Historical BackgroundThe earliest mention of the area that now comprises the Elizabeth City Historic District (Boundary Expansion), hereinafter referred to as the expansion area, was that of the road to Jones Mill from the Narrows, the original name for the settlement at the narrows of the Pasquotank River which later became known as Elizabeth City. This road generally followed the route now taken by West Main Street; indeed, as late as the 1880s, deeds for property along that street referred to it as being on the "Road to Jones's Mill" (Pasquotank Yearbook Vol. 2, 292; Pasquotank County Deed Book 66, p. 18). The earliest known resident of the western area of the expansion area was Nancy Shirley (died before August 1820), who acquired forty-two acres from the State of North Carolina in 1811 (Deed Book T, p. 41; Division Book A, p. 160). Her dwelling, the ca. 1793 Shirley-Armstrong House (#163), is not only the oldest in the expansion area, but the oldest in the city as well; its significance, however, dates from a ca. 1920 relocation from near West Church Street to 1011 West Main Street and a subsequent remodeling into the Colonial Revival style. Other antebellum residents of the expansion area included merchant Daniel Richardson (1823-ca. 1868) and planter George W. Charles (1813-1872). Richardson bought approximately twenty-live acres in 1846 near West Church and Culpepper streets--property that was described as "situate about four hundred yards west of the Town of Elizabeth City (Deed Book FF, p. 245)." While the exact location of this tract has not been determined, it most likely included the sites of two houses owned by Richardson, the ca. 1840 Richardson-Sawyer House (#310) and a much larger house he erected ca. 1850 at 301 Culpepper Street in the Elizabeth City Historic District (ECHD). It is known that Mount Lebanon A. M. E. Zion Church (#365) stands on property purchased from Richardson in 1856 and that a portion of Richardson's tract was later developed as property of the West End Land and Improvement Company (Deed Book 8, p. 22; Deed Book 24, p. 627). Charles owned an extensive plantation along what is now West Colonial Avenue, West Main Street, and Cedar and Maple streets, and the plantation seat (#103) is one of the most impressive antebellum houses in the city. In 1892 much of his farm was platted as building lots by the Improvement Company of Elizabeth City (Deed Book 12. p. 299). While that section of the expansion area beyond Persse Street remained primarily agricultural land until the 1890s, the eastern portion of the area was exposed to increasing development during the antebellum period. The 1793 western boundary of Elizabeth City extended to what is now Cobb Street, and in 1807 the boundary was extended westward one block to beyond Dyer Street to include the Elizabeth City (now First) Baptist Church at 300 West Main Street (ECHD). There were no further changes in the city's western boundary throughout the antebellum period, and apparently none during the early post-war years. By 1893, the boundary had been extended to a line that ran down the center of Doughty (now Persse) Street, westward down the center of West Church Street to Griffin Street, and then northerly to the intersection of North Ashe and Cedar Street; these expanded city limits included the vast majority of the expansion area (Exhibit C). The oldest community within the expansion area is a small black neighborhood consisting of twelve primary resources (eight of them contributing} along Culpepper Street. The focus of this community, in fact, the very reason for its establishment, is Mount Lebanon A. M. E. Zion Church (#365). The congregation traces its beginnings to a Colored Mission organized about 1850 by the white Elizabeth City Methodist Episcopal Church, South. It first met in the basement of the white church at 305 East Church Street (ECHD) and reported a membership of 273 in 1855. In 1856 land was purchased on African Church (now Culpepper) Street and, with the generous help of the city's white residents, a large Greek Revival style edifice was erected [Scott: photograph p. 139 of On the Shores]. Not only was the Colored Mission the first black church in the Albemarle region, in 1861 it claimed the largest membership of any church in Elizabeth City with 383 members and 48 probationary members. The church occupied its 1856 building until the present brick edifice was completed in 1905 (Mount Lebanon A. M. E. Zion Church 1950, 1, 3-4, 6-7; Griffin 1970, 108-109). One of the leading residents of the neighborhood surrounding this church was Whitmel Lane {1824-1901), a free-black carpenter who was one of the city's wealthiest and most prominent black citizens during the second half of the nineteenth century. He began acquiring property along African Church (now Culpepper) Street "near the town of Elizabeth City" in 1857, and presumably erected his residence at 315 Culpepper Street sometime thereafter. Lane was so well respected that he was accorded the rare honor for a black at the turn of the century of being eulogized in an obituary in The Economist. The obituary characterized him "an example of sobriety, industry and good conduct, a friend of both races among us . . . . . he had accumulated considerable property, had raised a large family, had educated his children and had trained them in the paths of virtue" (Deed Book MM, p. 653; Deed Grantee Index 1700-1915, volume F-L, p. 333; The Economist, October 11, 1901; Will Book O, p. 533). |