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Alexander Farmhouse MK 2335 4123 Glory Street Charlotte Synopsis of Significance: The Alexander farmhouse is a rare surviving example of an early 20th century African American farmhouse. The house has a high degree of integrity, having retained much of its historical material and setting. John Murray Alexander bought the property from a white family, the Davises. According to his daughter, Eliza Alexander Ross, Mr. Alexander raised cotton, worked as a blacksmith, and with his wife raised nine children in the house. The Alexander house sits on the original small ten-acre farm, which is now within Charlotte’s city limits. The property has remained open, but farming has stopped and the property is surrounded by low-density suburban housing. The 1917 front-gabled house was built on brick piers, now infilled with block. The house is three bays wide and two rooms deep, and it shows the influence of the Craftsman Style with exposed rafter tails, eave brackets, and shingled gables. The house’s recessed front porch is typical of the bungalow form. The house has retained it’s original single-light front door and six-over-six windows. Two chimneys pierce the roof near the ridgeline. One of the chimneys might be an added flue. A one-room gabled addition was added to the west front bay of the house early in the 20th century. The addition also features a shingled gable. All the house’s gables contain louvered vents. A small bathroom was added to the rear of the house, and a rear engaged porch was enclosed. Most of the house is covered with asbestos shingles, but original siding has been retained on the front elevation and on part of the front addition. Around 1940, one of Mr. Alexander’s sons built a side-gabled house next door. This simple house features German siding, six-over-six windows, and exposed rafter tails. A frame garage sits behind the houses.
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