THE GEORGE PIERCE WADSWORTH HOUSE
This report was written on 20 March 1994

1. Name and location of the property: The property known as the George Pierce Wadsworth House is located at 400 S. Summit Avenue in the Wesley Heights neighborhood of Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.

2. Name address and telephone number of the present owner of the property: The owner of the property is:
Mr. Charles McClure
McClure Properties, Inc.
3027 Maple Grove Drive
Charlotte, North Carolina 28208

(704) 332-1559

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 maps which depict the location of the property.

5. Current deed book references to the property: The George Pierce Wadsworth House is sited on Tax Parcel Number 071-24-11 and listed in Mecklenburg County Deed Book 3914 at page 503.

6. A brief historical sketch of the property: This report contains a brief historical sketch of the property prepared by Frances P. Alexander.

7. A brief architectural description of the property: This report contains brief architectural description of the property prepared by Frances P. Alexander.

8. Documentation of why and in what ways the properties meet 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 George Pierce Wadsworth House property does possess special significance in terms of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. The Commission bases its judgement on the following considerations:
1) the George Pierce Wadsworth House was designed in 1910 by prominent North Carolina architect, Louis H. Asbury;
2) the George Pierce Wadsworth House is one of the earliest houses in the westside streetcar suburb of Wesley Heights;
3) the George Pierce Wadsworth House was the home of an important local businessman, whose enterprises illustrate the economic activities of the city during the early twentieth city;
4) the George Pierce Wadsworth House, and subsequent residential construction in Wesley Heights, illustrate the expansion of the city through the suburban subdivision of surrounding farmsteads; and
5) the George Pierce Wadsworth House property contains a servant’s quarters/carriage house, an increasingly rare building type in the city of Charlotte.

b. Integrity of design, setting, workmanship, materials, feeling, and association: The Commission contends that the architectural description by Frances P. Alexander included in this report demonstrates that the George Pierce Wadsworth House property meet this criterion.

9. Ad Valorem Tax Appraisal: The Commission is aware that designation would allow the owner to apply for an automatic deferral of 50% of the Ad Valorem taxes on all or any portion of the property which becomes a designated historic landmark. The current appraised value of the improvements to the George Pierce Wadsworth House is $153,210.00. The current appraised value of the George Pierce Wadsworth House, Tax Parcel Number 071-024-11 is $54,700.00. The total appraised value of the George Pierce Wadsworth House is $207,910.00. Tax Parcel Number 071-024-11 is zoned 02.
Date of Preparation of this Report: 20 March 1994

Prepared by: Frances P. Alexander, M.A.
for
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission
P.O. Box 35434
Charlotte, North Carolina 28235

(704) 376-9115

Physical Description

Location and Site Description

The George Pierce Wadsworth House is located in the Wesley Heights neighborhood, an early twentieth century streetcar suburb, of Charlotte, North Carolina. The Wadsworth House sits on a corner lot at the junction of South Summit Avenue and West Second Street, two blocks north of the West Morehead Street thoroughfare. The tracks of the former Piedmont and Northern Railway follow Litaker Street, one block south of the Wadsworth House. This house is one of the larger and earlier houses in this residential neighborhood of tree-lined streets. Much of the surrounding neighborhood dates to the 1920s and 1930s.

Facing Summit Avenue, the George Pierce Wadsworth House is sited off-center on its lot with a curved drive and porte cochere on the West Second Street side and a circular drive between the rear of the house and the servant’s quarters. Portions of the original scored carriage driveway with high rounded curbs remain. The servant’s quarters/carriage house is located directly to the rear of the main house. An original walkway runs along the front of the house with a walkway and steps connecting the front walk with the rear drive. The gardens and yard are found on the south and southwest sides of the house. Vestiges of the terraced lawn survive as do some original plantings, including now mature oak and maple trees. The Wadsworth House is now operated as a funeral home.

The proposed designation includes the house, the servant’s quarters/carriage house, and the surrounding yard.

Architectural Description

Main House

The George Pierce Wadsworth House is a large, two and one-half story, frame house sheathed in wood shingles. The house has a truncated L-shaped plan formed by the rectangular massing of the main block and the two story rear ell. The house has a raised, brick foundation, a hip roof covered in asphalt shingles, overhanging eaves, and hip roofed dormers. A hip roofed porch extends across the facade and terminates in a porte cochere on the north side. The wide porch has shingled box piers and a shingled skirt between the piers. The facade has four irregularly placed bays and an off-center entrance. The wide entrance has divided sidelights and transom, and the door has a multiple light upper section. The windows vary in size and type, but most are sixteenover-one light, double hung, wooden sash. Banks of Craftsman style windows are located in the southwest corner of the second floor, corresponding to a sleeping porch. An inset summer porch beneath the sleeping porch has a hipped roof bay on the southwest elevation and a single entrance, with transom, on the rear elevation. The window openings in the bay and rear door are screened. The house has both interior and exterior brick chimneys. A molded projecting cornice divides the two main floors of the house.

The rear ell has an irregular massing. The first floor has a gable roof with an engaged porch roof over an enclosed porch. A modern double loading door and a single door are found on the rear elevation of the enclosed porch. The second floor is smaller than the first and has a hip roof extending from the roof of the main block.

The interior has a wide, formal entrance hall which extends to the rear porch. A horizontal paneled door separates the rear porch from the entrance hall. The front hall is flanked by a long living room and a dining room. The entrance hall now has linoleum floors, but the plaster walls, wide, molded door surrounds, base moldings, and a tall chair railing are original. A broad staircase, with square, classical box balusters and curved newel, rises to a landing with a segmental arched, stained glass window. The window has a fixed light transom, and the lower section is a casement window. The stairs are now carpeted. At the stair landing, there is a door opening which originally contained a staircase to the attic. This opening is now closed.

The long living room is separated from the hall by paneled pocket doors. Opposite the hall doorway is a fireplace with a paneled mantel. The ceiling has exposed wooden beams, with original drop globe lamps, and the hardwood floors of the living room are now carpeted. Double multiple light doors in the southwest corner of the room open into the summer porch.

The dining room also has plaster walls and exposed ceiling beams, paneled wainscoting, and Arts and Crafts chandelier, but no fireplace. A paneled door in the northwest corner opens into a butler’s pantry which, in turn, leads into the kitchen. The hardwood floors in the dining room are carpeted. The butler’s pantry has built-in cabinets along the interior walls.

Behind the living room is a small study. The study opens off a small hall, with a closet and small bathroom. Opposite the hall door to the study is a multiple light door, opening onto the summer porch. The doors and windows repeat the broad, molded surrounds, and there is a wide, flat chair railing. The study has a notable oversized fireplace mantel constructed of brick. The mantel is composed of a flat, brick back wall from which a molded classical mantel projects. The room also contains original Arts and Craft wall light fixtures. The hardwood floors in the study are also carpeted.

Located in the rear ell, the kitchen has undergone little alteration although it is now used as a preparation room for the funeral home. The kitchen repeats the wide, molded door and windows surrounds, and the use of horizontally paneled doors. Some original fixtures are intact. To the rear of the kitchen is the laundry room. Along the south side of the kitchen and laundry room is the enclosed porch which contains an open rear staircase leading to the second floor main staircase landing. The staircase has box balusters and newel. The walls and ceiling of the porch have the original vertical wood paneling except along the south wall where the porch has been enclosed. One window, along the kitchen wall, has been infilled. The second floor has four bedrooms, two sleeping porches, and two bathrooms. The second floor hall runs the width of the house, although a portion of the hall on the south side has a door opening to close off two bedrooms and a bathroom. The hall has original light fixtures. The bedrooms all have original horizontal paneled doors, wide, molded surrounds, and plaster walls and ceilings. The hall and the bedrooms are all now carpeted. Two of the bedrooms have fireplaces, and the paneled mantels are original. The bathrooms have their original fixtures, including freestanding tubs, sinks, and tile. The sleeping porch on the south side was used as a kitchen when this portion of the second floor was converted to an apartment, probably in the late 1940s. However, the kitchen fixtures are freestanding and have required little alteration.

The house has undergone relatively little alteration despite the change in function. Some general deterioration is evident, notably in the rear service areas of the house, but otherwise the historic fabric is intact.

Servant’s Quarters/Carriage House

The Servant’s Quarters/Carriage House is located at the rear of the property and is separated from the main house by the circular driveway. This building is a one story tall, frame building with a rectangular plan. This building has a brick foundation, shingled veneer, and asphalt shingled, hip roof. The two bays of the garage occupy the northern half of the building, and the living quarters the southern portion. The hinged, double doors to the garage appear to be replacements. The living portion of the building has an engaged porch at the south end, and the porch is supported by classical box piers. This south elevation has three irregular bays. The door occupies the easternmost bay, and there are two windows. The east elevation is symmetrical with a central entrance, covered by a modern metal awning, and two flanking windows. The windows in this building, as in the main house, are sixteen-over-one light, double hung, wooden sash. The building has one interior, brick chimney. The garage is still used as such, and the servant’s quarters are used for storage. The building has good integrity.

Historical Overview

The George Pierce Wadsworth House was designed by prominent North Carolina architect, Louis H. Asbury, in 1910, and construction was completed in 1911 (Louis H. Asbury, Book of Commissions, Job No. 71, July 1910). Local businessman, George Wadsworth commissioned Asbury to build his new house on property which the Wadsworth Land Company had recently subdivided into Wesley Heights, a middle class suburb located west of downtown between West Trade Street and W. Morehead Street. The George Pierce Wadsworth House was one of the first houses built in the new suburb which was called Wesley Park on early plans (C.G. Hubbel, Wesley Park Map, July 1910).

By 1892, much of the hillside between Tuckaseegee Road and Sugaw Creek had been acquired by George Wadsworth’s father, John W. Wadsworth (1835-1895), who ran the largest livery stable in Charlotte. In addition to his livery at North Tryon Street and Sixth Street, Wadsworth also assisted in operating the first horsedrawn streetcar system in the city. Coming to Charlotte in 1857, John Wadsworth began with a small drove of mules and gradually built a large livestock, carriage, and harness business while acquiring extensive land holdings in the city and county (Hanchett, 1984: 14; Mull, 1985: 1). On the westside parcel, where the George Pierce Wadsworth House was later built, Wadsworth operated the “J.W. Wadsworth Model Farm”, which was known for its Holstein cattle. At his death in 1895, Wadsworth’s heirs incorporated the livery and livestock business as Wadsworth Sons Company and subdivided the farm. However, development was delayed after 1909, when the West Trade Street trolley began service north of the property. With streetcar service, the Wadsworths began plans for developing the former farm, but construction was again largely stalled until after World War I when the Charlotte Investment Company bought the land.

George Wadsworth was born in 1879 to John Wadsworth and Margaret Cannon Wadsworth, sister of J.W. Cannon, founder of Cannon Mills. After college in Virginia and Baltimore, George Wadsworth returned to Charlotte to assume the presidency of Wadsworth Sons Company in 1902. George Wadsworth soon began diversifying the family business interests, a necessary step as automobile travel began replacing horsedrawn conveyances. In 1912, he organized Smith-Wadsworth Hardware Company, and in 1914, he helped establish the Carolina Baking Company, which later was subsumed within the Southern Baking Company. Wadsworth was also associated with the Charlotte National Bank as a director. In 1925, Wadsworth Sons Company was liquidated, ending seventy years of local livery and livestock operations. Wadsworth continued his business interests with the Wadsworth Land Company and the Wadsworth-Seborn Company, a sales operation for Reo cars throughout the Carolinas. His other real estate operations included serving as an officer for the Pegram Land Company. The holdings of both Wadsworth and the Pegram Company were platted as North Charlotte (Mull, 1985: 2).

George Wadsworth commissioned Charlotte architect, Louis H. Asbury to design the house at 400 South Summit in 1910, two years after his marriage and the birth of two children. A Charlotte native, Asbury (1877-1975), had established his practice in the city only two years before the Wadsworth commission. Prior to returning to his hometown, Asbury had received his professional training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and had worked for the nationally known firm of Cram, Goodhue, and Ferguson, in either its New York or Boston office. Later joined by his son, Asbury had an extensive regional practice until his retirement in 1956. A founding member of the North Carolina Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, Asbury was among a group of early architects in the city who brought a degree of sophistication, urbanity, and professionalism to early twentieth century building in Charlotte. His clients, exemplified by George Wadsworth, tended to be the businessmen responsible for the growing importance of Charlotte as a regional center for the textile and banking industries (Farnsworth, 1975: 16).

The Wadsworth family continued to live in the house after the sudden death of George Wadsworth in 1930 at the age of 51. James Dallas Ramsey, an officer of the Textron-Southern Company, and his wife, Pearl Shelby Ramsey bought the house in 1936. The Ramseys converted a portion of the west side of the second floor to an apartment and adapted a small sleeping porch as a kitchen, probably during the late 1940s. The Ramseys moved in 1967, and the house stood vacant for two years. In 1969, Mrs. Ramsey sold the property to prominent businessman, Worthy D. Hairston (1902-1969) and his wife, Marie S. Hairston. Hairston, a funeral director who had established the Hairston’s House of Funerals in 1930, moved his business from its Beatties Ford Road location to the Wadsworth House in 1969 (McClure Interview, 29 November 1993).

A Biddleville resident and the son of a Presbyterian minister, Worthy D. Hairston, had attended Charlotte public schools, Harbison College, and Johnson C. Smith University. Prior to forming the funeral home, Hairston was a builder, having trained as a carpenter, and a teacher in Mecklenburg and Gaston counties. His local building projects included the Murkland School in Providence Township, the first school for blacks constructed of stone, and the Grand Theater. Mr. Hairston also served as the first agent for the Washington National Insurance Company in Charlotte. In 1930, Hairston and a partner formed Hairston’s House of Funerals, but after his partner’s death in 1933, Hairston became the sole owner. Worthy Hairston lived less than a year after moving the funeral home to the Wadsworth House, and the Hairstons’ daughter, Marie H. Pettice, operated the business until her death in the mid-1970s. In 1977, Mrs. Hairston’s nephew, Charles McClure, bought the Wadsworth House property. McClure, vho already had an extensive real estate business as well as other commercial operations, continued to operate Hairston’s House of Funerals. McClure changed the name to Northwest Funerals Homes, Inc., and the business is still in operation at this site today (Mull, 1985: 4-5).

Unlike the other early streetcar suburbs in Charlotte, such as Myers Park, Dilworth, and Elizabeth, Wesley Heights was platted without the wide boulevards along which the streetcars ran and which were developed with large, impressive residences. Streetcar service, which was essential to the development of outlying locations prior to the widespread use of automobiles, was available nearby, but did not run through the Wesley Heights neighborhood. After World War I, the Charlotte Investment Company platted roughly half the land, including Summit Avenue, Grandin Road, and Walnut Avenue. The plat extended from West Trade Street and Tuckaseegee Road southwest of the interurban line of the Piedmont and Northern Railway which bisected the former farm parcel (Hanchett 1984: 15). (The Wadsworth House is located one block northeast of the railroad tracks.)

Wesley Heights was the work of Charlotte real estate developer, E.C. Griffith. Griffith, a Virginia native, was pivotal in the construction of many early twentieth century neighborhoods in Charlotte, and Wesley Heights was his first solo project in the city. Griffith had come to Charlotte to work in the real estate department of the American Trust Company, founded, with F.C. Abbott and Word Wood, by George Stephens. Stephens, who was responsible for subdividing the farm of his father-in-law, J.S. Myers, as Myers Park, employed Griffith to oversee the final construction of this streetcar suburb (Blythe, 1961: 306). From Myers Park, Griffith continued his real estate career with Wesley Heights in the early 1920s, but developed the Rosemont subdivision of Elizabeth and Eastover during the same period. By the 1930s, Griffith had been responsible, in some capacity, for the streetcar suburbs which encircled the city.

Development in Wesley Heights was slow initially, but as the population of Charlotte more than doubled between 1910 and 1930, real estate sales improved (Blythe, 1961: 173). In 1928, the second half of Wesley Heights was platted, extending Summit, Grandin, and Walnut Avenues across the railroad to West Morehead Street (Hanchett, 1984: 16). As part of the Wesley Heights project, Griffith focused on the development of West Morehead, which until 1927 had been a minor downtown street. By extending the street across Irwin Creek through the edge of Wesley Heights, Griffith made West Morehead an important link between downtown and Wilkinson Boulevard, the first highway in North Carolina, leading from Charlotte to Gastonia. Griffith encouraged industry to take advantage of these good transportation connections, and persuaded J.B. Duke’s Piedmont and Northern Railway to extend a spurline south to parallel the new thoroughfare (Hanchett, 1984: 17).

Wesley Heights was platted with a grid street pattern, and the lots along the principal northeast-southwest streets were long and narrow, to maximize proximity to the street rail system. House construction was determined, in part, because of the limited streetcar service, and frame bungalows predominated in the area during the l910s and early 1920s. During the late 1920s and 1930s, construction included numerous examples of one story, brick, cross gable cottages, making Wesley Heights a homogeneous neighborhood of bungalows, restrained Tudor Revival cottages, small four unit apartment houses, as well as some earlier and later exceptions to this pattern. The George Pierce Wadsworth House is one of the earliest, and perhaps only architect designed houses in this middle class neighborhood of tree-lined streets.

The changes in ownership and function of the George Pierce Wadsworth House since 1969 illustrate changes in the composition of some older Charlotte neighborhoods. The extensive urban renewal programs of the l950s and 1960s displaced large segments of the black population and put many blacks onto the housing market. In inner city neighborhoods, such as Wesley Heights, housing pressures transformed the formerly white neighborhood. By the 1970s, virtually all residents of Wesley Heights were black. The conversion of the Wadsworth House to a funeral home, after purchase by a long-standing black business family, exemplifies the metamorphosis of this residential area.

Conclusion

Designed by a well-known local architect for a wealthy patron, the George Pierce Wadsworth House breaks with the surrounding homogeneity of Wesley Heights in the size of the parcel, the layout of house and gardens, and the architectural sophistication of the house. Occupying the equivalent of three lots, the Wadsworth House is a large, two and one-half story residence in an area of relatively dense, one story bungalows and cottages. The house, large gardens (vestiges of which remain), carriage drive, and servant’s quarters form an ensemble which contrasts to the uniformly middle class composition of the surrounding area. The survival of the servant’s quarters/carriage house is rare and further underscores the contrast with later construction. Architecturally, the irregular massing, materials, and detailing make the George Pierce Wadsworth House an impressive and rare local example of the Arts and Crafts movement from the early twentieth century.

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

Blythe, LeGette and Charles Raven Brockmann. Hornets’ Nest: The Story of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. Charlotte: McNally of Charlotte, 1961.

Farnsworth, Julie. “Louis Asbury: Builder of a City.” Charlotte Observer, 24 March 1975.

Hanchett, Thomas W. Charlotte Neighborhood Survey: An Architectural Inventory. Volume III. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Properties Commission, November 1984.

Hubbel, C.G. Plat Map. Wesley Park, Section 1, Wadsworth Lend Company, Charlotte, North Carolina. Records of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission.

Interview with Charles McClure, 23 April 1985. Interview conducted by Barbara M. Mull. Records of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission.

Interview with Charles McClure, 29 November 1994. Interview conducted by Frances P. Alexander and Robert Drakeford, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission Member.

Mull, Barbara M. Historical Sketch of the Wadsworth-Ramsey House. April 1985. Records of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Company. Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, 1929.

THE LUCIAN H. WALKER HOUSE

This report was writen on January 2, 1989

1. Name and location of the property: The property known as the Lucian H. Walker House is located at 328 East Park Avenue, Charlotte, N.C.

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

Scott C. Lovejoy
Hedrick, Eatman, Gardner & Kincheloe
P.O. Box 30397
Charlotte, N.C., 28230

Telephone: 704/377-1511

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

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

5. Current Deed Book Reference to the property: The most recent deed to this property is recorded in Mecklenburg County Deed Book 5828, Page 269.
The Tax Parcel Number of the property is: 123-076-10

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

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

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

a. Special significance in terms of its history, architecture, and/or cultural importance: The Commission judges that the property known as the Lucian H. Walker House does possess special significance in terms of Charlotte-Mecklenburg. The Commission bases its judgment on the following considerations: 1) the Lucian H. Walker House, erected in 1894, belongs to the most significant concentration of pre-l900 suburban homes in Charlotte, N.C.; 2) the Lucian H. Walker House, most likely designed by architect Charles Christian Hook (1869-1938), is one of the oldest homes in Dilworth, Charlotte’s initial streetcar suburb, and exhibits architectural features, especially its overall form and massing, which are unique among the extant pre-l900 houses in Dilworth; and 3) the Lucian H. Walker House, situated on a corner lot on the southwestern quadrant of the intersection of E. Park Ave. and Euclid Ave., occupies a place of strategic importance in terms of the surrounding Dilworth streetscapes.

b. Integrity of design, setting, workmanship, materials, feeling, and/or association: The Commission contends that the architectural description by Dr. Dan L. Morrill which is included in this report demonstrates that the Lucian H. Walker 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 improvement is $115,650. The current appraised value of the .241 acres of land is $30,000. The total appraised value of the property is $145,650. The most recent tax bill on the property was $1,827.18. The property is zoned R6-MF.

Date of Preparation of this Report: January 2, 1989

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

Telephone: 704/376-9115

Historical Overview

Dr. William H. Huffman
June, 1988

The Walker house, located at the southwest Corner of Park and Euclid Avenues in Dilworth, was built in 1894 by Lucian H. and Annie S. Walker, and the architect was probably C. C. Hook, one of Charlotte’s outstanding practitioners of that art.

Dilworth, the city’s first streetcar suburb, was a product of the growth spurred by late nineteenth-century New South industrialization based on cotton mills in and around the city. It was developed by entrepreneur Edward Dilworth Latta ( 1851-1925). The Princeton-educated South Carolina native opened a men’s clothing store in Charlotte in 1876, and in 1883, as part of the city’s industrial boom of that decade which centered around cotton mills and mill machinery suppliers, he opened a men’s pants factory. In 1890, Latta formed a development firm, the Charlotte Consolidated Construction Company (known locally as the 4C’s) and bought 422 acres a mile or so southwest of town, and had a new subdivision laid out in a grid pattern.

Along the main boulevards and some major side streets, large houses would be built for the well-to-do, with more modest bungalows being built on most of the side streets. To draw prospective buyers out from the city, in 1891 Latta bought out the city’s horse-drawn streetcar line and installed a new electric trolley system that ran from the Square out to Dilworth. Other attractions were a major amusement park (Latta Park) with boating lake, a pavilion for traveling shows, ball fields and a racetrack. Sales promotion was boosted by selling lots on easy installment terms, so that a prospective buyer could be persuaded to use the “rent money” to purchase a new home. Lucian Walker was a bookkeeper at the Mecklenburg Iron Works in 1894 when he and his wife Annie commissioned the 4C’s to build a house for them on Park Avenue.2 It is most likely that the architect of the house was C. C. Hook, who worked for the 4C’s at the time.

Charles Christian Hook ( 1869-1938) was born to German immigrants in Wheeling, W.Va., and received his higher education at Washington University in St. Louis. When he came to Charlotte in 1900, his first position was as a teacher of mechanical drawing in the old South school. He began the practice of architecture by designing houses for Latta’s 4C’s in 1893. A contemporary newspaper article of that date elaborates:” E. D. Latta has arranged to introduce some new styles of architecture at Dilworth, and Mr. Hook will provide plans for five new style residences. The will include the “Queen Anne,” “Colonial,” and “Modern American” styles of architecture. All of the buildings will be built in the best manner, with slate roofs, fine interior finish and ornamental stairways.”3 Hook’s career eventually spanned forty-five years, during which he undertook many landmark commissions in the city and various parts of the state. At times, he was in partnership with others: Frank Sawyer. 1902-1907, Willard Rogers, 1912-1916, and with his son, W. W. Hook, 1924-1938. Among his best-known designs in Charlotte are the old Charlotte City Hall, the Charlotte Women’s Club, the J. B. Duke mansion, the Belk Department Store Trade Street facade of 1927, and the William Henry Belk mansion. Statewide, they include the west wing of the state capital in Raleigh, the Richmond County courthouse, Phillips Hall at UNC-Chapel Hill, the Science Hall at Davidson College, and the State Hospital in Morganton.4

In September, 1894, the Charlotte Observer, in its “Dilworth Dots” column, reported that “The McDowell, Walter, Harrill and Jones houses at Dilworth are in various stages of completion. Each would be an ornament to the city.”5 The following month, the reporter assigned to the Dilworth beat noted, “‘Wonder what color Mr. Walker is to paint the lower part of his house, as he is painting the roof yellow,'” the Observer has often heard asked. The combination will be white, yellow and green – new and effective.” The Harrill, Walker, McDowell, and Jones houses are all handsome additions to Dilworth.6

In December, “Dilworth Dots” recorded the completion of the Walker’s new home, after a note on some amenities in the new suburb: The people living in Dilworth will have almost as many conveniences as the people living in the city. Sewer pipes are now being laid along the boulevard. With this the houses can easily connect. Mr. and Mrs. Lucian Walker will be on the move early this morning.7 By 1902, the Charlotte City Directory records that Lucian Walker was a teller at the Charlotte National Bank, and lived on East Avenue. Annie Walker was shown as the Principal of the Primary Department of the Presbyterian College for Women (a forerunner of Queens College that was built on College Street in 1900-01).8 The following year the Walkers no longer appear in the Directories, and it seems probable that they moved from the city. Prom 1905 to 1912, the house was owned by Mrs. N. H. Bispham, a widow, who sold it to George M. Rose, Jr., and Mary Crow Rose, in which family it remained until 1965. 9 It subsequently passed through a number of owners as Dilworth has re-emerged as a vibrant, revitalized neighborhood and Historic District.

As a representative of the early houses in Dilworth and the early work of C. C. Hook, the Walker house is an important part of that community’s historic fabric.

Notes
1 Dan L. Morrill, “Edward Dilworth Latta and the Charlotte Consolidated Construction Company (1890-1925): Builders of a New South City, ” The North Carolina Historical Record 62(1985).293-316.

2 Charlotte City Directory, 1896/7, p. 86.

3 Charlotte Observer, June 4,1893, p.6.

4 Information on file at the Charlotte Mecklenburg Historic Properties Commission office

5 Charlotte Observer. September 15, 1894, p. 3.

6 Charlotte Observer. October 13,1894, p.4.

7 Charlotte Observer. December 4, 1894, p.6.

8 Charlotte City Directory. 1902, p. 463

9 Mecklenburg County Deed Books 198, p. 388; 291, p.634; 2653, p.537. Rose was a cotton broker with Rose-Webb & Co.: Charlotte City Directory. 1912, p. 368.

Architectural Description

The Lucian H. Walker House is a two story, frame dwelling with a brick pier foundation with subsequent brick in-fill, two off-center, interior brick chimneys, a large, wraparound columned porch with balustrade, shed dormers, and a gable roof and cross gables. Erected in 1894 on the southwestern quadrant of the intersection of Euclid Avenue and East Park Avenue in Dilworth, Charlotte’s initial streetcar suburb, it belongs to an assemblage of suburban houses that occupies a place of seminal influence in the architectural history of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. “Dilworth’s noteworthy residential architecture today includes not only some of the city’s few surviving Victorian houses, but also Charlotte’s first experiments with the Colonial Revival,” writes architectural historian Thomas W. Hanchett.1

Colonial Revivalism, which emphasizes classical ornamentation, geometric massing and, at least in North Carolina, simplicity of detail in comparison with the more adventuresome specimens of this motif found in the major cities of the North and Midwest, was probably the most popular example of historic electicism which emerged in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s in the United States, including the South. This widespread acclaim was in no small part due to the fact that Colonial Revivalism provided compelling images which enabled wealthy suburbanites to satisfy their “search for order” and their desire to live in an “idyllic escape from the overcrowding, crime, and ethnic strife identified with the city.” 3

It is true that Charlotte’s residential architecture began to undergo a fundamental but gradual transformation away from Vernacular and Victorian motifs and toward so-called “period house” styles, especially Colonial Revivalism, when Edward Dilworth Latta and his Charlotte Consolidated Construction company began selling lots and erecting suburban homes for affluent and middle class residents of Dilworth.3 “Early Dilworth was a curious concoction because its conception was more European than anything in America at the time,” contends historian David R. Goldfield. “Unlike most American suburbs but similar to most European neighborhoods,” he continues, “Dilworth presented a mixture of elite and middle-class residences.” According to Goldfield, this socio-economic heterogeneity gave rise to a “mixture of architectural styles” in Dilworth.4

Goldfield’s excessive claims for Dilworth’s uniqueness in American suburbanization notwithstanding, the neighborhood does contain a rich variety of architectural styles. Not surprisingly, most of the first houses were built on corner lots, where the owners could gain greater separation from their neighbors, at least on one side. Among them are the Harrill-Porter House, a Vernacular style Victorian house similar in its austere simplicity to many houses once found in the center city, including the back streets of Fourth Ward, and, even more significantly, the Mallonee-Jones House and the Robert J. Walker House, two Queen Anne style residences designed by Charles Christian Hook (1869-1938), a native of Wheeling, W. Va, graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., and an architect of local and regional importance.5

On June 4, 1893, the Charlotte Observer announced that: Mr. E. D. Latta has arranged to introduce some new styles of architecture at Dilworth, and Mr. Hook will provide plans for five new-style residences. They will include the “Queen Anne,” “Colonial,” and “Modern American” styles of architecture. All of the buildings will be built in the best manner, with slate roofs, fine interior finish and ornamental stairways.6

C. C. Hook was especially interested in ushering Colonial Revivalism into the local built environment. Commenting upon Hook’s intentions, the Charlotte Observer exclaimed in September, 1894, that Hook planned to erect a:

genuine, ‘ye olden time’ house . . . after the style of the typical Southern home, with four large columns, two full stories high, surmounted by a classical pediment. Mr. Hook . . . will make the plans after the true classical style of architecture, which at one time predominated in the South and is being revived. The most striking feature of the house will be its simplicity of design and convenience of arrangement. The so-called ‘filigree’ ornamentation will not consideration, and only the true design wit carried out and thus give Charlotte another style . . . 7

The earliest Colonial Revival style residence in Dilworth which is definitively attributable to C. C. Hook is the Gautier-Gilchrist House at 320 East Park Avenue.8 Its symmetrical facade, large gable roof with dormers, and modillion cornice stand in sharp contrast with the essentially asymmetrical massing and ornate decorative detail of Hook’s Mallonee-Jones House at 400 East Kingston Avenue and his Robert J. Walker House at 329 East Park Avenue.9 The Jones-Garibaldi House at 228 East Park Avenue, erected in 1894, is an even earlier example of Colonial Revivalism in Dilworth; it was probably designed by C. C. Hook, as, most likely, was the Lucian H. Walker House.10

The Lucian H. Walker House is difficult to classify in terms of architectural style. Its symmetrical massing, unadorned molded eaves, Palladian-like tripartite window arrangement near the top of the large, front pediment, and the wraparound porch which is bordered by a balustrade and attenuated, wooden Roman Doric columns with annulets, place the house within the traditions of classical design. Other features of the Lucian H. Walker House, however, most especially the off-center placement of the front entrance, which has sidelights and a transom, and the less than completely balanced fenestration (the majority of the windows are 1/1 sash), suggest that the house does not conform to Colonial Revivalism, such as one clearly encounters with the Jones-Garibaldi House, which was built in the same year, or the Villalonga-Alexander House, which C. C. Hook definitely designed. 11 Perhaps the Lucian H. Walker House is an example of what the Charlotte Observer called the “Modern American” style.12

The rear of the Lucian H. Walker House has experienced considerable modifications, including the interior rooms. Otherwise, the interior of the house retains its essential integrity. A somewhat clumsily-placed, center hallway bisects the first floor, with the parlor and its replacement mantel to the left front. The other mantels in the house are original, as are the ceramic tile fireplace surrounds and hearths. Base moldings, picture moldings, and crown moldings are typical of those found in other homes in the oldest section of Dilworth.

The most dramatic interior feature is an L-shaped stairway and balustrade which leads from the room on the right front to the second floor. On balance, however, the most significant architectural feature of the Lucian H. Walker House is its role in documenting the evolution of Charlotte’s suburban built environment in the late nineteenth century.

Footnotes
1 For a detailed analysis of the architecture of North Carolina’s early twentieth century suburbs, see Catherine W. Bishir and Lawrence S. Early, Early Twentieth-Century Suburbs in North Carolina: Essays on History, Architecture and Planning (Raleigh: Archeology and Historic Preservation Section, Division of Archives and History, North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, 1985), hereinafter cited as Suburbs. Thomas W. Hanchett, “Charlotte: Suburban Development in the Textile and Trade Center of the Carolinas.” In Suburbs, p. 72. The Colonial Revival style arose in the 1880’s and is attributed to the architectural firm McKim, Mead and White (Charles Fallen McKim, W. R. Mead, Stanford White). For additional information, see Marcus Whiffen, American Architecture Since 1780: A Guide to the Styles (Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 1969), pp.l59-165.

2 David R. Goldfield, “North Carolina’s Early Twentieth-Century Suburbs and the Urbanizing South”, Suburbs, p. 9. Margaret Supplee Smith, “The American Idyll in North Carolina’s First Suburbs: Landscape and Architecture”, Suburbs, p. 23.

3 For a comprehensive history of Dilworth, see Dan L. Morrill, “Edward Dilworth Latta and the Charlotte Consolidated Construction Company (1890-1925): Builders of a New South City” The North Carolina Historical Review (July, 1985), pp. 293-316.

4 David R. Goldfield, “North Carolina’s Early Twentieth-Century Suburbs and the Urbanizing South”, Suburbs, p. 9. For an explanation of the term “period house”, see John Poppeliers, S. Allen Chambers, and Nancy B. Schwartz, “What Style Is It? Part Four.” Historic Preservation (January-March, 1977), pp. 14-23.

5 Dr. Dan L. Morrill and Caroline Mesrobian, “Survey and Research Report On The Mallonee-Jones House” (Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Properties Commission, January 2, 1980). Hereinafter cited as Mallonee-Jones. Dr. Dan L. Morrill and Thomas W. Hanchett, “Survey and Research Report On The Harrill-Porter House” (Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Properties Commission, January 6, 1982). Dr. Dan L. Morrill and Caroline Mesrobian, “Survey and Research Report On The Robert J. Walker House” (Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Properties Commission, November 5, 1980). Hereinafter cited as Robert J. Walker.

6 Charlotte Observer, June 4, 1893.

7 Charlotte Observer, September 19, 1894. Hook’s earliest Colonial Revival design was for a house which no longer stands.

8 Dr. Dan L. Morrill and Caroline Mesrobian, “Survey and Research Report On The Gautier-Gilchrist House” (Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Properties Commission, January 7, 1981).

9 Mallonee-Jones. Robert Walker.

10 Dr. William H. Huffman and Dr. Dan L. Morrill, “Survey and Research Report On The Jones-Garibaldi House” (Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Properties Commission, February 5, 1986). Hereinafter cited as Jones-Garibaldi.

11 Jones-Garibaldi. Dr. Dan L. Morrill and Ruth Little-Stokes, “Survey and Research Report On The Villalonga-Alexander House (Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Properties Commission, June 4, 1978). The Villalonga-Alexander House was substantially damaged by fire on March 14, 1948.

12 Charlotte Observer, September 19, 1894.

1. Name and location of the property: The property known as Charlotte Fire Station 7 is located at 3210 North Davidson Street in Charlotte, N.C.
2. Name, address, and telephone number of the current owner of the property:

City of Charlotte

c/o Curt Walton, City Manager

600 East 4^th Street

Charlotte, N.C. 28202-2816

Telephone: (704) 336-2244

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 depicting the location of the property.  The UTM of the property is 17 517722E 3900253N
5. Current Tax Parcel Reference to the property:    The tax parcel number of the property is 083-085-15.
6. A brief historical sketch of the property:  This report contains a brief historical sketch of the property prepared by Dr. Dan L. Morrill.
7. A brief architectural description of the property:  This report contains a brief architectural description prepared by Stewart Gray.
8. Documentation of why and in what ways the property meets the criteria for designation set forth in N.C.G.S 160A-400.5. 
9. Special significance in terms of its history, architecture and/or cultural importance: The Commission judges that the property known as Charlotte Fire Station 7 possesses special significance in terms of Charlotte-Mecklenburg.  The Commission bases its judgment on the following considerations:

1) Charlotte Fire Station 7 stands as originally built in 1935, when the city of Charlotte established the station to service the North Charlotte neighborhood.

2) Charlotte Fire Station 7 represents the economic importance and social vitality of the North Charlotte neighborhood, even as it has seen the area evolve from a mill town to a thriving, local historic district.

3) Charlotte Fire Station 7 has special historical and institutional significance as a structure that originally housed both a fire company and a jail cell.

4) Charlotte Fire Station 7 has special significance architecturally as a typical local example of the “storefront style” urban fire station designed to blend in with the pre-existing built environment.

1. Integrity of design, setting, workmanship, materials, feeling and/or association: The Commission contends that the architectural description prepared by Stewart Gray demonstrates that Charlotte Fire Station 7 meets this criterion.
2. Ad Valorem Tax Appraisal:  The Commission is aware that designation would allow the owner to apply for an automatic deferral of 50% of the Ad Valorem taxes on all or any portion of the property which becomes a “historic landmark.”  The current appraised value of the building is $297,300.  The current appraised value of the 1.335 acres of land is $66,800.  The property is zoned C700.  The property is exempt from the payment of Ad Valorem Taxes.

A Brief History of Charlotte Fire Station #7

The historical significance of Fire Station Number 7 is best understood within the context of the evolution of firefighting in Charlotte, N.C.  Like other emerging industrial and commercial cities, Charlotte had to find ways to prevent widespread destruction of its man-made environment by fire.  The increased concentration of structures, many built with highly combustible materials, and some soaring to unprecedented heights, jeopardized the viability of urban life and necessitated the development of more systematic means to combat conflagrations. 1

Fire Truck in front of Fire Station 7

As elsewhere, the first firefighting companies in Charlotte were made up of volunteers.  Three were operating by 1865, the Hornet Steam Engine and Hose Company, the Independent Hook and Ladder Company, and the Neptune Hand Engine Company, the last organized and manned by African Americans.2  Theretofore, the residents of Charlotte, like those in other cities, had joined together as volunteers in bucket brigades to put down flames.

The City of Charlotte established the Charlotte Fire Department on August 1, 1887, after the volunteer firemen resigned over disagreements with the City.3  Volunteer firefighters throughout the country were generally not held in high esteem.  The public saw them as a “public menace,” as a rowdy bunch that exhibited many of the worst habits of male behavior.4   The heroic image of firemen as rescuers did not fully emerge until the late nineteenth century, when firefighters became municipal employees and began to emphasize the saving of human life rather than the protection of property.5

Charlotte’s First Municipal Fire Station

Charlotte’s first municipal fire station, destroyed in the 1970s, stood near the intersection of  East Trade Street and College Street.  A major improvement in Charlotte’s firefighting facilities occurred in 1891, when an imposing municipal building was erected at the corner of North Tryon and Fifth Sts.  This City Hall and Fire Station served Charlotte until October 1925, when the City moved its operations to a new municipal complex on East Trade St. and the former City Hall was destroyed.6  Architecturally, Charlotte’s first two fire stations were grand, lavishly decorated brick structures.  Partly a manifestation of the design tastes of the era, these buildings, it was hoped, would serve as commodious living quarters for firefighters and thereby improve their sense of morality and civic duty and underscore their heroic image.  “. . . the picture of the fireman risking all to save a child from a burning building was utmost in everyone’s mind,” writes historian Rebecca Zurier.7

This photograph, taken of a parade on E. Trade St. for the Confederate Veteran’s Parade in 1929, shows the original Fire Station in the streetscape on the left.

Charlotte Fire Station Number 7 was built in 1935 and was designed by Charles Christian Hook (1870-1938), an architect of local and regional importance in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.8   A native of Wheeling, W. Va. and graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., Hook had settled in Charlotte in 1891 to teach mechanical drawing in the Charlotte Public Schools and had established an architectural practice here the next year.   Initially involved primarily in the design of homes in Dilworth, Charlotte’s first streetcar suburb, Hook would go on to be the architect for a broad array of structures in Charlotte and its environs, including many municipal buildings.9

1. C. Hook
2. 

Former Fire Station No. 1.  The building is not extant.

Also the architect for the new City Hall and Fire Station on East Trade St. that opened in 1925, Hook fashioned Fire Station Number 7 as a facility reflective of the design principles and programmatic needs that had come to be associated with firehouses by the 1920s.10   The replacement of horses by the first motorized fire engines in Charlotte in 1911 meant that stations thereafter would not have to accommodate draft animals.11  “With the shift ‘from oats to gasoline,’ the requirements of the fire station changed,” states Rebecca Zurier.12 A greater ability to focus upon the health of firefighters now became possible, which led to the incorporation of such amenities as cement floors rather than wooden floors, ample windows for ventilation, and the placement of kitchens in stations to support a two-platoon system of labor, thereby shortening the work week for firemen.13

Charlotte Fire Station No. 6

Architects were also increasingly called upon to design fire stations that would be acceptable to suburbanites, many of whom were irate over the prospect of institutional buildings appearing in their neighborhoods.14    That Hook was able to respond effectively to this requirement is demonstrated by his design for Charlotte Fire Station No. 6, erected in 1928-29 on Laurel Avenue, which continues to function as a firehouse on the edge of the fashionable Eastover neighborhood.15  Fire Station No. 7 responds to the same desire to be sensitive to its streetscape. Situated in the commercial core of the North Charlotte Mill Village, it takes on the characteristics of the surrounding buildings in terms of scale, style, and construction materials.16  Also reflective of its industrial neighborhood was the fact that a jail cell was placed in the building, most likely to hold “rowdy” textile workers who labored in the nearby Highland Park Manufacturing Plant No. 3, the Mercury Mill, and the Johnston Mill.17

North Charlotte Textile Workers On An Outing

Only three pre-World War Two fire stations in Charlotte continue to serve their original purpose.  They are Fire Station Number 6, Fire Station Number 7, and Fire Station Number 5 erected in 1929 on Tuckaseegee Road, now Wesley Heights Way.18   Two other pre-World War Two properties survive in Charlotte that once belonged to the Charlotte Fire Department.  They are:  former Fire Station Number 2, erected on South Boulevard in 1909 in Dilworth and the Palmer Fire School on Monroe Road on the edge of the Elizabeth neighborhood.19

Fire Station No. 5

Palmer Fire School

Fire Station No. 2

Click Here For An Architectural History Of The Property.

1 Mark Tebeau, Eating Smoke: Fire in Urban America, 1800-1950 (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003), passim.  This is the most complete treatment of the history of firefighting in the United States.  Much of the information contained herein on Fire Station No. 7 is taken from Guy Aiken, “Survey and Research Report on Charlotte Fire Station 7,” a manuscript completed in December 2007 for a graduate course at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

2 Sally Young and Douglas D. Hickin, Charlotte Fire Department Since 1887 (Dallas: Taylor Publishing Company, 1988), 6.

3 Rebecca Zurier, The American Firehouse: An Architectural and Social History (New York:  Abbeville Press, 1978), 40.

4 Young and Hickin, 7.

5 Ibid., 9.

6 Ibid. 19.

7 Ibid., 20.

8 Lois Moore Yandle, The Spirit of a Proud People: Pictures and Stories of Highland Park Manufacturing Mill #3 and the People in the Village of North Charlotte (Columbia, SC: Lois Moore Yandle, 1997), 7.  Charlotte Building Permit No. 506 (December 15, 1934).

9 Levine Museum of the New South, Cotton Fields to Skyscrapers: Charlotte and the Carolina Piedmont in the New South, permanent exhibit (Charlotte, 2002).

10 Yandle, 8.

11 Charlotte Building Permit 506 (December 15, 1934).

12 Charlotte News (September 17, 1938).

13 Zurier, 32.

14 Ibid., 81.

15 Ibid.

16 Ibid., 72 (caption), 71 (caption).

17 Aiken, Yandle.  For additional information on the development of the North Charlotte Mill Village see surveys&rmeckmill.htm , surveys&rjohnstonmill.htm  ,  surveys&rhighlandmill3.htm

18 Young and Hickin.

19. http://cmhpf.org/essays/FireStation2.html.; http://landmarkscommission.org/surveys&rpalmer.htm

Click here to view Charlotte Observer Article on the Fire Station #6

This report was written on April 4, 1988

1. Name and location of the property: The property known as Charlotte Fire Station No. 6 is located at 249 S. Laurel Ave. in Charlotte, North Carolina.

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

City of Charlotte
c/o Charlotte City Manager’s office
Charlotte City Hall
600 E. Trade St.
Charlotte, N.C. 28202

Telephone: 704/336-2241

The tenant of the building is the Charlotte Fire Department. For information contact:

Mr. Robert Ellison
Assistant Chief for Administration
Charlotte Fire Department
125 S. Davidson St. Charlotte, N.C. 28202

Telephone: 704/336-2051

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 reference to this property is recorded in Mecklenburg Deed Book 717, Page 361. The Tax Parcel Number of the property is: 155-034-17.

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

7. A brief architectural description of the property: This report contains a brief architectural description of the property prepared by Joseph Schuchman.

8. Documentation of 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 Charlotte Fire Station No. 6 does possess special significance in terms of Charlotte-Mecklenburg. The Commission bases its judgment on the following considerations: 1) Charlotte Fire Station No. 6, erected in 1928-1929, was designed by Charles Christian Hook (1864-1938), an architect of local and regional significance; 2) Charlotte Fire Station No. 6 has served from the outset as the fire station for the Eastover, Myers Park, Crescent Heights, and Elizabeth neighborhoods; 3) Charlotte Fire Station No. 6, one of three fire stations which Hook designed in Charlotte and which, happily, survive, was part of a major expansion program instituted in the 1920’s by Hendrix Palmer, Charlotte Fire Chief; and 4) Charlotte Fire Station No. 6 is an excellent example of non-residential architecture which harmonizes successfully with the surrounding neighborhood.

b. Integrity of design, setting, workmanship, materials, feeling, and/or association: The Commission contends that the architectural description by Joseph Schuchman which is included in this report demonstrates that Charlotte Fire Station No. 6 meets this criterion.

9. Ad Valorem Tax Appraisal: The Commission is aware that designation would allow the owner to apply for an automatic deferral of 50% of the Ad Valorem taxes on all or any portion of the property which becomes “historic property.” The current appraised value of the improvement is $116,860. The current appraised value of the .434 acres of land is $51,000. The total appraised value of the property is $167,860. The property is zoned R6MF.

Date of Preparation of this Report: April 4, 1988

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

Telephone: 704376-9115

by Dr. William H. Huff man
August, 1985

One of the most charming of the city’s official buildings remaining from the time of its unprecedented growth in the pre-Depression era is the Charlotte Fire Station #6. Built in 1928-29 to serve newly annexed suburbs south of the city center, it was designed by one of the city’s premier architects, Charles C. Hook.

The need for new suburban fire stations was a result of forty-some years of rapid expansion from the late 1880s to the end of the 1920s. Charlotte’s growth during this period was fueled by its location as a rail center in the heart of the fast-paced New South industrialization of the Piedmont Carolinas based on cotton growing, shipping and cloth manufacturing. Mecklenburg County was in itself an important cotton manufacturing center (at one point it was second only to Gaston County), but it was the city’s importance as a banking and distribution center which served the surrounding industry that was responsible for its rapid growth and rising prosperity. ¹ The advent of the electric streetcar in the 1890s coincided with boom times for the city, and made possible suburban development out from the city center, which attracted wealthy and middle class buyers. To the south, suburban growth served by the streetcar included Elizabeth (1891-1920s), Crescent Heights (1907-09), and Myers Park (1912-1920s). In 1927, developer E. C. Griffith, who was a subcontractor for the building of part of Myers Park for George Stephens, laid out the first suburb based on the automobile, Eastover, which was originally bounded roughly by Laurel, both sides of Cherokee, Colville, and Cherokee Place. Eastover and its extensions were filled in mainly from the 1930s to the 1960s. ²

In 1928, the city annexed Elizabeth, Crescent Heights and Myers Park, and then proceeded to provide for fire protection in the newly acquired areas. To do so, it bought a lot at the northeast edge of the brand-new Eastover subdivision in September of that year from the E. C. Griffith Company, and commissioned Charlotte architect C. C. Hook to design a new, two-bay fire station for the location. ³ Charles Christian Hook (1864-1938) was one of the city’s outstanding architects. A Washington University (St. Louis) graduate, he began practicing architecture in Charlotte in 1893 following three years of teaching in the public schools. From time to time he was in partnership with others: Frank Sawyer, 1902-1907; Willard Rogers, 1912-1916; and with his son, W. W. Hook, 1924-1938. Beginning with design work for the new suburb of Dilworth in the 1890s, Hook eventually produced many of the city’s important landmarks, including the Charlotte City Hall, the Charlotte Women’s Club, the J. B. Duke mansion on Hermitage Road, the Belk Brothers Trade Street facade of 1927, and the Belk mansion on Hawthorne Lane. Among his many works to be found throughout the state are the west wing of the state capital in Raleigh, the Richmond County courthouse, Phillips Hall in Chapel Hill and the State Hospital in Raleigh. ⁴ On April 9, 1929, the city commissioners (of Public Safety and Public Works) inspected the newly completed facility from “top to bottom” with Fire Chief Hendrix Palmer and Louis Sutherland of C. C. Hook’s office, and gave it their official approval. The same day they also inspected a companion building, also designed by Hook, that had a brick facade instead of the stone on Station #6, in Seversville ( Fire Station #5, now on Tuckaseegee Road). As reported in the Charlotte Observer, “When they returned to the city hall they said they were very well satisfied with the new stations and gave high praise to the Carolina company, contractor for the work.” The new stations were to be put in service in a week, with a crew of twenty-eight firemen each: “To start with, three experienced firemen and two of the appointed [new] ones will be on each truck and engine company.” It was noted that the stations would “keep Charlotte in the Class A group of cities to insure the lowest possible rate of insurance.” ⁵

Indeed, for many years Charlotte was known statewide and nationally for its leadership in firefighting, primarily because of its longtime chief, Hendrix Palmer (1884-1955). Palmer, a forty-year veteran of the department who was chief from 1927 to 1948, was recognized internationally as a progressive innovator in firefighting. He was twice elected president of the North Carolina Firemen’s Association, and helped organize the N.C. Fire Chiefs Association and served as its first president. The highlight of his career came in 1940, when he was elected president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs, the most prestigious post of his profession. Among other distinctions, he is given credit for “designing and promoting the manufacture of the first enclosed fire truck in America,” which went on to become standard equipment throughout the country. Palmer also promoted the building of a fire training school in Charlotte (completed in 1940), which bears his name and became the main fire training school for departments from around the state. ⁶

Charlotte Fire Station #6, which is still in use today, has not really changed at all, and completely retains all its original charm. To walk in through its inviting stone and brick facade and experience its human-size scale and tidy atmosphere is to walk back to an earlier time when life seemed much more orderly, and certainly less complex.

Notes

¹ Thomas Hanchett, “Charlotte Neighborhood Survey,” Charlotte Mecklenburg Historic Properties Commission, 1984.

² Ibid.

³ Mecklenburg County Deed Book 717, P. 361, 1 Sept. 1928; Map Book 4, p. 317; plaque on the wall of Fire Station #6.

⁴ Information on file at the Charlotte Mecklenburg Historic Properties Commission.

⁵ Charlotte Observer. April 9, 1929, Section 2, p. 1; see note 1.

⁶ William H. Huffman, “A Historical Sketch of the Palmer Fire School,” Charlotte Mecklenburg Historic Properties Commission, October, 1984.

by Joseph Schuchman
November 8, 1985

Throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, few public buildings were allowed a stylistic latitude permitted private homes. Firehouses were a notable exception. Since there was no prevailing opinion of the “proper” style for a fire station, architects experimented with the popular decorative ideas of the day, resulting in some notable and, at times, whimsical civic architecture. With the development of the residential suburb, architects designed a new type of firehouse, one intended to respect the aesthetics of the surrounding neighborhood. ¹

In 1928, Charlotte architect C.C. Hook (1864-1938) was commissioned to design a two-bay fire station on Laurel Avenue in the new Eastover subdivision. ² The end result was a picturesque two story structure which survives largely intact and which remains a perfect companion to the surrounding residential fabric. Hook incorporated a variety of stylistic elements including classical symmetrical massing, round arched windows which are a typical feature of the Colonial Revival style and tiled roof vigas, which recall the motifs of the Spanish Mission style.

The main facade is symmetrically composed; the use of a random fieldstone veneer creates an immediate impression of strength and security. Squat corner towers, with buttress supports, frame the elevation. Each tower is veneered in random fieldstone and brick and rises to a pedimented roofline parapet. A tiled roof viga, with bracket supports, runs between the towers and shelters the five bay second story openings. These round arched openings contain paired vertical casement windows which are set beneath a fanlight. The relieving arch is composed of randomly placed fieldstone. Bold round arches distinguish the engine bays and flank either side of a central round arched transom. The multi-paneled single doors, within the engine bays, slide vertically and are believed to be original. Random fieldstone covers the projecting first story; relieving arches display cut and dressed fieldstone blocks. A smaller tiled viga, with underside brackets, carries across the entrance pavilion.

While the main facade is handsomely detailed, side and rear elevations are more simply executed. Both the sides and rear are veneered in varying hues of red brick arranged in stretcher bond. Openings are surmounted by a soldier course lintel; windows display a projecting sill composed of brick headers. Both side elevations are similarly executed. Along the linear five bay wall, first story windows are paired; on the second story, two single lights, grouped together and separated by a narrow band of the brick wall surface, are placed above the first story openings.

Six/one sash are the primary glazing material. Openings are set within molded surrounds. Aluminum storm windows have been placed over the original window lights. On each side, the flat wall surface carries forward to the projecting mass of the corner tower. To further distinguish the side of each tower, its wall surface is faced in random fieldstone and brick. Fieldstone lintels surmount the first and second story openings. The main pedestrian entrance to the fire station is located in the base of the west tower. The rear elevation is randomly arranged. Three entrance doors are contained within the first story; two window openings, of unequal height, are placed in the second floor.

The interior is largely unaltered; while designed to be functional in nature, the structure also conveys a very human scale. Detailing is minimal. Walls are plastered. Concrete covers the first story floor surface. The ceiling height in several rooms has been lowered and covered with celotex panels. Window openings, except where otherwise noted, are framed by molded surrounds and display projecting sills.

The engine bays lead into the engine house, the largest of the building’s interior spaces. Round cast iron piers run down the length of the chamber and rise to plastered ceiling piers, which carry across the width of the room. Two brass fire poles are located at the front and rear of the engine house. A handsome stair is placed within the west tower; the closed string, three tread stair, the primary access to the second floor, features rectangular newel posts and balusters which support a shaped handrail. An elegant semi-circular landing lends a sense of decoration to the otherwise functional space. The stair wall and string are faced in a vertical tongue and groove ceiling. A narrow lavatory is set within the east tower.

A rectangular-shaped office projects from the rear wall of the engine house; its openings are set within plain surrounds. Both the inner and outer wall surfaces are encircled by a tongue and groove wainscot which is set between a molded baseboard and a molded chair rail. The remaining wall surface is dominated by sliding glass windows. Smaller rooms are located at the rear of the main floor. Each room is rectangular-shaped and is similarly sized and detailed. The single entrance doors, between the engine house and these rear chambers, are each framed by a molded surround and set beneath a six light vertical-placed transom. A narrow rear entrance hall separates the two rear chambers. A closed string half-turn stair with winders provides a secondary access to the second floor; plain balusters support the shaped handrail. An enclosed quarter-turn stair, of wood construction, leads to the unfinished basement. The two-room basement occupies the rear one-fourth of the structure. The exposed brick walls are arranged in a 1:5 pattern of common bond. Interior openings rise to a segmental arch. Two rectangular casement windows, one on each side wall, provide a minimal amount of exterior light. Architect Hook’s ingenuity is evident even in the most unlikely of places; at the top of the basement stairs, the concrete floor has been contoured to allow for the opening and closing of the door which leads to the basement stairwell.

The second floor contains a recreation room at the front, a larger dormitory in the middle and kitchen and bathroom facilities at the rear. Plain surrounds frame door openings; on each door, eight light glass panels are placed above paired rectangular wood panels. The two door openings into the recreation room each display a horizontally-placed six light transom. On the front wall of the recreation room. the round arched openings have no surrounds but display plain sills. A molded baseboard encircles the room; a molded chair rail carries across the rear and down the rear half of the east and west sides. The dormitory retains its original ceiling height and is enclosed by a molded baseboard and chair rail. The narrow rear stair hall separates the kitchen and bath, both of which have been modernized.

Fire Station #6 is recessed from the street and is surrounded by simply landscaped grounds. Handsome cast iron street lamps delineate the entrance to the property. A fieldstone well lies to the east of the building. A steel hose tower stands immediately adjacent to the rear entrances.

Fire Station #6 is a notable monument to a simpler time. More importantly, it is an excellent example of a public building which is able to maintain its historic and architectural character while continuing to be of service to the community.

Notes

¹ Rebecca Zurier, The American Firehouse, An Architectural and Social History, New York; Abbeville Press, 1982), pages 131 and 138.

² Dr. William Huffman, A Historical Sketch of the Charlotte Fire Station #6, prepared for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Properties Commission, August, 1985, p. 2.