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Protecting a corner of history
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Published: October 14, 2009
For Town Commissioner Mac Herring, preserving the Johnston buildings on the corner of East Center Avenue and Broad Street means more than saving an important part of Mooresville's history. It also means saving a piece of his own.
It's the place where Herring's grandfather, Cyrus McNeely, met his future wife, a "Hello Girl." She worked as a young telephone operator on the second floor of the corner building for Mooresville's first Telephone Exchange.
The company phone book had 31 entries published on a single sheet of cardboard. One listing among them is for William Newton Johnston, the man who heard the whistle of a steaming locomotive, offered his carpentry skills to transform Mooresville into a booming railroad town, and built the row of storefronts across from the depot 25 years after the Civil War.
Last week, the Mooresville Town Board designated as a local historic landmark what remains of Johnston Square.
Those two buildings, constructed when Benjamin Harrison was President in 1890, housed not only the first telephone company, but also the first Savings and Loan, a dry goods store, and 120 years later are still operational as businesses today.
"This is really a milestone for us; this is the first commercial building we have put on your plate," Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) Chair Brent Zande told commissioners before they unanimously approved the designation.
Property owners Steven Keener and Sheila Goodson requested the landmark status through an application first reviewed by the State's Department of Cultural Resources. A second review and recommendation is made by the HPC, based on the age, the architectural styling, and the history of the building.
One of the key features of the Johnston Buildings is the shift away from traditional colonial architecture to a more elaborate style that reflects the prosperity of the railroad era.
The large finials jutting skyward at the building's corners, the ornate brickwork forming a decorative band above second floor windows, the tall display windows and recessed entryways of the storefronts, are just a few of the details that continue to make the buildings an attractive asset today.
Johnston's craftsmanship is just as evident in the interior with its mezzanines, bead board ceilings, and wide moldings. Architecturally, little has been altered and the two buildings -- one spanning two storefronts and the other three stories tall -- are well preserved.
But landmarking a building is only the first step in the process, which also involves restoration and renovation.
As a help to property owners, when a building is landmarked the annual property taxes are reduced by 50 percent. "It's an incentive," explained Planning Director Tim Brown, "because the restoration dollar is a very expensive dollar."
But the reduction in tax valuation has some on the town board concerned. Not only will the city and county lose revenue, but also two entities with much smaller budgets depending on a portion of those property taxes -- the Mooresville Downtown Commission (MDC) and Mooresville Graded School District.
The funding loss from the Johnston building will total $545 annually for the MDC and $422 for the school district, but the bigger issue is what happens if more of the identified historic properties are designated as landmarks. It's an impact that could reduce the MDC's budget by as much as 10 percent.
"I am very passionate about the preservation of our local architecture and its history," explained Commissioner Herring, who is also the town representative to the MDC.
"The Downtown Commission in the last two years has made great strides with redevelopment. And I'm concerned that the efforts of one do not impede the efforts of the other, because they both should go hand in hand."
Nationally, statistics show that property values in historic districts increase substantially. Zande cited an example from a district in Richmond, Va., where property values more than doubled.
"That's the kind of momentum you get with landmarking," he said.
But Herring says that gain takes time, and he wants the MDC to be able to continue downtown revitalization during that interim.
W.N. Johnston served as town commissioner in 1880 and in 1890, but few of his words survive that might shed some wisdom. Instead what he has been passed down to future generations are his buildings.
Johnston arrived in Iredell County after being wounded twice in Mississippi during the Civil War. He not only constructed the row of downtown storefronts, but established businesses that lasted 75 years with The Johnstons Sons Ice and Coal Company thriving into the 1960's.
Although the Ice and Coal building was recently torn down, five businesses are located in the two attached buildings that remain. Tullulah's, owned and operated by Goodson and Keener, and Ye Olde Mantel are downstairs with offices for Zande Homes and Wry Baby on the second floor of one building.
Country Ride Saddlery is located in the three-story building where Johnston ran a dry goods store on the ground floor, women's ready made clothes store on the second, and his undertaker business on the third. The Telephone Exchange moved nearby in the 1950s, but continues as Windstream today.
"Downtown Mooresville is going to have to offer something to draw people down here," says Keener's wife Marsha, who grew up in Mooresville and remembers attending Saturday matinees at the State Theater and buying fresh peanuts at Delk's Five and Dime.
While those attractions are left only as memories, there is one historically significant corner now preserved. "This is a piece of the history of Mooresville we would like to share with everyone," said Marsha Keener.
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