Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission

Agenda – Survey Committee

The Survey Committee meeting scheduled for Wednesday, June 17, 2020, will be a virtual meeting. Please note there will be no accommodation for any in-person attendance. If you need special accommodations, please contact the HLC office at 980-314-7660.


June 17, 2020 – 6:00 p.m.

1.  Chair’s Report: Len Norman

2.  Director’s Report: Jack Thomson

3.  Senior Preservation Planner’s Report: Stewart Gray

4.  Update on the Beatties Ford Road Corridor Study

Beatties Ford Road Corridor Survey Project

Washington Heights Survey Spreadsheet

Beatties Ford Road Survey Spreadsheet

University Park Historical Essay

University Park Survey Spreadsheet

University Park Area Recorded Map

University Park Boundary Map

5.  Ashford House, 241 Hoskins Avenue Drive, Charlotte, N.C.

Designation Report

Ashford House

6.  857 Belmont Avenue, Charlotte, N.C.

Polaris Map of Property

Additional Photographs of Property

Set of Plans

857 Belmont Avenue

The Committee will consider adding this property to the Historic Landmarks Commission’s Study List of Prospective Historic Landmarks.

7.  Old Business

8.  New Business


Note: This meeting has been cancelled. Please call the HLC office at 980-314-7660 with any questions or concerns.

Draft Agenda
March 18, 2020 – 6:00 p.m.

1.  Chair’s Report: Len Norman

2.  Director’s Report: Jack Thomson

3.  Senior Preservation Planner’s Report: Stewart Gray

4.  Update on the Beatties Ford Road Corridor Study

5.  Ashford House, 241 Hoskins Avenue Drive, Charlotte, N.C.

Designation Report

Ashford House

6.  Old Business

7.  New Business


January 22, 2020 – 6:00 p.m.

1.  Chair’s Report: Len Norman

2.  Director’s Report: Jack Thomson

3.  Senior Preservation Planner’s Report: Stewart Gray

4.  Update on the Beatties Ford Road Corridor Study

Beatties Ford Road Survey Spreadsheet

Washington Heights Survey Spreadsheet

5.  The Kimberlee, 1300 Reece Road, Charlotte, N.C.

Polaris Map of Property

Presentation on Property

Additional Photographs of Property

A group of the owners in the building’s co-op is interested in preservation options for the historic building.

The Kimberlee

6.  Arthur Samuel Grier House, 421 Montrose Street, Charlotte, N.C.

Polaris Map of Property

Survey and Research Report

The Committee will consider updating the designation report for this property. 

Arthur Samuel Grier House

7.  Consideration of Funding for Survey and Research Reports

a.  Huntersville Rosenwald School, 508 Dellwood Drive, Huntersville, N.C.

Polaris Map of Property

Information on Property

Huntersville Rosenwald School

b.  Ca. 1936 YMCA Building, 416 E. 3rd Street, Charlotte, N.C.

Polaris Map of Property

YMCA Building

8.  Charlotte Modernist Survey

The Committee will consider whether to contact all owners of the short list of important properties to gauge their interest in historic landmark designation. 

9.  Consideration of Potential Historic Resources in Druid Hills 

Map of the Druid Hills Neighborhood

2115 Edison Street

2120 Edison Street

10.  Update on Mecklenburg County GIS

11.  Old Business

12.  New Business


November 13, 2019 – 6:00 p.m.

1.  Chair’s Report: Len Norman

2.  Director’s Report: Dan Morrill

3.  Senior Preservation Planner’s Report: Stewart Gray

4.  Butler House, 240 Sylvania Avenue, Charlotte, N.C.

Butler House

Survey and Research Report

5.  Potential Study List Properties

a.  Simmons House, 625 Hermitage Court, Charlotte, N.C.

Simmons House

Excerpt from Legacy: The Myers Park Story

Images

b.  Ca. 1936 YMCA Building, 317 S. Caldwell Street, Charlotte, N.C.

Image

c.  Pentes Log House, 6510 Sharon Hills Road, Charlotte, N.C.

Map of Property

More Information on the Property

d.  Morris Field Chapel, 5415 Airport Drive, Charlotte, N.C.

Morris Field Chapel

Additional Photographs

e.  Davidson Log House, Eastfield Road, Davidson, N.C.

Davidson Log House

Map of Property

6.  Old Business

7.  New Business

a.  Brian Clarke has provided the following thoughts:

One of the most cutting edge ways being used to identify archaeological sites and resources around the world is LiDAR.  It’s been used to find previously unknown sites in Honduras (the “Lost City of the Monkey God”), Mexico (see https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/08/science/archaeology-lidar-maya.html), the American Southwest, Scotland, Ireland, and many many more. 

I recently discovered that there is a LiDAR scan of all of Mecklenburg County performed in 2017/18 and the data set is publicly available (https://mecklenburgcounty.exavault.com/share/view/1dxv7-b5jh2qyy/Surface%20Data).  A new and interesting survey could likely be extracted from this LiDAR data. For example, focusing just on county owned land (like the various large nature preserves especially those near the Catawba River and/or the areas around known neolithic sites like the Big Rock Rock Shelter or Tuckaseegee Ford) we could commission a survey to identify potential neolithic sites, lost home sites, and such. 

Obviously, we tend to focus primarily on extant buildings.  However, there is much more to Mecklenburg County’s history.  This was an area rich in Native American culture and heritage, given that the capital of the Catawba tribe was just across the river.  Yet Catawba-related sites are few and far between as they’ve mostly been lost to history (the Big Rock Rock Shelter is actually the only one of which I am aware). 

Perhaps there are researchers at UNCC, JCSU, or Queens that would be interested in such a thing to keep the cost of the data analysis reasonable. 

b.  Consideration of Amending the Designation Ordinance for the Victor Shaw House, 2400 Mecklenburg Avenue, Charlotte, N.C.

Conceptual Plan for the Shaw House Property


September 18, 2019 – 6:00 p.m. 

1.  Chair’s Report: Len Norman

2.  Director’s Report: Dan Morrill

3.  Senior Preservation Planner’s Report: Stewart Gray

4.  Charlotte Modernist Survey

Modernist Additions to the Study List

5.  Beatties Ford Road Corridor Study

The HLC has approved a study of the Beatties Ford Road corridor to identify significant historic resources. Staff recommends that the Survey Committee consider a first phase of the survey to include Washington Heights, University Park, and the buildings that front on Beatties Ford Road between Brookshire Blvd and Interstate 85.

The survey of Washington Heights would include an inventory of all pre-1945 buildings. The survey would also include any post-1945 architecturally or historically significant buildings.

An historic report on the University Park neighborhood would be produced with a general analysis of the housing stock, and would identify architecturally and historically significant properties.

The survey would also inventory all pre-1945 buildings that front Beatties Ford Road, and any post-1945 architecturally or historically significant buildings. The survey would also identify any extant Green Book properties.

Brandon Lunsford, University Archivist and Digital Manager at Johnson C. Smith University, has agreed to perform the work for $5,000.

The work product would be a spreadsheet with the data for Washington Heights and the Beatties Ford Road properties, and a report containing the historical research and the descriptions of individually significant properties.

Map of Proposed Study Area

Map of Washington Heights Survey Area

Map of University Park Area

Map of Study Area Fronting Beatties Ford Road

Brandon Lunsford produced the Historic West End Digital Map

6.  Helper-Walley House, 603 North Main Street, Davidson, N.C.

Map of Property

Helper-Walley House

Revised Survey and Research Report

Below is the revised statement of significance:

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/or cultural importance:

1. The Helper-Walley House is one of only two remaining hall-and-parlor houses in the town of Davidson.

2. The Helper-Walley House is one of the best extant early examples in Mecklenburg County of the transitional nature of architecture. The original ca. 1896 hall-and-parlor form of the Helper-Walley House was retained while the Craftsman features were applied to the house during a remodel in the 1920s, making clear the two styles of architecture. The Helper-Walley House is an important example of the fact that architectural style is not static.

3. The Helper-Walley House is an important part of the North Main Street corridor of Davidson, which may be viewed as a timeline of Davidson’s architectural development from the antebellum period through the mid-twentieth century.

b. Integrity of design, setting, workmanship, materials, feeling and/or association: The architectural description in this report demonstrates that the property known as the Helper-Walley House meets this criterion.

7.  Old Business

8.  New Business