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“The Waxhaw-Weddington Roads Historic District is located at the division of Waxhaw Road just west of Monroe into two arteries, North Carolina Highways 75 and 84, respectively. In the Y of the intersection is the Queen Anne style Heath House. To the south of the fork is the NeoClassical Revival style Robert B. Redwine House and to its east the smaller Queen Anne influenced Redwine Tenant House. Across the road on the north side are the Late Queen Anne style Crow's Nest (the Fetnah H. Crow House), and to its west the Prairie/Classical Revival style Edward Crow House. Each of the houses is the center of a small complex of outbuildings and subsidiary residences.
“The larger houses sit from 100 to 150 feet back from the pavement on rises slightly above the level of the highway, surrounded by large trees and with spacious lawns at front. Although there is less than two hundred yards between any of the houses, they are substantially screened from each other by landscaping. Early documentary photographs of the Redwine House indicate that before the current house's construction there were few trees of any size, and today the area around the landscaped grounds is mostly open farmland. The line of the Seaboard Railway forms a northwestern boundary to the district. As the built-up portions of the city of Monroe extend out along the highway, commercial and residential development is beginning to approach the eastern boundary of the district.
“With the exception of Crow's Nest, the houses have generally been well maintained and are in good to excellent condition. Crow's Nest has suffered from neglect and termite and water damage, but is currently undergoing a careful rehabilitation. Within the district are 21 contributing resources and 5 noncontributing ones.”
“The larger houses sit from 100 to 150 feet back from the pavement on rises slightly above the level of the highway, surrounded by large trees and with spacious lawns at front. Although there is less than two hundred yards between any of the houses, they are substantially screened from each other by landscaping. Early documentary photographs of the Redwine House indicate that before the current house's construction there were few trees of any size, and today the area around the landscaped grounds is mostly open farmland. The line of the Seaboard Railway forms a northwestern boundary to the district. As the built-up portions of the city of Monroe extend out along the highway, commercial and residential development is beginning to approach the eastern boundary of the district.
“With the exception of Crow's Nest, the houses have generally been well maintained and are in good to excellent condition. Crow's Nest has suffered from neglect and termite and water damage, but is currently undergoing a careful rehabilitation. Within the district are 21 contributing resources and 5 noncontributing ones.”
Significance
“The Waxhaw-Weddington Roads Historic District is significant in the history of Monroe, North Carolina, as a unique cluster of distinctive late 19th and early 20th century suburban residences grouped around a Y-shaped intersection of two state highways located in a semi-rural setting some two miles from the county seat's central core. By the end of World War I, the grouping, sometimes referred to as "West Monroe," was already recognized locally as a distinctive entity. The houses are associated with several Monroe citizens who were prominent in the commercial, industrial, political and judicial life of the city and county in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In particular, the many contributions of W.C. Heath and R.B. Redwine make the district eligible for the National Register under criterion B. It is also eligible under Criterion C, both as containing locally outstanding and representative examples of the Queen Anne, Classical Revival and Prairie school architectural styles and as a significant and distinguishable grouping of resources. Two of the houses of are particular architectural merit.
“The 1897 Heath House, designed by C.C. Hook of Charlotte, is one of the two or three best examples of the Queen Anne style in Monroe. The ca.1908 residence of R.B. Redwine, built by local contractor. G. Marion Tucker, is among the finer of the many Classical Revival style houses built in Monroe between 1900 and 1910 and is unusual as the only brick example of the style surviving from this period.
“The ca.1905 Queen Anne-style house known as Crow's Nest and the 1916 Prairie School/Classical Revival-style Ed Crow House are representative examples of those styles. Each house stands at the center of a complex of related contemporary and later outbuildings and subsidiary residences on a large home tract of four to six acres, sited well back from the roadways which form a principal boundary for each tract. The district's period of significance extends from 1897 to 1938, the former being the date of construction of the earliest surv1ving house in the district and the latter year being that in which R.B. Redwine died, the last surviving of the original owners of the houses.”
“The 1897 Heath House, designed by C.C. Hook of Charlotte, is one of the two or three best examples of the Queen Anne style in Monroe. The ca.1908 residence of R.B. Redwine, built by local contractor. G. Marion Tucker, is among the finer of the many Classical Revival style houses built in Monroe between 1900 and 1910 and is unusual as the only brick example of the style surviving from this period.
“The ca.1905 Queen Anne-style house known as Crow's Nest and the 1916 Prairie School/Classical Revival-style Ed Crow House are representative examples of those styles. Each house stands at the center of a complex of related contemporary and later outbuildings and subsidiary residences on a large home tract of four to six acres, sited well back from the roadways which form a principal boundary for each tract. The district's period of significance extends from 1897 to 1938, the former being the date of construction of the earliest surv1ving house in the district and the latter year being that in which R.B. Redwine died, the last surviving of the original owners of the houses.”
Historical Background
“The location of the cluster of dwellings and outbuildings comprising the Waxhaw-Weddington Roads Historic District reflects the proximity of the rapidly developing county seat of Monroe with its increasing commercial and social opportunities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, together with ready railroad access to other cities of the Piedmont and parts north. Against this growing urban attraction was balanced a desire to continue rural occupations in a less spatially restricting environment than the town.
“The district consists of approximately 25 acres, which are clearly delineated from their surroundings by the right of way of the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad and mature hedges and stands of trees. It is an area defined by the high architectural quality and shared design characteristics of the four principal houses and by the carefully landscaped, spacious grounds and deep setback of those houses.
“The district consists of approximately 25 acres, which are clearly delineated from their surroundings by the right of way of the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad and mature hedges and stands of trees. It is an area defined by the high architectural quality and shared design characteristics of the four principal houses and by the carefully landscaped, spacious grounds and deep setback of those houses.
“A survey of Monroe's historic architecture was conducted in 1978, during which nearly 250 of the community's most significant historic architectural resources were identified. Reflecting the city's development from 1844 to 1978, the buildings recorded included more than 150 late-19th and early-20th century houses, with a significant collection of large Classical Revival residences. The four houses in the Waxhaw-Weddington Roads Historic District were among about fifteen percent of the buildings selected for intensive recording, and one, the Heath House, has been accorded local designation by the Monroe/Union Historic Properties commission (1985). Approximately 130 of the buildings shown in the publication resulting from the survey have been included in the Monroe Residential Historic District. Two other suburban Monroe houses have been nominated to the National Register--the John C. Sikes House (listed in 1978) and the M.K. Lee House (nominated in 1987). Architecturally and historically, two of the four principal houses Waxhaw-Weddington Roads Historic District--the Heath House and the R.B. Redwine House--are comparable with the pivotal houses in the Monroe Residential Historic District and the two individually nominated houses. The other two are comparable with the best of the contributing houses in the Monroe Residential Historic District. Their significance as a group is especially outstanding.
“Ownership of the properties in the district has remained relatively stable since their construction, with two remaining in the same families until the 1970s and 1980s, with the result that the houses and the tracts of land on which they stand survive with a high degree of integrity and an unusual lack of intrusive elements. Since the mid 1970s, several different owners of the Heath House have undertaken efforts to restore it, and the current owner of Crow's Nest is working to repair damage caused by neglect. The Redwine House and the Ed Crow House remain in good condition, having been continuously occupied and maintained to the present.” (NR 1988)
