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Survey and Research Report
On The
McElroy House
1.
Name and location
of the property.
The property known as the McElroy House
is located at 10915 Beatties Ford Road in the
Huntersville vicinity of Mecklenburg
County, North
Carolina.
2.
Name, address,
and telephone number of the present owner of the
property.
The owner is :
Thomas M. and Mildred D. Snyder
10915 Beatties Ford Road
Huntersville, NC 28078
Telephone Number: (704)875-2831
3.
Representative Photographs of the property.
This report representative
photographs of the property.
4.
Current deed book references to the property.
The most recent deed
to
the
McElroy House
is
listed in Mecklenburg County Deed Book 4537 at Page 964.
The
Tax
Parcel Number
of
the property
is 023-031-09.
5.
A brief historical description of the property.
This
report contains a historical
sketch
of the
property
prepared
by Dr.
William Huffman.
6.
A brief architectural description of
the
property.
This
report contains an
architectural description
of the
property prepared
by Dr. Richard
Mattson.
7.
Documentation
of
why
and in
what ways
the
property meets criteria for
designation set forth
in
N.C.G.S. 16OA-400.5.
a.
Special significance in terms of history, architecture,
and cultural
importance,
The
Commission judges that the property
known
as
the McElroy House
House does possess
special significance in
terms
of
Charlotte and Mecklenburg County.
The
Commission
bases its
judgment on the following considerations:
1)
the McElroy
House
was constructed ca. 1883
for Samuel Jefferson McElroy, and early Mecklenburg
County
resident of Scots-Irish ancestry; 2) as a
volunteer during the
Civil
War, McElroy
fought at
the
Battle
of Gettysburg; 3) Margaret
Janet Sample McElroy, his wife,
was
a
great grand-daughter
of a signer of the alleged Mecklenburg
Declaration
of
Independence
; 4) the McElroy House is architecturally significant as
an outstanding
example of the
vernacular
Victorian farmhouses built in
Mecklenburg
County
following the Civil War;
5) the interior of the McElroy House retains much of the
early
woodwork including
mantels, turned post staircases, board-and-batten
ceilings, and original doors with
early
hardware; 6) the attached smokehouses appears to be a
unique feature for
Mecklenburg
County; and 7) the tack house, with early harness still
hanging on the
walls,
is
a well-preserved
example of free-standing farm outbuildings.
b.
Integrity of design, setting, workmanship, materials,
feeling, and
association.
The Commission contends that the architectural
description
by
Dr. Richard
Mattson
included in this report demonstrates that the McElroy
House meets
this
criterion.
9.
Ad Valorem Tax
Appraisal.
The current Ad Valorem appraised
value
of the
.692 acres of land is $28,800. The current Ad Valorem
appraised value of
the house
is
$123,300. The total Ad Valorem appraised value is
$152,100. The property is
zoned R-
3.
Date of Preparation of this Report.
November 1, 1998
Prepared
by:
Dr. Richard S. Mattson &
Dr.
William H. Huffman
Historic Landmarks Commission 2100
Randolph Road
Charlotte, N.C. 28207
Architectural
Description
The Samuel
J. McElroy House is among the finest and most intact of
a collection of vernacular Victorian, two-story,
T-shaped farmhouses to appear in Mecklenburg County
(including five along Beatties Ford Road) after the
Civil War. The house is situated
in a rural setting
just north of , the historic Hopewell Presbyterian
Church and the ca. 1800 Latta Plantation. An
operating farm stands to the southeast of the property
and an open field is located northeast across the road.
The dwelling's asymmetrical form stands in contrast to
the typically balanced facades of I-houses, which
predominated in rural Mecklenburg during the 19th
century. Built in the late 1880s, the McElroy House is a
picturesque mix of
vernacular Victorian influences. Although the original
weatherboards were covered with aluminum siding about
1980, the exterior retains much of its original
decorative woodwork, including the late Victorian
sawnwork on the front porch. The house's gable-front
section features a front-facing bay window on the first
floor and a sash window with six panes in each sash on
the gable-front facade of the second story. Original
sash windows with six-over-six panes survive throughout
the residence. The two-bay, one-room-deep, side-gable portion features the largely intact front porch. This
porch includes pairs
of slender wooden, chamfered supports with decorative
sawn brackets. These posts are connected by a sawnwork
balustrade. The main entrance, positioned at the
corner of the two sections of the house and leading into
the central hall, features
a crossetted
surround and double doors with four panels in each. The
paired screen doors are highlighted by ornate
jig-sawed woodwork.
The rear of the house includes a one-story, one-story
bedroom wing on the north side that is probably
original. Its original gable roof replaced by a
shed roof in the early 1980s. At the south end of the
rear facade is a one-story kitchen wing topped by a
gable roof that extends to incorporate an original
smokehouse. The two units are separated by a narrow
breezeway. This configuration is
unique in
Mecklenburg County. An engaged porch extends along the
north and south elevations of the attached smokehouse
and originally covered how partially remodeled
south-elevation of the kitchen ell.
A presumably
original back porch with chamfered, supports and
foundation of
stone piers wraps around the rear of the smokehouse.
The porch's irregularly-shaped low-pitched roof
is a later modification, and
the porch has been
partially rebuilt, with several of the original posts
replaced with square wood supports, and a simple wood
railing erected. All of the roofs on the McElroy House
are covered with
standing-seam metal
sheathing.
The interior of the main body of the house is
essentially intact. The
interior follows a central-hall plan, with a parlor on
the
northwest side (side-gable portion) and a living room
and
dining room on the southeast side (gable-front
portion). The
dining room leads into the kitchen wing, which has been
remodelled
and enlarged to include a section of the engaged porch
on the
northwest side. The original bedroom wing on the north
side of
the rear elevation has been remodelled as a family room
and now
also incorporates a portion of this porch. However, in
the main
T-shaped block of the McElroy House original vernacular
Victorian
elements survive intact. The central hall features an
open-string staii
ascending in two runs from the main entrance to three
bedrooms
in the second floor. The stairway has turned balusters
anchored by
a sturdy turned newel. Original mantels, four-panel
doors, and
delicately moulded door surrounds survive throughout the
interior
of the main block. The mantel in the south front
room--the living
room--is particularly elaborate. The frieze has a
curvilinear
motif with raised curved panels, and three heavy wooden
corbels
supporting the snelf. The pilasters also have raised
panels topped
by moulded caps. Flanking this mantel are two original
closets
with doors having two vertical panels, a lingering
vernacular
Greek Revival trait. The other mantels--in the parlor,
dining room,
and three upstairs bedrooms--are simpler, but all
reflect the
vernacular Victorian style exemplified by the living
room mantel.
The original ceiling in the living room is covered by a
modern
rough-finished plaster coating; but all of the other
rooms in the
main bock of the house have original board-and-batten
ceilings.
The walls of the house have original plaster, and
original hardware,
porcelain door knobs, and wood flooring survive
throughout.
The McElroy yard, shaded by mature oak trees, comprises
a
mix of historical and modern elements. The remains of a
fieldstone
chimney (perhaps once a summer kitchen, but more
research is needed to confirm its original function)
stands behind the house to the south. It is not
classified in this nomination as either contributing or
noncontributing. Other contributing and
non-contributing resources are listed below:
Tack house Contributing ca. 1885
This frame
gable-front building
stands on granite slabs. It
was built to store bridles, harnesses, and saddlery for
horses
and mules. Measures about eight by twelve feet.
Present wood-shingled
roof put on in 1988.
The Samuel J. McElroy House is architecturally
significant
under Criterion C as an outstanding example of the
T-shaped, two-story,
vernacular Victorian farmhouses that were built in the
county after the Civil War (see Associated Property Type
l-~Houses--Postbellum Farmhouses). Erected in the 1880s
for Samuel J. McElroy, a farmer, the dwelling features
one of the more ornate post-Civil War front porches
remaining in rural Mecklenburg. The interior, though
not exceptionally decorative, retains mantels with
curviliner friezes and raised decorative panels, a
turned-post staircase, board-and-batten ceilings,
and intact doors and simply moulded door surrounds that
exemplify the interior finishes of middle-class
farmhouses across the county in the late 19th century.
The house's asymmetrical form reflects the emerging
preference among well-to-do farmers in the area for
up-to-date picturesque domestic architecture, over the
more conservative I-house. Yet, the basic design
remains restrained both inside and out compared to the
picturesque styles appearing in Charlotte and other
substantial North Carolina cities in this period. The
focus of stylistic attention is placed on the front
porch and bay window. The attached smokehouse,
which is unique in Mecklenburg
County, reflects McElroy's concern for function as well
as style in the overall design of his farmhouse. The
tack house, which is the only surviving free-standing
farm outbuilding on the tract, contributes
to the architectural significance of the McElroy
property (see Associated
Property Type 2--Outbuildings).
Historical
Essay
The Samuel
J. McElroy House was built sometime
after November,
1883, when Samuel
Jefferson McElroy
(1840-1927) purchased a ninety-one
acre parcel on
what is now Beatties Ford
Road.1 McElroy was descended
from Scotch-Irish
ancestry who came to
America in 1729 and settled in
Cumberland
County,
Pennsylvania. Sometime later
they
moved on to
Virginia,
then to
Kentucky.
One of the descendents,
Samuel Jefferson
McElroy,
Sr., moved to Waihaw
in Union County,
N.C., where he was engaged
in mining and farming. One of his sons, Samuel
Jefferson McElroy, Jr., moved
to
Mecklenburg County as a young man
(he
appears
as
a
resident of the
county in
I860).2 A
volunteer during the Civil War,
McElroy
was wounded
at
the Battle of Gettysburg,
where he
lost
a
finger, and was taken prisoner. After the war, on
January 16, 1866, he married Margaret Janet Sample
(1846-1928) of Hopewell, who was a great-grandaughter of
Richard Barry, Sr., a signer of the Mecklenburg
Declaration of Independence. They started
their married life
on the Dr. George Dunlap farm near Hopewell Presbyterian
Church,
which
was
part of her father's estate.
Samuel
and
Margaret McElroy had eight children:
William Edward;
Henry
Lynn;
John
Grier;
Carrie Jane (Mrs. John Underwood);
Flora May (Mrs.
William
E.
Luckey); Una Dunbar (Mrs. Frank Patterson); Margaret
Eugenia;
and Martha Ellen. All were active members of Hopewell
Presbyterian
Church.
John
Grier
McElroy (1878-1958) became an elder
of the
church in 1907.
He also inherited the homestead from his father
in 1928, where he
lived and farmed.5
Just
a few months before his death in 1958,
John Grier McElroy sold
off fifty
acres
of the
ninety-three
he
had
inherited from his father, and his
children, John
Grier Jr., Robert
Sidney and Samuel
Jefferson divided the
remainder into three 5-l/2-acre lots. The
S. J. McElroy House was acquired
by
John Grier McElroy,
Jr. in
the division.6 In 1976,
J. G. McElroy, Jr. sold a
1.88-acre
parcel fronting on Beanies Ford Road that
contains
the house to
Donald
C.
and Timola B. Moore, who in turn sold it to
the present owners,
Thomas
M.
and Mildred D. Snyder, in 1982.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
*Footnotes:
1
Mecklenburg County Deed Book
36,
p. 102.
21850
U. S. Census.
Mecklenburg County,
N.C.
3
Charles William Sommerville, The History of Hopewell
Presbyterian
Church
(Charlotte:
Hopewell Presbyterian Church, 1939; reprint,
1987), p. 163;
Mecklenburg
County
Will Book
U,
p.
318.
4Ibid.,
pp. 163-164.
5lbid.,
p. 164;
Mecklenburg County
Will
Book
U, p.
318
6 Mecklenburg County Deed Books 2001, p. 469; 2640, p.
365; 2640, p.368
7Ibid., 3860. p. 243; 4537. p. 964.
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