This report was written on April 29, 1991

1. Name and location of the property: The property known as the Blythe Homestead is located at 16001 Beatties Ford Road, Huntersville, North Carolina.

2. Name, address and telephone number of the present owners of the property: The owners of the property are:

Mr. John C. Blythe and Mrs. Helen Blythe (wife)
16001 Beatties Ford Road
Huntersville, N. C. 28078

Telephone: (704) 875-6568

Tax Parcel Numbers: 001-022-19 and 001-021-03

Miss Christine Blythe
18110 Hwy. 73 West
Huntersville, N. C. 28078

Telephone: (704) 892-0286

Tax Parcel Number: 001-022-01

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.

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5. Current Deed Book Reference to the property: The most recent deed to this property is listed in Mecklenburg County Deed Book 5042 at page 984.

6. A historical sketch of the property: This report contains a brief historical sketch of the property prepared by John C. Blythe, Jr.

7. A brief architectural description of the property: This report contains a brief architectural description of the property prepared by John C. Blythe, Jr., and Nora M. Black.

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

 

a. Special significance in terms of its history, architecture, and /or cultural importance: The Commission judges that the property known as the Blythe Homestead does possess special significance in terms of Charlotte-Mecklenburg. The Commission bases its judgment on the following consideration: 1) the Blythe Homestead is an intact homestead dating back to the land acquisition by Samuel Blythe in 1772; 2) the house located on the Blythe Homestead is architecturally significant as an intact and finely preserved example of rural, vernacular architecture constructed in the mid-19th century; 3) the setting of the Blythe Homestead with its pastoral vista is a reminder of Mecklenburg County’s farm past; 4) the outbuildings of the Blythe Homestead represent traditional forms and a variety of construction techniques including a log outbuilding; and 5) the Blythe Homestead, still owned by descendants of Samuel Blythe and including the house, outbuildings, and fields, provides valuable insights into life for early settlers and yeomen farmers of Mecklenburg County.

b. Integrity of design, setting, workmanship, materials, feeling. and/or association: The Commission contends that the architectural description by John C. Blythe, Jr., and Nora M. Black included in this report demonstrates that the Blythe Homestead meets this criterion.

9. Ad Valorem Tax Appraisal: The Commission is aware that designation would allow the owners to apply for an automatic deferral of 50% of the Ad Valorem taxes on all or any portion of the property which becomes a designated “historic landmark.” The current appraised value of the improvements is $48,340. The current appraised value of the 21.69 acres is $619,340. The total appraised value of the property is $667,680. The property is zoned RR and R15.

Date of Preparation of this report: 29 April 1991

Prepared by: Dr. Dan L. Morrill, in conjunction with Ms. Nora M. Black
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission
1225 South Caldwell Street, Box D
Charlotte, North Carolina 28203

Telephone: 704/376-9115

Note: The following historical report was prepared by Mr. John C. Blythe, Jr., under the auspices of members of the Blythe family. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission is not responsible for errors.

 

 

Historical Overview  

Prepared by:
John C. Blythe, Jr.

Samuel Blythe (1727?- 1795?) is reported to have immigrated to America from the northern part of Ireland about 1740.¹ In 1772, he acquired from John Wilson four hundred acres of land in Mecklenburg County on the north side of the Catawba River. ² This is the only listing for Samuel Blythe in the “Grantee Index to Real Estate Conveyances — Mecklenburg County.” Samuel Blythe is believed to have lived in a house that was located on the east side of Beatties Ford Road, less than a mile south of the extant Blythe House. ³

Of his four hundred acres, Samuel Blythe deeded one hundred acres to his son-in-law Thomas Martin in 1789, one hundred and twenty-five acres to his son Richard Blythe in 1790, and two and one-half acres to the Trustees of Gilead Church in 1791.⁴ His will provides for the “dwelling house and plantation whereon I now live” to go to his grandson William Conner at his wife’s decease. Samuel Blythe died between 1793 and 1796. ⁵ Of the property he inherited, William Conner deeded nineteen and three-quarter acres to William Henderson in 1798 and one acre to the Trustees of Gilead Church in 1804.⁶

The one hundred and twenty-five acres deeded to Richard Blythe is believed to be the property on which the Blythe Homestead is located. The 1790 Census shows Richard Blythe as head of a household composed of one male over the age of sixteen and two females. ⁷ Richard Blythe (1750s?-1800) married Margaret (Peggy) Patton, probably in the 1780s. They had two children, Rebecca (1780s?-1809/18)and Samuel (1790/93?-1866).⁸ Richard Blythe died on 31 March 1800, ⁹ and neither he nor his widow is listed as head of a household in the federal census for that year.

One could surmise that Peggy Blythe moved with her two children to the home of her father, Charles Patton, on Gar Creek in the Hopewell community, by the year 1800, and continued to make her home there. When Rebecca Blythe married Anderson Sadler in 1809, Charles Patton was bondsman. ¹⁰ Peggy Blythe was still living and had not remarried in 1818, when she was deeded land from her father’s estate. ¹¹

In May of 1818, Anderson Sadler gave his brother-in-law Samuel Blythe a quitclaim deed for property “on the East side of Catabaw [sic] river near to Gillead [sic] Meeting house & East of sd. House being about 162 acres owned & possessed by Richard Blyt” ¹² In August of that same year, Joseph McKnitt Alexander sold Samuel Blythe forty acres “on the Waters of the East side of the Catawba river near “Gillead [sic] Meeting House.” This property was part of a two hundred and fourteen acre tract “subdivided from Samuel Blythe’s tract of 400 acres” Alexander had purchased at a sheriff’s sale in 1813. ¹³

Samuel Blythe (1790/93?- 1866), son of Richard and Peggy Blythe, married Isabella Nantz (1794/5?- 1876) in 1822.¹⁴ The 1830 census lists Samuel Blythe as head of a household; at that time he appears to be living at the Blythe Homestead tract in the Gilead community. ¹⁵ It is probable that he either was living in the house occupied by his parents in 1790 or had built a house of his own. ¹⁶ Samuel Blythe is reported to have served as postmaster of the Cowan’s Ford post office from 10 June 1847 to 8 December 1866. ¹⁷ Samuel and Isabella Blythe had seven children. The eldest, Richard Franklin Blythe (1824-1885), married Violet Jane McCoy (1829-1899) in 1848.¹⁸ It is probable that Franklin Blythe built the extant house ca. 1848. ¹⁹ Both Samuel and Franklin Blythe were farmers, although the 1850 Census lists Franklin Blythe’s occupation as Constable. ²⁰ During their lifetimes, both men acquired and disposed of tracts of land in the area. Undoubtedly, some of this property included parts of the original four hundred acre tract as well as adjacent parcels. ²¹

In 1850, Samuel Blythe owned six hundred acres of land, valued at $1800, about a third of which was improved for farming. He had seven horses, six milch cows, eight other cattle, seven sheep, and forty swine. He produced one hundred bushels of wheat, one thousand bushels of Indian corn, two hundred bushels of oats, and smaller quantities of other products. Ten years later, Samuel Blythe had one hundred and seventy acres of improved land and three hundred and thirty acres of unimproved land with a total cash value of $3000. R. F. Blythe had one hundred acres valued at $1200, half of which was improved. Together, they had eleven horses, nine milch cows, three other cattle, fifteen sheep, and thirty swine. The farms produced wheat, corn, oats, cotton, wool, peas and beans, Irish and sweet potatoes, butter, hay, beeswax, and honey. ²²

By 1870, Samuel Blythe had died, and his widow and youngest child, Jim (b. 1839), a Confederate War veteran, were the only persons living in their household. ²³ Isabella Blythe died in 1876. Jim Blythe never married and lived with different relatives for periods of time throughout his life. The fate of Samuel and Isabella Blythe’s house is not known, although it had disappeared by the early twentieth century. ²⁴

Franklin and Violet Blythe were the parents of eleven children, ten of whom grew up in the ca. 1848 Blythe House and lived to adulthood. The youngest child, John Clifford Blythe (1878-1936), acquired forty-eight acres of the “old homestead of R. F. Blythe” (including the residence) from his siblings and their spouses in 1902. In 1908 he purchased an adjacent twenty-four acres from the W. C. Hastings estate and married Mary Bailes (1883-1976). ²⁵ Cliff and Mary Blythe reared their five children in the Blythe House. Cliff Blythe, like his father and grandfather, made his living as a farmer, and Mary Blythe continued to operate the farm after her husband’s death.

Cliff and Mary Blythe’s youngest son, John Charles Blythe (b. 1921) remained at the homestead and carried on the family tradition of operating a farm, in addition to working full time in Charlotte. He discontinued active farming when much of the property was inundated by Lake Norman in the early 1960s. In 1951, J. C. Blythe married Helen Johnson (b. 1922). They reared their son, John C. Blythe, Jr., (b. 1958) at the homestead and continue to live there. Christine Blythe, daughter of Cliff and Mary Blythe, has maintained a residence at the homestead while living elsewhere.

The construction of Lake Norman in the early 1960’s claimed 27.1 acres of the farmland associated with the Blythe Homestead. The Blythe House was built on high ground and was spared, but many of the pastures and fields were flooded. At the time of the settlement of the Cliff Blythe estate in 1985, an updated survey revealed that 51.75 acres remained. ²⁶ Three contiguous tracts, comprising 21.69 acres, owned and occupied by. J.C., Helen, and Christine Blythe, are proposed for designation as an historic landmark. These three tracts include the house built by R. F. Blythe ca. 1848, the site of the Samuel and Isabella Blythe residence, and associated outbuildings and landscapes. Collectively, this property represents that part of the Blythe property that has neither been developed nor separated from the homesite by the waters of Lake Norman.

 

 

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Notes

¹ John Brevard Alexander, M.D., Biographical Sketches of the Early Settlers of the Hopewell Section… (Charlotte, N.C.; Observer Printing and Publishing House, 1897), p. 62; Annie Blythe Ingram, Notes on the Pedigree of the Family of Blyth or Blythe of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina: Authentic Facts 1752-1959 (Wadesboro, N.C.: unpublished typescript, 1959), p. 2.

² Mecklenburg County Deed Book 8, p. 88.

³ Family tradition holds that the original Blythe home was located across the road from Gilead Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, in the same vicinity as the present-day Gilead Church manse.

⁴ Mecklenburg County Deed Book 13, pp. 618, 758, and 930; Ingram, pp. 3 and 18.

⁵ Mecklenburg County Will Book A, p. 99, transcribed in Ingram, pp. 5-6.

⁶ Mecklenburg County Deed Book 16, p. 123; Mecklenburg County Deed Book 18, p. 118; Ingram, pp. 3, 19. No other deeds of William Connor pertaining to this property have been located.

⁷ Cited in Ingram, p. 4. This suggests that Richard Blythe was living in a home of his own, most probably on the 125-acre tract he acquired that year from his father. Family tradition and physical evidence indicate that there was an earlier residence a few hundred feet south of the extant (ca. 1848) house. This undoubtedly was the house occupied by Samuel and Isabella Blythe in 1850 and may have been the place where the Richard Blythe family was residing in 1790.

⁸ Ingram, p. 9.

⁹ Estate Papers of Richard Blythe. The estate inventory lists 125 acres of land, assorted clothing, and one bedstead, suggesting that the household had been broken up prior to his death. These papers reveal that the estate administrator, William Conner (Richard Blythe’s nephew), had also been serving as Richard Blythe’s guardian for several years prior to his death.

¹⁰ 1800 Census of Mecklenburg County, p. 552; 1810 Census of Mecklenburg County; 1820 Census of Mecklenburg County, p. 166; Ingram, p. 9. Patton’s household in 1800 includes members that could have been Peggy, Rebecca, and Samuel Blythe. Neither Peggy nor Samuel are listed as head of a household in 1810, although they again can be accounted for in the household of Charles Patton. By 1820 Charles Patton had died, and Samuel Blythe was listed as head of a household that appears to be in the same location as the earlier Patton household.

¹¹ Mecklenburg County Deed Book 19, p. 32.

¹² Mecklenburg County Deed Book 19, p. 32. The difference in acreage between the 125 acres cited in the inventory of Richard Blythe’s estate and the 162 acres included in the quitclaim deed has not been accounted for.

¹³ Mecklenburg County Deed Book 19, pp. 345, 800. The 1818 deed further states that “Sd. land does not include any claim of sd. Meeting House land & is to be understood as fairly run within the bounds of the land conveyed by sd. Sheriff….” The 1813 deed describes the property as “Containing 214 acres, exclusive of Gillead [sic] meeting house land.”

¹⁴ Ingram, p. 9. A notation in the records of Hopewell Presbyterian Church states that Isabella Blythe died in August 1876.

¹⁵ 1830 Census of Mecklenburg County, p. 369. Samuel Blythe is listed next to Joseph Walker in the 1830 Census; Joseph was the son of Thomas and Mary Blythe Walker (sister of Richard Blythe), whose property adjoined the original Blythe tract. Other names listed near Samuel Blythe’s in the Census are closely associated with the Gilead community.

¹⁶ AIexander states that “Samuel Blythe … occupied the homestead” (p. 62). Ingram writes that the house [referring to the one standing in 1959 and still extant] was built in the early 1830’s by Samuel Blythe.” (p. 10) Alexander’s use of the word “homestead” may not have referred to a house, but it indicates that Samuel lived an the property he inherited from his father. Ingram likely was mistaken regarding the construction of the extant house by Samuel Blythe in the early 1830s (see footnote 19), but may have been correct in the fact that Samuel Blythe built a house — the one that stood to the south of the extant house and in which he was living in 1850 and 1860.

¹⁷ Ingram, p. 9.

¹⁸ Ingram, pp. 9-10.

¹⁹ Alexander, p. 62; 1850 Census of Mecklenburg County, pp. 32-33. Alexander writes, “Franklin married Violet McCoy, and built a house in the northern part of the homestead.” Because Alexander was a neighbor and about 14 years of age in 1848, he likely had firsthand knowledge of the house’s construction. The 1850 census shows R. F. and Violet Blythe living adjacent to (and apparently north of) Samuel and Isabella Blythe. This census information also lends credibility to the supposition that the earlier house on the property was the homestead of Samuel (and possibly Richard) Blythe. Moreover, the form and profile of the R. F. Blythe House bear a striking similarity to the Rozzelle House (about seven miles away), reported to have been built in 1849 (burned and demolished in 1990).

²⁰ 1850 Census of Mecklenburg County, pp. 32-33; 1860 Census of Mecklenburg County, p. 159.

²¹ Grantee and Grantor Indexes to Real Estate Conveyances -Mecklenburg County. Among the parcels sold were two (237.5 ac. & 54.5 ac.) to James and William C. Hastings.

²² 1850 Agricultural Census of Mecklenburg County, p. 889; 1860 Agricultural Census of Mecklenburg County, p. 9.

²³ 1870 Census of Mecklenburg County, p. 166; Ingram, pp. 9, 15.

²⁴ Records of Hopewell Presbyterian Church; Personal communication of various members of the Blythe family. Mary Bailes Blythe (1883-1976) moved to the Blythe homes as a bride in 1908; the earlier house was gone by that time. Jim Blythe lived with Cliff and Mary Blythe for a period early in their married life; he died and was buried in Raleigh, N.C.

²⁵ Ingram, pp. 10, 23-31; Mecklenburg County Deed Book 241, p. 573; Mecklenburg County Deed Book 232, p. 570.

²⁶ Mecklenburg County Deed Book 2267, p. 251; Spratt & Brooks Land Surveying, “Boundary Survey of John C. Blythe Est. Divided” (12 September 1984).

 

 

Architectural Description  

Prepared by:
Mr. John C. Blythe, Jr. and Ms. Nora M. Black

The Blythe Homestead is located at the termination of Beatties Ford Road and the south shore of Lake Norman in northern Mecklenburg County. The property is approximately one-tenth of a mile northwest of the intersection of Beatties Ford Road with N.C. Highway 73. The house is situated on the tax parcel on the southwest side of Beatties Ford Road. The two additional tax parcels that comprise the homestead are located on the northeast side of Beatties Ford Road.

The Blythe House is believed to have been constructed ca. 1848; a large addition was constructed in 1928. Other modifications were made as early as the late 1800s and as recently as 1989. These alterations reflect the size, needs, and financial condition of the family at various times.

As originally built, the facade of the house was oriented to the South, rather than to the East and Beatties Ford Road. This peculiar orientation may be explained by taking into account the earlier Blythe house, located several hundred feet to the South. Family members recall “the old road” which ran from the general vicinity of the earlier house toward the south facade of the ca. 1848 house before curving back toward Beatties Ford Road.

In 1928, Cliff Blythe reoriented the facade to the East. The rear wing of the house was removed, and a new, larger wing was built. A driveway was constructed, leading straight from Beatties Ford Road to the new front entrance. The original facade remains, but is not readily noticeable from Beatties Ford Road. Family members still refer to the south elevation as the “old front” and the east elevation as the “new front.”

 

EXTERIOR

The entire house has siding of lapped horizontal boards painted gray. Window and door surrounds, porch supports, roofline trim, and cornerboards are painted white. The window surrounds are very simple and undecorated; they consist of wide boards with no moldings. Windows vary in each wing, but they are generally composed of 4/4, 6/9, and 6/6 double hung sash.

Neither the roof nor the wall surface is the dominant feature of the house; the view upon approach is dominated by the one-story porch that wraps the house. The gray fiberglass shingle roof has a low pitch over the ca. 1848 wing; the roof pitch is steeper over the ca. 1928 wing. The gable ends have a moderate overhang; the cave overhangs are boxed and have shingle moldings.

The ca. 1848 wing of the Blythe House is a two-story, rectangular, gable-roof building of mortise-and-tenon construction, sheathed in painted weatherboarding. The three-bay facade has a central, single-door entrance on the first story. All windows in this wing are single. Each gable end features a centrally-placed, exterior, brick chimney on a fieldstone foundation. Two windows were located on each story, and the lower end of each bargeboard has sawn ornamentation. The house rested an piers of fieldstone. A dug cellar is located beneath the southwest room. The house as originally constructed was a typical ‘I-House.’

The earliest change to this section of the house apparently was the reconstruction of the roof structure. Family members do not recall having heard anything about this alteration, and physical evidence suggests that it occurred quite early. Tell-tale signs of the change are the pole rafters (rather mortise-and-tenon framing) and the extension of the roof to intersect with the chimneys.

It is presumed that the first-story windows originally held nine-over-nine sash and the upper-story windows held nine-over-six sash. By 1923, the lower sash had been replaced by four-over-four sash. The upper-story sashes had deteriorated by 1966 and were replaced. As many of the original panes as could be salvaged were reused in an attempt to replicate the original windows; however, the contractor installed the sash incorrectly resulting in the present six-over-nine configuration.

The east chimney was coated in plaster about 1928, and the west chimney was painted in an attempt to arrest deterioration of the soft brick. In 1965 the fieldstone piers were replaced with a solid brick foundation. Two of the windows in the west elevation have been removed in order to add a bathroom on each story.

The earliest documented porch, as shown in ca. 1923 photographs, had a hip roof supported by four chamfered posts. Sometime during the 1920s, these posts were replaced by boxed pillars. In 1989, the chamfered posts were replicated and installed at the original locations.

The ca. 1928 wing is probably at least the third structure in this location. It replaced a much smaller wing built by Cliff Blythe about the turn of the century. What preceded that wing is not known, but it is likely that there was a shed wing, gabled ell, or breezeway/kitchen. Older family members recall vague references to a rear porch on the east side of the rear wing, but no one now living remembers such a configuration.

The wing built by Cliff Blythe about the turn of the century was a gable-roof ell containing a dining room and kitchen. It was attached to the east side of the rear, and a porch was located along its west elevation. In 1928, the wing was detached from the house and moved to a site adjacent to the old garage, where it served an outbuilding until it collapsed and was torn down in 1986.

The 1928 addition not only provided much more room for the family, but also acknowledged the owner’s desire to have his home face the main road. By this time the old house had been long gone, and there was no need for the long driveway that led to the old (ca. 1848) front of the Blythe House. Cliff and Mary Blythe determined to create a “new” house, facing Beatties Ford Road for the first time. The new wing contained a living room, dining room, kitchen, and back porch on the first story, and a large bedroom upstairs. An interior brick chimney served fireplaces in the living and dining rooms.

To reinforce the creation of the new facade, the old front porch was extended along the entire east elevation, and a driveway, leading in a straight line toward the new front door, was built. The horizontal lines of the new porch served to tie the old and new wings together visually and softened the verticality of the original gable end and chimney that otherwise would have been much more prominent. The strategic placement of trees and other plantings further helped to define this new orientation.

The 1928 wing is of frame construction, sheathed in painted weatherboarding. The gable roofs have boxed cornices, as does the original wing. The windows have four-over-four sash to match that installed earlier in the ca. 1848 wing. All windows are single, with the exception of those in the living and dining room, which are paired. The porch roof is supported by half-pillars on brick piers. In 1989, the porch was extended to wrap around the northeast comer of the house, connecting the roofs of the front and back porches.

 

INTERIOR

The interior of the house has been modified numerous times and retains little of its original fabric. The placement of the stair along the rear wall of the ca. 1848 wing suggests that the house originally had a hall-and-parlor plan, rather than a central hall with flanking rooms. Physical evidence reveals that the bottom four steps originally opened into the downstairs room; planed board paneling in the stairwell above this level appears to be original. The stair has been enclosed throughout the twentieth century. By 1908, when Mary B. Blythe moved to the house, there was a central hall. This was removed ca. 1950. The original first story floor has been replaced or covered with hardwood. The upper floor of the ca. 1848 wing has original, pine floors. In 1908, the upper story was a single room. Partitions were added soon thereafter. These were removed and new partitions installed in 1966.

The interior of the 1928 wing retains the original brick mantel in the living room. The hardwood floors and beaded ceilings on the first story are intact but obscured. Plaster walls in the living and dining rooms were replaced with sheetrock in 1965, but the picture and crown moldings were replicated. French doors connect these two rooms.

 

SETTING AND OUTBUILDINGS

Although the Blythe House is the central focus of the Blythe Homestead, it is only one component of the property’s significance. Other components include a smokehouse, well house, garage, terraced field, orchard site, fence rows, and sites of several farm buildings.

The smokehouse is a two-story, square-cut log structure located to the West of the house. The logs are joined with half-dovetail notching. The end gables are covered with planks since the logs extend only as high as the ceiling joists. The roof is covered with metal sheets; the open eaves have exposed rafters. Some chinking is still evident between the logs. The first story is probably contemporary with the earliest part of the residence; the second story was added by Cliff Blythe, probably ca. 1900. A frame garage was attached to the north side of the smokehouse in the early twentieth century.

The structure closest to the Blythe House is the well house, a frame building located to the North of the residence. The metal-roofed structure has board siding. Approximately one-half of the structure is enclosed; the other half is open although roofed. It was probably built by Cliff Blythe in the early twentieth century.

The chicken house was converted into a garage in the early 1960s. This building is located northwest of the well house. It is a frame building with horizontal weatherboarding. Metal roofing covers the gable roof.

Other buildings that once stood on the nominated property include the earlier Blythe House, the ca. 1900 kitchen/dining room wing, baths (at least three), gear room, crib, privy, woodshed, blacksmith shop, and another kitchen. The approximate sites of these are known, but no excavations have been undertaken to evaluate their archaeological potential.

A prominent landscape feature directly across Beatties Ford Road from the Blythe House is a terraced field. The original terracing was accomplished in the early 1930s with assistance from the Civilian Conservation Corps; it was redesigned in the 1950s. This is the last remaining field contiguous to the homesite.

The old orchard was planted to the South of the Blythe House by Cliff Blythe in the early twentieth century. This area includes the site of the earlier Blythe House. Many of the fruit trees were diseased and dying by the 1960s, and J. C. Blythe planted a new orchard of dwarf fruit trees in the corner of the old orchard nearest the Blythe House. The far end of the orchard has been allowed to grow up in pine, dogwood, and cherry laurel trees to screen noise generated by traffic on NC Highway 73.

When Lake Norman flooded the original pastures and fields, the farm buildings became obsolete, as did the fences that separated different areas of the farm. Gradually many of the fences were removed, but their locations are marked in some areas by shrubbery and trees that grew up along them.

Lake Norman forever altered the landscape of the Blythe homestead, but just as the lake has become a part of Mecklenburg County’s history, it has become a part of the Blythe Homestead’s history. Unlike their nearest neighbors, the Blythes were fortunate that their home was spared from the lake’s floodwaters. The family is challenged now with determining the role of the homestead in its changing environment, particularly in the face of mounting development pressures. Just as Cliff and Mary Blythe sought to reorient their home to the Beatties Ford Road in 1928, the present and future generations will seek to adapt the homestead for its new situation, taking care to preserve that which has been left by previous owners.

 

This report was written on February 5, 1986

1. Name and location of the property: The property known as the James A. Blakeney House is located on the Blakeney Heath Road in the Providence Community of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.

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

Willie Blakeney Life Estate et al.
2025 East Eight St.
Charlotte, NC 28204

The present occupant of the property is:

Margaret Blakeney Bullock
Telephone: 704/542-3705

3. Representative photographs of the property: This property 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 4641, Page 948, The Tax Parcel Number of the property is 229-051-06.

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

7. A brief architectural description of the property: This report contains a brief architectural description of the Property prepared by Dr. Dan L. Morrill.

8. Documentation of why and in what ways the property meets the criteria for designation set forth in NCGS 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 James A. Blakeney House does possess special significance in terms of Charlotte-Mecklenburg. the Commission bases its judgment on the following considerations: 1) the James A. Blakeney House it a well-preserved example of a type of farmhouse erected by prosperous farmers in Mecklenburg County in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; 2) the James A. Blakeney House and outbuildings constitute a rare combination of agriculturally-related edifices in a section of Mecklenburg County which is experiencing rapid suburbanization and 3) the James A. Blakeney farm might contain important historic and pre-historic archaeological artifacts.

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 James A. Blakeney 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 house is $11,740. The current appraised value of the 109.75 acres of land is $26,610. The total appraised value of the property is $38,350.

Date of Preparation of this Report: February 5, 1986

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

Telephone: 704/376-9115

 

 

Historical Overview  

by Dr. William H. Huffman
January, 1986

The James A. Blakeney House in southern Mecklenburg County is an endangered species. This once model farm that was toured by schoolchildren is now in danger of disappearing along with many others in rural Mecklenburg County, victims of ever-spreading suburban development. Built about 1905-06, the house still retains a fundamental soundness in addition to its rural charm that evokes the sense of the pace of turn-of-the century farm life.

About 1890, a precedent-setting occasion took place at Providence Presbyterian Church: the minister, Roger Martin, officiated at the wedding of his daughter, Margaret Tomlin Martin (1864-1917) and James Albert Blakeney (1856-1928). It was the first wedding ceremony performed in the church; previously, couples were married at home. The preacher, a Richmond, Va. native, served Providence from 1888 to 1892, when he took the pastorate at Mallard Creek, a post he held until his death in 1900.¹

James A. Blakeney’s father, Reese Blakeney, a South Carolina native, had gone into the Confederate service during the Civil War, and had not returned at war’s end, his fate unknown. His mother, born Caroline Kirkley, subsequently married J. P. Doster, and about 1883 they settled near the present Blakeney House to farm in southern Mecklenburg County. ² James Blakeney and his stepfather farmed together on the latter’s land for several years, and in 1887 Blakeney bought just over 39 acres of his own, and built a log cabin to live in. ³ It was here that the newlyweds set up housekeeping about 1890.

About 1897, the Dosters moved to Hickory N.C., and James bought about half of their holdings, a 60-acre tract (he bought their remaining 76 acres in 1911) near his own. ⁴ On this larger property, he built a one-story residence for his growing family on the site of the present house which sat next to the road that bisected his farm. The farm prospered and the family continued to grow. but it was a fire a few years after the turn or the century that made a new house necessary, and so the one we see today was put up about 1905 or 1906. ⁵

By 1910, the Blakeneys were farming about 232 acres and had brought eight children into the world (seven daughters and one son), six of whom survived to adulthood. ⁶ Unfortunately, about 1913 James Blakeney suffered a stroke, and management of the farm was undertaken by Dr. Alexander Martin, Margaret’s brother, who came up once a week from Rock Hill, S. C., where he was pastor of the Oakland Avenue Presbyterian Church for many years. ⁷

When he came of age, James A. Blakeney, Jr. (1901-1973) took over management of the farm, and about 1930 married Wilma Alma Blount (1906-) of Roper, N.C., a descendant of Capt. James Blount, who died in North Carolina in 1686. ⁸ During their long tenure on the farm, James A. Jr. and Willie Blakeney raised three children, Margaret, Frances and James III. And it was also during this time that schoolchildren used to tour the farm to see, among many other wonders, old wagons and farm implements now found only in museums. ⁹

Following the death of James A. Jr. and Willie Blakeney’s move to a nursing home, the house suffered some neglect, but since 1983 it has been reoccupied by Margaret Blakeney Bullock, who has undertaken careful interior restoration of the fine farmhouse, and intends to continue the efforts to completion.

The James A. Blakeney House is a splendid representative of a vitally important part of our cultural heritage, and these days, an ever rarer one. Its preservation would insure that we would always retain a strong sense of our own development; what we are, and who we are.

 

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Notes

¹ Louise Barber Matthews, A History of Providence Presbyterian Church (Matthews, NC: Providence Presbyterian Church, 1967), pp. 176 -181; interview with Eudora Blakeney Garrison, Charlotte, N.C., 30 January, 1986.

² Interview with Eudora Garrison: interview with Margaret Blakeney Bullock. 16 January, 1986. Mecklenburg County Deed Book 33, p. 137, 16 Feb. 1883.

³ Deed Book 224, p. 662, 1 Feb. 1887; interviews with Eudora Garrison and Margaret Bullock.

⁴ Deed Book 117, p. 116, 27 Jan. 1897; Deed Book 269, p. 708, 8 March 1911.

⁵ Interviews with Eudora Garrison and Margaret Bullock.

⁶ Bessie Blakeney McAlwaine (1891-1935), a longtime missionary to Japan; Lina B. Ardry (1893-); Harriet Caldwell Blakeney (c.1894-1900); Edmonia Martin Blakeney (1896-1950); Margaret Blakeney Richardson (1900-c.1980); J. A. Blakeney, Jr. (1901-1973); Grace Hoge Blakeney (1904-1906); Eudora Blakeney Garrison (1906-).

⁷ Matthews, History, cited above; interview with Eudora Garrison.

⁸ Family Bible of Wilma Alma Blount Blakeney; interviews with Eudora Garrison and Margaret Bullock.

⁹ Interviews with Eudora Garrison and Margaret Bullock.

 

 

Architectural Description  

The James A. Blakeney House (ca. 1905-06) is a three-bay wide by four-bay deep, two story, frame farmhouse, with a tin-roofed, one-story projection on the rear that contains a kitchen, porch, larder room, and bathroom, the last having been added in recent years. It is located on Blakeney Heath Road in the Providence community of Mecklenburg County, NC and faces north. In addition to the main house, the property contains several outbuildings, including a barn, two tenant houses, a chicken house, cotton house, corn crib, shop building, pig pen, and a garage. Moreover, a substantial number of pre-historic archeological artifacts, principally arrowheads, have been found on the property, suggesting that it might possess archeological significance.

The James A. Blakeney House is a rather typical example of a type of dwelling which prosperous farmers erected in Mecklenburg County in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Property which most resembles it is the N. S. Alexander House, erected in 1903, Although the James A. Blakeney House is not unique, it is one of the few surviving remnants of the built environment which was associated with the cotton economy of southern Mecklenburg County at the turn of the century. Indeed, this writer is aware of only four other farmhouses of similar or earlier vintage which survive in the general vicinity of the James A. Blakeney House, Also noteworthy is the fact that this section of Mecklenburg County is undergoing rapid suburbanization. Consequently, the house and land are clearly endangered.

Victorian motifs are evident on the exterior of the James A. Blakeney House — the large bay on the left front, the decorative detail on the second floor windows of the bay, the slate-covered gable roof and two cross gables, the wood shingles in the gable ends, the large, tin-roofed wraparound porch, and the Wooden lattice at the right rear of the wraparound porch. The overall massing of the house, however, as well as its architectural appointments, are quite simple, even rustic. The house, for example, rests on brick piers with subsequent brick in-fill, and the dominant exterior wall covering is clapboard. The fascia of the cornice of the wraparound porch is composed of small vertical boards of unrefined design. The house contains an offset right chimney and an offset left chimney, plus a chimney at the rear of the kitchen, Seven lightning rods are atop the house. The fenestration is irregularly punctuated, and dominant window type is 2/2 double sash, with the windows on the right front of the first floor extending to the floor of the wraparound porch.

The house also contains suggestions of classical revivalism. Arched windows with keystones punctuate the front gable ends of the cross gables, and sixteen Doric columns support the roof of the wraparound porch. But the overall treatment of the house suggests to this writer that the edifice was the work of a local builder and should be labeled ‘vernacular’.

The front door is pine with a single, large glass, no sidelights but a transom, and broadly-fluted pilasters with a bull’s eye-decorative element in each base. The interior of the James A. Blakeney House is largely unchanged from the original. The hardware, the doors, the mantels in the eight fireplaces, the plaster walls, the magnificent pine wainscoting, and the newel posts, pickets, and handrail of the straight staircase which rises forward from the rear of the central hallway, are all original.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This report was written on July 3, 1979

1. Name and location of the property: The property known as the Chairman Blake House is located at 127 S. Main St. in Davidson, N.C.

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

Davidson College
Davidson, N.C. 28036

Telephone: 892-2000

The present occupant of the property is:

Dr. Anthony S. Abbott
127 S. Main St.
Davidson, NC. 28036
Telephone: 896-6281
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.

 

 

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5. Current Deed Book Reference to the property: The earliest deed which sets forth the boundaries of Davidson College is recorded in Mecklenburg County Deed Book 4 at Page 420, The Tax Parcel Number of the property is 007-013-13.

6. A brief historical sketch of the property:
Local tradition holds that the structure was built shortly after John Rennie Blake joined the faculty of Davidson College in 1861 and that he was its initial occupant. ¹ Born in 1825 in Greenwood, S.C., he received his academic training at the University of Georgia and taught at several institutions before coming to Davidson as Professor of Astronomy and Philosophy. ² Blake remained at Davidson until 1885, when he retired and returned to his home in Greenwood, S.C. ³ During these difficult years of military defeat and Federal occupation of the South, Professor Blake contributed greatly to the survival of the institution which he served. At the end of the Civil War, not a few individuals argued that Davidson College should be closed. Only eleven students graduated in 1866, while the class of 1860 had had forty-six members. ⁴ Blake was among those who urged that the college press on, so to speak. ⁵ And his commitment to this proposition was more than verbal. As Bursar or chief financial officer of Davidson in the late 1860’s and early 1870’s, he undertook a variety of tasks, even to the extent of repairing college facilities himself. ⁶

John Rennie Blake

The most important of Professor Blake’s contributions to Davidson College occurred in the 1870’s. On June 27, 1871, President G. Wilson McPhail died. ⁷ The Board of Trustees, meeting on October 24, 1871, voted to institute a new system of governance at Davidson. No President was elected. The Board instead vested executive power in the Chairman of the Faculty, an official elected by the Faculty itself. ⁸ D. H. Hill, a member of the Board, reported that the plan was adopted “in deference to the wishes of the Faculty.” ⁹ Apparently, the teachers at Davidson were influenced by the fact that the Chairmanship system was in vogue at other academic institutions at that time, including the University of Virginia. ¹⁰ Shortly after the October meeting, John Rennie Blake was elected Chairman of the Faculty. ¹¹ He continued in that capacity until June 1877, when the Board of Trustees voted to re-establish the office of President and elected Rev. A. D. Hepburn to that position. ¹²

An official of the college has characterized Blake’s Chairmanship as “unique in its character and remarkable in its history,” It was a “period of unsurpassed energy and enterprise,” the writer went on to explain. Among the major accomplishments of these years (1871-77) were: 1) substantial increases in faculty salaries through increased tuition, 2) enforcement of stringent entrance examinations, 3) expansion of membership of the Board of Trustees beyond the Presbyteries of North Carolina, 4) inauguration of major fund raising campaign, and 5) enrichment of curriculum. ¹³

Following Professor Blake’s retirement, the house was occupied by Professor William Daniel Vinson of the Mathematics Department. ¹⁴ Vinson, a native of Sumter County, S.C., and graduate of Washington and Lee University, had joined the Faculty in 1883. He resided in the house until his death in 1897. ¹⁵ Throughout the ensuing decades, the house has served as the residence of a series of individuals who have been associated with Davidson College. ¹⁶

 

 

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Notes:

¹ Chalmers Gaston Davidson, The Plantation World Around Davidson (Mecklenburg Historical Association, 2nd. edition, 1973) pp. 16-17. Hereafter cited as Davidson.

² The Semi-Centennial Catalogue Of Davidson College 1837-1887 (E. M. Uzzell, Raleigh, N.C., 1891) p. 18. United States Census of 1870 for Mecklenburg County, p. 144.

³ The Semi-Centennial Catalogue Of Davidson College 1837-1887 (E. M. Uzzell, Raleigh, N.C., 1891) p. 18.

⁴ Thomas Wilson Ling, ed., Alumni Catalogue of Davidson College, Davidson, NC: 1837-1924 (The Presbyterian Standard Publishing Company, 1924), pp. 74-76., p. 86. Hereafter cited as Ling.

⁵ The Semi-Centennial Addresses of Davidson College (E. M. Uzzell, Raleigh, N.C., 1888), pp. 147-155. Hereafter cited As Addresses.

⁶ Minutes Of The Meetings Of The Board Of Trustees of Davidson College (unpublished manuscript in the archives of Davidson College) vol. 2, p. 539. Hereafter cited as Board. Addresses, pp- 147-155.

⁷ The Southern Home (July 4, 1871), p. 3.

⁸ Board, pp. 513-514.

⁹ The Southern Home (October 31, 1871), p. 3.

^l0 The Charlotte Democrat (October 31, 1871), p. 2.

¹¹ Board, p. 546.

¹² Charlotte Observer (June 28, 1877), p. 4.

¹³ Addresses, pp. 147-155.

¹⁴ Davidson, pp. 16-17.

¹⁵ Ling, p. 27.

¹⁶ Davidson, pp. 16-17. An early photograph of the house is on page 4 of the 1895 catalogue of Davidson College.

 

 

7. A brief architectural description of the property: This report contains an architectural description of the property prepared by Laura A. W. Phillips, architectural historian.

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 Chairman Blake House does possess special historic significance in terms of Charlotte-Mecklenburg . The Commission bases its judgment on the following considerations: 1) it is one of the older houses which has had a continuous association with Davidson College, 2) its initial occupant, John Rennie Blake, was an individual of great importance in the early development of Davidson College, and 3) it is one of the finer examples of a Greek Revival style cottage extant in Mecklenburg County.

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 Chairman Blake 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 tax appraisal of the land is $18,700. The current tax appraisal of the structure is $32,950.

 

 

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Bibliography

Charlotte Observer.

Chalmers Gaston Davidson, The Plantation World and Davidson (Mecklenburg Historical Association, 2nd. edition, 1973).

Thomas Wilson Ling, ed., Alumni Catalogue of Davidson College 1837-1924 (The Presbyterian Standard Publishing Co., 1924).

Minutes Of The Meetings Of The Board Of Trustees of Davidson College (unpublished manuscript in the archives of Davidson College) vol. 2.

Records of the Mecklenburg County Register of Deeds Office.

Records of the Mecklenburg County Tax Office.

Lucy Phillips Russell, A Rare Pattern (The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, N.C. ).

Charlotte Democrat.

The Semi-Centennial Addresses of Davidson College (E. M. Uzzell, Raleigh, N.C., 1888).

The Semi-Centennial Catalogue of Davidson College (E. M. Uzzell, Raleigh, N.C., 1891).

The Southern Home.

United States Census of 1870 for Mecklenburg County.

Date of Preparation of this Report: July 3, 1979.

Prepared by: Dr. Dan L. Morrill, Director
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Properties Commission
139 Middleton Dr.
Charlotte, N.C, 28207

Telephone: (704) 332-2726

 

 

Architectural Description  

The Chairman Blake House, located at 127 S. Main Street, Davidson, is a one and a half story frame cottage in the Greek Revival style which appears to date from ca. 1890. The house is situated on the rear of a spacious lot and is surrounded by trees.

The one and a half story portion of the house is five bays wide and four bays deep, with one story ell on the left rear. The house has a steep gable roof with the boxed cornice forming a triangular pediment on the gable ends, the tympanum of which is covered with weatherboarding. Underneath the cornice line a wide frieze board encircles the house. The first story windows are 6/6 sash with plain surrounds. All but those on the rear of the house have exterior louvered shutters. The house has three interior brick chimneys. The one on the north side has been rebuilt, while those on the south side and rear ell are matching with molded caps and may be original. The house is set on a brick pier foundation, the piers of which have been covered with stucco, scored to resemble stone. The interstices between the piers have been in-filled with modern brick.

A three-bay wide porch projects from the front of the house with a cross gable of slightly lower pitch than the main roof. Like the other gable ends, the cornice of the porch gable forms a triangular pediment, which is also covered with weatherboarding. Echoing these larger pediments are the smaller ones found on the gabled dormers–two on the front and one on the rear–of the main roof. The tympanum of each of the dormers is covered with flush siding rather than with weatherboarding. The front dormers appear somewhat awkward in their positions on either side of the projecting porch gable. The pediment formed by the porch cross gable, along with the four square Doric posts which support it, provides a Greek temple-like feeling, even to this cottage form. A heavy turned balustrade connects the four posts and the pilasters set against the front wall of the house. Steps lead up to the center bay of the porch to the central front door, which is surrounded by sidelights and transom typical of the Greek Revival period. The door itself has a later Victorian feeling with four recessed octagonal panels.

The rear ell is three bays deep and has an integral porch on the south side. The porch is supported by slender Doric posts of the same type as found on the front porch. The rear door of the central hall of the house opens onto this porch as does a door from the dining room in the ell. The porch has been screened-in. With all of its detailing–exterior and interior–corresponding to the main part of the house, this two-room ell appears to be original. However, local tradition suggests that it was added at some later time. If so, great care was taken to duplicate the detailing of the original part of the house. Projecting from the rear of this ell is a small one-room addition, which echoes the larger ell with its gable roof and south side screened porch. It does not, however, have the same exterior or interior detailing. The rear window of this addition has been enclosed.

The interior of the house is composed of a center hall plan with two rooms on either side originally (there have been some modifications on the left side) and with rear ell and addition beyond.

The hallway is divided into two sections–the front, or entrance hall, and rear, or stair hall. A doorway with four-panel door and molded surround divides the two sections. This doorway is representative of the original doorways to be found in the rest of the house. The molded baseboard here as in the remainder of the house approximates in form the molding of the door and window surrounds. The front hall serves as a foyer with doorways to the two front rooms and to the rear hall. The back hall houses the stairway along its left side. The stairway rises from the rear of the hall. It has a molded handrail, plain rectangular balusters, and a simple, rather bulbous newel post which is vaguely reminiscent of a Doric column. Halfway up the stairs is a plain Doric support post which rises to the ceiling above. At the rear of the back hall is a four-panel door with sidelights which leads to the ell porch. Doors on either side of the back hall lead to the rear rooms of the main block of the house.

On the right side of the hall are double parlors, divided by large sliding doors, with six vertical panels on each door. Each room has a simple Greek Revival wood mantel on the outside (south) wall. The mantels (like the others in the house) are composed of a plain Doric pilaster on either side of the fireplace opening, and a plain, wide frieze and molded shelf above. The 6/6 windows in the parlors, as in the other rooms downstairs, have a molded surround with beaded edge along the inside and a recessed-panel apron underneath.

To the left of the center hall there were originally two rooms. Although the front room has remained intact, the rear room has been divided into a small bedroom/dressing area, a bathroom, and a small hallway. The arrangement of this side of the house differs somewhat from that of the parlor side. Here the mantels are set back-to-back on the inside wall dividing the rooms. A. four-panel door connects the front bedroom with the rear rooms.

The left rear ell houses the dining room and kitchen. The dining room has the same Greek Revival mantel, four-panel doors and paneled window aprons as found in the other rooms downstairs. However, unlike the other rooms, the dining room has a plain chair rail, possibly an addition. The fireplace is located on the interior dividing wall between the dining room and kitchen. To the right of the fireplace, a doorway leads to the kitchen. The kitchen windows have the same paneled apron as in the rest of the house.

Behind the kitchen is a smaller one-room addition which houses the laundry room.

In the half story upstairs there are three bedrooms and one bathroom. The southwest room has a Greek Revival mantel on the outside (south) wall, which has a Victorian arched coal grate firebox. Upstairs the floors are made of random-width boards, while downstairs the floors are composed of consistent-width boards three to four inches wide.

According to the current occupant of the house, there had been a brick ice house/kitchen building behind the house, but it was torn down around 1967.

1. Name and location of the property: The property known as Biddle Memorial Hall is located on the campus of Johnson C. Smith University at 100 Beatties Ford Rd., Charlotte, N.C. 28216.

2. Name, addresses, and telephone numbers of the present owners and occupants of the property: The present owner and occupant of the property is:

Johnson C. Smith University, Inc.
100 Beatties Ford Rd.
Charlotte, NC. 28216

Telephone: 704/372-2370

3. Representative photographs of the property: Representative photographs of the structure are included in this report.

4. A map depicting the location of the property: This report contains two maps. A tax line map depicts the location of the campus of Johnson C. Smith University. The second map depicts the location of Biddle Memorial Hall on the campus.

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5. Current Deed Book Reference of the property: The land which comprises the campus of Johnson C. Smith University is listed in the following deeds in the Mecklenburg County Registry:

a. Deed Book 9. Page 323; Filed November 1. 1873, W. R. Myers and S. C. Myers to trustees S. S. Cushland, Luke Dorland, A. S. Billingsley, S. Mattoon, and William Richardson.

b. Deed Book 15, page 423; Filed November 11, 1876, S. C. Alexander and N. R. Alexander to trustees S. S. Murland, Luke Dorland, S. Mattoon, A. S. Billingsley, and Millard Richardson.

c. Deed Book 33, Page 239; Filed July 26, 1882, L. W. Perdue and A. S. Perdue to trustees.

d. Deed Book 55, page 598; Filed November 12, 1887, Mary R. Severs and H.C. Severs to trustees.

e. Deed Book 69, page 629; Filed November 1, 1894, W. R. Myers, Jr., to trustees.

f. Deed Book 124, Page 254; Filed March 30, 1898, Mary L. Mattoon et al .to trustee W. E. Thomas, Emma M. Thomas.

g. Deed Book 208, page 201; Filed February 13, 1906, D. J. Sanders and F. P. Sanders to trustees.

6. A brief historical sketch of the property:

The history of Biddle Memorial Hall is intimately bound up with the history of Johnson C. Smith University. Johnson C. Smith University was founded by two white ministers (Rev. S. C. Alexander and Rev. W. L. Miller) under the auspices of the Presbyterian Church. It was known as The Henry J. Biddle Memorial Institute in honor of Major Henry J. Biddle, a Union soldier who was killed in action during the Civil War. During its formative years Mrs. Mary D. Biddle, the wife of Major Biddle, gave considerable financial support to the institution.

The school was originally housed in a small church located near the present location of Fourth and Davidson Streets. A few years after its feeble beginning, the old Confederate Navy Building located on East Trade St., below where the Civic Center now stands, was purchased. This building was to be moved to another location on Seventh Street, somewhere between College and Caldwell Streets. Colonel William R. Myers discouraged the ministers about moving to that site and offered them property where the school now stands. The gift of eight acres by this outstanding Charlotte citizen was the nucleus of the present site.

In 1883 the name of the institution was changed to Biddle University. In 1921 because of the many generous gifts which she had made to the institution in honor of her husband, Mrs. Jane M. Smith was notified by the Board of Trustees that the name of the institution had been changed to Johnson C. Smith University.

The first president of the institution was Rev. Stephen Mattoon. For nearly two and a half decades the presidents and most of the faculty members were white. In 1891 the institution had its first black president, Rev. Daniel J. Sanders. Since that time all of its presidents and the majority of the faculty have been black.

Biddle Memorial Hall was constructed in 1884. It was the first substantial building erected on the current campus (see appended photograph #1), and is the oldest surviving structure on the campus. Dominated by a massive but elegant clock tower, the structure contains 40,045 square feet of floor space. Its ornamentation and overall massing are typical of institutional architecture during the Victorian era. Originally it consisted of an auditorium with a balcony, the President’s offices the Registrar’s offices, the Business Office, the first library, classrooms, and restrooms. It currently serves as the general administration building of the University. Currently the building also contains portraits and pictures of the founders, presidents, benefactors, and of other individuals directly connected with the growth and development of the University.

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

 

a. Historical and cultural significance: The Survey Committee of the Commission has examined this structure and has judged it to be of architectural significance. The Survey Committee reports that the buildings, materials are of Flemish bond brick with sandstone cornices, pediment, and lintels. There are brick bearing walls, with possible post and beam construction. Additional details of the structure are:

 

• 1. Diagonal soldier coursing in line with window lintels.
• 2. Motif varies the window lintel treatment: sandstone lst and 4th floor, brick jack arch 2nd floor, brick spring arch on the 3rd floor.
• 3. Basket weave infill brick panels as surface reliefs.
• 4. Corbeled brick cornice.
• 5. Slate spires and roof.
• 6. Ornate detailing on chimney.
• 7. Octagonal apse.
• 8. Watch tower center pavilions.
• 9. The windows have been replaced with aluminum sash.The fact that the strucutre has been judged to be of architectural significance coupled with the fact that it is the oldest surviving structure on the campus of the only black institution of higher education in Mecklenburg County, suggests that Biddle Memorial Hall meets this criterion.b. Suitability for preservation and restoration: The building is in generally good repair. As stated above, it is currently the general administration building for the University. The building is therefore highly suited for preservation.

  c. Educational value: The educational value of the building is substantial. First, it is the only example of this genre of institutional architecture in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. It also serves as a symbol of the rich heritage of Johnson C. Smith University, and of the local black community.

  d. Cost of acquisition restoration, maintenance, or repair: The Commission has no intention of acquiring this property. The cost of acquisition would be high. The structure is in need of some repair, especially to the exterior and the roof detail. However, the cost would not be unreasonable in relation to the overall worth of the building. The maintenance costs are currently carried by Johnson C. Smith University.

  e. Possibilities for adaptive or alternative use of the property: The interior graciousness of this structure would permit many alternative or adaptive uses. However, it is assumed that the University will continue to determine the use of the structure.

  f. Appraised value: Attached to this report is a real estate appraisal card which reveals that the land and property itself is appraised at $1,019,680.00 Again, the Commission has no intention of acquiring this property. And the University is not required to pay taxes on this property.

  g. The administrative and financial responsibility of any person or organization willing to underwrite all or a portion of such costs: It is assumed that Johnson C. Smith University shall continue to operate the property.

8. Documentation of why and in what ways the property meets the criteria established for inclusion in the National Register: The Commission believes that the investigation carried out by the Survey Committee suggests that Biddle Memorial Hall might qualify for the National Register on the grounds of Criterion C — (properties) “that embody the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction, or that represent the work of a master, or that possess high artistic values”. Biddle Memorial Hall would not meet the other criteria for inclusion on the National Register.

9. Documentation of why and in what ways the property is of historical importance to Charlotte and/or Mecklenburg County: Biddle Memorial Hall is highly significant in the history of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. It stands as a magnificent monument to what was accomplished by a newly-liberated people in an atmosphere that has been described as “hostile.” This structure was built under trying circumstances and by people who had very meager financial resources. It is the oldest surviving building of the first and only private institution of higher learning open to blacks in the immediate and surrounding counties. Over the years speakers of national renown, including a President of the United States, have spoken in this structure. Concerts, recitals, art exhibits, these are only some of the refined events which have graced the halls of Biddle Memorial Hall.