W. B. NEWELL HOUSE

This report was written on May 28, 1982

1. Name and location of the property: The property known as the W. B. Newell House is located at 8325 Old Concord Rd. in the Newell Community in northeastern Mecklenburg County.

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

The present owner and occupant of the property is:
Mr. Sam C. Taylor
8325 Old Concord Rd.
Box 361
Newell, NC 28126

Telephone: (704) 597-7699

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

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

5. Current Deed Book Reference to the property: The most recent deed to this property is listed in Mecklenburg County Deed Book 3991 at page 854. The Tax Parcel Number of the property is: 105-021-33.

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 an architectural description of the property prepared by Thomas W. Hanchett, architectural historian.

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

a. Special significance in terms of its history, architecture, and/or cultural importance: The Commission judges that the property known as the W. B. Newell House does possess special significance in terms of Charlotte-Mecklenburg. The Commission bases its judgment on the following considerations: 1) William Burns Newell (1856-1927), the builder and initial owner, was one of the founders of the Newell community; 2) the house, erected in 1887-88, is the oldest house in the Newell community and is the only abode of one of the founders that survives; 3) William Burns Newell was a partner in the community grocery store, which still stands across the railroad track from the home; 4) the W. B. Newell House is an interesting local example of vernacular architecture.

b. Integrity of design, setting, workmanship, materials, feeling and/or association: The Commission contends that the attached architectural description by Mr. Thomas W. Hanchett demonstrates that the W. B. Newell 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 27.370 acres of land is $57,790. The current appraised value of the house is $36,620. The property is zoned RUCD.

Date of Preparation of this Report: June 2, 1982.

Prepared by: Dr. Dan L. Morrill, Director
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Properties Commission
3500 Shamrock Dr.
Charlotte, NC 28215

Telephone: 704/563-2307

About 1882, William Burns Newell, his brother “Squire” John A. Newell and his brother-in-law, N. W. Wallace moved to the Newell area, which at that time was a rural area with scattered farms, through which ran a railroad and a dirt road to Concord.¹ The Newells were originally from Hickory Grove, and N. W. Wallace was born in Clear Creek township in the county.² These three founded the Newell community and became prosperous farmers and businessmen, as well as a powerful trio in the politics of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Mecklenburg County.³ On October 13, 1856, W. B. Newell was born in Hickory Grove, the son of David Smith Newell, who was also a native of the county, and Rebecca Burns Newell, a native of Lancaster County, S.C. At the age of twenty-one, he was married to Sarah (“Sallie”) Pharr Ervin (Nov. 13, 1856 – Dec. 28, 1947) at the Mallard Creek Presbyterian Church, with Reverend W. W. Pharr officiating, on November 14, 1877.⁵ The bride was born in Cabarrus County, the daughter of Samuel Ervin and Elizabeth Harris Ervin, and the family later moved to Mecklenburg County.⁶

In 1887, Mr. Newell purchased a farm of 108 acres lying between the North Carolina Railroad and Back Creek in the rural county area which was to bear his family name. The purchase price of $1500 was borrowed from the seller, M. C. Davis, and was paid off on February 1, 1896. After buying the farm, Mr. Newell began construction of a sturdy, two-story brick house on the west side of the property facing the railroad and the Concord Road. The hand-made bricks for the house were manufactured at the creek by Mr. Newell and a laborer. They used them to build the entire main structure of the house, including all of the interior walls, which required a separate foundation for each room to carry the weight. The thus solidly-constructed farmhouse was completed the following year, in l888.⁹ A brick house in the country was quite unusual in those days, and for many decades, the W. B. Newell house, the Newell store, and Squire Newell’s house down the road constituted the hub of the Newell community. In 1892, W. B. Newell formed a partnership with N. W. Wallace and opened a general store just across the railroad tracks and the Concord road, located a hundred yards or so from his house. The building presently houses the Newell post office.¹⁰

Mr. Newell’s partner, Nehemiah Wilson Wallace (1856-1925) was married to his sister, Rachel Newell, in 1880, and was a dynamic figure in the life of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s in the county. At one time, “Sheriff” Wallace was reputed to own more farm acreage in the county than any other landholder, most of which was farmed by tenants. He served the longest term as Sheriff of Mecklenburg County on record, from 1898 to 1919, and held the post of Commissioner of Public Safety from 1923 to 1925. Sheriff Wallace, W. B. Newell, and Squire John A. Newell, who raised mules and served on the Board of County Commissioners, constituted a politically powerful triumvirate in Newell and the county.¹¹ For W. B. Newell, the store and farming, which included raising cotton and livestock, proved to be financially successful, and thus he prospered along with the small Newell community.¹² W. B. and Sallie Ervin Newell had seven children, the oldest of whom was Dr. Leone Burns Newell, a Charlotte physician.^l3 After Mr. Newell’s death on December 17, 1927, at the age of 71, Mrs. Newell continued to live in the brick farmhouse until her own death twenty years later, she having attained the age of 91.¹⁴ The store passed to the ownership of another son, Willis Warren Newell; and a daughter, Leila Newell Thompson and her husband, Charles A. Thompson, moved into the house after W. B. Newell’s death in 1927. At that time, the house and its farmland were valued at $27,000.00, and his personal estate at $5000.00.¹⁵

The Thompsons raised their two boys, Charles, Jr. and William, in the Newell farmhouse. Mr. Thompson worked for the Chevrolet Motor Division in Charlotte, and Mrs. Thompson taught piano in the home. Not too long after Mrs. Thompson’s death in 1973, Mr. Thompson moved out of the old Newell homestead, and it remained vacant for a number of years until purchased by the present owner, Sam Taylor, in 1977.¹⁶ Mr. Taylor has gone to considerable effort to refurbish and restore the handsome nineteenth-century home, which had suffered extensively from neglect and vandalism.¹⁷ It has now regained its former position of prominence in the village of Newell.

NOTES

¹ Interview with Willis Warren Newell by Ruby Caldwell, Newell, NC, 1972.

² Charlotte News, Dec. 18, 1927, p. 1; Charlotte Observer, Dec. 13, 1925, p. 1.

³ Ibid.

⁴ Monument in the Newell Presbyterian Church Cemetery; Mecklenburg County Certificate of Death, Book 30, p. 165.

⁵ Mecklenburg County Marriage Registers July. 1872 – Jan. 1889, p. 162.

⁶ Charlotte Observer, Dec. 29, 1927, p. lOA.

⁷ Deed Book 57, p. 126, 26 Nov. 1887.

⁸ Deed Book 57, p. 127, 26 Nov. 1887.

⁹ Interview with Mary Kate Newell Hunter, Mecklenburg Co., N.C., 12 Sept. 1981.

¹⁰ Charlotte News, Dec. 18, 1927, p. 1.

¹¹ Charlotte Observer, Dec. 13, 1925, p. 1.

¹² See Note 2.

¹³ Interview with Mrs. Hunter, cited above.

¹⁴ Monuments in the Newell Presbyterian Church Cemetery; Charlotte Observer, Dec. 29, 1947, p. 10A.

¹⁵ Mecklenburg County Administrations, Book 8, p. 57, 28 Dec. 1927.

¹⁶ Interview with Mrs. Hunter; Deed Book 3991, p. 854, 22 July 1977.

¹⁷ Interview with Sam Taylor, Newell, N.C., 11 September 1981.

Thomas W. Hanchett

The William B. Newell home is a two story brick farmhouse, located on the east side of the Old Concord Road in the rural community of Newell, just northeast of the present Charlotte city limits. Built in 1888, it is an example of the traditional “I” house form, embellished with trim in the Eastlake style which was popular in the period. Abandoned for several years in the 1970s, the home has been sensitively restored by its current owner, Sam Taylor. The front of the home consists of a two story hip roofed block. It contains two rooms on each floor flanking a central hallway. The resulting long, narrow form looks like a sans-serif “I” if viewed from the air, giving the house type its nickname. The “I” house was developed in the late 18th century and remained popular throughout the southeastern United States into the first years of the 20th century, long after it had passed from favor in the rest of the country. To the rear of the main “I” of the Newell house are two one story brick wings.

Plaster covered chimneys with stepped shoulders are found between the main block and each wing. The northeast wing extends back two rooms deep under a hip roof and contains the dining room and kitchen. The southeast wing is only one room deep. In 1912 it was given a gable-roofed second story which is covered with stamped metal “brick” siding and stamped metal shingles in the gable. At least one of the one story wings was probably built at the same time as the front block of the house. A vertical joint through the brickwork next to the center back door suggests that one wing was constructed after the other was finished. Though the form of the house was traditional, much of its exterior finish was quite up to date in 1888. The hip roof with its plain boxed eaves features a decorative front center gable finished with alternating rows of hexagonal and “fish scale” wood shingle siding.

The gable has a bargeboard decorated with parallel grooved fluting, an Eastlake motif carried throughout the residence. The original wood shake roof is said to be still in place beneath the current asphalt shingles. Under the eaves a four course band of decorative brickwork runs around the building. It is composed of two brick courses set sawtooth fashion, bordered by single corbelled courses above and below. The walls are built of very rough textured brick handmade near the site by W.B. Newell himself. It is laid in common bond with five stretcher courses between headers. Window openings are tall and narrow with arched tops in the Victorian fashion. Two courses of brick are used for the first floor window openings in the front block of the house, elsewhere only one course. Walls are set inward about one inch on the brick continuous wall foundation, giving a distinct “water table” line. Just above the “water table” the walls are pierced regularly about every foot with what appear to be ventilation holes. A portion of exposed brick under the back porch has painted mortar lines, indicating that the whole building was probably decorated in this manner before being painted over in the first decades of the 20th century.

The front of the home is three bays wide. Three second story front windows and two fast story windows and the front doorway are symmetrically arranged. Windows and frames had been largely destroyed when Mr. Taylor bought the house, and the present two-over-two pane sash are believed to be similar to the original. A one story hip roofed porch runs almost all the way across the front of the house, shielding the central front door. Its center bay extends forward to mark the entry, under a gable whose wood shingles and bargeboard echo those on the main roof of the building. Porch columns are chamfered at the corners and embellished with Eastlake style vertical fluting. The are topped by simple Eastlake scroll sawn brackets. The porch balustrades carry out the Eastlake motif with more fluting. Only a couple of brackets and a small section of balustrade remained of the decorative trim when Mr. Taylor began work, and he has taken great care in replicating missing millwork, guided by extant pieces and old photos of the home still in the Newell family.

A shed roofed back porch nestled behind the rear wings echoes the front porch proportions with simpler trim. The side of the “L”-shaped porch which runs along the northeastern wing has single beaded tongue and groove ceiling paneling, while the portion along the southeastern wing has newer double beaded ceiling, indicating the porch may have been built in two stages. One enters the home through an elaborate machine made Victorian front door, probably ordered by Mr. Newell from a catalog or a Charlotte planing mill. The current stained glass windows in the entry are more elaborate than the frosted glass believed to have been there originally. All interior doors, in contrast to the front door, are handmade of heart pine with four vertical panels using mortise-and-tenon joints. All rooms of the house have heavy window surrounds and mop boards with molding, and there is picture molding near the ceiling in several rooms. Interior walls are thick because they are constructed of brick rather than frame.

Each room has a fireplace with a wooden mantel and a stuccoed brick firebox. Once inside the front door, one is in the long central hallway that extends through the building. Through a door to the left is the hall. It has a fine mantel with parallel fluting on its flat surfaces in the Eastlake manner, plus sawtooth dentil molding. Evidence uncovered during renovation indicates that this space was originally painted aqua blue with a black “wainscot” band. Off the central hallway to the right of the front door is the parlor. Its Victorian mantel, with a mirror and two-tiered shelf supported by turned spindles, is not original to the house but is said to be similar to what was there. To the left of the fireplace is a small, low door to the back parlor, which is located in the southeast wing behind the main block of the house. Its fireplace, which shares the front parlor’s chimney, has a simpler version of the hall mantel minus fluting and dentils.

From the back parlor one can go through a door into the central hallway, then across into the dining room which is located behind the front hall in the northeast wing. This room has a mantel similar to that in the back parlor. The fireplace is flanked by two low, narrow doors for closets on either side of the massive chimney. Between the left closet and mantel is an open recessed china cabinet with a beaded tongue and groove interior whose molded surround indicates it may be original.

The dining room has a beaded tongue and groove ceiling, which is also found in the kitchen behind it. The kitchen has all new fixtures and cabinets. One corner of it has been walled off to provide a downstairs bathroom, the only floorplan change made during renovation. Returning to the front door one sees the narrow stairway with tapered, turned balusters and open-string risers rising in a single run from the front of the central hallway upwards to the second floor. Most of the balusters were gone when Mr. Taylor bought the house, and he had replacements turned to match the originals. Upstairs there are three bedrooms and a bath. The front two rooms are original, with molding and mantels slightly simpler than those downstairs. The rear southeast room was added in 1912 as Newell’s family grew. It has double beaded tongue and groove wainscoting with a molded chair rail. There is a matching tongue and groove ceiling with picture molding. The back of the central hallway on the second floor was closed off at the same time with a “ransomed door to create a walk-in closet lined with more tongue and groove. Adjacent to it, across the hall from the third bedroom, is a tongue and groove panelled bathroom tucked under the slope of the roof.

The surroundings of the W.B. Newell house look much as they probably did when the residence was built. A windmill, barn and maids quarters that once stood to the rear of the house are now gone, but its setting of old trees is undisturbed, and a field at the rear extends to a line of woods. The rails of the Southern Railway, successor to the North Carolina Railroad, run past the front of the home. Across the tracks, the half dozen vernacular frame homes that make up the core of the Newell community face the Old Concord Road, looking across it and the tracks up at the Newell House.

This report was written on September 9, 1997

1. Name and location of the property: The property known as the Newcombe – McElwee House is located at 2817 Belvedere Avenue in the Plaza-Midwood neighborhood of Charlotte in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.

2. Name, address, and telephone number of the present owner of the property: The owner is:
Dr. and Mrs. Thomas B. McElwee
2817 Belvedere Avenue
Charlotte, NC 28205

Telephone Number: (704) 375 – 5873

3. Representative Photographs of the property: This report contains interior and exterior photographs of the property.

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

5. Current deed book references to the property: The most recent deed to the Newcombe – McElwee House is listed in Mecklenburg County Deed Book 6891 at Pages 783 – 785. The Tax Parcel Number of the property is 09505534.

6. A brief historical description of the property: This report contains a historical sketch of the property prepared by Sherry J. Joines.

7. A brief architectural description of the property: This report contains an architectural description of the property prepared by Sherry J. Joines.

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 history, architecture, and cultural importance: The Commission judges that the property known as the Newcombe – McElwee House does possess special significance in terms of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. The Commission bases its judgment on the following considerations: 1) the house is significant as the work of an important North Carolina architect, 2) it has architectural significance as an unusually fine example of the Tudor Revival style, 3)it is an important part of the development of the Charlotte Country Club area and “Club Acres” during the 1930s, and 4) it has associations with prominent Charlotte citizens.

b. Integrity of design, setting, workmanship, materials, feeling, and association: The Commission contends that the architectural description by Sherry J. Joines included in this report demonstrates that the Newcombe – McElwee House meets this criterion.

9. Ad Valorem Tax Appraisal: The current Ad Valorem appraised value of the 2.77 acres of land is $200,000. The current Ad Valorem appraised value of the house is $326,500. The total Ad Valorem appraised value is $526,500. The property is zoned R-3.

Date of Preparation of this Report: September 9, 1997
Prepared by: Sherry J. Joines
Charlotte – Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission
2100 Randolph Road
Charlotte, N.C. 28207

Sherry J. Joines
September, 1997

Location Description

The Newcombe – McElwee house is situated at 2817 Belvedere Avenue in Charlotte, N.C. Part of the Plaza – Midwood neighborhood, this area was developed as Club Acres in association with the Charlotte Country Club beginning in the 1910s, with most construction occurring in the 1930s. The lot is on the northern side of Belvedere Avenue with the front facade of the house facing south.

Landscape and Other Structures

The house sits atop a small hill and is picturesquely viewed as one rounds a bend in Belvedere Avenue. The lawn of the house, heavily dotted with large trees, rolls down to Belvedere Avenue creating a luxurious expanse. In the rear, this expansive lawn continues up the hill. The narrow drive takes the visitor to the top of the rise where one enters through a pair of brick entrance gate pillars. These pillars are about five feet tall and are capped by pineapple finials. The gate pillars finish the opening in a brick wall that runs from the side of the house to the next property line and divides the front of the house from the rear.

After passing through the entrance pillars, one may park around a circular drive. To the west, is the two story garage / guesthouse. Hipped roof wall dormers containing casement windows pierce the guesthouse’s high, hipped roof. On ground level, two garage doors are located beside an entrance door at the southern corner of the front facade. To the rear of the garage is a one-story frame addition with a shed roof. Beyond the addition is a small brick courtyard enclosed by a brick wall. Matching the main house, the garage has a frieze at the cornice created by three courses of brick being corbeled outward with a repetitive pattern of protruding and areas that give the effect of oversized dentils.

Mrs. McElwee replaced much of the plant material in the landscape after she and her husband acquired the house in 1992. She recalls that the yard and plants were seriously unkempt and overgrown. Several large shade trees still exist, however, as do a few large holly bushes. One particularly huge tree dominates the back yard. She did not change the basic form or layout of the planting beds. The overall effect of the landscaping, house design, and situation is akin to the rambling “Country Place Era” estates popular among the wealthy during the 1930s.

Architectural Description

The Tudor Revival style is one of several picturesque revival styles common during the 1920s and 1930s. Others include Colonial Revival, Dutch Colonial Revival, and Spanish Revival. As the name implies the style took its inspiration from late medieval and early Renaissance English architecture. Historical accuracy in a revival style is not as important as evoking the feeling of a past romantic age, such as that of the infamous Tudor, King Henry VIII. The Tudor Revival was especially popular with the Anglophilic upper middle class. It was further encouraged by the trend in landscaping towards the picturesque “English Cottage” genre inspired by the work of Gertrude Jekyll.¹

The Newcombe – McElwee house is an excellent example of the Tudor Revival Style. Common elements of this mode are half-timbering, Tudor (flattened Gothic) arches, heavy doors simulating Medieval construction techniques, dark woodwork, diamond leaded windows, asymmetry, and picturesque detailing. Of these, the Newcombe – McElwee house displays all but the half-timbering. Instead, the walls of the house are running bond brick veneer and rest upon concrete foundation walls.

Currently, the walls are painted white, which, with the silvery tones of the roof, make the house reminiscent of French Renaissance architecture. Whether the house was originally painted is not clear. The slate roof is almost certainly the original, however. The color of the slates varies from deep gray to pale green to rich mauve. The hipped form of the main roof has a long ridgeline extending nearly the entire length of the front facade. Two low, hipped wall dormers are found over two pairs of casement windows on the western end of the front facade.

The focus of the front facade is the octagonal entrance tower. The tower has a high conical roof. Located in the center of the front (southern) facade, the tower houses a massive Tudor arched doorway trimmed in stone. The narrow lancet casement windows stagger up the tower in keeping with the ascent of the curved interior stair. The effect of this is much like a medieval castle. Beside the entrance tower, on the eastern side is a hip roofed projection. The projection has a low hipped dormer on the second floor and a projecting bay window on the first floor. The western end of the building is dominated by the mass of a chimney. At ground level, small iron railings are attached to the building at each side of the chimney. Likewise, the eastern end of the house is fairly unremarkable. The rear (northern) facade of the building is marked by a hip roofed projection about three-quarters of the way down the length of the facade from the eastern corner. The projection has a curved bay window on the first floor. The small corner made by the projection at the western end of the house is filled by a one story screened sunroom. The sunroom has an awning and lattice trim at its corners. Under the awning is a decorative scalloped frieze like that found above the windows on the first floor of the front facade. A brick path leads to the entrance of the porch and around the projection to a kitchen entrance near the eastern corner. This entrance, which may not be original, has a multi-paned door with sidelights and transom. The windows on the entire rear facade are irregularly sized and spaced. There are also roof dormers, rather than the low wall dormers on the front.

Much like the exterior front facade, the interior is designed around the unique circular space in the tower. The interior of the entrance tower is dominated by the spiral stair to the second floor orchestra balcony. The balcony is gracefully curved and cantilevered out over the first floor space. The ceiling of the tower is a shallow dome lit by small lights hidden behind a cornice molding. The treads and handrail of the stair are hardwood while the balustrade is cast iron in a scallop and x pattern. The x’s are embellished with gilded medallions. Entry to the house is through a heavy, Tudor arched door. The door’s small panels, heavy hardware and false pegs mimic medieval construction methods. Once inside the entry tower, one steps up to the main level of the house and enters a vestibule through a doorway. The doorway has an architrave that is curved to match the curve of the tower wall.

The three major wings of the house radiate from the vestibule. Down two steps to the west is the long living room. Large, multi-paned windows light the room on its south wall. On the north wall are pairs of French doors leading to the sunroom. The top two-thirds of the doors are multi-paned like the windows, while the bottom has a raised panel. The western wall is the focus of the space. It is embellished with raised panels, where the bottom panels are not as tall as the upper panels, only about one-third of the wall height. This rhythm matches the French doors and windows and is accentuated by the chair rail installed at this low height. The purpose of the unusual configuration two-thirds over one-third configuration may have been to accentuate the height of the room. Centered on the west wall is a carved, buff marble fireplace. Directly above the fireplace is a wide rectangular panel flanked by two narrow panels with curved tops reminiscent of the shape of a Palladian window. This curved top motif is repeated in the upper panels of doors throughout the house. Directly north of the vestibule is a den. The walls of this room are paneled with pine, and the north wall is dominated by a bowed bay of diamond leaded windows. The fireplace on the eastern wall has scrolled brackets supporting the mantle shelf and is trimmed with molding in a rope pattern. Dentils finish the crown molding in the room and fluted pine pilasters flank the fireplace.

The wing to the east of the vestibule contains the dining room. On the southern end of this room is a bay window with diamond leaded widows. At either side of the window are niches created in the corners of the room. With the bay window the effect is that the end of the room is multi-sided or bayed. The low chair rail is repeated in this room with a paneled wainscot beneath it. The large, black urns in the niches are said to be original to the house. The kitchen, pantry, and powder room are located in the northeastern portion of the eastern wing of the house. The current owners enlarged the kitchen with the removal of a butler’s pantry. Thus, the kitchen was completely modernized at this time.

In the entrance tower, one ascends the curved staircase, to reach the orchestra balcony. A large passage at the balcony is framed with heavy molding, architrave, pilasters and Doric columns. Through the passage to the west is the master suite. The suite is entered through a small sitting room with built-in bookcases, which leads into the main bedroom. The hipped roof of the house creates a tray effect in the ceiling of the bedroom. The ornamentation on the fireplace, which is located on the bedroom’s western wall, is similar to that of the marble, living room fireplace. The bathroom door is at the northeastern corner of the room. The dusty blue tiled bath contains both tub and walk-in shower. A second door in the bath leads back into the sitting room. North of the orchestra balcony is a wide subsidiary hall or vestibule with closets and a bathroom. The vestibule leads to a bedroom. East of this vestibule is a long, narrow hall off of which are more closets and two more bedrooms, which share a bath. Like the master bath, the two other baths on the second floor also retain their original tile, one being a dark green and yellow, the other a bright aqua with black accents. Original fixtures remain as well.

Stairs descending to the basement are reached via a door near the first floor entrance. The only finished area of the basement is paneled with pine on one wall and has windows and window wells below exterior grade. The room also has exposed beams and a fireplace. Dr. McElwee remembers this room being a playroom when he was a child. The numerous classical elements mentioned in the above description indicate a version of the Classical Revival style on the interior. This is an interesting combination with the heavy Tudor Revival exterior. The Classical Revival was another of the popular revival styles common during the 1930s. It was often associated with the Colonial Revival because Colonial and Early American architecture (like the Georgian and Federal styles) had classical inspirations.

The Newcombe – McElwee house retains a remarkable level of integrity due mainly to the limited number of owners. Moldings, doors, and most room configurations are original. Although the kitchen was extensively remodeled, its location at the northeastern corner of the building limits the impact these changes had on the rest of the house. The house still retains the elegant, formal feeling in vogue among the newly developing “country club set” of the 1930s.

Sherry J. Joines
September, 1997

The history of the Newcombe – McElwee house is fairly simple since only two families have owned it. Elliott Hill and Mary Duke Lyon Newcombe purchased a portion of Lot 28 from Edward and Mabel Kuhn on October 9, 1934. The Kuhns had acquired the lot from Mr. and Mrs. O.J. Thies and Mr. and Mrs. George Stephens totaling 3.93 acres on July 15, 1921. Thies, a Realtor, and Stephens, founder of Myers Park, both held interests in the several companies developing the Charlotte Country Club and Club Acres. Stephens had acquired Lot 28 from one of these companies, the Mecklenburg Realty Company.² Although only associated with two families, both of these families were prominent Charlotte citizens. Elliott H. Newcombe was the stepson of C.W. Johnston, founder of Johnston Mills. Mr. Newcombe began his career as president – treasurer of the textile supply company, Southern Specialties. He later headed the Charlotte division of Old Dominion Paper Box Company, eventually founding the Atlantic Coast Carton Company. His civic achievements included his work in founding Charlotte Country Day School and the Squash Hill Hunt Preserve. Mrs. Newcombe, known as Dukie, was the grandniece of tobacco and utility tycoon James Buchanan Duke.³

Mrs. Newcombe’s uncle, George Watts Carr designed the house, which was constructed around 1935. Carr was a noted Durham architect who also worked on the Snow Building in that city.⁴ The Newcombes had moved into their new home by 1936. The current owner, who grew up in the house, remembers the Newcombes and their children as being the centerpiece of the neighborhood. Mr. Newcombe, he remembers, was a large, mirthful man who enjoyed smoking and having a cocktail everyday. The Newcombes sold the property to Ross S. and Doris E. McElwee, Sr. on April 16, 1959, but continued to live in the neighborhood.⁵ Mrs. Newcombe passed away on February 28, 1969, followed by her husband on September 23, 1976.⁶ Ross S. McElwee, Sr. was a surgeon and his wife a homemaker. The couple had four children: Ross, Jr., a filmmaker (his work including Sherman’s March and Time Indefinite); Dede, a homemaker; Thomas B., who joined his father’s medical practice; and another son who was killed in a 1965 boating accident. ⁷ Mrs. Doris McElwee passed away on April 1, 1973, preceding Dr. McElwee, Sr. whose death occurred February 6, 1988. Dr. Ross McElwee had remarried and his widow, Ann T. McElwee, transferred ownership of the house to Dr. Thomas B. and Sarah Y. McElwee on May 28, 1992.⁸

Dr. McElwee grew up in the house and fondly remembers playing in the basement and back yard. He recalls his mother falling in love with the house because it looked like a French chateau.⁹ Dr. Thomas McElwee married Sarah Young on January 5, 1985. Mrs. McElwee is a graduate of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and attended law school there. The couple resides in the house with their three children: Tom, John, and Sarah.¹⁰

¹Catherine Bishir, North Carolina Architecture, Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 1990, pp. 440 – 443.

²Mecklenburg County Deed Book 277, page 408; 451, page 343; and 860, page 29 and Hanchett, Dr. Thomas W., “Plaza – Midwood Neighborhood,” for the Charlotte – Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission.

³Hanchett, “Plaza – Midwood.”

⁴Ibid. and Bishir, North Carolina Architecture.

⁵Hanchett, “Plaza – Midwood,” and Charlotte City Directories: 1933 – 1936.

⁶Mecklenburg County Vital Statistics.

⁷Interview with Dr. and Mrs. Thomas B. McElwee, November 18, 1996, conducted by Nathan Kellett.

⁸Vital Statistics and Interview.

⁹Ibid.

¹⁰Interview.

This report was written on April 1, 2000

1. Name and location of the property: The property known as the Neely Slave Cemetery is located on South Ridge Drive, in the South Point Business Park, Charlotte, NC.

2. Name and address of the present owner of the property:
LBP South Point Inc.
Blaustein Boulevard #1400
One North Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21201

(704) 339-0304

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

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

5. Current deed book reference: The most recent deed for the property is listed in Mecklenburg County Deed Book 10679, page 255. The tax parcel number for the property is 203-202-01.

6. A brief historical sketch of the property: This report contains a historical sketch of the property prepared by Emily D. Ramsey.

7. A brief site description of the property: This report contains a site description of the property prepared Emily D. Ramsey.

8. Documentation of why and in what ways the property meets criteria for designation set forth in N.C.G.S 160A-400.5:
Special significance in terms of history, architecture, and cultural importance, The Commission judges that the property known as the Neely Slave Cemetery does possess special significance in terms of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. The Commission bases its judgment on the following considerations:

1. The Neely Slave Cemetery is a tangible reminder of many large farmers’ dependence on slave labor from the mid-1700s to 1864; although a minority in an area of small, self-sufficient farms, cotton plantations thrived in certain areas of Mecklenburg County through the use of African and African-American slaves.

2. The Neely Slave Cemetery is a reflection of the traditions of the Afro-American slave population; death rituals and burial practices formed an important part of these traditions, and death itself carried great significance among slaves throughout the South.

3. The Neely Slave Cemetery is one of the few known slave cemeteries in Mecklenburg County, and one of the few remaining vestiges of slavery in the county. 4. The Neely Slave Cemetery is a representative example of slave cemeteries in the area – the periwinkle that covers the site, the use of found rocks to mark the graves, and the arrangement of the graves are all common features of slave cemeteries.

5. Integrity of design, workmanship, materials, feeling, and association: The Commission contends that the site description by Emily D. Ramsey demonstrates that the Neely Slave Cemetery meets this criterion.

9. Ad Valorem Tax Appraisal: There are no improvements on the property. The current Ad Valorem tax appraisal for the 28.919 acres of land is $1, 643,520. The property is zoned II CD. The cemetery constitutes a small component of the property.

10. Date of Preparation of this Report: April 1, 2000

11. Prepared by:Emily D. Ramsey
745 Georgia Trail
Lincolnton, NC 28092

Statement of Significance

The Neely Slave Cemetery, once part of the Neely Plantation in the Steele Creek area of southwestern Mecklenburg County, is a site that possesses local historic significance as a tangible reminder of the use of slave labor on the county’s large farms and plantations from the mid-eighteenth century to the end of the Civil War. Although the vast majority of Mecklenburg County farmers operated small farms and did not own slaves, farmers such as Thomas Neely and his descendents, John Neely I, Thomas Neely, John Neely II, and John Starr Neely, ran prosperous plantations. Proximity to the Catawba River provided especially fertile land, but it was essentially the use of slave labor that allowed for the success of these large farming operations. Slaves were responsible not only for crops such as corn, wheat, or cotton (a demanding, labor-intensive crop in itself) but also for building jobs on the farm, the tending of farm animals, and other tasks, in addition to caring for their own small garden plots.

The Neely Slave Cemetery serves not only as a visual reminder of the use of slave labor in Mecklenburg County; it also serves as a reflection of slave traditions and the importance of a “good burial” in slave culture. Slaves in the South attached great importance to the death and burial of their fellow bondsmen. The slave funeral was at once a “religious ritual, a major social event, and a community pageant,” drawing upon a mixture of cherished traditions. Although no records exist that outline the specific burial practices of the slaves on the Neely plantation, the cemetery exhibits many characteristics common among slave burial grounds in the South.

The Neely Slave Cemetery is also significant as one of the few vestiges of slavery remaining in Mecklenburg County and as one of the few known slave cemeteries in the area. Very little remains of the society that African-American slaves were able to build for themselves before the Civil War. Historian Belinda Hurmence writes that the slave dwelling, “one of the few remaining artifacts of slavery in the United States, . . . has virtually disappeared.” Slave cemeteries, nestled in remote woods and largely unmarked and forgotten, are the only vestiges of the slave community that have survived the twentieth century in Mecklenburg County. Yet, because most slave cemeteries are unmarked and undocumented, only a small number have been discovered in the area.

The existence of the Neely Slave Cemetery is intimately connected to the unique circumstances of large-scale farmers in and around Mecklenburg County during the late 1700s through the mid-1800s. The “remoteness of markets, poor roads, and the adaptability of the soil to the growth of grain and grass” greatly limited the development of a plantation economy that concentrated heavily on one cash crop. Unlike their neighbors to the north and east in North Carolina, where large plantations grew primarily tobacco and cotton for market, in Mecklenburg County even most prosperous farmers with large landholdings relied on a variety of food crops (wheat, corn, barley, oats and others) in addition to cotton. The vast majority of farms in the area were largely self-sufficient operations on a much more modest scale than those on the “rich lands of the low-country counties.”

Despite these restrictions, Mecklenburg County was still, historian Thomas Hanchett writes, “very much a part of the plantation economy,” eventually accumulating “thirty plantations each employing twenty-five or more slaves,” and “dozens of smaller farms” that utilized slave labor. The Neely family, beginning with Thomas Neely’s arrival in 1754, belonged to this class of smaller slave owners. At his death in 1795, Thomas Neely owned at least five hundred acres in the Steele Creek area, “adjacent to the Catawba River”, and approximately seven slaves. Neely bequeathed his land and slaves to his sons, John, Thomas, and Samuel. Included in his will were special requests for many of his slaves -allowing “our negro Joe . . . to be taught to read”; “giving our negro wench Susy two days every week for the purpose of providing herself in clothing”; and allowing the “negro child Dinah . . .to be learned to read.” Neely also specified, “none of my legatees may sell any of my negroes out of the family under penalty of losing their inheritance.” Although no records exist to verify whether or not these slaves remained in the family until their deaths or their freedom, the next generations of Neelys increased their slaveholdings and continued to farm the land that Thomas Neely had acquired during his lifetime. The Neely Slave Cemetery is a reflection of this interconnectedness between prosperity and ownership of slaves.

John Starr Neely (1817-1887) was the last of the Neelys to own Afro-American slaves; in his Bible, he recorded the names and dates of birth of all of the slaves born on his farm from the 1850s and 1860s. From this list and 1860 census records, which list Neely as the owner of twenty slaves (more than half under ten years old), one can estimate that John Starr Neely owned approximately twenty-four slaves by 1864. These slaves cultivated 170 of Neely’s 230-acre farm, growing cotton, Indian corn, oats, and wheat. That year, Neely was enlisted and sent to serve as a guard at the Confederate prison in Salisbury, North Carolina. By the time he returned home in 1866, the war was over and his slaves were free men and women.

John Starr Neely

Those slaves who had not survived to see Emancipation were laid to rest in a small plot in the woods behind one of the Neely’s large oat fields. African and African-American slaves in the South attached great significance to “a good burial;” a slave’s funeral was considered the “true climax” of his or her life. Their lives were spent in service to a master -death offered eternal freedom from bondage. The slave funeral was at once a “religious ritual, a major social event, and a community pageant,” drawing upon a mixture of cherished traditions. Remnants of African culture and customs mixed with the restrictions of Southern plantation life to make the slave funeral a unique ceremony. After the death of a slave, a coffin would usually be made by a slave carpenter while the body was laid out on a cooling board. Since a corpse would decay quickly in the stifling Southern heat, slaves adopted the practice of sitting up all night to guard the body from prowling animals, often “singing and praying through the night.” The funeral itself was often held at night, partly because of plantation labor requirements, partly because of the slaves’ cultural preferences. The slave funeral was, therefore, a dramatic ceremony -according to the Dictionary of Afro-American Slavery, a typical slave funeral on a southern plantation proceeded in this way:

A slow procession of mourners carried pine torches to light the way to the burial ground. The coffin and pallbearers led off, followed by the family of the deceased and the master’s house- hold, with the slave community bringing up the rear. . . Whether urban or rural, the processions to the graveyard were always accompanied by slow, mournful spirituals.

As was the custom in many slave cemeteries, the bodies in the Neely Slave Cemetery were buried east-west, with their heads to the west, their “eyes facing Africa.” Some of the graves are marked with simple fieldstones, also a common feature of slave cemeteries. The remaining unmarked graves may have once had similar stones, which may have fallen or sunken over time into the ground below the covering of periwinkle. Forty-two graves have been identified, although there is a strong possibility there may be more, since the land was passed down through the family and worked by slave labor for over one hundred years.

Annabel Neely Grier, John Starr Neely’s granddaughter, recorded stories of strange occurrences at the cemetery; she wrote of “a slave cemetery on the land” where “at times a mysterious light could be seen.” On one occasion, her father, John Franklin, and “old Uncle Jim, the colored man who always lived there”, took a kerosene lantern and went to “hunt the light.” They never discovered its source.

 The Neely Slave Cemetery is also significant as one of the few vestiges of slavery remaining in Mecklenburg County and as one of the few known slave cemeteries in the area. Very little remains of the society that African-American slaves were able to build for themselves before the Civil War. Historian Belinda Hurmence writes that the slave dwelling, “one of the few remaining artifacts of slavery in the United States, . . . has virtually disappeared.” The slave quarters on the Neely plantation were torn down long ago, and no slave housing is known to have survived into the present in Mecklenburg County. Slave dwellings, usually hastily built structures of wood, sticks and mud, were used after the Civil War as “stock sheds, storage buildings, or housing for tenant farmers,” but virtually all have now rotted away or been demolished. Slave cemeteries, nestled in remote woods and largely unmarked and forgotten, are one of the only vestiges of the slave community that have survived the twentieth century in Mecklenburg County. Yet, because most slave cemeteries are unmarked and undocumented, only a small number have been discovered in the area. The largest slave cemetery yet discovered in Mecklenburg County, the W. T. Alexander Slave Cemetery, is now closed in by an upscale, gated apartment complex. The remains of seventeen slaves owned by the H.C. Dwelle family were relocated from their original home at 501 Queens Road in 1941 to make way for the Little Theater’s new building. Although the Neely Slave Cemetery is not the largest, most impressive, or best preserved slave cemetery in the area, it remains an important piece of African-American history in a region where few visible reminders of slavery and slave communities have survived.

Site Description

The Neely Slave Cemetery is located in the midst of South Point Business Park, on a plot of undeveloped land consisting of several acres. The cemetery is nestled in a small grove of trees towards the rear of a plot of undeveloped land consisting of several acres. To the south of the cemetery is a large, low brick building, and on the west and south is an open field bordered by South Ridge Drive. Beyond South Ridge Drive, visible from the cemetery, stands a row of office buildings. The grove of trees in which the cemetery is located stretches across the north side of the plot. The cemetery itself is completely inconspicuous, and would not be noticeable at all but for several “Keep Out” signs posted on trees located on the site, and the presence of blue and red flags which now mark forty-two graves.

The Neely Slave Cemetery is covered with periwinkle, a local groundcover often found at rural cemetery sites. In addition to the red and blue flags that mark the graves (blue at the head of each grave, red at the foot), a number of the graves are marked with simple fieldstones, which have not been carved or manipulated in any way. These stones were most likely picked up on the day of the burial and placed at the grave by a family member or fellow slave. The majority of the graves have no visible original markers. A group of large boulders are clustered at the south end of the cemetery, and the west and south sides of the cemetery are screened by a row of cedars. A mixture of hardwoods shades the site. Although the land around the Neely Slave Cemetery has been developed into a plush suburban office park, a sense of the original rural setting has not been completely lost.

Notes

¹ Randall M. Miller and John David Smith, editors. Dictionary of Afro-American Slavery (Greenwood Press, Inc., New York: 1988) p.88.

² Belinda Humence, editor. We Lived in a Little Cabin in the Yard (John F. Blair, Winston Salem: 1994), p.xv.

³ Rosser Howard Taylor, Slaveholding in North Carolina: An Economic View (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill: 1926) p.37.

⁴ Thomas Hanchett, “Growth of Charlotte: A History” (Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission).

⁵ Ibid.

^6 Will of Thomas Neely II, dated 3 November 1793. Special thanks to Ralph Neely, Jr. for his invaluable assistance with this project.

⁷ Bible belonging to John Starr Neely. The names listed in John Starr Neely include: Adlade (b. 185?); Lanson (b. 1852); Emily (b. 1854); Samuel (b. 1847); Nolin (b. 1852); Isabela (b. 1854); Louisa (b. 1855); Annaline (b. 1856); Henry Johnson (b.1856); Francis (b. 1858); Ansin (b. 1858) Nelly Jane (b. 1859); Oliver (b.1860); Melvina (b. 1861); Frank (b.1864); Ida (b. 1864); Leroy Hoke (b. 1864).

⁸ Eighth Census of the United States: Slave Schedule, Mecklenburg County. The 1860 census lists 20 slaves owned by John Starr Neely -two adult males (ages 24 and 50), four adult females (ages 45, 32, 23, and 20), five male children (ages 13, 8, 8, 4 and 2), and nine female children (ages 14, 11, 6, 6, 5, 5, 4, 2, and 1).

⁹ Randall M. Miller and John David Smith, editors. Dictionary of Afro-American Slavery (Greenwood Press, Inc., New York: 1988) p.88.

¹⁰ Ibid, p.88-89.

¹¹ Ibid, p. 88.

¹² Annabel Neely Grier. “Neely Homeplace” -essay compiled for Pat Hall, developer of Carowinds.

¹³ Belinda Humence, editor. We Lived in a Little Cabin in the Yard (John F. Blair, Winston Salem: 1994), p.xv.

¹⁴ Ibid.

¹⁵ Charlotte Observer, “Once A Cemetery, Now Home Of Little Theater” (September 1, 1978).

This report was written on May 31, 1976

1. Name and location of the property: The property known as the Neel Home is located to the southwest of the intersection of Shopton Rd. and Withers Rd. in the southern portion of Mecklenburg County.

2. Name, address, and telephone number of the present owners of the property:
The present owner of the property is:
Mrs. Hannah J. Withers
2001 Queens Rd.
Charlotte, NC 28207

Telephone: (704) 332-5744

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

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

5. Current Deed Book Reference to the property: The most recent reference to this property is found in Mecklenburg County Deed Book 911 at page 426. The parcel number of the property is: 19921101.

6. A brief historical sketch of the property:

Sufficient documentation is not available to determine the exact date of the construction of the house. Samuel Neel, son of Henry Neel and Nancy Reed Neel, built the Neel house sometime between 1810 and his death in 1828. The structure replaced a less refined dwelling which Samuel Neel and his family had occupied nearby. A prominent farmer and landowner in the Steele Creek Community, Samuel had married Margaret Grier in 1798. Eight children were born to this union. They were William Henry Neel (1799-1888), Susan Spratt Neel (1801-1844), Thomas Grier Neel (1803-1885), Samuel I. Neel (1805-1861), James Hamilton Neel (1807-1827), Nancy Hannah Neel (1810-1857), Alexander Grier Neel (1815-1898), and Margaret Adeline Neel (1821- 1896). That Samuel Neel achieved prominence in the Steele Creek Community is not surprising. His father, Henry Neel was among the early Scotch-Irish settlers in this section of what was then a portion of Anson County. Henry Neel began to acquire land along the Banks of Armour’s Creek as early as 1762. A significant portion of this property was subsequently acquired by his son, Samuel. In other words, Samuel did not start from scratch. His birth on May 28, 1773, had brought him into a family of considerable substance. Margaret Grier Neel lived in the house as a widow until her death on October 18, 1837.

The plantation continued to prosper under the supervision of her four surviving sons. The youngest, Alexander Grier Neel, resided in the house until his death on February 25, 1898. For many years, Alexander served as an elder in the Steele Creek Presbyterian Church, thereby carrying on the Neel tradition of active membership in that congregation. Indeed, many members of the family are buried in the cemetery there. The most prominent of Samuel’s children was William Henry Neel, his eldest son. Acquiring the title of “General” because of his leadership of the local antebellum militia, General Neel maintained a keen interest in public affairs. Married in 1819 to Miss Hannah G. Alexander, he lived in a home which he constructed nearby. He was County Commissioner and a member of the Steele Creek Presbyterian church. He derived his livelihood from the cultivation and processing of cotton. He was one of the first citizens in Mecklenburg County to engage in the cotton manufacturing business. In the years before the Civil War, he operated a cotton mill near his home. Alexander Grier Neel’s widow and children sold the Neel House and surrounding property in 1899. In the second decade of this century it was purchased by Benjamin F. Withers, who lived on what was then East Ave. in Charlotte at the present location of the Lawyers Building. Mr. Withers conducted farming and dairy operations on the property and used the house as a summer residence. His son and daughter-in-law, Hannah J. Withers, lived in the house for a short time after they were married. Their daughter and son-in-law, James B. Craighill, also moved into the house as newlyweds, residing there for about four years. The house has continued to serve as a rural retreat for the Withers family.

7. A brief architectural description of the property: This report contains an architectural description prepared by Jack O. Boyte.

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

a. Historical and cultural significance: The historical and cultural significance of the property known as the Neel House rests upon two factors. First, it has strong associative ties with a family of considerable local prominence. Second, it has architectural value as one of the finer Federal Style plantation houses extant in Mecklenburg County. Indeed, it is the only structure of its type in the Steele Creek Community.

b. Suitability for preservation and restoration: The Neel House retains much of its original integrity and therefore is suitable for preservation and restoration.

c. Educational value: The Neel House has educational value as one of the finer older homes Mecklenburg County.

d. Cost of acquisition, restoration, maintenance or repair: The Commission has no intention of purchasing this property nor is it aware of any intention of the owner to sell. The Commission assumes that all costs associated with renovating and maintain the structure will be paid by the owner or subsequent owners of the property.

e. Possibilities for adaptive or alternative use of the property: The Commission concurs with the present owner’s intention to maintain the house as a viable dwelling. The house could be transformed into a house museum.

f. Appraised value: The current tax appraisal of the structure is $8,220. The current tax appraisal value of the land is $68,140. The Commission is aware that designation of the property would allow the owner to apply for a special tax classification.

g. The administrative and financial responsibility of any person or organization to underwrite all or a portion of such costs: As indicated earlier, the Commission has no intention of purchasing this property. Furthermore, the Commission assumes all costs associated with the structure will be net by whatever party now owns or will subsequently own the property. Clearly, the present owner has demonstrated the capacity to meet the expenses associated with maintaining the structure.

9. Documentation of why and in what ways the property meets the criteria established for inclusion of the National Register of Historic Places: The Commission judges that the property known as the Neel House does meet the criteria of the National Register of Historic Places. Basic to the Commission’s judgement is its knowledge of the fact that the National Register of Historic Places functions to identify properties of local and state historic significance. The Commission believes that the property known as the Neel House is of local historic significance and thereby meets the criteria of the National Register of Historic Places.

10. Documentation of why and in what ways the property is of historical importance to Charlotte and/or Mecklenburg County: As noted earlier, the property known as the Neel House is of local historic importance for two reasons. First, it has strong associative ties with a family of considerable local prominence. Henry Neel was among the first settlers in the Steele Creek Community. His son, Samuel, made the house the center of a major cotton plantation. His son, Alexander, was an elder in the Steele Creek Presbyterian Church. General Neel was prominent in political and commercial affairs. Second, the house has architectural value as one of the finer Federal Style plantation houses extant in Mecklenburg County.

Bibliography

An Inventory of Older Buildings in Mecklenburg County and Charlotte for the Historic Properties Commission.

Materials supplied to James A. Stenhouse by James B. Craighill.

Records of the Mecklenburg County Register of Deeds Office.

Records of the Mecklenburg County Tax Office.

Date of preparation of this report: May 31, 1976

Prepared by: Dr. Dan L. Morrill
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Properties Commission
139 Middleton Drive
Charlotte, NC 28207

Telephone: (704) 332-2726

In Southern Mecklenburg County, where Shopton Road approaches the Catawba River at Armour’s Creek, stands the remarkably preserved ancestral home of the Neel family. This two story Federal house, with Georgian influences, is an exceptional example of the plantation architecture favored by the hardy 18th century Scotch-Irish settlers in Piedmont Carolina. Since its original erection, probably early in the nineteenth century, the house has been constantly inhabited, most of the time by members of the Neel family, so it has suffered no damage from neglect and little from weather or age. The house is a simple two story rectangular structure with a one story lean-to wing extending across the full width at the rear. Built on a high knoll and facing southeast toward the river, the house has a center hall plan with two primary rooms on each floor. Two lesser rooms occur off the hall in the lean-to, and one is at the head of the stair. The front facade is three bays wide with symmetrically-placed nine-over-nine light windows at each side of the main entrance downstairs and three balancing six light-over-nine light windows on the second floor. Each end elevation features carefully crafted double shouldered chimneys rising high above a gabled roof. Single windows flank these chimneys on each floor, and small, four light garret windows occur beside the chimneys in the gable walls at each end. In the southwest end of the first floor lean-to is a small single shouldered chimney flanked also by six light over six light windows.

All chimneys are of hand-made brick, likely produced on the farm, and expertly so, since they show no deterioration. Brick colors range from deep brownish and bluish red to lighter sand and earth tone buff, also typical of the eighteenth century Plantation brick of this region. Coursing is Flemish bond and shows the expected queen closers at each corner. The chimneys rest on field stone bases which rise to the same height as the solid foundation walls of the house, also of field stone. Above this foundation wall, the exterior surfaces of the house are covered with moderately wide clapboard finished on the lower edges with a delicate hand planed bead. Corners are defined with narrow boards joined at a beaded edge. At the eave a shallow overhang rests on a relatively plain bed mold with no frieze. The overhang facia is trimmed with wide intricately-shaped shingle molding. This wide molding is repeated in the barge trim on the gable rake. The barge molding terminates at the eave ends in a unique pedestal, designed as the top of a small classical pilaster and capital and showing strong Georgian influences.

Exterior window and door openings are surrounded with elaborate wide casing. One piece window sills are exceptionally heavy molded wood with bull nose edges turning down to a cavetto form below. A tall exterior windows are original three panel blinds with hand-wrought strap hinges and drive pintles still in place. The original six panel front and rear doors are intact, set in fine heavy molded frames which include four light transoms above both entrances. The high pitched roof is now covered with tin sheets, though the original surfaces were likely hand riven cypress or oak shingles smoothed with a draw knife. On entering the front door one encounters a strangely narrow canter hall running front to rear. Just inside the entrance, the hall forms a small foyer from which doors open at the left into an elegant dining room and at the right into a much simpler and smaller parlor. In the rear portion of the hall, whose length is reduced by an interior door at the rear of the two story section of the house, is a narrow stair which begins with steep winders in the rear hall corner and rises in a single run toward the front thirteen feet to a small second floor landing. This stair occurs within the hall space and results in a hall width barely adequate for the rear interior door. The stair is relatively simple and cramped yet it features exceptionally fine scroll brackets at the ends of open treads on the string. Walls in the first floor hall are plaster above fine molded chair railing. Below this are carefully trimmed recessed wood panels forming a sophisticated wainscot. At the top, a simple crown mold joins the plaster walls to flat wide ceiling boards. The door leading from the foyer to the dining room is not original, but when one enters this room an extraordinary display of elegant trim appears. Most striking is the large fireplace surrounded by a sophisticated mantle and overmantle. This woodwork is an elaborate combination of molded and reeded members delicately fabricated by hand to create an impressive center piece.

While the work is light and somewhat delicate, it still has a Georgian character. In this room, which encompasses half of the first floor area, there is also fine panelled wainscoting on all walls below plastered upper surfaces. The repeated recessed panels in the wainscot are two feet or more wide and fabricated from a single board. At the ceiling, a massive modillion cornice surrounds the room. Featuring intricate molded bands with an intermediate reeded band, this cornice includes a continuous line of small dentils separated by round pierced inserts. The ceiling consists of wide tongue and grooved boards on whose surface one can see the elongated plane marks typical of hand finished material. Floors are also hand-planed wide tongue and grooved pine planks. In this room one window faces the front and two occur at the side, flanking the centered fireplace. A noteworthy feature in this fireplace is the hearth formed of large flat sand stone slabs. It is said that these stones have the ability to trap and hold heat, and thus provide a lasting warming surface for food containers.

In the rear dining room wall an original door leads to a small lean-to room containing a simple fireplace. This was likely a pantry area and the fireplace used to warm food prepared in an exterior kitchen. Much of the finish work in the lean-to room has been replaced with modern materials in recent years. From the entrance foyer a hall door on the right opens into a surprisingly simple parlor. Since the dining room is so elaborately decorated, the restrained detailing in the parlor is more striking. The fireplace in this room is quite small and surrounded with-just a minimum of narrow molded trim. There is no over mantel. Walls in this room have molded panel wainscoting with the same chair rail that occurs elsewhere. Above this the surfaces are plaster and terminate at a narrow crown mold joining smooth, hand-planed ceiling boards. Of the three second floor rooms, the large master bedchamber dominates. This room comprises fully half of the second floor area and matches the size of the dining room below. In this room the panelled wainscoting with smooth wide surfaces cut from boards fully two feet presents an impressive lower wall finish. Above this, plastered surfaces extend to a simple crown mold at the wood ceiling. The fireplace in this room is small and simple.

On the opposite side of the stair landing is a small unimposing bed-chamber. In this room the trim is simple, though there is fine wainscoting similar to that found elsewhere in the house. There is no fireplace in this chamber even though the chimney at this end is double shouldered with the high shoulder above the expected location of second floor fireplaces. As a matter of fact, the house has been altered on several occasions. Some changes appear to have been made early in the nineteenth century. Aside from the obvious removal of the east side second floor fireplace, there are strong indications that a garret stair was installed in the corner of the small bedchamber in the early 1800s. Several changes in the garret framing were made soon after the original construction, including the addition of four light garret windows in the early years. The entire garret is now floored with modern planks. In the garret one can see the remarkable hand hewn rafters and joists mortised and tenoned and secured with trenails. Each member is marked in a Roman numeral series. This is typical of the identification method used by early craftsmen for ground fabrication and fitting prior to the erection of heavy framing members. In the attic the original rough water sawn shingling strips remain with ends of the original stamped shingling sprigs showing. The massive water sawn exterior framing members are exposed in a small closet below the garret stair. These members are fully six inches or more square and joined with typical mortise and tenoned connections secured with large wooden pegs, no nails having been used in the frame of the house. In this closet area one can see the exceptional brick ‘noggin’ (or filler) which occurs between all of the exterior wall studs. Plaster surfaces are applied directly to this brick on both floors and remain in fine condition.

There is one original dependency remaining in the main house vicinity. A two story log storage building stands at the rear which retains much of its original material. Of particular note is a fine handmade battened door with original wrought iron strap hinges. During the middle years of the eighteenth century, the Piedmont region of North Carolina south of Salisbury saw a steady influx of Scotch-Irish settlers. After early years in log structures, most of which have been lost, these families steadily improved their fortunes and around the turn of the century and many of them built more sophisticated manor houses. The Neel House is an outstanding example of this Federal period architecture in Mecklenburg, and must be numbered among the most important structures remaining in the county. Its preservation and restoration are essential.