blythe-Isenhour, who had their offices at the Latta Arcade ^20.

Martin Boyer was “Charlotte’s premier revivalist architect.” He was the nephew of another prominent architect, James McMichael, who designed the First Baptist Church on North Tryon Street, which is now Spirit Square. Boyer made possible the saving and moving of the Charlotte Mint to its present Eastover site, where it is now the Mint Museum of Art.²² Stone was chosen as the building material of the Jones’ new residence apparently at the instigation of W. A. Erwin. He was fascinated with stone buildings and is said to have made possible the building of twelve stone churches, including the Episcopal Chapel of Hope in Chapel Hill. He told his daughter and son-in-law that if they would build their house with stone, he would give them the stone from a quarry he owned in Alamance County and participate in the cost of the house.²³ The chapel at Duke University was under construction at the time using granite from Erwin’s quarry Martin Boyer went up to look at it and didn’t like it, as he thought it to be a cold gray. He went to the quarry and asked for stone with more character, more life to it. He was shown some stone with more russet coloring in it, but still mostly gray. It seems that the closer to the surface the stone is, the more the iron in it has oxidized. Boyer took a sample back to W. O. Frank, a leading architect in the United States at the time, and the architect for Duke. As a result, the Chapel is the only building on the Duke campus of all gray stone. The rest are constructed of stones with some russet tones mixed in.²⁴ Until 1979 it was thought by V. Erwin Jones, the son of Hamilton and Bessie Jones, who grew up in The Stone House and returned there as an adult to live, that the stone came from his grandfather’s quarry. When this information was published in an article in The Charlotte Observer, he was contacted by the son of a stonecutter from Salisbury. This man had worked on the house with his father for two summers while he was in college.

Apparently, Boyer still had not been satisfied with the stone he saw in Erwin’s quarry. The russet colored granite used in The Stone House came from northern Wake County. The rock formation was said to have been in a field and shaped like a tear drop, forty feet wide and sixty feet long. It projected above the ground thirty to forty feet. They took all the stone above ground and a lot from below ground level. The granite is unusual not only because of its coloring, but because of the few veins and seams it contains.²⁵ The stone was chipped on the site at Cherokee Road to shape it. All the corners are squared, not rounded. Two masons from Scotland, both named Brown, but not related to each other, layed the stone. The son of one of the masons is said to operate Brown Brothers Stone Company in Greensboro. They manage A. A. Erwin’s quarry, which was left to Duke University upon Erwin’s death in 1932 to assure a continuing source of similar granite. Brown Brothers also does the stone work for Duke.²⁶ The construction of this house lasted from l929 to 1931. This was during the depression and it was said to have been the only building under construction in Charlotte during part of this period. Because of this, each subcontractor had his key people on the job, or the owners of the firms did the work themselves. The plumbing was done by P. C. Godfrey, Incorporated and Mr. Godfrey himself was the chief estimator and chief engineer. This might explain why the plumbing for the house has six cutoff zones. The same is true of the heating, which is steam vapor heat.²⁷ The original radiators are still in place, even though the source of fuel, and hence the boiler has changed over the years from coal to oil to gas.²⁸ All of the workers were the best around and since they had no other jobs they took their time and did their best work. Boyer himself spent one and a half years on the job.²⁹

This must account for all of the intricate details that are present in this house and are sure to be described more thoroughly in the architectural essay. A woodcutter from New York worked throughout the construction of the house. His work is evident from the roughly-hewn timbers used in the porte-cochere, the walkway leading from it to the house and the window trim to the intricately carved trim of the bay window on the southerly side of the building, away from Fenton Place. The woodwork of this bay window is representative of the totally asymmetrical nature of the entire house. There are two wooden columns, one on each outside corner of this bay window. Looking at them, one gets the feeling that a divider could have been placed at the middle of the window and a person placed on each side of it and told to carve what they pleased. This was not the case, as Erwin Jones was a witness. He remembers being an eager helper to the woodcutter as he carved this wood. Erwin, along with his friend Walter Lambeth, spent two summers on the job site. He would pack his lunch and walk to the new house from his family’s home on Hermitage Road,³⁰ which was in the Myers Park subdivision on the other side of Providence Road. The roofing material used on this house is Ludowici-Celadon clay tile, 3/4 inch thick. This is the tile used for the buildings on the new campus of Duke University. Boyer saw it when he was looking at the stone and liked it. It is made to look like slate with variations in colorant. The masonry work on each of the three chimneys is different. One of them is particularly unusual in that it is “twisted”. Brick is used sparingly in this house, and each place where it is seen has a design all to itself. There is a grapevine design in the stucco above the dining room window on the front of the house. Martin Boyer fashioned this himself with his fingers.³² The interior of this house is as unusual and intriguing as the exterior. According to Sherman Pardue, a Charlotte architect who is an admirer of Martin Boyer’s work, Boyer gave you something interesting to look at no matter where you looked. The theme that is repeated in this house is “a space behind an arch.”³³ The elliptical arch with an open space behind it is found throughout the house: in the public rooms, in bedrooms, and even in the basement. The entry hall is unusually large. The depth of the hall, with the curved staircase at the back of it, took space away from the library and what was originally the breakfast room. Bessie Jones is said to have complained about this when it was planned, but did accept it. The reason for it was that Boyer had never been permitted to do a stairway where you could see the entire thing from the first floor.³⁴

Another distinguishing feature about the staircase is that each of the wrought iron plates that support the railings has a different design. The layout of the hall and staircase allowed for the establishment of a Jones family tradition. Each Christmas season, the focal point of their holiday decorations was a twenty foot Christmas tree.³⁵ The walls on the first floor are stippled. This is a method of applying plaster to produce a somewhat patterned finish that is not smooth. After this was dry, stain was applied and then wiped off. Minwax was then applied as a finishing coat. The only care these walls required for years was an occasional washing. It was twenty-five years before these walls were painted, and then it was only done because a painter owed Hamilton Jones money for legal work and this was the way he was able to pay, so Mr. Jones let him do the work.³⁶ The fireplace in the living room, which is called cast stone work, is a copy of one that Boyer saw in Warwick Castle in England.³⁷ The symbols used on this fireplace, as well as those used on the fireplace in the dining room, on the plaster moldings, and other places throughout the house, interior and exterior, would necessitate the study of heraldry to be fully understood and enjoyed. The plaster molding in each of the four main floor public rooms was hand run and cast, in place. The molding in the library is different from that of the other three rooms. The millwork in the library is exquisite, with the same fine detailing being carried through in the bookcases and the fireplace. Warren Lumber Company was the millwork designer. They worked with Boyer on many houses, but he felt that this was their best work ever. The millwork in this house is unusual in that the wood used was tulip poplar, which has wide variations in color. This very feature is both the reason it was normally not used and the reason Boyer chose it for this house.³⁸ Forked-leaf white oak was used for the flooring, which is also not common. This wood is the only wood suitable for cooperage.³⁹

The third floor of the house consists mainly of a large room that was used as a playroom for the three children of Bessie and Hamilton that were raised in this house. The walls were of beaverboard, which is soft and has a rough finish, so the children’s artwork could be easily displayed. When it rained, the children of the neighborhood often gathered in this room. The finished floors provided a good area for roller skating, as well as for dancing.⁴⁰ The hardware in the house was all hand-wrought bronze, except for the doorknobs on the servants’ quarters, which were ceramic. The servants’ quarters consisted of two bedrooms and a bath located over the garage and accessible by a rear stairway.⁴¹ In the yard was a playhouse, also built of stone, that had the same clay tiles for the roof as were used for the main house. The playhouse has a miniature fireplace that was built into one of the two original stone walls. There was a circular stairway leading up to a loft. Many people in the neighborhood remember playing there as children. All of the wood members of this had rotted and the roof had caved in. The two stone walls, which remain as strong as ever, have been used as the base of a tool shed and workshop, with the area expanded and the roof higher than it was originally. ⁴²

The landscaping was originally done by Henry Harkey, Sr. This has all been changed over the years, though.⁴³ The property at 201 Cherokee Road remained in Bessie Erwin Jones’ name until 1962 when she sold it to her son, W. Erwin Jones. She reserved a life interest in the property.⁴⁴ She remained in the house until 1964, at which time she moved into an apartment. The house remained vacant for four months until Erwin Jones and his wife, Macy Ross Jones, moved into it.⁴⁵ Erwin was and still is a manufacturer is agent for commercial building products, with his own business, Erwin Jones and Company, Incorporated. Erwin and Macy raised a second generation of Jones children in The Stone House. He was the first president of the Eastover Homeowners Association. In September l979 the house was sold to James and Virginia Risser⁴⁶ who are the present owners. James Risser is the president of the United States Bottlers Machinery Company, which he also moved to Charlotte in 1979. The Rissers have four children who have all lived in the house.⁴⁷ Since they moved into the house, the Rissers have done much work on the building, most of it being maintenance, renovation and cosmetic work. Work done has included redoing all of the mechanical systems; washing the clay tile roofing and stonework; cleaning, repairing and repainting the one hundred and sixty-eight leaded exterior windows; and painting and wallpapering.⁴⁸

They have reconstructed the kitchen, which involved turning three rooms (a butlers pantry, kitchen and small breakfast room) into a large kitchen. This was planned with the age and feel of the house in mind. They have also restructured the servants’ quarters, changing it into one room with a small bath.⁴⁹ The few changes on the exterior are mostly at the back of the house. The wooden garage doors have been replaced with overhead doors. Next to the garage, the porte-cochere has been filled in with heavy wooden doors, the purpose being to enclose the backyard and make it more private. The circular drive through the yard has been removed and the area seeded in grass. The patio by the house has been lowered for better drainage away from the house, and it has been enlarged. A shallow concrete pond, two to four feet wide and about thirty feet long, and walkways have been added with plantings around them. Though the landscaping is changing, it is well-groomed and remains a quiet and tranquil setting. This home is one of the most prominent homes among many fine homes in the Eastover area. The time and thought that went into the planning and construction of this house is obvious. This building is not only solid, but is unique and beautiful. It is a home from a different era which could not be copied today.

 

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NOTES

¹ Thomas W. Hanchett, “Charlotte and Its Neighborhoods: The Growth of a New South City, 1850-1930,” (Unpublished manuscript in office of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Properties Commission), p. 10.

² Ibid. , p 8.

³ “Myers Park, Charlotte, NC,” a brochure based on findings of the Charlotte Neighborhood Survey, conducted by Thomas W. Hanchett, 1981-1982.

⁴ Hanchett, p. 12.

⁵ Ibid., p. 13.

⁶ Deed Book 701, p. 581, 16 July 1929.

⁷ Deed Book 741, p. 182, 4 April 1929.

⁸ Samuel A. Ashe, Stephen B. Weeks, editors, Biographical History of North Carolina from Colonial Times to the Present, Vol. VII (Greensboro, NC: Charles L. VanNoppen, l908) p. 271.

⁹ Ibid., pp. 269-271.

¹⁰ Legette Blythe and Charles Raven Brockmann, Hornets’ Nest — The Story of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County (Charlotte: McNally of Charlotte, l96l), p. 188.

¹¹ William H. Huffman, “A Historical Sketch of the Carnegie Library, Johnson C. Smith University, Charlotte, N.C.”, January 1983, pp. 1-2.

¹² Information supplied by W. Erwin Jones.

¹³ The Charlotte Observer, February 28, 1950, p. 2.

 

¹⁴ The Charlotte Observer, August 11, 1957, p. 1.

¹⁵ Ibid.

¹⁶ Ibid.

¹⁷ Information supplied by W. Erwin Jones.

¹⁸ The Charlotte Observer, April 15, 1966, p. 18-A.

¹⁹ Ibid.

²⁰ Mecklenburg County Building Standards Department, Building Permit #9966, 15 April 1929.

²¹ “Myers Park, Charlotte, N.C.”, a brochure.

²² The Charlotte Observer, April 14, 1977, p. C 1.

²³ Information supplied by W. Erwin Jones.

²⁴ Ibid.

²⁵ Ibid.

²⁶ Ibid.

²⁷ Ibid.

²⁸ Information supplied by Virginia Risser.

²⁹ Information supplied by W. Erwin Jones.

³⁰ Ibid.

³¹ Ibid.

³² Ibid.

³³ Ibid.

³⁴ Ibid.

³⁵ Ibid.

³⁶ Ibid.

³⁷ Ibid.

³⁸ Ibid.

³⁹ Ibid.

⁴⁰ Ibid.

⁴¹ Information supplied by Virginia Risser.

⁴² Ibid.

⁴³ Information supplied by W. Erwin Jones.

⁴⁴ Deed Book 2374, p. 174, 30 October 1962.

⁴⁵ Information supplied by W. Erwin Jones.

⁴⁶ Deed Book 4231, p. 532, 13 September l979

⁴⁷ Information supplied by Virginia Risser.

⁴⁸ Ibid.

⁴⁹ lbid.

 

Architectural Description

The Hamilton C. Jones III House, built 1929-1931, is among the most impressive examples of the Tudor Revival style in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. Prominently located on the corner of Cherokee Road and Fenton Place in the prestigious Eastover suburb, the large dwelling with its cut- stone exterior is the work of leading Charlotte residential architect Martin Boyer. Today, except for changes to the kitchen, bathrooms, utilities, and rear yard, the house remains in good original condition. In basic massing, the Jones House is a simple two-and-a-half story rectangular block with a one-and-a-half story rear service ell. Facades are treated asymmetrically, with bays, chimneys, gables and windows applied in playful abandon, giving the house the rambling rustic appearance characteristic of the Tudor Revival. The main exterior covering of the dwelling is random-coursed-ashlar russet-colored granite, which is said to have come from the same Alamance County quarry that produced the stone used at Duke University. Four-inch hollow terra cotta tile lies hidden behind the nine to twelve inch thick granite walls. Roofs are clay, tile made to resemble varicolored slate by the Loudice Celaden Company, who also did work for Duke.

Several gables feature plaster or half-timbering, and windows throughout the house are casement type, with small rectangular panes of glass. The front facade, facing west toward Cherokee Road, is the most complex. A gabled two-story entrance bay projects from the facade near the center. Its gable is plastered and features a scalloped bargeboard and pendant of dark stained wood. The tripartite gable window has a projecting wood lintel. Below the gable is a tripartite second-story window with a surround of smooth stone. At the first-story level, a smooth stone surround with two carved rosettes shelters the deeply inset front entry. Originally the entry had massive double doors of solid wood, but the current owners replaced them with a single door (salvaged from the remodeled kitchen area) surrounded by sidelights, in order to let natural light into the hall inside. Low stone walls curve outward on either side of the entrance bay, simultaneously sheltering terraces and guiding the visitor toward the door. To the right of the entrance bay, one faces the house, is a half-timbered gable and a massive projecting chimney. The gable features curved timbers, a pendant and scalloped bargeboards, and a two-part window. The chimney is asymmetrically double-sloped for rustic effect, and includes a deeply-inset window at the second-story level and a trench door at the first-story. Two round chimney-pots with elaborate brickwork surmount the stone chimney.

To the left of the entrance bay, Boyer designed a complexly-massed projecting bay. Its gable has a single window surrounded by plastering, which was worked by hand by Boyer himself in a grapevine motif. At the second-story level the bay is sheathed in red brick laid crazily in angles and curves. At the first-story level, a tall tripartite window lights the dining room inside. The north end facade of the Jones House is comparatively simple. It boasts a projecting second-story bay window with half-timbering and a standing-seam copper roof, and a tall exterior chimney of stone topped by another round chimney pot of rustically-laid brick. The south end facade of the dwelling is slightly more elaborate. In addition to the expected rectangular casement windows it has round-arched openings at the first-story for a sunporch. There is also a projecting first-story bay window with an ornate copper roof, and a tiny second-story balcony with a conical copper roof and a delicate wrought iron railing. The Jones House’s rear elevation includes a shed-roofed, wood shingle sided dormer, and another first-story projecting bay window with a copper roof. Running back from the main block of the house is the rear service ell, containing the three-car garage, the servants stair to the second-floor of the main house, and a small porte-cochere. A roofed-colonnade with heavy hand-hewn columns of dark stained wood extends along the south side of the wing, originally designed to shelter visitors as they walked from the port-cochere to the back door of the main house. The original garage doors have been replaced with modern units, but the garage still retains its numerous gables, and is topped by a small cupola.

Before turning to the interior of this residence, we shall look briefly at its setting. The Jones House sits on a slight rise near the center of its large lot. Its naturalistic landscaping on the Cherokee Rood and Fenton Place sides — consisting of random-spaced trees, lawns, and occasional spots of low ground-cover — is now near maturity and appears much as the dwelling’s original owners might have envisioned it. A flagstone walk curves with studied informality from Cherokee Road to the front door. The unknown designer of the dwelling’s landscaping took care to provide privacy for the residents. As noted above, low walls shelter front terraces, and other terraces extend along the south and east side of the house, carefully hidden from the street by tall bushes and by the house itself. At the south side of the house is a large private lawn not visible from the street, which was designed for parties and as a children’s play area. A small stone playhouse nearby has been enlarged and rebuilt as a workshop by the current owners. Originally the driveway from Fenton Place passed through the gated port-cochere and made a circle behind the house. The present owners have added parking close to Fenton Place, and are now replacing the circular drive with a swimming pool, whose curving asymmetrical design is chosen to be in keeping with the house.

The interior of the Jones House is not quite symmetrical in plan, but it is much more regular than the playful exterior suggests. Detailing continues the Tudor Revival rusticity that is found outside, with plaster walls, handsome tulip poplar four-panel door and woodwork, and floors of fork-leafed white oak. According to the present owners, the theme that Boyer built into the house is “a space behind an arch.” Thus, an elliptical arch with an opening behind it is found not only in the public rooms, but also in several bedrooms end even in the basement. One enters a large central entrance hall, which has a rustically handcrafted plaster cornice featuring flowers, oak leaves, and acorns. Through an arch to the right is the spacious living room. It continues the cornice and stippled plaster walls of the hall. A window seat inset under an arch dominates the south wall, and a large carved-stone fireplace with seven heraldic medallions and a Tudor-arched opening is the focus of the west wall. To the rear of the living room, through a pair of Hopes brand metal-framed trench doors, is the stone-floored sunporch. Its original exterior doors have been replaced recently with new units. Next to the sunporch, at the rear of the house behind the living room, is the library. It too features a window seat under an arch, a fireplace, and a plaster cornice.

The tulip-poplar bookcases have delicate Tudor-arched detailing. Returning to the central entrance hall, one can look left through an archway with sliding pocket doors into the dining room, which is somewhat smaller then the living room. The dining room has a bay window on its west wall and a smaller carved stone fireplace on its north wall. It continues the plaster cornice of the hall. To the rear of the dining room is the recently-remodeled kitchen. Several small pantries and food preparation areas were combined to create a single large L-shaped eat-in kitchen, with all new fixtures. A small service hall leads from the kitchen, past the back door, across the back of the house past closets and a bathroom to the library. Behind the kitchen is a servants’ pantry with service stairs to the basement and the second floor. Coming back to the entrance hall yet again, one can walk forward to the grand stair. Elliptically-shaped, it features a hand-wrought bronze balustrade with a variety of decorative panels, including one featuring the silhouette of a squirrel. At the top of the stairway is a smaller hall with its own window seat, five bedrooms open off the hall. Three have private baths, and the last two share a bathroom. Most of the baths retain their original ceramic tile wainscoting and some original fixtures, but the bathroom serving the northeast headroom still has all original fixtures including pedestal sink.

There is a small sleeping porch at the north end of this floor, and a larger sleeping porch off the master bedroom at the south end. The master bedroom has a small carved stone mantel with a Tudor arch. In addition to the main bedrooms, there are two other upstairs areas. Opening northeastward off the top of the grand stair is the hall to the former servants’ quarter, which is located over the garage. Originally containing two rooms and a bath, it has been completely gutted and rebuilt in recent years as a one-room office. Above the main bedrooms under the each of the main house is the Dance Room. It has an oak floors and the original rough particle-board walls. Underneath the house is a fully excavated laundry room and furnace room, but the rest of the dwelling has only a crawl-spa

JOHNSTON MILL

This report was written on 26 November 1993

1. Name and location of the property: The property known as the Johnston Mill is located in the 3300 block of North Davidson Street, Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.

2. Name, address, and telephone number of the present owner of the property:
The owner of the property is:
Johnston Mill Associates Limited Partnership
P.O. Box 471665
Charlotte, NC 28247

Telephone: (704) 342-4554

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 091-101-09 is listed in Mecklenburg County Deed Book 7138 on page 679.

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

7. A brief architectural description of the property: This report contains a brief architectural description of the property prepared by Dr. William H. Huffman.

8. Documentation of why and in what ways the property meets criteria for designation as set forth in N.C.G.S. 160A-400.5:

 

a. Special significance in terms of its history, architecture and/or cultural importance: The Commission judges that the property known as the Johnston Mill does possess special significance for Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. The Commission bases its judgement on the following considerations: 1) Johnston Mill was built in 1916, and played a significant role in the history of textile manufacturing in the county and of the North Charlotte mill community. 2) its architecture is reflective of early twentieth-century mill buildings. 3) it is associated with Charles Worth Johnston, a leading textile figure in the Southern Piedmont Carolinas as well as in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County.

b. Integrity of design, setting, workmanship, materials, feeling, and/or association: The Commission contends that the architectural description included in this report demonstrates that the Johnston Mill meets this criterion.

9. Ad Valorem Tax Appraisal: The Commission is aware that designation would allow the owner to apply for an automatic deferral of 50% of the Ad Valorem taxes on all or any portion of the property which becomes a designated “historic landmark.” The current appraised value of the tract is $669,260.00. The size of Tax Parcel 091-101-09 is 5.64 acres.

Date of Preparation of this Report: 26 November 1993

Prepared by: Dr. William H. Huffman
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Properties Commission
500 North Tryon Street, Suite 200
P.O. Box 35434
Charlotte, NC 28235

Telephone: (704) 376-9115

 

 

Historical Overview

 

Dr. William H. Huffman

The Johnston Mill was one of the last mills built in Mecklenburg County, and was the last of the three mills in the North Charlotte community to close in recent times. Built originally in 1916 by textile magnate C. W. Johnston to meet the growing demand for cotton goods due to the war raging in Europe, the mill was further increased in size during the boom of the 1920’s. In addition to its importance as part of Mecklenburg County’s cotton mill history, it is also significant because of its association with Charles Worth Johnston (1861-1941), who played a prominent role in the history of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County’s business and civic life.

At first glance, the Johnston Mill seems a bit of a puzzle: it was built rather late for most Mecklenburg mills, was built on the land of an existing mill, and had no associated mill village. But an investigation into the circumstances surrounding its creation reveals the logic of the thought behind it. The story intertwines with the career of C. W. Johnston.

Born in Coddle Creek Township of Iredell County to Samuel and Mary Smith Johnston, he attended Davidson College for a time as a young man. His first job out of school was with the mercantile firm of the Stough Cornelius Company in Cornelius where he learned about business. In 1882, he married Jennie Stough, the sister of Richard J. Stough, whose family controlled the mercantile business and the Cornelius Mills. Johnston applied for and was hired to be the superintendent of the Cornelius Mills when that position became open. In 1891, he came to Charlotte at the request of J. S. Spencer, president of the Commercial National Bank, to become secretary of the Highland Park Manufacturing Company, and in 1906 Johnston took over as president of the firm.¹

The cotton mills in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County may best be seen as part of the New South industrialization that took place following Reconstruction. Locally, that movement was spearheaded by Daniel Augustus Tompkins (1852-1914), an indefatigable participant in, and advocate of, New South industrialization. Charlotte’s first cotton mill was the Charlotte Cotton Mills, which started up in 1881 under the direction of R. M. Oates, a cotton broker. A year later, D. A. Tompkins, a South Carolina native who was educated and trained in manufacturing in the North, came to the city as a representative of the Westinghouse Company. He quickly became aware of the potential for building cotton mills in the area, and so in 1884 he set up his own design, contracting and machine shop business, the D. A. Tompkins Co. Over a thirty-two year period, Tompkins built over one hundred cotton mills, fertilizer works, electric light plants and ginneries. He also changed the region’s cotton oil from a waste product into a major industry through the building of about two hundred processing plants and organizing one of his own, the Southern Cotton Oil Company.²

Tompkins’ efforts started to appear in rapid succession in Charlotte when his company built the Alpha, Ada and Victor mills in 1889, the city’s second, third and fourth mills.³ On June 15, 1891, at the first stockholder’s meeting of the new “Gingham Mill,” which was to be the city’s fifth, a board of directors was elected. At the meeting of January 11, 1882, a committee of D. A. Tompkins and two others suggested the name Highland Park Manufacturing Co., which was adopted. R. H. Jordan, who owned the drugstore at the southeast corner of Trade and Tryon Street at the center of town, was elected the company’s first president. He was followed by Vinton Liddell in 1893 and W. E. Holt in 1895.⁴

In 1891, the year Johnston joined the company, Highland Park began construction of its first mill, at Brevard and Sixteenth Streets in Charlotte, and in 1895 added a spinning mill at the same location. Originally called the “Gingham Mill,” after the 1895 addition the complex was called Highland Park; Mill #1. When the company bought Standard Mills of Rock Hill, SC, in 1898, it was renamed Highland Park Mill #2. The North Charlotte community was first created when it was chosen as the site for the mammoth Highland Park Mill #3, complete with an elaborate mill village and its own power plant, all constructed in 1903-1904.⁵ During the same period that Highland Park was building Mill #3, a smaller mill and associated houses were added to North Charlotte with the construction of the Mecklenburg Mill (after 1926, the Mercury Mill; acquired by Johnston, 1941). The latter was built on land purchased from Highland Park just to the north of Mill #3.⁶ With 20,000 spindles, 1000 looms and a work force of 800, Highland Park #3 was by far the largest mill in Mecklenburg County.

Other mills and their presidents built in or near Charlotte during the late nineteenth century and early twentieth included: The Atherton Mill (D. A. Tompkins’ own mill, 1892-3); Louise (H. S. Chadwick, 1897); Magnolia (A. C. Summerville, 1901); Chadwick (E. A. Smith, 1901); Elizabeth (R. M. Miller, 1901); Hoskins (H. S. Chadwick, 1904); and Savona Manufacturing (1908).⁷

Once well established in Charlotte with the Highland Park Company, C. W. Johnston began building his own textile empire. His first acquisition appears to have been the Anchor Mills in Huntersville (built 1897 as a small spinning plant, added weaving about 1902). By the time of his death in 1941 at the age of 79, Johnston headed thirteen mills in North and South Carolina. As a visible symbol of the position his textile chain occupied in the community, in 1924 he built a skyscraper, the Johnston Building, on South Tryon Street in Charlotte to house the corporate headquarters and other offices.⁸

When war broke out in Europe in 1914 and continued unabated in its ferocity for months which stretched into years, the European textile industry began to be severely affected. Because of the tremendous demand for uniforms and bandages and the shortage of materials, the textile plants in the neutral United States began to pick up more and more of the demand. The wary United States also started a program to expand its own armed forces, just in case. To meet this demand, the local mills began to work at capacity and around the clock, and a number of new mills were built.⁹ In an article in the Charlotte Observer in December, 1915, entitled “Amazing Activity Among the Mills,” the writer enthusiastically declared that: “There is greater activity in cotton mill construction circles just at present in and around Charlotte than there has been in a decade, according to the statements of the best informed mill architects and engineers of this section….It has been figured that it has been ordered and put under way more than $3,000,000 worth of work in and around Charlotte within the past few months. There is also well founded talk of the plans of Mr. Charles W. Johnston and his associates in the Anchor Mills at Huntersville, of building another mill or an addition to the present one at Huntersville.”¹⁰

Apparently Johnston decided to build another mill at North Charlotte rather than one in Huntersville. In 1913, he had already doubled the capacity of the Anchor Mills to bring it up to 10,000 spindles and 400 looms.¹¹ A likely factor in deciding to build in North Charlotte was the excellent rail connections. Spur lines already existed for the next-door Mecklenburg Mill, and no doubt Johnston wanted to get the mill up and running as quickly as possible. Apparently he leased about half of the Mecklenburg Mill property for the new site, and by mid-1916, the new Johnston Manufacturing Company mill had been completed with 12,000 spindles running at full capacity.¹² Since the surrounding area had already been built up with mill houses, stores and other amenities associated with Highland Park #3 and the Mecklenburg Mill, this accounts for the fact that no mill houses were built for the Johnston Mill.

To handle his various holdings, C. W. Johnston had formed at least three companies that bore his name: the Johnston Manufacturing Company; the Johnston Mills Company; and the Johnston Spinning Company (formerly Union Mills Company). ¹³ He had formed the Johnston Manufacturing Company in 1913 as a sole proprietorship (which accounts for a number of sources incorrectly citing that as the date of the mill), made it a partnership in 1914, and incorporated it in 1921. The three were merged into the Johnston Manufacturing Company in 1969.¹⁴

The Johnston Mill apparently prospered after the war, and participated in the boom times of the 1920’s. In 1926, additions were made to the mill that remain as part of the present complex: an addition was made to the picker room at the rear of the main mill; and a new waste house, opener room and cotton warehouse were added to the existing cotton warehouse.¹⁵ Sometime between 1929 and 1934, a two-story addition with a tower was added at the front of the mill for offices.¹⁶ In 1941, Johnston Manufacturing formally bought the property it sat on and that of the nearby Mercury Mill, primarily to acquire its mill houses.¹⁷

When C. W. Johnston stepped down as president in 1938, he was succeeded by his son, R. Horace Johnston, who led the Johnston interests until his own death in the early fifties. In 1951, the last president of the company, David R. Johnston (C. W. Johnston’s grandson), built the Johnston Memorial Y.M.C.A. in memory of his father, just northeast of Highland Park Mill No. 3. He also presided over the dissolution of Highland Park in June, 1969, when all textile manufacturing ceased at Highland Park #3.¹⁸ The Mercury Mill, which had operated through World War II, shut down in 1945 and was only used as a warehouse thereafter. ¹⁹ When the Johnston Manufacturing Co. plant also was closed and sold in 1975, there was a distinct passing from one time into another for the North Charlotte mill community. Indeed, in the 1950’s, ’60’s and ’70’s, Mecklenburg County, which at one time was second in textile production only to Gaston County in the state, saw the demise of its once dominant industry.²⁰

Chavis Textile Manufacturing of Gastonia bought the Johnston Mill in 1975 when it shut down, and the following year it was sold to Confederate Textile Machinery, Inc. of Greenville, SC.²¹ It was primarily used as warehouse space. In 1980, the plant was bought by Robert and Ava Stark, who also bought the old Mercury Mill, and ten year later, in 1990, both the former mill properties were purchased by the present owners.²² The present owners, with a one million dollar loan from the City of Charlotte, purchased both the Johnston and Mecklenburg Mills, and are converting the former to a low income apartment complex. Current plans are to convert the old Mecklenburg Mill into artists’ studios at a later date.²³

 

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NOTES

¹ Charlotte News, July 5, 1941, p. 1; Charlotte Observer, July 5,1941, p.1.

² William H. Huffman, “A Historical Sketch of the Charlotte Supply Company,” Charlotte Mecklenburg Historic Properties Commission, 1983.

³ Dan L. Morrill, “A Survey of Cotton Mills in Charlotte, North Carolina,” Charlotte Mecklenburg Historic Properties Commission, 1979.

⁴ Letter from Highland Park Manufacturing Company, undated (c. 1964) on file at Charlotte Mecklenburg Public Library.

⁵ William H. Huffman, “A Historical Sketch of the Highland Park Mill No. 3,” Charlotte Mecklenburg Historic Properties Commission, 1984; National Register of Historic Places Nomination, 1988.

⁶ Morrill, note 3; Thomas W. Hanchett, “Charlotte and its Neighborhoods,” unpublished typescript, Charlotte Mecklenburg Historic Properties Commission, 1986.

⁷ Morrill, note 3.

⁸ See note 1; Edgar T. Thompson, Agricultural Mecklenburg and Industrial Charlotte (Charlotte: Chamber of Commerce, 1926), pp. 142-3.

⁹ Charlotte News, April 16, 1916, p.8: “Great Activity Among So. Mills: Many Running Day and Night – Best Season Since 1905.”

¹⁰ Charlotte Observer, December 30, 1915, p.6. l

¹¹ Ibid., January 16, 1913, p. 6.

¹² Ibid., July 8, 1916, p. 10.

¹³ Mecklenburg County, Record of Corporations, Book 19-C-486.

¹⁴ Ibid.; Charlotte City Directory, 1916; Mecklenburg County, Record of Partnerships, File No. 5; Thompson, note 8.

¹⁵ Records and plans of Biberstein, Bowles, on file in Special Collections, Atkins Library, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC.

¹⁶ Interview with Martin Luther (Luke) Brackett, last president of Johnston Mills by William H. Huffman, Charlotte, NC, 10 November 1993.

¹⁷ Ibid.; Mecklenburg County Deed Book 1065, p. 279, 24 November 1941.

¹⁸ Letter, note 4; Huffman, note 5.

¹⁹ Brackett interview, note 16.

²⁰ Charlotte News, March 3,1975, p. 1; Charlotte Observer, March 23, 1975, p. 19.

²¹ Mecklenburg County Deed Books 3318, p.366 and Book 3867, p. 640.

²² Ibid., Book 4327, p.816; 6348, p.612; and 7138, p.679.

²³ Charlotte Observer, July 18, 1993, Mecklenburg Neighbors Section, p. 1.

 

 

Architectural Description

 

Dr. William H. Huffman

The Johnston Mill is located in the North Charlotte community about 2.7 miles northeast of the Square, and in recent times carried the address of 3315 North Davidson Street. North Charlotte was a separate mill community created around the Highland Park Mill No. 3 and the Mecklenburg Mill (after 1926, the Mercury Mill), both finished in 1904 with mill villages, and was connected to Charlotte by rail lines for freight and a streetcar line for passengers. The original Johnston Mill was built in 1916 on the Mecklenburg Mill property, and had no village of its own.

The Johnston Mill complex is located on a 5.64-acre parcel of land that is bounded by the Norfolk Southern Railway tracks on the north, the Mecklenburg/Mercury Mill property on the east, North Davidson Street on the southeast, Norfolk Southern Railway tracks on the south, and East 36th Street on the southwest. The tract slopes gently downward from northeast to southwest.

The mill complex contains five buildings (number-keyed to attached map): 1) the main mill building; 2) new opener room; 3) the cotton warehouse, waste house and opener room complex; 4) the machine storage building; and 5) the Mecklenburg Mill house.

1) Main Mill Building (1916; additions 1926, c. 1930 and other dates unknown)
The 1916 original part of the mill is two stories with brick walls laid in a modified Flemish bond with alternating headers and stretchers every sixth row. The 1926 addition on the north end is brick laid in common bond one-to-six. Both have brick segmental-arch windows with brick sills on both stories. A low-gable wood roof is covered with built-up tar and gravel, and has a small overhang supported by exposed rafters with curved ends on the original mill, and brick parapet walls capped by corbeling and ceramic tile on the 1926 addition. A single tower was built on the east side of the original mill for access and bathrooms. The c.1930 addition on the south end of the mill next to Davidson Street is two stories with walls of brick laid in the same modified Flemish bond as the original mill. Built for office space, it has a two-story stair tower facing Davidson Street with brick pilasters and is capped by plain stone capitals. It is equipped with large window openings with flat metal lintels and concrete sills that formerly held industrial metal-sash windows, and has a roof with overhang and brackets that are similar to the original mill. This addition also added two towers on the north side opposite Davidson Street, one for stairs and the other for bathrooms and showers. Recent one-story additions on the south, east and west sides of the mill were removed to expose the original facades.

The interior of the original mill and the 1926 picker room addition on the north side have intact wood floors and wood post-and-beam construction with square posts. The wood beams on the first floor have been reinforced by the addition of steel I-beams flanking the wood beams. A partial basement work area was added to the original mill about the late 1930’s and has concrete floors and wood post-and-beam construction. The office addition on the south side also has wood floors, round steel posts and steel I-beam construction, and has concrete stairs with a plain metal handrail in the tower. The floors in the mill building are being covered with gypcrete for leveling and stability. All the main mill building is being adaptively rehabilitated for use as low-income apartments.

2) Opener room (late 1960’s)
The new opener room was built in the late 1960’s next to the Southern Railroad tracks, and was used to open the cotton bales so that the cotton could be fed into the mill through a suction device. It was constructed to hold new opening equipment acquired by the mill.¹ The building is one story, and is constructed of concrete block with some brick infill. It has a flat roof constructed of precast concrete beams, with parapet walls at the east and west ends capped with ceramic tile. It originally had two large doors at the east and west ends, which are being closed in for smaller doors. Four fifteen-light metal sash windows pierce the walls on the south side, and three of the same kind are on the north wall. The floor is concrete. This building is being unfitted as a day care center for the tenants of the project.

Cotton Warehouse, Waste House and Opener Room Complex (1916, 1926)
The original cotton warehouse was built in 1916 with the main mill, and was doubled in size in the 1926 addition. It is a raised one-story structure of wood post-and-beam construction resting on brick piers. It was constructed of clapboard siding, a low gable wood roof, and wood floors. Sometime later a basement was constructed by pouring concrete floors and putting brick infill between the piers.

Built in 1926, the opener room is a one-story building of brick laid in common bond one-to-six. It has wood floors, and a sloping wood flat roof with a stepped parapet wall on the south end that is capped with ceramic tile. Three twenty-light metal sash windows pierce the south wall, and four of the same kind of window are on the east side.

The waste house was also part of the 1926 addition. It is a two-story building of brick laid in common bond one-to-six, and had a flat wood roof, wood post-and-beam construction and wood floors. The original interior wood beams, flooring and roof collapsed from deterioration, and are being replaced. The parapet walls are capped with ceramic tile.

For the new project, the cotton warehouse is planned as a covered recreation area, the waste house as an indoor recreation area, and the opening room as a community center.

4) Machine Storage Building (1916)
The machine storage building was built in 1916 with the main mill. It is a one-story building with basement and brick walls laid in common bond one-to-seven. It has segmental-arch windows with brick sills, and a flat wood roof with side and front parapet walls capped with ceramic tile. The interior was constructed of wood floors and wood post-and-beam configuration. The wood posts in the basement level have been replaced with round steel columns. The original windows have been replaced with one-over-one double-hung sash. The roof has a skylight that faces to the north. On 36th Street, the original facade has been replaced by one of modern brick laid in common bond one-to-six. This building has been converted to twenty-one apartments.

5) Mecklenburg Mill House ( 1904)
The mill house was built as part of the mill village for the Mecklenburg Mill in 1903-1904. It is one story with twin front gables on a cross-gable roof and faces east toward the Mecklenburg Mill building. Judging from its size, proximity to the mill and quality of interior finish, it seems likely that the house was occupied by someone in a supervisory capacity at the mill. The house rests on a brick foundation laid in running bond and is covered throughout with plain weatherboarding. The replacement windows are two-over-two double-hung sash with simple, unadorned surrounds, and replacement four-panel wood doors are in the front and rear entrances, also with simple surrounds. A single-light fixed transom is just above the front door. A small louvered opening with the same simple surround pierces the wall just under the peaks of the gables in the front facade. The replacement one-story front porch spans most of the front elevation, with four square wood posts supporting a hip roof. A simple, wood balustrade with square balusters lines the sides, front and sides of the wood stairs leading to the wood-floored porch. A gable-roofed kitchen addition projects to the rear on the southwest side, which in turn has a shed roof addition attached to it at the center of the rear of the house. The house has a center hall plan, with two rooms, one in the front and one in the rear, on either side. Two interior chimneys permit fireplaces to be in the center of the north-south interior wall in all four rooms. All the original mantels, wood trim and floors are intact and restored. The kitchen has been modernized. The house has been carefully restored, and is being used as offices for the Johnston Mill Limited Partnership, the developers of the project.

Conclusion
The adaptive re-use of the Johnston Mill property will preserve important architectural features of the buildings described in this report. The major exterior and interior characteristics, including material, form and setting are being left sufficiently intact so as to maintain the historic integrity of the buildings while adapting them to a new use that will keep them in service for an indefinite time into the future.

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Notes

¹ Interview with Martin Luther (Luke) Brackett, last president of Johnston Mills, by William H. Huffman, 10 November 1993.

JOHNSTON BUILDING

This report was written on 27 May 1991.

1. Name and location of the property: The property known as the Johnston Building is located at 212 South Tryon Street in Charlotte, North Carolina.

2. Name, address and telephone number of the present owner of the property: The owner of the property is:
Two Hundred Twelve South Tryon Street Ltd. Partnership
212 S. Tryon Street
Charlotte, North Carolina 28281

Telephone: (704) 333-6643

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

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

5. Current Deed Book Reference to the property: The most recent deed to this property is recorded in Mecklenburg County Deed Book 4407 on page 116. The tax parcel number of the property is 073-016-13.

6. A brief historical sketch of the property: This report contains a brief historical sketch of the property prepared by Mary Beth Gatza.

7. A brief architectural description of the property: This report contains a brief architectural description of the property prepared by Mary Beth Gatza.

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, architecture, and/or cultural importance: The Commission judges that the property known as the Johnston Building does possess special significance in terms of Charlotte-Mecklenburg. The Commission bases its judgement on the following considerations: 1) The Johnston Building is one of a number of “tall office buildings,” or skyscrapers, that were built in North Carolina during the 1920’s. Although tall office buildings had been built in large urban areas such as New York City and Chicago for decades, virtually none were erected in North Carolina until the prosperous decade of the 1920’s. Therefore, the Johnston Building stands as physical evidence of an economic and historical trend. 2) At the time it opened, the Johnston Building was the tallest building in Charlotte.

b. Integrity of design, setting, workmanship, materials, feeling and/or association: The Commission contends that the physical description by Mary Beth Gatza which is included in this report demonstrates that the Johnston Building 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 total appraised value of the improvements is $15,176,470. The current total appraised value of the lot is $2,004,450. The current total value is $17,180,920. The property is zoned UMUD.

Date of Preparation of this Report: 27 May 1991.

Prepared by:Mary Beth Gatza
2228 East Seventh Street
Charlotte, North Carolina 28204

(704) 342-2268

 

 

Historical Overview  

Charles Worth Johnston (1861-1941) was born in 1861 in the Coddle Creek area of Cabarrus County. He relocated to Mecklenburg County when he became a student at Davidson College. After leaving Davidson, he was employed as a merchant with the Stough Cornelius Company, which also controlled the Cornelius Mills. When an opening in the mill arose, Johnston applied for and became the superintendent. He moved to Charlotte in 1892 and took the position of Secretary of the Highland Park Manufacturing Company, and by 1911, was president of the company. From then on, he would have an interest in numerous other cotton mills, including Anchor Mills in Huntersville. A newspaper article printed at the time of his death described him as a “Titan among textile industrialists,” and honored him with these words: “His career and achievements memorialize the old-fashioned virtues of thrift, frugality, self-reliance and industry, the honorableness of hard work, the virtue of business honor and integrity.”

In 1924, the year the Johnston Building was completed, Johnston was involved with at least five different companies. The city directory for that year listed his occupations as: president of Johnston Mills Company, M & F Bonded Warehouse Company, Highland Park Manufacturing Company, Johnston Manufacturing Company, and vice-president of Commercial National Bank.² The following year, his occupations were listed as: Johnston Mills Company, Eastern Manufacturing Company, Monroe Mills Company, Highland Park Manufacturing Company, president and treasurer of Johnston Manufacturing Company, vice-president of Commercial National Bank, and the Merchants and Farmers Warehouse Company.

Johnston Building under construction.  Photograph taken by E. D. Shaw.

C. W. Johnston married Miss Jennie Stough in 1882, undoubtedly having met her while living in North Mecklenburg. She bore three children before she died in 1921. There were two daughters, Rosa (1886-1958), who married R. W. Stokes, and Flora (1937), who married E. J. Braswell. The only son, R. Horace Johnston (1890-1949), was to succeed his father in business affairs. Five years after Jennie Stough’s death, Johnston remarried. Mrs. Jeannett Newcombe was a widow and came into the marriage with two children, Arthur R. and Elliott H. Newcombe. Johnston was again widowed when Jeannett died in 1930.⁴

R. Horace Johnston was born to Charles Worth and Jennie Stough Johnston in Cornelius in 1890. When he was about two years old, the family moved to Charlotte, where he would stay for the rest of his life. He was well-educated, having studied at Staunton Military Academy (in Staunton, Virginia), Davidson College, and the University of North Carolina. Upon completing his studies, he entered into business with his father, taking over Johnston Mills and Highland Park Manufacturing Company after his father’s death in 1941. Johnston married Miss Adelaide Orr and together they raised a son, David R. Johnston. In addition to their home in Myers Park, Johnston owned Whitehall Farm on York Road in the Steele Creek section of Mecklenburg County, where he bred and trained trotting horses. It was here that he died on October 22, 1949 of a heart attack. He had just returned from the dedication ceremony for the Charles Worth Johnston Memorial Gymnasium at Davidson College, which was named after his father. His son, David R. Johnston, was to carry on the family name and attain control of the family business after R. Horace Johnston’s death.

That the 1920’s were times of prosperity is seldom disputed, and lingering evidence of this can still be seen on the Charlotte streetscape. A publication by the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, dating from 1927, shows that the dollar amount of investments in new buildings more than tripled between 1920 and 1926.⁶ Several landmark buildings were erected during the decade, including the Hotel Charlotte, the First National Bank, Mayfair Manor, the courthouse and the old City Hall. The Addison and Poplar apartments were also built during this era.

Anchor Mills Company purchased the lot in April 1923 from the Textile Office Building Company, which was a Gaston County corporation. The Textile Office Building Company had acquired the property in 1919, while the Trust Building was still standing on it.⁷ The Trust Building burned on December 1922, just four months before the lot was sold to Anchor Mills.⁸ The vacant lot was transferred for $100 and a building permit was obtained immediately. The dollar value of the proposed structure was reported to be $600,000.⁹ Hunkin-Conkey Construction Company was engaged as builder.¹⁰

The architect chosen to design the new building was William Lee Stoddart (1869-1940). Stoddart was an acclaimed designer of large urban hotels and although he practiced out of New York City, he was not unknown in Charlotte. He had designed the twelve story Hotel Charlotte, which was already under construction nearby at the junction of West Trade and South Poplar Streets. Construction began on the hotel in the summer of 1922, several months before the lot for the Johnston Building was purchased.¹¹ Johnston was an investor in the Citizens Hotel Company, which raised the capital and commissioned the hotel, and likely was familiar with the architect and the plans. His estate was still receiving dividends from the Citizen’s Hotel Company as late as 1945.¹²

The Johnston Building was the tallest skyscraper in Charlotte when it opened in 1924. Though the First National Bank, one block away at Trade and Tryon Streets, promptly superseded the Johnston Building in height and square footage, the Johnston Building was still regarded as being the epitome of style and elegance. The First National Bank building was completed in 1926, and had 160,000 square feet among its twenty stories.¹³

A contemporary newspaper article asserted that the Johnston Building, “Charlotte’s tallest and newest office building, is attracting favorable comment as it nears completion because of the beauty and attractiveness of its exterior.”¹⁴ It was, and still is, considered to be a fine building and a prestigious address.

Thomas Griffith was the rental agent in 1924, and was busy lining up tenants even before the building was completed. He revealed to the Charlotte News in January of 1924 that the building was “already largely booked as to tenants and will likely have a compliment of occupants when it is ready to open.”¹⁵ The offices housed cotton brokers, insurance agents, attorneys, realty companies and numerous independent businessmen. Some early tenants included the E. C. Griffith Company (developers of the Eastover neighborhood), architect C. C. Hook, and the Honorable Cameron Morrison.¹⁶

Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company was a major tenant in the Johnston Building for years. Though not an original lessee, they were occupying the entire fifteenth floor by 1926.¹⁷ The amount of space they rented increased over the years, and by 1947 they signed a lease for 42,369 square feet. They occupied the entire top three floors and had other offices scattered throughout the building. At that time, rental rates varied throughout the building, with the upper floors costing more than the lower floors. Southern Bell paid a rate of $1.84 per square foot for floors six through seventeen, but only $1.38 for the space they leased on the second floor.¹⁸

The Johnston building was held by Anchor Mills until the mid-1970’s. At that time, Mr. David R. Johnston’s health was declining, and the decision was made to sell the property.¹⁹ It was transferred in fee simple to the Johnston Building, Inc. in 1975. In doing so, Johnston Building, Inc. assumed the mortgage that Anchor Mills had taken with New York Life Insurance Company in 1974 for $2.1 million. In time, Johnston Building, Inc. became unable to make the payments and possession reverted to New York Life. New York Life sold the building in 1981 to Howard, Howard and Barnard, a California real estate company. Howard, Howard and Barnard transferred the title to a North Carolina Limited Partnership operating under the name of Johnston Building, Ltd. in March. In April of 1981, a construction deed of trust was taken out for 9.2 million dollars. Shortly thereafter, renovations on the building began.²⁰

 

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NOTES

¹ Charlotte Observer, 6 July 1941, sec. 3, p. 4.

² Charlotte City Directory, 1924.

³ Charlotte City Directory, 1925.

⁴ Charlotte Observer, 5 July 1941, sec. 1, p. 2.

⁵ Charlotte Observer, 23 October 1949, sec. l, p. 1.

⁶ Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, Charlotte, North Carolina (Charlotte: Observer Printing House, Inc., 1927), n. p.

⁷ Mecklenburg County Deed Book 497, p. 404.

⁸ Charlotte News, 13 January 1924, p. 2-A.

⁹ Mecklenburg County Deed Book 497, p. 404;Charlotte News, 30 December 1923, p. 11-A.

¹⁰ Charlotte News, 20 January 1924, p. A-10.

¹¹ Henry F. Withey and Elsie Rathburn Withey, Biographical Dictionary of American Architects (Deceased) (Los Angeles; Hennesset and Ingalls, Inc., 1970), p. 575; Edward S. Perzel, “National Register of Historic Places Inventory–Nomination Form, ” Charlotte, 1979, item 8 p. 3.

¹² Mecklenburg County Final Settlement Book 21, p. 167.

¹³ Charlotte Chamber, n. p.

¹⁴ Charlotte News, 13 January 1924, p. 2-A.

¹⁵ Charlotte News. 13 January 1924, p. 2-A.

^l6 Charlotte City Directory, 1925, pp. 1329-31; Charlotte City Directory, 1926, pp. 1086-87.

¹⁷ Charlotte City Directory, 1925, pp. 1329-31; 1926, pp. 1086-87.

¹⁸ Charlotte City Directory, 1945, pp. 132-33; Mecklenburg County Deed Book 1231, p. 93.

¹⁹ Interview with Mrs. David R. Johnston, Charlotte, North Carolina, 19 May 1991.

²⁰ Mecklenburg County Deed Book 3775, p. 937; Deed Book 3698, p. 409; Deed Book 4407, p. lO9; Deed Book 4407, p. 116; Deed Book 4420, p. 298; Charlotte Observer, 15 September 1977, p. 6-B.

 

Architectural Description  

At fifteen stories, the Johnston Building was the tallest skyscraper in Charlotte when it opened in 1924. Yet it wasn’t tall enough. The upper two floors were added in the late 1920’s, making the building rise seventeen stories above ground, plus one floor below street level. The internal structure of the building is a steel frame. The limestone facade and buff-colored brick walls are merely an exterior veneer–they are supported by the frame and carry no load of their own.

All seventeen stories of the facade are sheathed with limestone blocks. The same limestone is used for all the facade trim, with the exception of the bronze window and entry details. The first two stories are treated as one on the facade. There are three bays across at the street level, and each bay is marked by a two-story round-arched opening. The entry bay is crowned by a raised cartouche bearing a tree motif.

The entry is in the center and features a recessed double doorway. A circular motif with the initials J B (Johnston Building) in brass has been set into the recess between the sidewalk and the door. The plate glass doors (modern replacements) and windows are set in bronze trim. Florid bronze pilasters surround the door and windows and terminate in composite capitals. Above the door and windows, the bronze trim continues with a Renaissance-style entablature, another set of pilasters, and a crown molding. A fanlight above the door illuminates the vestibule beyond. A second set of doors inside the vestibule are set in brass, complete with a brass kickplate and triple bar handles. The radiator grates in both the front and rear vestibules are original and quite handsome. The grate was cast in a geometric pattern, with a floral border running around the edges.

The windows on the street level facade have the same arched openings. Tripartite plate glass windows (modern replacements) are found at both the first and second floor levels. Separating the two levels is a bronze frieze which is decorated with four recessed panels, each with a rosette surrounded by egg-and-dart molding. A thin, florid cornice tops the frieze. Above, the tripartite division of the lower windows is repeated in the round-arched opening. Precise arch stones form a neat transition between the openings and the flatter wall surfaces. The same transitional effect is achieved at the corners of the body of the building by shallow limestone quoins.

The body of the building received several different treatments, all in limestone. A shallow, florid stringcourse separates the second and third floors, and a deeper, denticular stringcourse runs above the third floor. Floors four through eleven are identical and feature six windows across, grouped by twos. Limestone quoins form a neat appearance at the corners of the building. The twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth floors are likewise identical to each other. The six windows are slightly wider than on the lower floors, and are evenly spaced. They are separated by fluted pilasters with composite capitals. An architrave with a dentilled cornice completes this unit. The fifteenth floor was the top floor when the building was originally built. It has six evenly spaced windows, separated by raised panels and topped by a decorative cornice with bold urns at the corners. Above that, the final two floors, added later, are identical to the fifteenth, but are topped by a simpler architrave.

The side and rear exterior walls are all covered with an attractive buff-colored face brick, and the window openings trimmed with limestone. The south wall is seventeen bays deep, and the north wall has eighteen bays. On the south wall, patterning in the brick suggests divisions between every two bays from the fourth floor upwards. All windows throughout the building are modern replacements.

The first floor interior is one of the richest spaces in Charlotte surviving from the era. A central corridor with an arched, coffered ceiling runs the length of the building. The ceiling itself is divided into eight discreet units. Each unit has eight rectangular recesses in length and seven across the arch of the ceiling. Each individual coffer has egg-and-dart and bead-and-reel moldings and is separated from the others by round bead molding. Evidence remains that light fixtures once hung from the center of each of the eight sections of the ceiling.

Beneath the ceiling, light-colored marble columns correspond to the divisions between the coffered units. Each column is supported on a green marble base. The floor is paved with 12-inch square marble tiles and surrounded by a double border.

Perhaps the most outstanding feature of the Johnston Building is the massive carved marble stairway. The stair is located off of the central corridor, and is closer to the front (Tryon Street) entrance. It features bold turned balusters and a molded handrail. In place of a proper newel, the stair terminates with an oversized scroll resting on a square marble base. The marble stair, however, extends only from the basement level to the second floor. Above that, the stairwell is enclosed and unremarkable.

Four elevator cars serve the upper floors of the Johnston Building. The original “high speed” cars are no longer extant, but the elevator doors are original. Each door is solid brass and has four decorated panels. Brass and glass plates over each door read “this car up” and are original. The Johnston Building underwent extensive renovations in the early 1980’s, and the remainder of the interior has been altered.

Significance Statement

Tall office buildings were made possible subsequent to the development of three things: steel framing, fireproof construction, and the elevator. Prior to the advent of the mechanical elevator, five or six floors was considered to be the maximum height for an office building. While the technology allowed for higher structures, getting up to the top was a problem, as people were not apt to climb that many stairs. The first buildings to pierce the five or six story height limit were the Tribune Building (1873-75) and the Western Union Building (1873-75), both in New York City. They stood nine and ten stories, respectively.

The elevator was invented in 1852 and demonstrated at the New York World’s Fair a year later in 1853. Suddenly, it was possible to move people vertically with no trouble. The first tall office building constructed with an elevator in place was the Equitable Life Assurance Building (1868-70) in New York. Early elevators, however, ran on steam power and the machinery was cumbersome, and therefore prohibitive. It was not until W. van Siemen invented the electric elevator in 1880 that office buildings began to soar.

Architectural historians disagree as to which building deserves the designation of being the ‘first’ skyscraper. The Equitable was the first to be designed with an elevator, but at five stories it rose only 130 feet. The nine-story Tribune Building stood twice as high, and the Western Union Building was close behind at 230 feet. None should dispute, however, that the Home Insurance Building (1883-85, designed by William LeBaron Jenney) in Chicago fathered the skyscraper revolution. It stood only ten stories tall, but was the first of its kind to use true “skyscraper construction.” ¹ That is, the exterior masonry ‘skin’ was entirely supported by the interior steel frame.

Building with a steel frame was such a superior method that it quickly superseded load-bearing masonry construction. The last building to be built entirely of masonry was the Monadnock Building (1889-91) in Chicago, designed by Burnham and Root. In Charlotte, the first steel-frame skyscraper was the Independence Building, was erected in 1909 at the junction of Trade and Tryon Streets.

It was not until the 1920’s, however, that significant numbers of tall office buildings were built in North Carolina. Once the boom began, though, skyscrapers appeared on the cityscapes of Asheville, Greensboro and, especially, Winston-Salem in addition to Charlotte. As the decade began, there were only three tall buildings in North Carolina. The Independence Building in Charlotte was the first, erected in 1909 and rising twelve stories. The Wachovia Building in Winston-Salem was constructed in 1911, with an additional story added six years later. Also in Winston-Salem, the eight story O’Hanlon Building was built in 1915. Both buildings are still standing.

Four more skyscrapers were built in Winston-Salem during the 1920’s. The Hotel Robert E. Lee (twelve stories) went up in 1921, the Nissen Building (eighteen stories) was constructed in 1926, and the Carolina Hotel (eleven stories) was erected in 1928. Begun in 1927 and completed in 1929, the R. J. Reynolds Building was the tallest in the state. At twenty-two stories, it towered over the others.² In western in North Carolina, the thirteen story L. B. Jackson Building was built in Asheville in 1923. In Greensboro, the mammoth Jefferson Standard Building went up in 1923 and stood seventeen stories. It claimed the honor of being the tallest skyscraper in North Carolina until the R. J. Reynolds Building was completed in 1929.

In Charlotte, the Johnston Building was in good company when it opened in 1924. It stood among the Independence Building, the Hotel Charlotte and the Commercial National Bank, all of which stood twelve stories. When it was completed, the Johnston Building was the tallest on the Charlotte skyline, although the First National Bank was already under construction. The First National Bank was completed in 1925 and at twenty stories it superseded the Johnston Building as the tallest building in town.

In 1927, the Chamber of Commerce reported that there was about 500,000 square feet of floor space in “first class” office buildings in Charlotte. At 125,000 square feet, the Johnston Building accounted for one quarter of that space. Only the First National Bank Building had more, at 160,000 square feet. Other significant tall office buildings included in the tally were the Wilder Building (52,000 square feet), the Independence, Commercial National Bank, Professional, and Contractors buildings.³

The Johnston Building stands as physical evidence of historical and economic trends that marked the prosperous decade of the 1920’s. Although buildings in excess of fifteen stories high were built during the decade, the Johnston Building was the tallest structure on the Charlotte skyline when it was completed.

 

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Notes

¹ Henry-Russell Hitchcock, Architecture: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. (Baltimore: Penguin, 1971), p. 338.

² Gwynne Stephens Taylor, From Frontier to Factory: An Architectural History of Forsyth County (Winston-Salem, 1981), p. 58, pp. 192-3.

³ Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, Charlotte, North Carolina (Charlotte: Observer Printing House, Inc., 1927), n.p.

The Jamison House

This report was written on June 3, 1981

1. Name and location of the property: The property known as the Jamison House is located at 302 Providence Road, Charlotte, North Carolina, in the block between Queens Road and Granville Road.

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

Mutual Savings and Loan Association
330 South Tryon Street
Charlotte, North Carolina 28202

Telephone: (704) 373-0330

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.

 

 

Click on the map to browse

5. Current Deed Book Reference to the property: The most recent deed to this property is listed in Mecklenburg County Deed Book 3811 at page 801. The current tax parcel number of the property is 155-051-06.

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

7. A brief architectural description of the property: This report contains a brief architectural description of the property by Mary Alice Dixon Hinson.

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

 

a. Special significance in terms of its history, architecture, and/or cultural importance: The Commission judges that does possess special historic significance in terms of Charlotte-Mecklenburg. The Commission bases its judgment on the following considerations: (1) the house, erected in 1912-13, is the oldest house which survives in Myers Park, the elegant streetcar suburb designed by John Nolen; (2) the rusticated granite construction of the house is unique in Myers Park; and (3) John M. Jamison, the original owner, was a hotelier of regional importance.

b. Integrity of design, setting, workmanship, materials, feeling and/or association: The Commission judges that the architectural description included herein demonstrates that the property known as the Jamison House meets this criterion.

9. Ad Valorem Tax Appraisal: The Commission is aware that designation would allow the owner to apply annually for an automatic deferral of 50% of the Ad Valorem taxes on all or any portion of the property which becomes “historic property.” The current Ad Valorem tax appraisal of the entire 1.265 acre tract is $107,490.00. The Ad Valorem tax appraisal on the improvements is $34,270.00. The total Ad Valorem tax appraisal is $141,760.00.

Date of preparation of this report: June 3, 1981

Prepared by: Nancy B. Thomas, Assistant Director
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Properties Commission
3500 Shamrock Drive
Charlotte, NC 28215

Telephone: (704) 332-2726

 

 

Architectural Description

Louis Asbury

 

Mary Alice Dixon Hinson

The John M. Jamison House is a handsome two-and-a-half story structure built of rusticated uncoursed granite. It fronts a heavily developed commercial segment of Providence Road within suburban Myers Park. Built in 1912-13, the Jamison House is important because it was one of the first houses built in this early Charlotte suburb which was picturesquely laid out by landscape architects John Nolen and Earl Draper in 1910. The house remained in the Jamison family until the mid-1970s when it was acquired by Mutual Savings and Loan Association. In 1978, Charlotte architect Richard Gillespie directed the conversion of the ground floor into savings and loan offices. Alterations were minor: the remodeling of the rear butler’s pantry and kitchen and the removal and storage of a few of the first floor doors.

The Jamison House stands today as a model of the kind of responsible adaptive reuse of a historic structure that can be achieved by private investors who appreciate the environmental and economic wisdom of preservation. The structure significantly contributes to the community’s distinguished architectural fabric. The house’s massing is simple — it is essentially a rustic cottage expanded to the scale of a Neoclassical block. Its rough granite surface presents a textural richness and surface life that modestly animate the street. The house is two-and-a-half stories high, three bays wide and three deep. The symmetrical main (south) facade faces Providence Road and the asymmetrical rear elevation faces the residential neighborhood behind the building. These differing elevational organizations reflect the builder’s sophisticated response to the site: a distinction is made between the formality of the main approach and the Queen Anne whimsicality permissible in the more private rear.

The house is built of rusticated granite laid like rubble in an uncoursed cobweb pattern. The gang-sawed pieces of granite are set within a lively network of protruding beaded mortar joints. A tripped roof sheathed with shake shingles covers the house. Two semi-exterior end chimneys and one interior chimney rise through the roof. A chamfered wooden modillion cornice underlines the main roof as well as the roofs of a central entrance porch and two smaller side porches. The main facade and side elevations are skirted by an elevated piazza. Terracotta-colored tiles laid flush in cream-colored mortar cover the piazza floor.

The main entrance is sheltered by a tripped-roofed porch. The approach is by two granite steps. Large square-in-section granite pillars give further spatial definition to the porch. The entrance consists of a single-leaf plate glass door flanked by sidelights. A flat-paneled wooden soffit carried on flat-paneled jambs ties together this tripartite entrance group.

Fenestration throughout the house is set within simply molded wooden architraves. The ground story of the main facade has two large twelve-over-one sash windows. The second story of the main facade has six-over-one sash in the outer bays with a nine-over-one sash in the center bay. The facade attic level has three center bay dormers: two multi-paned hood dormers flank a quasi-Palladian dormer containing multi-paned glass between two wooden louvered vents.

The eastern elevation is dominated by a one-story side porch protecting two plate glass doors. Glass transoms surmount each door. Between the doors stands the large chimney base, protecting from the body of the wall. Six-over-one sash windows pierce the outer bays of the second story.

The western elevation is dominated by a one-story wing which balances the eastern side porch. A shallowly overhanging hip roof shelters the three entrances to this wing. These three entrances open up the western elevation. Each is a glazed French door beneath a three-light transom. Three double casements, each with triple panes, line the front and back of the small western wing. The main western elevation of the house, from which this wing projects, is pierced by nine-over-one, six-over-six, and six-over-one sash windows.

In distinction to the general regularity of the facade and side elevations, the rear elevation is organized with picturesque asymmetry. It is treated as eleven bays of varying widths, with the western six bays handled as a single unit stepped out from the main body of the house. Fenestration along the rear is irregularly positioned, reflecting in part the programmatic requirements of lighting the interior and in part the decreased formality deemed appropriate to the back of the house. Varying arrangements of three-over-one, six-over-one, nine-over-one, and twelve-over-one sash windows articulate the rear elevation.

A wooden Queen Anne porch projects from the center of the rear elevation, dramatizing the intersection of the six projecting western bays with the five recessed eastern bays. The porch is built of turned Eastlake columns which rest on chamfered plinths. The columns support a second story sunporch, three bays wide and two deep. The body of the porch is sheathed with shake shingles. The porch carries a bold gable roof. The gable ends in a full pediment trimmed by a wooden modillion cornice. A small attic window punctuates the pediment face.

East of the sunporch is a demi-hexagonal bay window. Tall narrow three-over-one sash flank a large central twelve-over-one sash, rhythmically breaking up the mass of the bay. A segment of a hip roof, sheathed with shakes and underlined by a modillion cornice, covers the bay.

The interior of the house is in excellent condition and is trimmed throughout with superb oak and cherry woodwork, fine mantels, and, on the second floor, milk glass bellflower light fixtures attached to metal bases. The ground floor contains a center stair hall with double door openings leading to flanking front parlors. The principal rooms feature wooden dentil cornices. Both front parlors contain exposed ceiling beams and massive masonry fireplace mantels topped by molded wooden shelves. The east parlor mantel is granite, the west, brick. A two-tiered flat-paneled cherry wainscot runs along the center stair hall and the small one-story western wing which adjoins the west parlor. The wainscot is framed by a molded chair-rail and a molded baseboard.

An open-course half-turn stair with two landings rises front-to-back along the eastern wall of the center stair hall. The two-tiered wainscot rises along the stair wall and runs throughout the second story stair hall above. The square and rectangular flat panels of the wainscot change to slanted rhombuses and parallelograms along the stair runs, suggesting motion up or down the stairs. Reinforcing this motif, the molded handrail is ramped and eased from landing to landing. Thin rectangular-in-section balusters support the handrail. Like the wainscot, the soffit and fascia of the exposed end of each tread receives flat-paneled trim. The newel post is square-in-section and carries a splayed pyramidal cap. Identical landing newels feature bulbous pendant drops.

The recess of the stair forms a ground story inglenook directly across from the main entrance. Built-in cherry seating contributes to the definition of this alcove which, in turn, acts to subdivide the volume of space in the central entrance hall. The stair, inglenook, and entrance hall form a sophisticated architectural unit; it is the volumetric and functional core of the house. Its rich wooden paneling and warm oak flooring effectively complement the textural wealth of the house’s rusticated exterior.

The second story contains three main rooms, all facing south, one rear sun-porch, and several smaller rooms and a bath in the northwest. Unlike the rustic masonry mantels below, the second story mantels are wooden Neoclassical compositions. In the eastern front room the mantel has flat-paneled pilasters and a flat-paneled frieze above a white tile surround. In the western front room the mantel is exceptionally bold. Two fluted Doric columns stand fully in-the-round in front of a white tile surround. The columns support an idiosyncratic vernacular version of a classical frieze: bas-relief medallions are juxtaposed between triglyphs above pronounced guttae.

Doors throughout the second story are intact. Each is ornamented by a single long flat-panel accented by a cut glass doorknob. Doors to the principal rooms carry plate glass transoms. Simply molded architraves harmonize with the molded handrail above the open stair well.

Not only is the Jamison House a most distinguished structure in its own right, but it is also an integral part of the architectural fabric of Myers Park. The continued preservation of the house is absolutely critical to the maintenance of human scale, which has already suffered severe erosion as a consequence of the heavy traffic carried by the portion of Providence Road on which the house fronts. The Mutual Savings and Loan Association is to be commended for setting high standards of preservation and for combining those standards with a successful business venture in adaptive reuse.

 

 

Historical Overview

 

Dr. William H. Huffman

The Jamison house, a handsome stone residence at 802 Providence Road in Myers Park was one of the earliest homes to be constructed in that streetcar suburb. The house was begun by John McKee Jamison in the spring of 1912 on two lots he had purchased from the Stephens Company on September 1, 1911 for $8,352.00. The Stephens Company was the firm owned by George Stephens, who was the exclusive developer of the 1,400 acre plantation of his father-in-law, John Springs Myers.

John M. Jamison was in the hotel business, and at the time of the start of construction of his house, he owned and managed the Stonewall Hotel in downtown Charlotte, which he had built a few years earlier, and was a director of the Commercial National Bank. He also owned the Vance Hotel in Henderson, held an interest in the Huffine Hotel in Greensboro, was president of the Bagwell Real Estate Company in Hamlet, and was one of the South’s most widely known and respected hotel owners.

Mr. Jamison was born on December 25, 1865, the son of John M. Jamison and Sarah Alexander in the Steele Creek township, and was raised in Long Creek in the county.³ In 1894, he and a partner, Thomas Gresham, opened a restaurant in Monroe. Following the success of this venture, they moved to Hamlet and opened the Seaboard Airline Hotel, which they operated until about 1906. After selling his Hamlet interests Mr. Jamison moved to Greensboro, where he acquired his interest in the Huffine Hotel. In 1908, Mr. Jamison came to Charlotte and established the Stonewall Hotel near the Southern Railway Station on Trade Street, and moved his family into the house at 500 W. Trade, now the Folger Building.⁴

While living in Hamlet, the Jamisons had a local architect draw up plans for a large stone house, but they did not get the opportunity to build it until moving to Charlotte and purchasing nearly two acres in Myers Park as a homesite. In the spring of 1912, Mr. J. A. Wilson, a contractor friend of Mr. Jamison’s from Hamlet, was commissioned to construct the house of North Carolina granite for the price of $30,000.00.⁵

On June 27, 1912, Mr. Jamison took out an insurance policy of $50,000.00 for the benefit of the Stonewall Hotel Company. The following day, he took his wife, sons John and Paul, and Mrs. Bagwell, wife of a business associate in Hamlet, and her son, out for a ride in one of Charlotte’s first automobiles. The party rode out in the morning to visit the site of the home construction in Myers Park which by then had progressed to a completed foundation. Since it was a fine day, they decided to take a spin out in the country, and proceeded out the Newell Road, where tragedy struck the group. The auto stalled on the Southern Railway crossing at Newell in the path of an oncoming train, and the car was struck while Mr. Jamison was attempting to open the door for Mrs. Bagwell; the others had gotten out in time. In the collision, Mr. Jamison was killed and the Bagwells critically injured; Charlotte has lost one of its leading citizens at the age of forty-seven.⁶

Lucille Price Whitley Jamison, wife of the hotelier and a descendent of the Price and Davidson families, carried on the construction of the house. The following year, 1913, she and her five children moved into the newly completed structure, which was only the third house to be built in Myers Park. The first house in the suburb was built by H. M. Wade, which was subsequently torn down during the 1920s and replaced by the brick structure presently at 530 Hermitage Road. The Glasscocks built the second house in Myers Park, but this residence was later destroyed by fire. Thus the Jamison house is the oldest original house in Myers Park.⁷ At the time of its construction, Providence Road was unpaved, and the opposite side of the road from the house contained some old country houses. The street car line came only to the corner of Providence and Queens Road.

During their sixty-three-year ownership, the Jamisons enjoyed living in their comfortable and spacious home, which was kept cool by the shade of the trees and the thick stone walls. Mrs. Jamison lived in the house until shortly before her death in 1967 at the age of 95. Of the children, the oldest girl, Lucille, continued to live in the Providence residence until she died in 1963; the eldest son, John, left about 1922 to go into the cotton business in Philadelphia; the next oldest, Paul, became an attorney in Charlotte and stayed in the stone house until he passed away in 1975; Martha, the next to youngest, married Mr. Hugh W. Causey in 1935 and took up residence in their own home; and the youngest, Sarah Lois (Sally) Jamison, lived in the house until it was sold to its present owner, Mutual Savings and Loan Association.⁹

In December, 1975, Mutual bought the property with the view toward converting the house into a branch office of the company.¹⁰ Their conversion efforts, begun in 1977, were undertaken with great care to maintain as much of the original architecture of the house as possible. The result is an excellent example of responsible adaptive use of a historical building which preserves the major architectural heritage of the structure.

 

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NOTES

¹ Mecklenburg County, NC, Deed Book 283, p. 66.

² Charlotte News, June 28, 1912, p. 1.

³ Ibid.; Mecklenburg County Vital Records: Deaths, Book 2, p. 411.

⁴ Charlotte Observer, June 29, 1912, p. 6.

⁵ Interview with Martha Jamison Causey, Charlotte, NC, May 11, 1981; Charlotte Observer, June 29, 1912, p. 6.

⁶ Ibid.

⁷ Ibid.

⁸ Memorandum dated May 11, 1981 by Jane Saunders, Legal Assistant, Fleming, Robinson, Bradshaw and Hinson, Charlotte, NC.

⁹ Interview with Martha Jamison Causey, Charlotte, N.C. May 11, 1981.

¹⁰ Mecklenburg County, NC, Deed Book 3811. p. 801.

¹¹ Interview with Elizabeth South, Branch Manager, Mutual Savings and Loan

MAJOR ALEXANDER L. JAMES HOUSE

Note:  On September 21, 2009 the Charlotte City Council voted to revoke local historic landmark designation of the Major Alexander L. James House.  Click here to view an article on the repeal of local historic landmark designation for this property.

This report was written on May 15, 1994

1. Name and location of the property: The property known as the Major Alexander L. James House is located at 260 Cherokee Road, in Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.

2. Name, address, and telephone number of the present owner of the properties. The owners of the property are:
Dr. and Mrs. Martin J. Kreshon
260 Cherokee Road
Charlotte, North Carolina 28207

Telephone: (704) 377-1550

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

5. Current deed book references to the property: The most recent reference to Tax Parcel Number 155-062-60 is recorded in Mecklenburg County Deed Book 3199 at page 330.

6. A brief architectural description of the property: This report contains brief architectural description of the property prepared by Frances P. Alexander and Richard L. Mattson.

7. A brief historical sketch of the property: This report contains a brief historical sketch of the property prepared by Richard L. Mattson and Frances P. Alexander .

8. Documentation of why and in what ways the properties meet criteria for designation set forth in NCGS 160A-400.5:

 

a. Special significance in terms of history, architecture, and cultural importance: The Commission judges that the property known as the Major Alexander L. James House does possess special significance in terms of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. The Commission bases its judgment on the following considerations: 1) the James House, erected in 1929, is exemplary of the Georgian Revival style built in the Eastover neighborhood and other well-to-do neighborhoods in Charlotte between the 1920’s and World War II; 2) the James House is one of the earliest houses in Eastover, the first exclusive automobile-oriented subdivision in Charlotte; and 3) the James House is an impressive example of the work of important Charlotte architect Martin E. Boyer, Jr., who designed some of the city’s finest Georgian Revival and Tudor Revival residences during this period.

b. Integrity of design, setting, workmanship, materials, feeling, and association: The Commission contends that the architectural description by Frances P. Alexander and Richard L. Mattson included in this report demonstrates that the Major Alexander L. James 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 properties which become designated historic landmarks. The current appraised value of the improvements to Tax Parcel Number 155-062-60 is $413,410. The current appraised value of the land associated with Tax Parcel 155-062-60 is $750,000. The total appraised value of Tax Parcel 155-062-60 is $1,163,410.

Date of Preparation of this Report: May 15, 1994

Prepared by: Frances P. Alexander, M.A.
and Richard L. Mattson, Ph.D.
Mattson, Alexander and Associates
309 East Park Avenue, No. 4
Charlotte, North Carolina 28203

Telephone: (704) 376-0985
Telephone: (704) 342-3076

 

Architectural Description

Location Description
The Major Alexander L. James House is situated in the Eastover neighborhood of Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. Eastover is located on the east side of Providence Road, a major artery leading southeast from the center city. The James House occupies a 1.96 acre site on the west side of Cherokee Road, a curvilinear street which has access to Providence Road at either end. Altondale Avenue, a short street opening from Providence Road, ends at the James parcel, and the James property has rear access to this street.

The James House is sited in the center of the large parcel, which slopes down to Cherokee Road. The main driveway is located on the north side of the property and extends from Cherokee Road, past a garage, to the rear at Altondale Avenue. A brick wall and archway link the house and garage. A portion of the driveway extends south to end in a circular drive in front of the house. The house faces onto a lawn bisected by a brick walkway. Both the front and rear yards contain mature plantings, including oak and magnolia trees and formal rows of tall holly bushes in the rear. In addition to the house, there is a five car garage and a greenhouse on the site.

The proposed designation includes the house and the 1.96 acre parcel, but excludes the garage at owner request.

House–Exterior
The Major Alexander L. James House is an excellent example of formal Georgian Revival domestic architecture, and was designed by prominent, early twentieth century Charlotte architect, Martin E. Boyer, Jr. The house is 2-1/2 stories tall with a truncated T-shaped plan, a 1-1/2 story, weatherboarded wing on the north side, and a covered flagstone terrace on the south side. The house has a brick veneer laid in Flemish bond, and there is a side gable, slate roof with a broad front gable. In the center of the gable is an oval, multiple light window, framed in concrete. Two weatherboarded front gable dormers are found in the front, while the rear has three front gable dormers and a lunette window. There are three brick exterior end chimneys broken by second story windows.

The five bay facade has a slightly projecting central pavilion dominated by a broad elliptical arch entrance. The entrance recess has delicate pilasters and chair railing, and the double panelled doors are framed by an elaborate fanlight and half sidelights. The entrance has low rise, curved, double side stairs. The first floor windows are nine-over-nine light, double hung, wooden sash with brick jack arches. The second floor windows are six-over-nine light, double hung, wooden sash, also with jack arches. The dormers have round arch windows.

On the north elevation there is a one and 1/2 story, side gable wing, sheathed in weatherboard. A flat roofed porch extends to the front. The porch has been enclosed since 1970, but retains the original classical box piers with stucco infill. On the front elevation, the enclosed porch has nine-over-nine light, double hung windows to match the original. On the north elevation, there is a single wood and glass entrance, and the enclosed porch has a large multiple light window. A porch with flagstone terrace projects from the southeast corner of the house. The porch is supported by classical box piers and has a gable roof with full returns of the eaves. The flagstone terrace extends around to the rear of the house and is bordered by a raised, brick-edged planting bed.

The rear elevation is broken by the projecting center section. The rear has a variety of double hung window types reflecting the formal and private functions of the house. On the south side, the first floor has a three-sided bay overlooking the flagstone terrace. The second floor repeats the six-over-nine light windows found on the facade. The center section has nine-over-nine light on the first floor and six-over-nine light on the second floor. These windows flank the centrally placed chimney. The north end, where the kitchen and service areas of the house are located, has a combination of double hung windows, including three-over-six light on the second floor. French doors on the second floor of the north wing lead to a small wrought iron balcony. There is an exterior staircase leading to the basement.

House-interior
The entrance leads into a roughly square foyer. The foyer has hardwood floors, plaster walls, molded baseboards and surrounds, and dentil cornice molding. A staircase rises along the south and west walls of the foyer. The staircase has scrolled risers and a delicate balustrade with deeply scrolled newel. Two narrow closets with panelled doors flank the fanlighted entrance. The door has the original box lock.

The south end of the house is occupied by the living room which extends the full depth of the house. The living room also has hardwood floors, molded surrounds, and a molded cornice. The fireplace has a broad, fully articulated Classical Revival mantel. The south wall has one multiple light door, with transom, opening to the porch. The west wall is dominated by the three-sided bay window. Double panelled doors separate the living room from the foyer.

The north end of the house is occupied by the dining room which also has panelled doors to the foyer as well as a panelled door in the northwest corner, leading to the back service hall. In the southwest corner is a built-in cupboard with a wood and glass door. The dining room replicates the molded baseboards, cornices, and surrounds found throughout the first floor. In addition, there is a molded chair railing. Originally, the north wall of the dining room had a fireplace, but this feature was reversed at the time the porch was enclosed.

The rear of the foyer opens into a service hall which runs to the north end of the house. Directly behind the foyer is the library, separated by double panelled doors. The library also has a door leading to the living room as well as a wood and glass door, with transom, leading to the rear terrace. The west wall of the library has a fireplace with a simple molded mantel above which is a molded and scrolled frame. Windows flank the fireplace, and floor-to-ceiling bookcases surround the fireplace and windows. In addition to molded surrounds, cornice, and baseboards, the library has a chair railing.

The rear service hall is narrow and L-shaped in plan. A small bathroom and closets open from the hall, and at the turn is a narrow service staircase. The kitchen opens from the hall across from the staircase. The kitchen service area was originally comprised of a butler’s pantry, kitchen, and small breakfast room. Some alterations have occurred in this area of the house. The small breakfast room is now used as a laundry although this conversion required little modification of the plan. The butler’s pantry has been opened and is now a hallway. The kitchen, located in the north wing, has had little alteration of plan or fixture location. New cabinets have been installed, and the east wall was opened into the enclosed porch, used as a dining area. The original dining room fireplace was reoriented so that it now faces into the enclosed porch. There is an original wood and glass door leading from the north end of the kitchen to the outside.

The second floor contains five bedrooms, a nursery, and three bathrooms. The second floor hall extends the width of the house. At each end of the hall are archways leading to bedrooms. The hall has a dentil cornice and molded baseboards and surrounds. The hardwood floors are now carpeted. The south end has two bedrooms with a connecting bathroom. Two bedrooms, with a connecting bathroom, open from the main hall on the east side. The master bedroom is located at the head of the staircase on the west side of the house. The archway on the north end opens into the nursery, and a bathroom connects the master bedroom and the nursery. All bedrooms have carpeted floors, molded baseboards and surrounds, and panelled doors. The master bedroom has a fireplace on the west wall with a classical mantel. The northeast bedroom also has a fireplace with a simple molded mantel. The bathrooms have all been altered somewhat with new fixtures, but retain moldings, closets, and original configuration.

The third floor originally contained a ballroom which extended the full width and depth of the house. The ballroom had a dais at one end for musicians. However, the third floor has been partitioned into bedrooms, bathrooms, and offices. A panelled door at the head of the staircase from the second floor closed the ballroom off from the rest of the house. There is one original closet at the top of the stairs. The third floor retains the original sloping ceiling and alcoves at the dormer windows. Although the ballroom has lost its original open floor plan, the new partitions required little destruction of historic fabric.

Garage
Northwest of the house, but connected by a brick wall and archway, is the garage with overhead servants’ quarters. The brick veneered garage originally had three car bays, but since 1970, two additional car bays have been added. The extension to the west replicates the original with Flemish bond brick walls, slate covered gable roof, and front gable dormers. The entrance to the living quarters is located on the east elevation. The garage is excluded from the designation at the request of the owners.

Conclusion
The Alexander L. James House is an excellent example of Georgian Revival residential architecture in Mecklenburg County. Its construction during an era in which houses for the wealthy were commonly designed to accommodate servants make such houses vulnerable to heavy alteration. However, the Alexander L. James House has undergone little modification. Alterations include the enclosure of a porch, new fixtures in the kitchen and bathrooms, and the partitioning of the ballroom. However, these modifications are limited and have not changed the configurations of these rooms. In addition, the setting of the house and outbuilding on a large, formally landscaped parcel continue to illustrate wealthy suburban development in the early twentieth century.

 

 

Historical Overview

This stately Georgian Revival residence at 260 Cherokee Road was completed in 1929 for Major Alexander L. James, United States Army, and his wife, Viola. Major James acquired the parcel from Edward C. Griffith in 1928, and commissioned influential Charlotte architect Martin E. Boyer, Jr., to design the house (Mecklenburg County Deed Book 696, p. 245). The James family lived here into the post-World War II years. In 1970, the current owners, Dr. and Mrs. Martin J. Kreshon acquired the property. The Major Alexander L. James House, sited on a spacious lot, is exemplary of the handsome Georgian Revival dwellings erected in the Eastover community and throughout Charlotte’s exclusive neighborhoods between the 1920’s and World War II.

Eastover
Eastover was established in 1927 by Charlotte developer Edward C. Griffith. Its residential development represented the culmination of the gradual shift among the cites wealthier residents from the center city to the southeast environs. With the coming of the electric streetcar to Charlotte in 1891, upper- and middle-class citizens began relocating from downtown addresses to the new suburbs of Dilworth, Elizabeth, Myers Park, Chatham Estates along the Plaza, and Club Acres around the Charlotte Country Club. Providence Road, which forms the west side of Eastover, had been fashionable even before the development of posh Myers Park in 1912, though in the early twentieth century, the road was still considered too far from downtown for easy commuting (Hanchett 1984, 1986).

Griffith envisioned Eastover as a rival to Myers Park, both in social status and landscape design. In fact Eastover occupied a rolling hillside immediately across Providence Road from the earlier suburb. He contracted with the noted landscape architect and planner, Earle Sumner Draper, to create the Eastover plan. Draper had previously designed portions of Myers Parks, notably Queens Road West, distinguished by its long sweeping radius and lush landscaping. Thus the major streets of Eastover–Cherokee and Colville are winding, embowered avenues lined with grand houses sited well back on large parcels (Hanchett 1986; Bishir 1990).

Also like Myers Park, a key planning component was the creation of land-use covenants to ensure that the community would take shape as Griffith and Draper proposed. minimum house costs ranged from $4,000 on side streets to $15,000 for the largest main avenue lots. Thus the expansive lot purchased by Major James required a house costing at minimum $15,000. The covenants also required that all property “shall be occupied and used only by members of the Caucasian race, domestic servants in the employ of occupants excepted.” Garages, outbuildings, and servants’ quarters had to match the style of the main house on each lot, and no “Spanish architecture” was permitted (E. C. Griffith Company 1938; Hanchett 1984, 1986).

In contrast to Myers Park and the other early suburbs geared to streetcar travel, Eastover developed as the city’s first automobile subdivision. Although trolleys were still quite active in 1927, the residents of the new suburb were expected to have automobiles. The nearest streetcar stops were on Queens Road, many blocks from the Eastover entrance gates (Hanchett 1984, 1985).

House construction began in 1928, and by 1932, 42 residences had been completed. The earliest section encompassed Cherokee Road, Colville Road, Eastover Road, and Hempstead Place, and the houses along these streets set the architectural standard for the entire community. The Georgian Revival style was, by far, the popular choice, interspersed with a mix of Tudor Revival examples and other revival styles (Hanchett 1984; Sanborn Map of Charlotte 1929).

The Major Alexander L. James House was one of the first dwellings constructed. It was featured in the earliest advertisements for Eastover, in which the house was described as a “Georgian type, this beautifier residence now under construction in Eastover has the charm and atmosphere of an ideal home.” Numerous brick and weatherboarded versions of the Georgian style followed. Among them were the 1930 A. Lloyd Goode House (165 Cherokee Road) and the 1931 John Paul Lucas, Jr. House (265 Cherokee Road). In 1933, architect Martin Boyer designed his own residence (246 Fenton Place) in the fashionable red-brick Georgian Revival mode (E. C. Griffith Company 1927; Hanchett 1984).

Today, Eastover is among the city’s most desirable neighborhoods and contains approximately 600 houses facing rolling, tree-shaded streets. The great majority of residences are substantial red-brick Georgian Revival designs.

Martin E. Boyer, Jr., Architect

Martin E. Boyer, Jr.,(1893-1970) ranks among the most prominent architects in Charlotte during the first half of the twentieth century. Born in Glen Wilton, Virginia, Boyer was raised in Charlotte and attended Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie-Mellon University) in Pittsburgh, where he was trained in the Beaux Arts tradition. During World War I, he served as a naval architect, and in World War II was a lieutenant colonel with the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. A nephew of noted Charlotte architect J. M. McMichael, Boyer practiced architecture in the city for more than 50 years (Charlotte News, February 18, 1970).

Boyer’s work ranged from public housing, to S & W Cafeterias, to supervising the rebuilding of the Mint Museum of Art, which was relocated from downtown to Eastover in 1936. But primarily, Boyer gained his professional reputation by designing some of the finest domestic architecture in suburban Charlotte. Boyer is singled out in the National Register nomination for the Myers Park Historic District as “the city’s finest revivalist architect.” In 1977, a home tour in honor of Boyer, sponsored by the Charlotte Garden Club, identified 25 Boyer-designed houses in Myers Park and Eastover (Claiborne 1977; Hanchett 1984, 1986).

In Myers Park, Boyer’s work included such handsome red-brick Georgian Revival designs as the 1920 J. Luther Snyder House (1901 Queens Road), and the 1928 Dr. J. Rush Shull House (1242 Queens Road West). In 1921, D. Heath Nesbit commissioned Boyer to design his Tudor Revival residence (522 Hermitage Court). The Nesbit House was featured in Architecture magazine. In Eastover, Boyer is known to have designed not only the James House and his own residence, but also the large Georgian Revival house at 424 Eastover Road. Also in Eastover, Boyer designed the massive stone Tudor Revival dwelling of Hamilton C. Jones (201 Cherokee Road). Jones was an important lawyer and political leader, and his wife, Bessie Erwin Jones, was a member of Durham’s prominent Erwin textile family (Claiborne 1977; Hanchett 1984, 1986).

Conclusion
The Major Alexander L. James House has significance as one of the first residences built in exclusive Eastover, the first automobile subdivision in Charlotte. The house is also a notable example of the work of architect Martin E. Boyer, Jr. It exemplifies the Georgian Revival residences designed by this important Charlotte architect in Eastover and Myers Park.

 

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References

Bishir, Catherine W. North Carolina Architecture. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1990.

Charlotte News. February 18, 1970.

Claiborne, Jack. “This Year’s Home Tour Honors Martin Boyer, Jr.” Charlotte Observer. April 4, 1977.

E. C. Griffith Company. Eastover, A restricted residential district developed for the discriminating home builder. Charlotte, NC: E. C. Griffith Company, 1927. See Hanchett 1984.

–. Eastover Restriction Agreement (1938, unpublished). On file at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission, Charlotte.

Hanchett, Thomas W. “Charlotte and Its Neighborhoods: The Growth of a New South City, 1850-1930.” Charlotte, NC, 1984. (Typewritten.)

-. “Charlotte: Suburban Development in the Textile and Trade Center of the Carolinas. ” In Early Twentieth-Century Suburbs in North Carolina. Eds., Catherine W. Bishir and Lawrence S. Early. Raleigh, NC: Division of Archives and History, North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, 1985, 68-76.

——. National Register Nomination for the Myers Park Historic District. 1986. Nomination is on file at the North Carolina Division of Archives and History, Raleigh.

Mecklenburg County. Mecklenburg County Courthouse, Register of Deeds, Book A, p. 258.

Miller’s Official Charlotte, North Carolina City Directory. Asheville, NC: E. H. Miller, 1929.

Sanborn Map Company. Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. 1929.