Email
Print
Federal style dominates Iredell homes
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: April 20, 2009
During the 19th century, new homes in Iredell County were built in a wide variety of styles determined by terrain, climate, available materials and fashion. As the century rolled on, many American architectural books were available and were used for fashionable decorative trends plus floor plans and street views. There were few copies of Vitruvius or Palladio books available.
Additions and extensive remodeling have often changed the look of structures and can throw off attempts to date and classify them. Another problem is that structures have been identified by the original builder, someone who subsequently owned them, or by present owners.
A good example is the Feimster School located on the west side of North Center Street where Race Street intersects. Originally a two-story, wood-siding building, it was built around 1895 as a private school. In 1915 Fred Bunch Sr. bought the building and established Bunch Hatchery in a one-story, lean-to addition on the back. When the hatchery became profitable, the building was covered with brick and a two-story front portico with Roman Ionic columns was added, making it into a Neo-Classical Revival house. The original hatchery was turned into an elegant wood-paneled den.
"An Inventory Of Historic Architecture, Iredell County, N.C." was the result of the first attempt to list and describe all the notable pre-1950 structures. The survey, published in 1978, was directed by Ruth Little Stokes with photos by Gary Freeze. It is available for study at the Iredell County Public Library.
I have a pamphlet from the Department of History and Archives that gives updated descriptions of North Carolina building styles that I have misplaced and have had to rely on the "Inventory" for style designations. Houses are identified as Greek Revival or Federal without a definition of these terms. I have worked backward to define them by looking at the examples and what I know about them.
The most prevalent style of house in Iredell is the Federal style. The floor plan has a room on each side of a central hall. It can be one or two stories and usually has a single-story extension, or el, with two rooms and a back porch that connects to the hall's back door. The chimneys are at both ends and outside the walls for fire safety. Over the main section there is always a pitched roof running parallel to the street. The Federal designation means it was built after the Constitution became law. In Statesville, there are many examples of both one- and two-story versions, and many of my readers are living in them now.
I am very familiar with the one-story Victorian Federal house at 247 Kelly St. because it was my great-aunt Mattie Short's home, and I visited there many times. It has an original front porch with very unusual solid wood octagonal columns. Band-sawn decorations like wooden icicles run up the portico and all over the main house eaves (some are missing.) There are chimneys at each end of the main section and one between the two rooms of the el. All of the front porch and decorations are original. Before my time, there was a major addition of rooms opposite the el rooms separated by a long hall that was the converted back porch.
The other basic floor plan, called Greek Revival, has nothing to do with decoration style. I use to hear it described as "four-square," meaning it has a central hall with two rooms on each side (a roughly square plan) and was predominately two stories. The fireplaces were inside the house between the rooms. It usually has a hip roof (all four sides of the roof slope to the middle) and most have a front and back porch.
The Hall house at 229 North Race St. is on a corner lot at Race and West End Avenue. It was built in 1870 (according to the "Inventory") without a front porch, though one was added later in Victorian style. The "Inventory" states that it is pure Greek Revival with its four-square, two-story plan, interior chimneys and hip roof. I have heard this described as the oldest brick house and the third-oldest house in Statesville. The brick probably came from the banks of the Free Nancy Branch which, at that time, ran across West End Avenue near where Davis Hospital was later built.
While decorative work and columns may be of the then-latest Victorian fashion, the earliest houses had single double-hung windows, while later houses had windows in pairs. I think it is safe to say that every house had a front and back porch. The front porch was for summer living and for receiving guests in all seasons. The back porch was strictly utilitarian. It was a place for the icebox and for fireplace or stove fuel storage. No guests were received here, only delivery men.
Next month the subject will be the many decorative influences and exterior colors of Victorian structures and the Neo-Classic styles.
Correction: I would like to correct my designation in last month's column of the flowers that grew in the front lawn of the Anderson house. Bob Wasson e-mailed me that he had known both Grace and Tom Anderson and had helped Miss Anderson with her plantings in Oakwood Cemetery. The front lawn flowers were not violets but star of Bethlehem. His 96-year-old mother has verified that name. The flowers are still there in what was the front lawn of the Anderson house. Bob also remembered that the topiary hedge was at least 12 feet tall.
Gene krider is a retired architect who still enjoys discovering the wonders of Iredell. Send him an e-mail at gkarchtk@Bell
Email
Print
ADVERTISEMENT
Advertisement
