Survey and Research Report on the Holt-Henderson- Copeland House
- Name and location of the property: The property known as the Holt-Henderson-Copeland House is located at 305 North Main Street in Davidson, North Carolina.
- Name, address, and telephone number of the present owner of the property:
Donald Copeland 16710 Lake Shore Drive Cornelius, NC 28031-8686 704-892-8340
- Representative photographs of the property: This report contains representative photographs of the property.
- Maps depicting the location of the property: This report contains a map depicting the location of the property.
- Current deed book reference to the property: The most recent deed to this property is recorded in Mecklenburg County Deed Book 4518 page 553. The tax parcel number of the property is 003-256-06.
- A brief historical sketch of the property: This report contains a brief historical sketch of the property.
- A brief architectural description of the property: This report contains a brief architectural sketch of the property.
- Documentation of why and in what ways the property meets criteria for designation set forth in N.C.G.S. 106A-400.5. The Commission judges that the property known as the Holt- Henderson-Copeland House does possess special significance in terms of Charlotte-Mecklenburg. The Commission bases its judgment on the following considerations:
- The Holt-Henderson-Copeland House, first built according to historian Mary Beaty as a humble dwelling in the 1850s but substantially expanded sometime after 1870, is among the oldest residences in Davidson and is an essential component of the North Main St. streetscape..
- The Holt-Henderson-Copeland House became the residence of Davidson’s first town doctor, Dr. William A. Holt.
- The Holt-Henderson-Copeland House is a well-preserved example of a gable-front-and-wing, Italianate-style dwelling in Davidson.
- The Holt-Henderson-Copeland House served the community as a student boarding house for over one hundred years and thus demonstrates the symbiotic relationship that existed between the college and the community.
- Ad Valorem tax appraisal: The assessed value of the Holt-Henderson-Copeland property is $60,800 for the building and $260,800 for the land. The combined value is $321,600.
Date of preparation of this report: December 16, 2005.
Prepared by: Neil Cottrell and edited and revised by Dr. Dan L. Morrill and Jennifer Payne.
Historical Overview
Summary Statement of Significance The Holt-Henderson-Copeland House is an Italianate-style dwelling, the original core of which according to historian Mary Beaty was built in the 1850s. It possesses special historic significance as one of the oldest extant structures in Davidson and as an essential component of the historic streetscape of North Main Street. Moreover, in its role as a boarding house for over 100 years for Davidson College students, the Holt-Henderson- Copeland House documents the symbiotic relationship that has existed between the college and the town.
Context Statement Davidson College, which was established in 1835 to educate young men according to the values of the school’s Presbyterian founders, has provided the impetus for the evolution and development of the Town of Davidson. From 1835 to 1874, the town was a relatively isolated college community; and its growth was almost exclusively linked to the increasing number of students and faculty who attended or taught at Davidson College. Not only was the built environment of Davidson in this period characterized by faculty and student housing, but also by dwellings and commercial structures built for the fledgling merchant class that provided goods and services to the students and faculty.
Profound change came to Davidson in 1874, when the reactivation of the railroad linking Charlotte and Statesville removed Davidson from its relative isolation and introduced forces that made the town a commercial and industrial center for the rural environs of northern Mecklenburg County and southern Iredell County. The late 1800s and early 1900s witnessed the rise of textile manufacturing in Davidson through the construction of such notable structures as the Linden Mill and the Delburg Mill. The mills had a significant impact on the nature of the built environment of Davidson through the introduction of industrial buildings and mill housing. The College continued to be important to the growth of the town in the late 1800s and throughout the early and mid-twentieth century and also occasioned significant changes in the built environment primarily through the introduction of faculty housing constructed in a variety of styles, but also through the creation of campus buildings such as the literary society halls and Jackson Court.
The Holt-Henderson-Copeland House is an excellent example of a residence that has served the community and the college since the mid-nineteenth century. Constructed adjacent to the Carolina Inn and across the street from the Davidson College campus, the Holt-Henderson-Copeland House has provided its occupants easy access to the school and the town’s business district for over a century.
The Holt-Henderson-Copeland House The historical significance of the Holt-Henderson-Copeland House rests primarily on its existence as one of the oldest extant homes in Davidson, its being the home of Davidson’s first physician, and its use as a boarding house. According to historian Mary Beaty, the central core of the dwelling was constructed in the 1850s by Jacob Coldiron, a local tailor. Coldiron and other early residents of Davidson took advantage of the recently-founded College to offer goods and services along what was then known as the Great Road, known today as North Main Street. The original portion of the home included what is presently the southern wing of the front façade.[1]
In addition, the Holt-Henderson-Copeland House is a remnant of the early period of development in Davidson, from its anomalous beginnings as a college town through its evolution as a small community with connections to both education and industry. In 1862, the home was sold to Dr. William A. Holt and his wife, Julia, who enlarged it and sometime before 1909 (see photograph below) remodeled the dwelling that they had purchased from Coldiron, giving the home the appearance that it retains to this day.[2]
1902 Sanborn map. The Holt-Henderson-Copeland House address is 701.
Dr. and Mrs. Holt quickly became integral parts of the history of the town. Dr. Holt came to Davidson following his service in the Confederate Army as the town’s first medical doctor. He served in this capacity for over twenty years, attending to patients in an extension on the rear of the Holt- Henderson-Copeland House that served as his office.
Dr. William A. Holt’s sign that was posted on his office door. Davidson College Archives.
Mrs. Holt, like her husband, was involved in the growth of the central institutions of the town. While Davidson came into existence as a result of the establishment of Davidson College, there were no formalized primary institutions of education in the town. Children in Davidson who received primary education were taught out of the home of town residents, a tradition which continued into the 1880s. Mrs. Holt conducted one of the earliest schools for girls in the town on the Davidson College campus in Tammany Hall.[3]
The prevalence of boarding houses in Davidson in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries has been a force that has molded the distinctive symbiosis between the town and Davidson College. There was no dining hall on campus until 1946, so these boarding houses in which Davidson College students took all of their meals were a necessity.[4] The boarding house culture gave town residents a way to earn a good living while educating their sons; and as town historian Mary D. Beaty has noted, also occasioned the construction of the some of the grander houses in Davidson. The Holts took advantage of the central location of the house and also began taking in Davidson College students as boarders. Local tradition holds that Mrs. Holt made her boarding house one of the most popular in Davidson by the 1880’s.[5] Her efforts in easing the students’ homesickness continued even after she stopped taking in boarders. She would welcome them into her home with southern hospitality and shared stories of her fifty years in Davidson.[6]
| Above: Photograph taken at wedding of Julia Holt and D. W. McIver. The wedding party is in front of the Holt-Henderson-Copeland House- December 1909. (Photograph courtesy of the Davidson College Archives) |
Mrs. Miles Henderson purchased the house following Julia Holt’s death in December 1912, and a boarding house operated continuously therein until the property was sold by her son to the Reverend William Creecy Copeland and his wife Henrietta Copeland in 1944. William Copeland, a 1916 graduate of Davidson College and a Presbyterian minister, returned to Davidson to manage the Henderson boarding house in 1935.[7] Copeland preached at several churches in the area and also gardened and helped his wife run the boarding house. During World War II he trained Air Force pilots stationed in Bennettsville, S. C., which provided enough money to enable him to open a general store on Main Street (only a few blocks from the Holt-Henderson-Copeland House).[8] In the mid 1970’s the Copelands moved to Montreat, North Carolina. The Holt-Henderson-Copeland House has since been used as a framing store and for housing students at Davidson College. The Copeland’s son, Dr. Donald Copeland, a 1956 graduate of Davidson College, is the current owner of the property and is considering refurbishing the home and converting it into a bed and breakfast.[9]
Architectural Description
According to historian Mary Beaty built in the 1870s around an older structure, the Holt-Henderson-Copeland House is a important local example of the Italianate Style. The house’s exterior is well preserved, with a high degree of integrity. The interior of the house experienced some changes during the twentieth century; however, the interior of the principal section of the house has retained most of its nineteenth-century features. The importance of this house to understanding the historical residential patterns in Davidson, especially the use of the house as a boarding house and its association with a locally prominent physician, is obvious. The house possesses architectural significance as one of the oldest surviving houses in Davidson, and also as one of the very few surviving examples of the Italianate Style in Mecklenburg County’s small towns.
The Holt-Henderson-Copeland House faces east and is located close to the sidewalk on a long relatively narrow lot which slopes gently to the west. The yard has decorative plantings in the front but is otherwise mainly treeless. There are no extant outbuildings, including Dr. Holt’s original office.
The Holt-Henderson-Copeland House has a cross-gabled form. The two-story frame house originally rested on stone piers, which are now in-filled with brick. The house is sheltered with a standing seam metal roof, and features drop siding. Typical for the Italianate Style, the Holt-Henderson-Copeland House features eave brackets, a one-story bay window, paired front doors, and segmental-arched two-over-two windows surrounded with decoratively sawn surrounds that emphasize the crown of the windows.
The front-projecting two-story gable features a centered one-story bay window which is composed of paired segmental-arched windows on the front, and single two-over-two windows on the sides, with recessed panels below the windows. The bay window is protected by a low-pitched hip roof supported with the scroll brackets. Above the window bay are paired segmental-arched windows. The gable features substantial returns supported with brackets, and a vent surrounded with curved trim.
To the south of the front-gabled section is a two-bay wide gabled wing that project to the south. The wing features a hipped-roof porch supported by chamfered posts decorated with applied mouldings, sawn brackets, and turned pendants. The porch roof shelters the front door. The doorway is composed of simple chamfered pilasters supporting a crown with large dentil trim. Typical of the Italianate Style, narrow, glazed double doors were used. Glazing in the doors consists of tall round-arched lights, topped with square lights set high in the tall doors. The doors also feature flat panels surrounded with moulded trim.
| South Elevation | North Elevation |
The south elevation of the principal section of the house is two bays wide. The bays on the first and second stories are filled with single two-over-two windows with curved, sawn trim that accentuates the windows’ moulded crowns. The gable features pronounced returns supported with brackets like those found on the front of the house. Centered in the gable is a small window with segmental-arched head trim. The two sash in the small window do not match each other and are not original.
| Door – North Elevation | Window found on the north and south elevations. |
The north elevation of principal section of the house is two bays wide. The rearmost bay on the first story contains a four-panel door topped with a two-light transom. Like the windows, the doorway is surrounded with curved, sawn trim that accentuates a moulded crown. The three remaining bays are filled with double-hung windows like those found on the south elevation.
Most of the rear elevation of the principal section is obscured by a one-story rear ell and a small two-story addition. The rear gable contains an attic vent with louvered shutters. The rear ell is set back slightly from the north elevation of the principal section. The north elevation of the ell features some of the same elements found on the principal section, including brackets under the eaves. The ell was originally pierced by two window openings with curved, sawn trim and moulded crowns. One of the original window openings has been covered over with siding. The other opening was enlarged to hold a second set of sash. A gabled addition extends from the rear of the ell The rear addition lacks the decorative trim found on the rest of the house. The south elevations of the rear ell and rear addition have been altered and are now covered with simple siding. A small porch on the south elevation of the addition has been enclosed.
[1] Mary D. Beaty, Davidson: A History of the Town from 1835 until 1937 ( Davidson, NC: Briarpatch Press, 1979), 28.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid., 40.
[4] Beaty, 162.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Lucy Phillips Russell, A Rare Pattern (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1957),89-90.
[7] Neil Cottrell, Interview with Dr. Donald Copeland.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
Survey and Research Report
on
Holly Bend
Architectural Essay
Holly Bend is a large frame plantation house set in a grove of holly trees on a neck of land jutting into the Catawba River. The two-story gable-roof structure, five bays wide and two bays deep, is finished quite plainly on the exterior with molded weatherboards. The interior contains, however, a great deal of remarkable vernacular trim.
The two exterior end brick chimneys, laid in Flemish bond, have stepped bases, single shoulders and molded caps. The west chimney has a stone base, a continuation of the random stone foundation of the house. The original wooden roof shakes are covered by new composition shingles. A molded cornice and frieze adorned with triglyphs occurs beneath the overhanging eaves on both the front and rear. Flanking the central entrance of the main (south) facade are fluted pilasters with distinctive console caps accented by gouge work and applied ornament. A heavy molded architrave enframes the flat-paneled door and four-light transom. The lintel features a band of incised lozenges. In the rear is a similar but less elaborate central entrance.
The windows at the first level have molded architraves and sills and flat-paneled shutters. In most of these windows the upper sash has nine panes; the lower, a single replacement glass pane. Some of the windows, however, still have the original nine-over-nine sash. The second level repeats this arrangement except for the diminution of fenestration and the use of louvered shutters. Flanking each chimney in the gables are small four-over-four sash windows with solid shutters.
Across the first story of the main facade is a hip-roof porch, a later addition, supported on plain square posts. Flush boards cover the sheltered wall, indicating the existence of a much earlier porch. Rear ells have been added in several stages; that on the northeast, formerly two stories high but later lowered to a single story, contains the kitchen. The earlier kitchen, now demolished, was in a separate structure in the west side yard.
The plan of the first floor features a large parlor on either side of the central hall. The walls throughout the house are finished with wide horizontal sheathing accented by delicate molded cornices, chair rails, and baseboards. Both the front and rear entrance doors, hung on strap hinges, are flat-paneled on one side and nearly flush-paneled on the other. An open-string stair, which rises in two flights with an intervening quarter turn, is located at the rear of the hall against the right wall and is distinctly Georgian in feeling. It features a heavy molded handrail, well-turned balusters terminating in a square newel with a molded cap, and interesting curvilinear brackets below each tread.
The Federal ornament of the (main) west parlor is unusually lavish. Dominating the room is the large mantel which is distinguished by an abundance of extremely vernacular Adamesque ornament. The rectangular opening is bordered by a molded architrave edged with a tiny reeded band flanked by unacademic pilasters surmounted by fluted consoles. Below each console on the pilaster is an incised U-shaped design. The consoles support a heavy cornice shelf which breaks above the consoles and over a central tablet adorned with a quarter rosette in each corner. The cornice features bands of pierced horizontal lozenges and vertical reeding. Above the shelf are two large rectangular panels formed by applied bands of rope molding and reeding. These are surmounted at each end by delicately fluted end blocks with reeded caps. Molded bands extend from each cap to form a broken ogee scroll pediment ending in crude rosettes. Rising between the rosettes, above the inner corners of the panels, is a fluted console topped by a rosette and terminating in a molded cap. This central console is connected to the rosettes of the ogee pediment by swag-like rope moldings.
Facing the overmantel in the opposite wall is an overdoor consisting of a similar broken ogee pediment, but the central focus is a bas-relief urn with incised fluting and foliate designs. Each window, including those flanking the mantel, is topped by a full entablature with end blocks and consoles similar to those on the exterior of the main entrance. The entablatures that formerly crowned the two rear windows have been pieced together and serve as a lintel above the French doors which now connect the west room with its rear additions.
The east room ornamentation is much simpler. The tall Federal mantel has a plain frieze; the pilaster caps and end blocks contain fan, scroll and rosette motifs. The overmantel, applied directly to the wall surface, as in the west room, consists of two thin moldings which form a single large square crossetted panel. The second story is now divided into four rooms, although the partition separating the two west rooms is perhaps a later addition. The only mantel at this level is the small Federal mantel in the larger front west room. The right rooms have no fireplace openings. Several changes at this level have occurred, for several types of molded window architraves are present. The passage to the no longer existing second story of the east rear ell was formerly through the east rear bedroom, and the flat paneled double door still covers this opening.
Robert Davidson built Holly Bend (called Hollywood in the twentieth century) between 1795 and 1800 on 420 acres which his father, John Davidson (early settler and revolutionary war figure of Mecklenburg County), gave him in 1795. The house, which was built in a bend of the Catawba River and is reputed to have been named for the holly trees which grow in great abundance in that area, was completed before Robert married Margaret Osborne on January 1, 1801. Robert Davidson, who is said to have been the wealthiest planter in Mecklenburg County, was listed in the 1850 census as having 2,803 acres (1,000 acres of which was improved land) and 109 slaves. Robert and Margaret lived in the house until they died, he in 1853 and she in 1864.
Her husband had provided Margaret a life estate in the home tract of 430 acres, after which Robert F. Davidson, a nephew, was to receive Holly Bend since the couple had no children. In 1863, a year before his aunt’s death, Robert F. Davidson sold James N. Osborne several tracts of land including Holly Bend, “after the expiration [of Mrs. Davidson’s] life estate.” In 1871 the James W. Osborne estate, with Thomas Moore as executor, completed a contract with John L. Parks for 942 acres “formerly owned by Robert Davidson.” John Parks died in 1905, and his homeplace was divided equally between Mrs. Mary Allison, Mrs. Jennie Eddleman, Mrs. Alice Parks, and Sallie K. Dixson. Mrs. Alice Parks, who was the owner of the 221 acres of the John L. Parks estate containing Holly Bend, sold the property in 1920 to J. Lindsey Parks. Parks lost the property through a foreclosure in 1930. Holly Bend returned to private ownership in 1941 when Wachovia Bank and Trust Company sold the 221-acre tract to A. C. Newson and his wife. In 1970, Newson sold the property to its present owners, Mr. and Mrs. L. Gardner Eakes.
The significance of Holly Bend lies not in its exterior appearance, but in the treatment of the interior. Equally elaborate interior finish may be found in a number of elegant houses built in North Carolina during the Federal period, but the use of such lavish interior trim in an outwardly unexceptional house, together with the exuberantly vernacular handling of forms, makes Holly Bend unique. Although the Adamesque elements are certainly derivative, the lively creativity of the carpenter-interpreter transformed the standard compositions into a purely local expression of Federal Neo-Classicism.
Historical Background
Major Bibliographical References
Ashe, Samuel A., ed. Biographical History of North Carolina from Colonial Times to the Present. Greensboro, North Carolina: Charles L. Van Noppen, 1907.
Dixon, Elizabeth Williamson. “The Davidson and Allied Families Originating in North Carolina,” 1956. unpublished manuscript in the North Carolina State Library, Raleigh, North Carolina.
Mecklenburg County Records, Mecklenburg County Courthouse, Charlotte, North Carolina, Office of Register of Deeds. (Subgroups: Deeds, Wills).
OLD HOLY COMFORTER EPISCOPAL CHURCH
This report was written on November 2, 1987
1. Name and location of the property: The property known as the Old Holy Comforter Episcopal Church is located at 1510 South Boulevard in Charlotte, North Carolina.
2. Name, address and telephone number of the present owner of the property: The owner of the property is:
Duke Power Company
c/o Mr. William Duren
General Manager of Corporate Properties
400 South Tryon St.
Wachovia 2955
Charlotte, NC 28242
Telephone: (704) 373-7555
The occupant of the property is:
Brown-Shoemaker Tire Co.
1510 South Boulevard
Charlotte, NC, 28203
Telephone: (704) 334-3021
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.
6. A brief historical sketch of the property: This report contains a brief historical sketch of the property prepared by Dr. William H. Huffman, Ph.D.
7. A brief architectural description of the property: This report contains a brief architectural description of the property prepared by Joseph Schuchman and Dr. Dan L. Morrill.
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 Old Holy Comforter Episcopal Church does possess special significance in terms of Charlotte-Mecklenburg. The Commission bases its judgment on the following considerations: 1) Old Holy Comforter Episcopal Church, erected between 1908 and 1912, is the only known local building designed by Charles Coolidge Haight (1841-1917), an influential and significant architect; 2) Old Holy Comforter Episcopal Church is one of only two early twentieth-century church buildings that survive in the South Boulevard district of Dilworth, Charlotte’s first streetcar suburb; and 3) Old Holy Comforter Episcopal Church is the former home of a Christian congregation which continues to play an important role in the religious life of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County.
b. Integrity of design, setting, workmanship, materials, feeling, and/or association: The Commission contends that the architectural description by Joseph Schuchman and Dr. Dan L. Morrill which is included in this report demonstrates that the Old Holy Comforter Episcopal Church meets this criterion.
9. Ad Valorem Tax Appraisal: The Commission is aware that designation would allow the owner to apply for an automatic deferral of 50% of the Ad Valorem taxes on all or any portion of the property which becomes “historic property.” The current appraised value of the improvement is $89,860. The current appraised value of the 189 x 140 foot lot is $72,770. The total appraised value of the property is $162,460. The property is zoned B2.
Date of Preparation of this Report: November 2, 1987
Prepared by: Dr. Dan L. Morrill
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Properties Commission
1225 S. Caldwell St.
Charlotte, NC 28203
Telephone: (704) 376-9115
The Old Holy Comforter Church Building on South Boulevard is distinguished by its architecture and the fact that it was the first suburban Episcopal church in the city. Designed by New York architect C. C. Haight, it was built in stages from 1908 to 1912, and eras for many years a landmark in the small commercial area of early Dilworth, the city’s first streetcar suburb.
At the turn of the century, St. Peter’s on North Tryon Street was the only Episcopal parish church in the city. In 1901, the Reverend Joseph Blount Cheshire, the Bishop of the Diocese of North Carolina (and the former Rector of St. Peter’s) appointed the Reverend George Meredith Tolson as City Missionary in Charlotte, who ministered to the immediate outlying areas: St. Martin’s at Tenth and Davidson Streets, St. Andrew’s in Seaversville in the present Five Points area and in Dilworth.1
Dilworth was developed by Edward Dilworth Latta (1851-1925). Latta was a Princeton-educated native of South Carolina who, after achieving success in Charlotte with a clothing store (1876) and the Charlotte Trouser Company (1883), formed the Charlotte Consolidated Construction Company (often referred to as the 4 C’s) to develop the city’s first suburb in 1890. Originally laid out in grid fashion, the main boulevards and some side streets boasted grand homes, while the remainder were more modest middle-class houses, and, at the southern edge, mill houses for the Atherton Mill (1892-1893). Special inducements were devised to lure people to the new suburb: a new electric trolley line from the Square (opened 1891): a first-rate park, complete with a concert and dance hall, racetracks, a pavilion, greenhouses, a large boating lake, and installment buying for lots. With the Atherton Mill and seven other factories that were put up along the western side of South Boulevard in 1894 and 1895, Dilworth’s success was assured.2
The Dilworth Episcopalians grew to the point that on February 6, 1903, Reverend Tolson forwarded an application to Bishop Cheshire for the formation of an independent congregation. It was accompanied by an objection by the Rector of St. Peter’s, Rev. Clarence O. Leman, who thought that his own church would suffer if a new one was formed in the suburb. Nonetheless, as Bishop Cheshire later reported in an address:
“March 5, 1903, upon the petition of certain inhabitants of Dilworth, a suburb of Charlotte, I organized the petitioners into an independent mission under the name of The Church of the Holy Comforter, Dilworth, appointing as officers thereof Addison Arnold to be Warden, Frank B. Ferris to be Treasurer, and Bertram Swift Davis to be Clerk.”4
In the report on the church to the annual convention in 1903, the following entry appears, which shows the number of people involved, and that it was the women who were responsible for the formation of the new church:
“Families 15. Baptized persons 50. Confirmed 4. Communicants: admitted 4; received 26; present number 30. Sunday-school teachers 5; scholars 27. Other Parish Agencies: A Women’s Guild and Young Children’s Guild, known as the Busy Bees. Public services: on Sundays, 16; other days 31. Holy Communion 4…. The minister in charge (Rev. George M. Tolson) held his first service in Dilworth February 8, 1903. An instrument of organization eras issued to the Mission on March 5th. The Women’s Guild, named St. Elizabeth’s has done notable work in behalf of the new organization, and it was through their efforts the enterprise was started. It is bending its energies towards raising money for the purchase of a suitable lot on which to build a house of Worship. They have abundant enthusiasm and ability, and will no doubt succeed in all their endeavors. A good, strong Church is much needed in Dilworth.”5
Reverend Tolson resigned in January, 1904, and was replaced by Rev. Francis Moore Osborne, who took over Holy Comforter and other outlying missions the following September. That fall, a meeting of the congregation was held in a hall over a store where they held their church services (the Dilworth Drug Store building at the corner of Rensselaer and South Boulevard; B. S. Davis, the Holy Comforter Clerk, ran the drug store), and a building fund committee was formed.6 In March, 1905, the church trustees acquired a 50′ front by 150′ deep lot next to the grocery store for $1000, and the following January bought another 100′ front by 150′ parcel of adjacent property for $2000.7 The building fund progressed to the point that by 1908, work on the basement portion of the church had begun, and the cornerstone for the new church was laid on August 6, 1909, which was the Feast of the Transfiguration. At the ceremonies, Bishop Cheshire dedicated the new church as the “Bishop Atkinson Memorial.” Bishop Thomas Atkinson of North Carolina had played a leading role in reuniting the Southern Episcopal churches with the Northern after the Civil War.8 By 1910, the roof was completed over the chancel and transepts, and worship services there being held in the basement Sunday school rooms, which continued until early 1913.9 In the official record of 1913, the church’s completion was recorded:
“Since the last annual report, we have completed that portion of the Bishop Atkinson Memorial Church, the basement of which has been used as a place of worship for the past two years. This completed portion is now furnished, and a pipe organ has been placed. This work was accomplished towards the close of the fiscal year (1912). It is thought that the completion of the building will immediately affect the growth of this congregation. The number of communicants is now 90. The debt is $11,000.”10
The building, which has the feel and look of an English country parish church, was designed by New York architect Charles Coolidge Haight ( 1841-1917). Haight’s specialty was “an unpretentious variation of Victorian Gothic.” Educated at Columbia and wounded in the Civil War, Haight studied architecture after the war in the office of a fellow officer before opening his own office in 1867. His early work was country churches and houses in Victorian Gothic and English Tudor. Although he designed in a wide range of styles, his most important work was in Collegiate Gothic, which appeared in a number of buildings he did for Columbia College and Yale University. His connection with the Episcopal Church was through his father, believed to be Dr. Benjamin L. Haight ( 1809-1879), a prominent Episcopal theologian who became the Bishop of Massachusetts.11 At a service on March 2, 1913, the church building was formally opened with the first service in the main auditorium. A contemporary newspaper article recorded the event:
“The present edifice is a portion of a larger plan of a cruciform church with a massive Gothic tower, and is built of Bedford stone and brick laid in cement mortar, with heart pine and selected maple flooring, only the best materials being used throughout the structure. A new Estey pipe organ, pronounced to be of the finest tone quality of any like instrument in the city, has been installed. The furniture is of solid walnut, the choir stalls being of the same material, with hand-carved finials. The chancel furnishings are not yet complete, and a temporary altar will be used for several months until the completion of a handsome marble altar and reredos. By Easter, a handsome brass memorial lectern will be placed, and the church is already in possession of a massive brass altar cross, processional cross, altar vases, and candlesticks.”12
In the following year, 1914, at the diocese’s annual convention, the Reverend Henry T. Cocke placed the following resolution before the assembly, which they adopted: “Resolved, that the congregation of the Mission of the Holy Comforter in the city of Charlotte [Dilworth was annexed in 1907] be admitted as a parish into union with this Convention, to be known as the Parish of the Church of the Holy Comforter.”13 The last link bringing it into being as a fully independent church came when, on January 10, 1916, the Trustees of the Diocese conveyed a deed for the property on South Boulevard to the Vestry of Holy Comforter.14 Later that year, Reverend Osborne, who had seen the church through from its beginnings to a successfully completed parish with a handsome building, was reassigned by the Bishop and was succeeded by Rev. Robert Bruce Owens.15
Three years after Rev. Owens took charge, Mary Lamb Smith, one of the original signers of the petition to start the church, died in the influenza epidemic of 1919. Her grief-stricken husband, Edward A. Smith, who built the Chadwick, Hoskins and other mills in the area, commissioned Tiffany’s in New York, without regard to expense, to build a memorial stained glass window to be placed above the altar. The resulting five-panel set of windows depicting the Last Supper is a striking work of art, which was done by Tiffany’s best artist, Frederick Wilson. The center panel shows Christ with raised, open arms, while a dove, the symbol of the Holy Comforter, spreads its wings above his head. The windows were donated anonymously, and Reverend Owens was under pledge not to reveal their source until after Smith’s death.16
In the nearly three decades of Reverend Ovens rectorship, from 1916 to 1945, the parish grew from 154 communicants to 284, and the church was consolidated into a financially sound, important part of the Dilworth community.17 But the character of Dilworth and that part of South Boulevard changed, and the changes accelerated in the post-war period. Dilworth lost its identity as a separate neighborhood, and suffered decay and indiscriminate development along South Boulevard. In 1948, property for a new church site, containing over five acres at the corner of Avondale and Park Roads, was donated by Mrs. Salem A. Van Every in memory of her mother, Mrs. Philip L. Lance, wife of the founder of Lance Packing Company. In 1949, a new building committee was formed, and by 1954, the South Boulevard property was sold and the church moved to the new location.18
The old Holy Comforter church building, along with its next-door neighbor where the first services were held (the Dilworth Drug Store building), constitute a small remaining historic core of early Dilworth’s commercial, civic and religious activities. Their preservation and rehabilitation are crucial to the revitalization of that part of South Boulevard and a new Dilworth that is very much aware of its historic heritage.
Notes
1 Typescript copy of speech by the Right Reverend Edwin A. Penick, Bishop of North Carolina ,at the 50th anniversary of the Church of the Holy Comforter, March 5, 1953, on file at the Historic District Commission Office.
2 Dan L. Morrill, “Edward Dilworth Latta and the Charlotte Consolidated Construction Company (1890-1925): Builders of a New South City,” The North Carolina Historical Review 62 (1985),293-316.
3 Bishop Penick’s address, cited above. The original petitioners were Ida Clarkson Jones, Caroline Davis Taliaferro, Lora Marie Stokes, Jennie L. Woodruff, Catherine Stokes, Frances McDonald, Mr. & Mrs. Frank B. Ferris, Mrs. Horace Baker, Philip L. Lance, Jr., Mrs. Amanda L. Ferris, Mrs. Addison Arnold, Ella Gardner, Mr. & Mrs. Philip Lance, Mrs. Hattie C. Dorr, Addison Arnold, Miss Mary Lance, H. L. Hunter, Mrs. L. B. Mann, Miss Ruth Lance, Mrs. H. L. Hunter, Mrs. E. A. Smith, B. S. Davis, Mrs. B. S. Davis, Miss Agnes McCarthy, Ida V. Lamb, Mrs. Laura R. Gardner, A. R. Gardner, Mrs. James F. York, and F. A. Gardner.
4 Journal of the Eighty-Seventh Annual Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of North Carolina (Raleigh: Edwards & Broughton, 1903), p.62.
5 Ibid., p. 75.
6 Bishop Penick’s speech, cited above; William H. Huffman, “A Historical Sketch of the Dilworth Drug Store Building,” Charlotte Mecklenburg Historic Properties Communion, 1987.
7 Deed Book 195, p. 388, 23 March 1905; Deed Book 204, p.609, January 1906. An additional 2-1/2′ strip was obtained on September 9, 1909: Deed Book 254, p. 173.
8 Bishop Penick’s speech, cited above, “A Bulletin of Information Concerning the Progress of the Bishop Atkinson Memorial Church,” undated pamphlet on file at the Historic District Commission office.
9 Bishop Penick’s speech, cited above.
10 Ibid.
11 The Carolina Churchman (1913), p. 13, A. F. Placzeck, ed., Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architect (New York: The Free Press, 1982); Vol. 2, p.296; The Church Almanac (New York: The Protestant Episcopal Tract Society, 1880), p. 96.
12 Reprinted in Carolina Churchman, cited above.
13 Bishop Penick’s speech, cited above.
14 Ibid.; Deed Book 358, p.179, January 10, 1916.
15 Bishop Penick’s speech.
16 Typescript copy of article by Fannie Lou Bingham in Charlotte News. May, 1934, entitled, “Church Window Given as Memorial to Wife,” on file at Historic District Commission Office.
17 Bishop Penick’s speech, cited above.
18 Deed Book 1718, p.581, October 27, 1954.
Old Holy Comforter Episcopal Church, which faces south, was erected between 1908 and 1912 in Dilworth, Charlotte’s initial streetcar suburb. Once part of a thriving residential, industrial and commercial district, Old Holy Comforter is one of only two surviving early twentieth century church buildings in the South Boulevard section of Dilworth, the other being Chalmers Memorial A.R.P. Church at 1800 South Boulevard, a Neo-Classical style structure.1
Old Holy Comforter Episcopal Church has a one and one-half story rectangular Gothic Revival style nave with a covered, pedimented, single bay entry porch, an offset left chimney, a cross gable on each side, and a slate, steeply-pitched gable roof. The building rests on a foundation of rusticated granite and is sheathed in man-made striated blocks. A rectangular shaped original wing runs off the rear elevation and projects eastward toward South Boulevard. Essentially an unpretentious brick building, this wing does have a front facade of rusticated granite and striated blocks (to match the main portion of the building) and a large, pedimented entrance. A stairway, originally outside but now enclosed by a one story brick building that houses Brown-Shoemaker Tire Co., is situated near the front of the eastern elevation of the church.
Old Holy Comforter Episcopal Church remains fundamentally incomplete. The architect, Charles Coolidge Haight (1841-1917), submitted plans which called for an extension of the nave southward, the construction of a two and one-half story venerated belfry, and the placement of the main entrance at the southeastern corner of the extension, thereby creating a cruciform. The fact that these additions were never built gives the edifice a subdued, almost rustic feel. Even though the design motifs commonly associated with Gothic Revivalism are present, such as tracery, buttresses and, of course, the pointed arch, Old Holy Comforter Episcopal Church is by no means a lavish structure.
The most impressive features of Old Holy Comforter Episcopal Church are inside the main block of the building. The first floor has four principal rooms, each of which remains undivided. A chapel on the west side, the nave or sanctuary in the middle, and a room off both front sides of the nave, both reached from the sanctuary by a large arched entryway. All have elegant vaulted coffered ceilings. Two modest rooms, most probably used as offices, one having a door which leads to the nave, radiate off an entrance hall in the right cross gable, and an “L” shaped stairway with square newels and pickets leads to a full basement.
That the Holy Comforter Episcopal congregation selected the Gothic Revival style for its suburban church is not surprising. Taking its inspiration from the romantic movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, which rejected rationalism and extolled the supposed virtues of Medieval Christendom, the Gothic Revival style, at least in the United States, gained greatest and most enduring favor in church architecture.2 Moreover, the two Episcopal congregations in Mecklenburg County that predate Holy Comforter, St. Mark’s Episcopal and St. Peter’s Episcopal, had selected the Gothic Revival style, the former in 1886 and the latter in 1893.3
Notes
1 The only other Dilworth church now on South Boulevard is Pritchard Memorial Baptist Church at 1117 South Boulevard. All of its buildings are of relatively recent origin. For a detailed analysis of the history of Dilworth, see Dr. Dan L. Morrill, “Edward Dilworth Latta and the Charlotte Consolidated Construction Company: Builders of a New South City,” in the North Carolina Historical Review, July, 1985, pp. 293-316. For a detailed analysis of the architecture of North Carolina’s early twentieth century suburbs, see Catherine W. Bishir and Lawrence S. Early, Early Twentieth-Century Suburbs in North Carolina: Essays on History, Architecture and Planning (Raleigh: Archeology and Historic Preservation Section, Division of Archives and History, North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, 1985).
2 Marcus Whiffen, American Architecture Since 1780: A Guide to the Styles (Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 1969), pp.l73-177. John Poppeliers, S. Allen Chambers, and Nancy B. Schwartz, “What Style Is It? Part Two.” Historic Preservation July-September, 1976), pp. 39-42.
3 Thomas W. Hanchett, “St. Peter’s Episcopal Church Architectural Description” (October, 1986), an unpublished manuscript prepared for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Properties Commission. Dr. Dan L. Morrill, Survey and Research Report On The St. Mark’s Episcopal Church (March 1, 1983) an unpublished manuscript prepared for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Properties Commission.
EUGENE WILSON HODGES FARM HOUSE
This report was written on January 27 1990
1. Name and location of the property: The property known as the Eugene Wilson Hodges Farm House is located at 3900 Rocky River Church Road in Charlotte, North Carolina 28215.
2. Name, address and telephone number of the present owner of the property: The owners of the property are:
Mr. and Mrs. J. Franklin Hodges
3900 Rocky River Church Road
Charlotte, North Carolina 28215
Telephone: (704) 596-0772
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: This property is divided into several parcels. They are:
Tax Parcel Number 105-051-03
Deed Book 5931, Page 864
Zoning: Farm
Appraised Value:
Land (37.26 acres) = $12,360
Improvement = 0
Total: = $12,360
Tax Parcel Number 105-061-12
Deed Book 4781, page 457
Zoning: Farm
Appraised Value:
Land (41.66 acres) = $14,830
Improvements = $33.620
Total: = $48,450
Tax Parcel Number 105-061-13
Deed Book 5931, Page 864
Zoning: R12
Appraised Value:
Land (1.5 acres) = $14, 000
Improvements = $46,820
Total = $60, 820
Tax Parcel Number 105-061-14
Deed Book 5931, page 864
Zoning: Farm
Appraised Value:
Land (23.2 acres) = $10,790
Improvements = -0-
Total = $10, 790
6. A brief historical sketch of the property: This report contains a brief historical sketch of the property prepared by Dr. William H. Huffman, Ph.D.
7. A brief architectural description of the property: This report contains a brief architectural description of the property prepared by Dr. Richard Mattson, Ph.D
. 8. Documentation of why and in what ways the property meets the criteria for designation set forth in N.C.G.S. 160A-400.5:
a. Special significance in terms of its history, architecture, and cultural importance: The Commission judges that the property known as the Eugene Wilson Hodges Farm does possess special significance in terms of Charlotte-Mecklenburg. The Commission bases its judgment on the following considerations: 1) the Eugene Wilson Hodges Farm, comprising a handsome triple-A roofed I-house and a 187 acre tract of pasturage, cultivated fields, and wooded fencelines is an unusually pristine example of the early 20th Century agricultural environment which once was predominant in Mecklenburg County; 2) the ca. 1908 Hodges House is architecturally significant as representing an early 20th Century interpretation of the traditional I-house type adapted and embellished with an array of vernacular Colonial Revival elements by the owner-builder; 3) outbuildings, such as the hip-roofed wellhouse, possess architectural significance as representatives of both traditional and popular building types of their era; and 4) the gambrel-roofed outbuildings, when constructed, represented a new, innovative building type in Mecklenburg County.
b. Integrity of design setting, workmanship materials. feeling. and/or association: The Commission contends that the architectural description by Dr. Richard Mattson which is included in this report demonstrates that the Eugene Wilson Hodges Farm meets this criterion.
9. Ad Valorem 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 landmark.” The current appraised value of the improvements is $80,440. The current appraised value of the 103.62 acres is $51,980. The total appraised value of the property is $132,420.
Date of Preparation of this Report: January 27 1990
Prepared by: Dr. Dan L. Morrill in conjunction with Nora M. Black
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission
1225 South Caldwell Street
Charlotte, North Carolina 28203
Telephone: (704) 376-9115
It is said that several tenant dwellings once stood north across the road from the Hodges House, and that a frame smokehouse originally stood behind the residence, beside the wellhouse. No evidence of these buildings survives above ground, and no archaeological study has been undertaken.
This frame, three-bay I-house with two parallel, one-story rear ells was built abut 1908. It is said that the first owner, Eugene Wilson Hodges, built the dwelling primarily by himself, employing materials salvaged from other properties in the area (Frank Hodges Interview 1989). The house is distinguished by a triple-A roof covered by patterned slate shingles. Two exterior, stuccoed-brick chimneys are located at the rear of the house, accommodating fireplaces in the two main first and second-story rooms, as well as, originally, in the two rear wings. Windows have one-over-one sash with simply molded surrounds on the second story, and distinctive single-pane fixed windows with transoms in the front porch area. This front facade is dominated by a wraparound, hip-roofed porch with a raised seam tin roof and slender, wooden Doric columns, reflecting the influence of the Colonial Revival Style. The original turned-post balustrade has been removed. This porch extends around the east elevation and terminates with a bathroom, which originally had been a one-room flower house. The original windows in this bay have been remodelled and the original sash replaced. On the west gable end, the porch ends at a 1950s extension of the enclosed shed along the west side of the west ell. The rear ell and extension contain bedrooms. The east ell contains the dining room and kitchen and is attached to the bedroom wing by an original shed-roofed hallway. This hall originally led to an open shed-roofed porch along the west side of the kitchen wing which has been enclosed.
The interior’s plan and finish reflect the taste and handiwork of Hodges. The first floor consists of two main rooms in the two-story block with no hallway separating the rooms. The stairway rises from a rear hall, which divides the two back ells. This stairway is enclosed; and according to family members the enclosure is original. The stair has a heavy square newel and turned balusters shielded by a plaster wall. Original plaster walls and ceilings exist throughout the house, though new cropped acoustical ceilings, installed about 18 inches below the originals, are in place in all the rooms; and the rear ells and upstairs bedrooms plywood wall paneling over the original plaster. The house includes a variety of mantels said to have been salvaged by Hodges from other houses. However, these mantels have designs reflecting the house’s period of construction. For example, the mantel in the east front room (originally the parlor) has free-standing colonettes. The other mantels, which are simpler, display square shelves supported by attached square posts on either side of the fire opening.
Landscape (Contributing Site)
The approximately 187-acre tract of farmland comprising the Hodges Farm continues to display the appearance, and some of the uses, which characterized it during the period of significance. Although cotton, dominant crop on the Hodges Farm in the early 20th century, is no longer raised, the landscape’s rolling terrain of cropland, pasture, and woods, reveals the essential character of the Piedmont farmsteads which once dominated Mecklenburg County. The land remains part of a large working farm where crops and livestock are raised on its soil. The farmyard, the centerpiece of the tract, is shaded by mature oaks. Although this farm is situated in one of the more agrarian parts of the county, new residential developments now mark the former farmland to the northeast, physical reminders of the fragility of this rural landscape.
The Eugene Wilson Hodges Farm is composed of a handsome ca.1908, triple-A I-house, and a variety of frame hip-, gable-, shed-, and gambrel-roofed outbuildings. The Hodges House is architecturally significant under Criterion C as representing an early 20th-century interpretation of the traditional I-house. Built largely by the owner, this weatherboarded dwelling displays an array of vernacular Colonial Revival elements that were adapted to suit the needs and tastes of the Hodges family. The classical post porch wraps around the main facade, while the enclosed stairway rises from a rear hallway (closer to the kitchen and dining room than to the main entrance–see Associated Property Type I–Early 20th Century Small Town Dwellings and Farmhouses). The outbuildings are also architecturally significant under Criterion C, representing both traditional and popular building types (see Associated Property Type II–Outbuildings). Among the contributing outbuildings are a frame hip-roofed wellhouse, shed-roofed chicken coops, a gable-roofed barns, and gambrel-roofed granaries with wagon shelters. In particular, these gambrel-roofed buildings represented a relatively new, innovative building type in the county. As reflected by the noncontributing 1940s gambrel-roofed barns on the Hodges farmstead, this barn type with the spacious upper story grew in popularity among local farmers as the century progressed. The farm is also eligible under Criterion A as representing a middle-class farming operation in Mecklenburg County in the early decades of the 20th century (see Context Statement–Post-Bellum Agriculture). Eugene Wilson Hodges (1878-1943) was a prosperous farmer in the Crab Orchard Township of Mecklenburg County. He raised crops and livestock typical of county farms in the early 20th century. He built and resided in a substantial farmhouse that was functional for his large family, as well as stylistically appropriate for his social class. In this regard, his dwelling was similar to other farmhouses of his peers; and like his peers, Hodges had granaries, a wellhouse, several chicken coops, dairy barns, and tenant houses among the significant support buildings and structures on his farmstead.
References
Gatza, Mary Beth. 1987. Architectural Inventory of Rural Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. Unpublished inventory available at the N.C. Division of Archives and History, Raleigh.
Hodges, Frank. Present owner of the Hodges Farm and son of Eugene Wilson Hodges. Interview, July 18, 1989. Mr. Hodges provided information concerning the dates of house and related outbuildings.
According to family members, E. W. Hodges built his house in 1908. He designed it himself, and used lumber from his land to build it.3 There are no agricultural records available for the Hodges farm from the census figures (the last of which that are available is 1880), but a picture of the agricultural production may be gathered from the settlement of Hodges’ estate in 1944. The inventory shows that his farm produced 600 bushels of corn, 1000 bushels of oats, 1000 bushels of barley, 30 tons of hay, and 62 bales of cotton. He owned 22 milk cows, five heifers, and five mules. The farm implements were valued at $610.00, and he had an undetermined number of tenant farmers who were entitled to partial interest in 14 bales of cotton.4 From these figures, it would appear that Hodges farm was atypical in that it raised more oats and barley than corn, and that it continued to produce that amount of cotton into the 1940s. (See Context Statement- Table and Graphs).
After B. W. Hodges’ death in 1943, his intestate estate was divided between his two sons, E. W. Hodges, Jr. and James Franklin Hodges, with Eunice Cochran Hodges (1880-1959), the widow of B. W. Hodges, Sr., receiving a life estate in the house plus the use of 100 surrounding acres.5 In 1969, a final partition of the land was made between the two sons, and J. Frank Hodges received title to the home place tract and other parcels.6 The latter currently lives in the house, and has converted the land to a dairy farm, which is called Hodges Dairy, Inc.
Notes
1 Mecklenburg County, Certificate of Death, Book 65, p.271; Mecklenburg County Deed Book 190, p. 389; 218, p.691; 280, p.588; 365, p.241; 365, p.412; 391, p. 390; 497. p. 55; 492, p.124; 526, p,491; 573, p.268; 573, p.283; 578, p.132; 776, p.41; 837, p. 72; 876, p.459; 1052, p. 383.
2 Mecklenburg County, Record of Accounts, Book 35, p.88; U. S. Census, 1880, Mecklenburg County, Agricultural Schedules.
3 Interview with J. Frank Hodges by Mary Beth Gatza, 1988, and Richard Mattson, 1989.
4 Ibid.
5 Mecklenburg County Deed Book 1121, p. 36, 27 May 1944.
6 Ibid., Book 3100, p.286, 9 June 1969; Map Book 14, p. 495.