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BLAND-McADEN HOUSE
This report was written on 1 June 2000 1. Name and location of property: The property known as the Bland-McAden house is located at 2011 Selwyn Ave., Charlotte, North Carolina, 28207 in the Myers Park neighborhood.
2. Name and address of present property owner:
Myers Park Baptist Church, Tel. (704) 334 7232. 3. Representative photographs of the property: This report contains representative photographs of the property. 4. Map depicting location of 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 the Mecklenburg County Deed Book 6049, pg. 0284. The tax parcel number for the property is 175- 013-04. 6. Brief historical sketch of the property: This report contains a brief historical sketch of the property prepared by Christina A. Wright and Dr. Dan L. Morrill. 7. Brief Architectural description of the property: This report contains a brief architectural description of the property prepared by Christina A. Wright. 8. Documentation of why and in what ways the property meets the criteria for designation set forth in NCGS 160A-400.5:
A. Special Significance in terms of history, architecture, and cultural importance: 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 that becomes a designated "historic landmark." The current appraised value of the improvements is $ 166,710. The current appraised value of the .517 acre lot is $ 237, 710. The total appraised value of the property is $ 404, 210. The property is zoned R3. Date of preparation of this report: 1 June 2000
Prepared by: Christina A. Wright Telephone: (704) 376 9661
STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCEThe Bland-McAden House possesses local historical significance as a well-preserved example of the rapid growth of Charlotte's suburban neighborhoods after 1920. This new trend of settlement arose in response to Charlotte's emerging role as a leading commercial, industrial, and banking center during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Bland-McAden House was erected near the southern end of Charlotte's prestigious Myers Park neighborhood between 1920 and 1922. During this period many of Charlotte's elite and middle class citizens were lured out of the center city to the suburban countryside.The Bland-McAden House also possesses local historical significance for its association with Dr. Charles Alberto Bland (1872-1947), and his wife, Lucy McAden Bland (1874-1929). Charles Bland was a prominent figure in early twentieth century Charlotte and mayor of the city from 1911 to 1915. He had a long association with Charlotte, influencing its growth and development through his civic roles as member of the Board of Health, Board of Aldermen, mayor, second vice president of the Chamber of Commerce, and businessman. He affected the growth of suburbs in Charlotte as an official of the Elizabeth Realty Company and had a significant impact upon industrial development in the community through his involvement with the Elba Manufacturing Company. Finally, Dr. Bland influenced commercial development through his association with the People's Bank and Trust Company. Lucy McAden Bland was the youngest daughter of Rufus Yancey McAden, an important politician and businessman from the region, best remembered as the owner of the town and mills of McAdenville in neighboring Gaston County, North Carolina.
The Bland-McAden House is a product of the expansion of Charlotte into new suburban areas during the so-called New South era. In response to Charlotte's rapid commercial and industrial growth during the latter part of the nineteenth and early part of the twentieth centuries, enterprising businessmen such as Edward Dilworth Latta and George Stephens bought or acquired farmland on Charlotte's outskirts and created new, fashionable residential areas. These suburbs echoed national trends in the development of cities as increasing numbers of electric streetcars and automobiles made outlying areas more accessible. George Stephens, banker and real estate entrepreneur, enlisted the assistance of John Nolen in planning the new suburb of Myers Park. The Stephens Company, the firm that developed Myers Park, began selling lots in 1911. Nolen was to become a leading city planner during the period between 1915 and 1930, drawing up comprehensive designs for 29 cities and 27 "new towns," and hundreds of small projects. He also trained many of the first urban planning professionals in the United States in his Harvard Square office. The plan Nolen created for Myers Park was a gracious tapestry of gently curving boulevards following the topography of the land. Earle Sumner Draper, Nolen's on-site representative and later an independent landscape architect, fashioned a substantial part of the overall plan for Myers Park. Myers Park was praised as "the finest unified suburban development" south of Baltimore's well-known Roland Park. The neighborhood would eventually contain the homes of middle classes residents and especially those of Charlotte's business and political leaders, many of whom were responsible for transforming the Piedmont of the Carolinas into a major manufacturing and distribution region. The success of the suburb was evident in the fact that by 1916 there were more than 50 homes in Myers Park, including several imposing residences of Charlotte's most influential citizens. The pace of construction in Myers Park became even greater during the 1920s, as more elite and middle class families moved into the neighborhood, many relocating from the center city. The Bland-McAden House was constructed between 1920 and 1922 in what was becoming a highly desirable section of Myers Park. The lot for the house was platted in 1914 -- the same year that Presbyterian College for Women, now Queens College, moved from College Street in uptown Charlotte to Selwyn Avenue, attracted by the Stephens Company to its new suburban campus. Selwyn Avenue followed the route of an old farm road that extended along the ridgeline of Briar Creek southward to Park Road. There were almost no houses along the street in the years immediately following World War I, although the Myers Park streetcar line was close by, running along Queen's Road East as far as the Horner Military Academy. This well respected local school was located where the Myers Park County Club now stands but closed its doors in 1918. It was in 1920 that the Stephens Company decided to convert the school buildings into apartments and a clubhouse for the planned Myers Park Country Club. The intention was to entice more people to the southern end of the suburb with the promise of a nine- hole golf course and clubhouse. In his report to the Stephens Company stockholders in 1920, George Stephens predicted that the new club and golf course (chartered in 1921) would "congregate people in a section of Myers Park which is at present sparsely developed," and that "patronage of the street car line will be increased." There was a flurry of building activity along Selwyn Avenue and the other streets near the Queens College Campus during the 1920s. The center of the city was increasingly devoted to business use and was becoming less and less desirable as a place of residence, causing elite families and middle class families to choose relocation to places like Myers Park. Sometimes the houses themselves were moved, such as the Rintels-McManaway House on Queens Road and the Withers-Efird House on Selwyn Avenue. It was within this context that one understands why Charles and Lucy McAden Bland decided to move from a large Victorian house at 11 S. Myers close to East Avenue in uptown Charlotte to a modern Craftsman style house on a prestigious site opposite Queens College. The Bland- McAden House was constructed either by the Queens Home Construction Company or the Myers Park Homes Company between June 1920 and May 1922, at which time the Myers Park Homes Company sold the property for over $10,000 to G.H. Adams, an accountant. Adams may or may not have lived in the house; but if he did, it was only for a few months, for he conveyed it to Lucy McAden Bland in September 1922 for no apparent profit. The Bland family, including son Charles A. Bland, Jr., who was then a teenage student, lived in the house for the next seven years until Lucy's death in July 1929. Both husband and wife came from families typical of those choosing to relocate to the suburbs in the early twentieth century. Lucy McAden Bland was the youngest daughter of Rufus Yancey McAden, Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives, president of the First National Bank, railroad magnate, and owner of the town and mills of McAdenville in neighboring Gaston County, North Carolina. Her brother was Henry M. McAden, also a president of First National Bank, who finished construction on his own large mansion at 920 Granville Road in Myers Park in 1921. Henry and Lucy had grown up "living over the business" at their father's First National Bank and naturally gravitated towards uptown addresses. After Lucy married Dr. Charles A. Bland in 1901, they lived for a year on E. Trade Street before moving to 11 S. Myers in a house next to Charles Bland's father, Dr. Mortimer A. Bland, and his second wife, Margaret Simmons Clarkson. B. Mayor Charles A. Bland Dr. Charles Alberto Bland was born in Charlotte on March 18, 1872. His father, Dr. Mortimer Alberto Bland, was a prominent citizen of the town. His mother was Jane Hammond, a native of Anson County. Charles A. Bland attended the schools of Captain Barrier and Professor Carter in Charlotte and then enrolled at the Pantops Academy near Charlottesville, Virginia and also the Citadel in Charleston. He graduated from the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery in 1892 (his father's alma mater) and went on to do postgraduate work at the Haskell school in Chicago. According to city directories, Charles Bland was living in Charlotte at the Central Hotel in 1891-92 and by 1893 was in partnership with his father at their dental office at 21 N. Tryon Street. The partnership lasted until about 1908 when Charles left the practice, possibly because of his increasing political and business activities. In 1907 he was elected to the Board of Alderman, and in 1908 or 1909 he became president of the Elizabeth Realty Company. Charles must have known Lucy McAden well when he was growing up, since she was born in Charlotte on September 16, 1874 and was also educated in Charlotte and in Baltimore. At any rate, Charles gave Lucy a ring four or five years before their marriage on June 12, 1901. The wedding was held in First Presbyterian Church where Lucy had been baptized. It was a lavish social occasion and made the front page of the Charlotte News: "the high social position of this couple making this marriage one in which society throughout the state is interested." Dr. Bland began his long association with civic duty during the first decade of the twentieth century, serving on the Board of Health. In 1907, as noted earlier, he was elected to the Board of Aldermen and served for 2 years. Then in 1911 he was urged by many of his friends and supporters to run for mayor against the incumbent, T. W. Hawkins. The race was considered one of the most exciting contests the city had known and set a new standard for the use of paid advertisements in the city's two newspapers (the Charlotte Daily Observer and the Charlotte News). The heated rhetoric of the race and the use of newspapers as a medium even attracted the attention of newspapers elsewhere in the country. During the campaign, Bland attacked the Hawkins administration for allegedly mismanaging public funds and not moving fast enough to modernize the city. Hawkins in turn claimed that Bland had stolen his platform. Hawkins insisted that he had been elected as a 'businesslike' and budget-minded mayor. Bland was ultimately successful, winning the election by 1731 to 1543 votes to become Charlotte's 32nd mayor. There was much drunkenness at the polls and at least one man was brought from his deathbed in order to vote. Dr. Bland's service as mayor was not a disappointment, and he was reelected in 1913 to serve another two-year term. During his administration, Charlotte underwent significant change as its new suburbs took shape. Though conservative, the city government was generally supportive of these new endeavors. As historians M. N. Kratt and T. Hanchett point out, "proposals to the city by the Stephens Company often passed unanimously," and the city frequently accepted responsibility for infrastructure in these new suburbs. Between 1911 and 1915, the Bland administration fulfilled its election promise to move forward on many civic improvements. These included the construction of a new waterworks system in 1911 that drew its supply from the Catawba River and significant street improvements including the construction of 24 miles of paved road, 12.2 miles of drains, and 23.9 miles of sidewalks, 39.5 miles of sewers, 37 miles of curbing, and 38 miles of water mains. In addition, five new school buildings were erected and the horse-drawn vehicles of the fire department were replaced by three motorized fire engines. Bland was a popular mayor, admired for the breadth of his education, charm, courtesy, fairness, and square dealing, and on retiring from office in 1915 he was showered with gifts. Charles Bland continued to be active in public affairs in the years following his tenure as mayor. In 1916 he served on the first Board of Directors for the Charlotte Rotary Club. More importantly, he was elected as second vice-president of the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce shortly after its incorporation in the summer of 1915. He served in this role until 1922 or 1923, and it was during this period that the Chamber became a leading force in the city's development. Charles Bland was also a prominent businessman. From 1904 to 1913 he was vice president of the Elba Manufacturing Company, and by 1909 he had become involved in real estate as president of Elizabeth Realty Company. In that year the company developed "Crescent Heights" between Randolph and Providence Roads, and Alberto Street in that development was named after him. In 1915 Bland helped to found the People's Bank and Trust, controlling 60 out of 250 shares and serving as its president until the bank was dissolved in 1920. (Interestingly, the architect Louis Asbury was also a shareholder. ) When Charles Bland moved to the Bland- McAden House in 1922 no occupation was listed in the city directory under that address; but by 1925 he is listed as an agent for the Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Company. He continued in this role after he vacated the Bland-McAden House in 1930. Following Lucy's death in 1929, Charles Bland moved to 2400 E. 7th Street (later 2300) and lived with his stepmother, half brother, and his own son. This house is no longer extant, but from the 1929 Sanborn insurance map it appears to have been quite modest. By 1934 he had moved to Louise Avenue where he was living with his sister, Mrs Rosa B. Lockhart, at number 445 until he died in 1947. This house, a comfortable middle class bungalow, is still standing. The Bland-McAden House became rental property during the early and mid-1930s. Claude and Virginia Tillman became the owners at some point, probably in 1934, and lived in the house until 1939. The Tillmans ran two self-service grocery stores on Trade and Tryon Streets called the 'Tillman Groceterias.' The Trade Street store, which was the first to be opened, was at McDowell and East Trade opposite the Tabernacle Associated Reformed Presbyterian Church, now the Great Aunt Stella Center. The Tryon Street store was at 8th Street and North Tyron. Benjamin and Ethel W. Williams purchased and moved into the Bland-McAden House in 1939. Benjamin, a salesman, died in 1947, and Ethel continued to reside in the house until 1980, when it was sold to Anthony and Carol Pressley. Anthony or Tony Pressley, the owner of Meca Properties in Charlotte, deeded the house to Carol in 1985, and she sold it to Myers Park Baptist Church in 1989. Since that time, two ministers in the church have lived there: John T. Walsh and Donald Mitchell. The house is currently unoccupied. Myers Park Baptist Church intends to put a parking lot where the Bland-McAden House now stands. Efforts are underway to determine how the Bland-McAden House might be preserved.
Although no architect has been identified in connection with this dwelling, the overall proportions and rendering of the Craftsman style suggest that it was probably architect designed. It may at the very least have been based on one of the many pattern books available at the time of construction between 1920 and 1922. The exterior brick facing is laid in common bond. It has deep eaves, exposed rafters, and corner knee braces. The front gable trim has one understated central ornament. The roof is pierced by a center brick chimney. There is a hip-roofed front porch with multiple planes including an attached shed-roofed porch over the main entry. The porch extends across the front facade and has square posts with decorative Craftsman inspired wood blocks below molded caps. The porch includes a concrete capped brick balustrade and a floor of square terra cotta tiles. This floor and balustrade continue along the north or side elevation of the house. The ceiling and exposed eaves of the porch are bead board, the former having a simple ceiling molding. The exposed shed gable to the south of the main entry is sheathed in painted cedar shingles. The porch shelters two entries into the house. One is the main front entry, located in the south bay of the front facade, a Craftsman style door with glazed panels of beveled glass. It has an original brass handle. A second front entrance with a multiple paned glazed double door is sited in the north bay of the facade. Both entrances have simple wood casing and stone sills. The porch is accessed by three steps in line with the main door. On the south facade of the house is a wood- paneled basement door with a glazed upper section. The rear elevation has a one-bay hipped roof porch with original lattice work, square porch posts, and a paneled wood door with a glazed upper section. On the northern elevation a narrow hip roof to the rear of the house shelters the windows of the kitchen. Original wood sash windows with concrete sills and wooden frames survive on the exterior. They are predominantly 9/1 and 6/1 sash but also include 6/6 and 12/1, and the fenestration is asymmetrical. The overall condition of the exterior is excellent. The interior of the Bland-McAden House echoes the same Craftsman influences as the exterior. The ground floor is an open plan with the main door leading into the living room that adjoins the dining room; wide French doors separate the rooms. The stairs ascend out of the projecting bay at the south end of the living room. To the rear of the building are the kitchen in the northeast bay, a half bathroom in the center, and den in the southeast bay. Rear stairs ascend from the den to join the main stairs out of the living room on a small landing from whence a single flight of stairs ascends to the second floor lit by two large windows. Upstairs, four bedrooms are located in each corner of the building. The two bedrooms to the front of the house share a central bathroom. A second bathroom is located between the two bedrooms at the rear of the house and is accessible from a central hall. A small hall off the main central hallway gives access to the master bedroom (in the northwest corner of the house) and has a linen cupboard. A stairway ascends from the smallest bedroom in the southeast corner of the house into the attic. The interior of the house is well-preserved and contains many original features including plaster walls throughout. In the living room the fireplace has an original plain brick surround supporting a plain shelf. The open string stairway rising from the south side of the living room is similarly plain with a simple square paneled newel. The newel echoes the pillars supporting the porch. Separating the living room from the dining room are large double doors with 15 lights and a decorative panel running across the bottom. The double doors leading outside onto the porch are of the same design but with ten lights each. There is an original chair rail echoing the simplicity of the baseboards and an original swing door opens into the kitchen. The kitchen has been renovated with little impact on the integrity of the original building. A renovation in the 1980s incorporated the breakfast room into the kitchen to enlarge it. An original built-in hutch has been retained. It has an upper cabinet with two doors consisting if nine glass panels, a shelf, two drawers, and a lower cabinet with two paneled doors. Between the kitchen and den is a maid's half bathroom with original wall-mounted sink and white mosaic tiled floor. Between the den and the living room are a series of original built- in cupboards and a small vestibule from which stairs descend to a basement outside door and then turn to descend to the half basement. The stairs rising from the den are simpler in style than the more formal stairs in the living room, giving a feeling of servants' stairway. Upstairs, three of the bedrooms have original built-in closets, the master bedroom having two matching closets flanking the north facing windows. The linen cupboard outside the master bedroom has single panel doors and appears to be original. The shared bathroom on the west side of the house has an original bath tub of glazed cast iron and a white mosaic tile floor. The second bathroom was probably renovated during the 1950s to install a shower. Throughout the house the single panel doors and crystal door handles have been preserved. The simple baseboards, ceiling moldings and window surrounds are consistent throughout as are the narrow-board oak floors. To the rear of the house on the southeast side of the property is a garage contemporary with the house. This building has a wood-shingled and brick exterior, six pane fixed sash windows, and a side gable roof with exposed rafters. The garage door is a modern replacement. Site Description The Bland-McAden House is sited on a rectangular lot of 0.517 acres on the east side of Selwyn Avenue, close to the intersection with Wellesley Avenue and opposite Queen's College in the historic Myers Park neighborhood of Charlotte. The house faces west and is flanked by two parking lots to the north and south. When the house was built-in 1920-22 it was part of a typical Myers Park streetscape, located close to the prestigious Queen's College, and the streetcar line was a brief walk to the north on Queen's Road. It was one of the earliest houses to be built in this section (Selwyn) of Myers Park. (Up to this time Selwyn Avenue was an existing country road with rural buildings from an earlier era.) By 1929 there were five houses on the block with five neighbors behind who faced Roswell Avenue. Today only one other house remains on this block. Notes1 Mary Norton Kratt and Thomas W. Hanchett, The Myers Park Legacy, (Charlotte, NC: Myers Park Foundation, 1986) p. 23.2 Hanchett, 'Myers Park,' p. 14. 3 Manufacturer's Record, 1921, cited in Hanchett, p. 6. 4 Thomas W. Hanchett, 'Myers Park: Charlotte's Finest Planned Suburb', Charlotte Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission website, www.cmhpf.org/neighborhoods/MyersPark.html, p. 1. 5 Hanchett, 'Myers Park,' p. 12. 6 Mecklenburg County Registry of Deeds, Plat Book 230, p. 301. 7 Kratt and Hanchett, p. 61. 8 Kratt and Hanchett, p. 102. 9 Mecklenburg County Registry of Deeds, Deed book 481, pp. 299-302. 10 Charlotte City Directory, 1902, 1903; Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, Charlotte, North Carolina, 1905. . In a perfect illustration of the small and closely connected nature of Charlotte's elite a the turn of the century, Dr. M.A. Bland's neighbors were John Springs Myers (Jack) and his wife Mary the original founder of the Myers Park suburb. Moreover, Jack's father, William R. Myers, was an organizer of the First National Bank and like R.Y. McAden was a statesman and early railroad entrepreneur. Also, both the Blands and Myers were closely involved with St. Peter's Episcopal Church. 11 Charlotte Daily Observer, Nov. 28, 1915, 'The Builders of Charlotte.' Dr. M. A. Bland was one of only four dentists practicing in Charlotte in the 1870s and was a founding member of the North Carolina Dental Society. As was typical in his day, however, Dr. M. A. Bland did not limit his business to the career in which he was trained. In 1890, he joined Edward Dilworth Latta and four other members of Charlotte's elite to form the Consolidated Construction Company and Charlotte's first suburb of Dilworth was born. (Bland Street on the edge of Dilworth is named for him.) True to tradition, however, Dr. Bland chose to live on East Avenue from 1896 until his death in September of 1922, although already in his day the tensions between the commercial and residential functions of 'uptown' were in evidence. Residents of this end of Trade street requested a change in the street name "to set the still residential portion of the street apart from the expanding commercial section near the square." 12 Charlotte Daily Observer, Nov. 28, 1915. 13 Charlotte Daily Observer, July 28, 1929, 'Funeral Today for Mrs. Bland.' 14 Charlotte News, June 12, 1901, p. 1. 15 Charlotte Daily Observer, Nov. 28, 1915, 'The Builders of Charlotte;' Charlotte News, March 19, 1911. 16 Charlotte Daily Observer, April 6, 1911, 'Aftermath of the Election.' 17 Kratt and Hanchett, p. 35. E.D. Latta got the city to take over the Dilworth sewer system in 1912 and the Board of Aldermen voted to take responsibility for all other private systems in the city. 18 Charlotte Daily Observer, Nov. 28, 1915. 19 Charlotte News, April 30, 1915, p. 15. 20 Spangler Robinson Room, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Library, vertical files, Mayors, document produced by the Chamber of Commerce for Charles Brockman, Archivist. Despite extensive searching, it has not proved possible to discover anything about this company or its activities. 21 Thomas W. Hanchett, 'Crescent Heights,' Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission website, www.cmhpf.org/neighborhoods/CresHts.html, p. 1. 22 Mecklenburg County Registry of Deeds, Record of Companies, Book 4, p. 370. 23 Charlotte Daily Observer, Dec. 3, 1932, advertisement for Tillman's Groceteria. 24 Mecklenburg County Registry of Deeds, Deed book 973, pg. 158. 25 Will of Benjamin Williams, Office of the Clerk of Courts, Mecklenburg County, Probate records, book 5, p. 484; 26 Mecklenburg County Registry of Deeds, Deed book 4313, p. 0389. 27 Mecklenburg County Registry of Deeds, Deed book 5050, p. 0892; book 6049, p. 0284. 28 Charlotte Observer Oct. 10, 1982, 1 G, 'Pioneering in Myers Park.' 29 The property was sold by the Stephens Company to Queens Home Construction Company in June 1920 for $1345 (Mecklenburg County Registry of Deeds, Deed book 428, pg. 648). It was not resold until May 1922 (Mecklenburg County Registry of Deeds, Deed book 476, p. 138) by which time the sale price was more than $10,000 indicating that a house had been built in the intervening months. 30 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, Charlotte N.C. 1929. | |