Narrative Statement of Significance - Neighborhood Expansion

Population Growth and Neighborhood Expansion

While the eastern portion of the expansion area--that area east of Dyer Street--was part of the city since at least 1807, only one building, the diminutive former store, office, or private school (#422-a) at 215 North Elliott Street remains from the antebellum period. Research has not been able to document the history of the building, which very possibly has been moved at least once. It is one of only two frame antebellum non-residential buildings remaining in Elizabeth City.

With the completion of the Elizabeth City and Norfolk Railroad in 1881, the economic and industrial development of Elizabeth City entered a period of unprecedented prosperity. Within twenty-five years of the arrival of the first steam engine, the city's population growth--the city increased in size from about 3,500 in 1884 to approximately 8,000 in 1905--had largely filled the old antebellum residential areas and tracts developed in the 1880s, areas now largely included in the Elizabeth City and Northside historic districts (Branson 1884, 237; News and Observer 1905, 451). Most of the new construction that occurred between 1885 and 1900 in the eastern portion of the expansion area bounded by West Fearing, South Road, Culpepper, and Grlce streets was on independently subdivided small parcels instead of a development tract which would have necessitated a legally-recorded plat map. Construction on lots along West Fearing, West Church, North and South Dyer, and Culpepper, streets was so rapid that by 1910, only scattered vacant lots, many of them on South Dyer Street, were still available.

The housing needs of the city's new residents during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries resulted in the development of new residential areas on former agricultural lands west of the antebellum city. Developments platted in 1892 by the Improvement Company of Elizabeth City, in 1899 by W. M. Baxter, and in 1902 by the West End Land and Improvement Company added 1,093 building lots at the western edge of the growing city. Of these lots, 364, or 33 percent, are located within the expansion area where they comprise the vast majority of the western two-thirds of the expansion area. Two smaller tracts developed in 1902 by old, Dunstan, and Jones and in 1928 by Weeks added 199 available lots, of which only 31, or 16 percent, are located within the expansion area. Unlike many similar developments in the state during this period, there is no evidence that the principal owners of these developments took an active role in the construction of speculative dwellings on their lots but acted solely a property owners and real estate agents (Deed Book 12, p. 299; Deed Book 20, p. 371; Map Book 3, p. 18; Deed Book 25, p. 490; Deed Book 73, p. 399) (Exhibit D).

The largest of these developments was the Improvement Company of Elizabeth City, which platted 581 lots in March; 211 of the lots along West Main Street, West Colonial Avenue (originally known as Cherry Street), and Cedar Street are situated within the Boundary Expansion (Exhibit B). Its incorporators in December 1891 included some of the city's most prominent businessmen: attorney Edwin F. Aydlett; lumberman Daniel S. Kramer; merchant and industrialist Charles H. Robinson; banker, insurance agent, and former mayor (1886-1888) George M. Scott; and wholesale grocer and later mayor (1911-1913) Jerome B. Flora, Sr. (Incorporation Book A, p. 71; Pasquotank Year Book 1954-55, 126. 133, 140: Pasguotank Year Book 1956-57, 291).

In June 1899, Wiley M. Baxter, a wealthy businessman who erected an impressive Queen Anne style residence at 708 West Church Street (ECHD), platted seventy-one building lots known as "W. M. Baxter's West End Lots" along Persse, Selden, and West Church streets, the latter then known as West End Avenue (Exhibit F). These lots were counted among the 512 lots that were recorded in June 1902 by West End Land and Improvement Company, which had been formed the previous month with Baxter as majority stockholder (Exhibit G). The Boundary Expansion includes 102 West End lots along West Church, Persse, and McPherson streets, with West Church Street being one of the most impressive and cohesive residential avenues. Other lots in the subdivision were located along Grice, Westover, Pritchard, White, and Meekins streets, many of which were not built upon until the mid or late 1940s; another street, Barton, was never lald out (Deed Book 3, p. 18; Incorporation Book A, p. 232; Deed Book 20, p. 371; Map Book 3, p. 18).

Two other subdivisions are known to have been laid out in within the expansion area during the early twentieth century, The earliest was a small tract of twenty-three lots platted by Old, Dunstan, and Jones in March 1902 (Exhibit H). Although there is no legal record of this partnership, the principals are believed to have been bank cashier W. T. Old, businessman and ice company manager William E. Dunstan, who built a house (demolished 1960s) at 301 West Church Street (see #351), and hardware store owner Dennis M. Jones. The tract included all of Panama Street and the adjoining lots on Baxter and West Main streets; twenty of the twenty-three lots are included within the Boundary Expansion (Deed Book 25, 490; Branson 1897, 481; Pasquotank Yearbook 1954-1955, 137; Pasquotank Yearbook 1956-1957, 294). In 1928, 176 lots were laid out during the division of the farm of James M. Weeks, who began acquiring land in the area before 1876 and whose ca. 1895 dwelling (#164) is one of the last surviving farmhouses in the expansion area (Exhibit I). The first houses in the tract were erected in the mid 1930s and the eleven lots included within the expansion area are occupied by six dwellings (Deed Book 73, p. 399; Deed Book 39, p. 180).

Beginning in the 1890s, the expansion area became home to persons who assumed integral positions in the broad range of industrial, mercantile, professional, and civic endeavors of Elizabeth City. West Main and West Church streets were among the city's most desirable addresses during the 1920s and 1930s and is the location of fashionable dwellings erected by ambitious businessmen. Less ambitious dwellings along West Fearing, Cedar, West Colonial, and Persse streets were home to shopkeepers, tradesmen, and laborers. However, all of these residents contributed to the status of the city as the leading center for industry and trade in northeastern North Carolina.

Industrialists were among the most ambitious residents of the expansion area, and many of them erected fashionable residences along West Maln and West Church streets. Many of these men were associated with the numerous saw mills and wood manufacturing establishments that constituted the city's leading industry from the 1870s through the 1940s. These men not only included sons and grandsons of the city's lumber pioneers, such as Harry G. Kramer (#133) and William G. Foreman (#271), but men who were associated with smaller lumber firms such as Charles D. Bundy (#191) and Roy E. Chesson (#334). The industrial base of the city during these prosperous decades was multi-faceted and many of the owners and managers resided within the expansion area, adding to its economic position within the city. Among these manufacturers were iron foundry co-owner Clarence Sanders {#147); candy maker J, E, Weatherly (#223); Coca-Cola bottler William C. Dawson (#230); ice manufacturer Edward C. Conger (#242); hosiery mill owner Noah Burfoot (#246); grist mill owner Robert S. Fearing (#139); buggy manufacturer E. E. Etheridge (#278); and farm machinery developer and manufacturer George Pritchard (#286).

Professionals, like industrialists, generally preferred fashionable residences situated along the major avenues of the expansion area. Among these residents were lawyers Edwin F. Aydlett, Jr, (#135) and Walter L. Cohoon (#282); physician Richard L. Kendricks (#132); pharmacists Francis G. Jacocks (#218) and John T. Stevenson (#301); dentists Henry E. Nixon (#228) and Samuel W. Gregory (#279); insurance agents James G. Fearing (#138) and N. W. Daily (#216); bookkeepers Fannie L. West (#120) and William S. Overman (#291); bankers William G. Gaither (#234), Marshall M. Jones (#235), and W. Ben Goodwin (#304); Federal Court Clerk James P. Thompson (#244); postal employee Mary E. Gurley (#320); and teacher Julien E. Aydlett (#343). While many residents of the expansion area were active in the civic affairs of their city, several occupied leadership positions. These included mayors William G. Gaither, Sr. (#234, term of office 1919-1921), W. Ben Goodwin (#304, 1921-1925), and Levin B. Culpepper (#167, 1957-1964); local postmasters William T. Culpepper (#148, 1934-1945), Roland L. Garrett (#302, 1943-1964), and Levin B. Culpepper (#167, 1964-1987); and numerous city council members, the most prominent being A. Parker Midgett (#51), who represented his neighbors from the 1960s until the 1980s.

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Elizabeth City's position as a regional market place and supplier of goods and services was unchallenged in northeastern North Carolina. The city supported numerous commercial establishments and many merchants, shopkeepers, and tradesmen chose to build houses within the expansion area. These proprietors represented every aspect of the city's bustling commercial sector and included, but in no way was limited to: clothiers William C. Sawyer (#221) and Cader P. Harris (#288); department store owners Raymond B. Sheely (#250) and Ernest S. Chesson, Jr. (#299); grocers Gideon Pendleton (#194), William D. Glover (#273) and Jacob W. Cox (#332); bicycle shop owners Phineas DeLon (#283) and William S. Cartwright (#284); hardware store owners Felton F. (#s 257, 300,and 318) and Roland L. Garrett (#302); and bakery clerk Ola Cartwright (#196). Tradesmen, particularly those associated with construction, were also represented among the residents of the expansion area. Included among these are: contractors Milton C. Savin (#198) and Whitmel Lane (#359); automobile mechanic Worthy B. Gregory (#62); farmers William E. Cooper (#35), James M. Weeks (#164), and Zenas Fearing (#375); piano tuner Joshua S. Lister (#81); photographer William H. Zoeller (#267); barber Joseph A. Singleton (#358); and boat captain Charles S. Parker (#384).