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Preliminary Research on the Newell Schoolhouse
The Newell Schoolhouse, built circa 1900 and located on 8409 Old Concord Road, is a one-story, U-shaped structure with a small porch on the original gabled portion of the schoolhouse. The building sits on a two-acre plot and faces the road. Yellow vinyl siding covers the exterior, and sliding glass doors in the rear of the building lead out to a wood deck. The interior of the structure consists of three rooms with stained wood trim and hardwood floors. Two brick fireplaces, one on either side of the chimney, are located in the two front rooms and are original to the building. A door on the side of the original front gabled portion of the Newell Schoolhouse leads into a small, narrow kitchen (fashioned when the schoolhouse was converted into a residence) with a bay window facing the back of the property. The front-gable addition, added in the 1970’s, contains four bedrooms. A small well house is located behind the schoolhouse. The Newell Schoolhouse was founded by three of the Newell community’s most influential citizens -- John Allison Newell, his brother William Burns Newell, and their brother-in-law Nehemiah Wilson Wallace. Often credited with founding the community, these men arrived in what would become Newell in the early 1880’s. At that time, the area consisted of a few isolated farms, a single-track line of the Southern Railroad, and a dirt road leading to Concord. All three settled in the small rural community and became successful farmers and businessmen, also gaining a reputation as an influential and powerful political trinity. "Squire" John Newell (1854-1937) became the first Postmaster of Newell as well as Justice of the Peace; he also served for14 years on the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners. William Newell was a prosperous farmer who also owned the community’s general store with Nehemiah Wallace. Wallace was perhaps the most well known of the three in Mecklenburg County, serving as its Sheriff for 22 years and as Charlotte Commissioner of Public Safety for two years. Sheriff Wallace was also said to have owned more farmland at one time than anyone in the county. The schoolhouse these three men would help to build was not the first in the area, or even the first in Newell. The Alexander School, located about two miles west of the Newell community, was begun in 1846. Several small schools were also built in Sugar Creek, Mallard Creek, and Back Creek. According to a special section on the history of the Newell School in the March 12, 1925 edition of The Mecklenburg Times, the first school in Newell was built in 1892. This school was soon moved about ½ mile from its original location and enlarged to accommodate an increasing number of students. A dormitory was also erected to house boarding students. Continually rising enrollment soon necessitated an even larger facility. In 1896, John Newell, William Newell, and Nehemiah Wallace chartered the Newell High School Company, which acquired a two-acre plot of land from Nehemiah Wallace on which to build the new schoolhouse. The three-room building was completed around 1900, and was located a few hundred yards from the existing dormitory. One of the rooms " . . . was equipped with a removable stage about two feet high and fifteen feet long. When a performance was to be given the partitions were thrown back and the other two rooms thereby transformed into an auditorium." By the time the charter for the Newell School Company expired in 1926, a new, modern high school building – the end result of the consolidation of several one and two teacher schools in the area - had already opened. The small, three-room schoolhouse was vacated upon the completion of the Newell High School in 1923. This new school building, a large brick structure with ten classrooms, an auditorium and a library, was equipped to meet the state requirements for accreditation as a group II, class B high school. Although no longer a place of education, the Newell Schoolhouse, built by John Newell, William Newell, and Nehemiah Wallace, remained standing. With the death of John Newell in 1937, the last founder of the Newell High School Company was gone. Interest in the property was divided among the twenty heirs of the three men in proportion to the original division of the stock. Because the meager two-acre lot was too small to divide among so many owners, the family of J.A. Newell proposed in special proceedings that the land be auctioned and the proceeds divided among the heirs. The property was deeded to John S. Wallace – Nehemiah’s son and the highest bidder – in October 1944. Wallace and his family lived in the large, two-story dormitory near the schoolhouse until it was destroyed by fire in the late 1940’s. The Newell Schoolhouse was moved onto the foundation of the old dormitory to replace the Wallace family’s residence. It is unknown at this time whether any additions to the schoolhouse were made after its relocation, or how long John Wallace and his family stayed in the house. The family retained ownership of the property until 1964, when Ruth Wallace, John Wallace’s wife, sold the property after her husband’s death in 1960. The Newell Schoolhouse changed hands several times after leaving the Wallace family. In the 1970’s Gerald Ingalls and his wife Evelyn bought the schoolhouse and built a front-gable addition, adding nearly 900 square feet to the structure. The owners also covered the exterior of the building with vinyl siding and replaced the roof. The Ingalls sold the property to Joseph Grier, Jr. in 1988, and the Newell Schoolhouse has, until recently, been used as a rental property. The building is presently unoccupied. |