Name/Title
As the Houses were in 2021Description
In October 1995 the Town of Cornelius produced a comprehensive evaluation of the built environment of the Town. This study determined that the Perry Goodrum House and the Gabrial-Puckett House are historically significant because: "Along Catawba Avenue and North Main Street, members of the middle class occupied a variety of Queen Anne cottages and, by the 1920s, bungalows. Exemplary Queen Anne cottages include the Perry Goodrum and William Puckett houses (sic.), which stand side by side on Catawba Avenue. Both were built before 1910, and are one-story, frame, hip-roofed dwellings, with projecting gable-roofed bays and turned-posts porches trimmed with millwork. As Cornelius grew in the early twentieth century, its progress was measured most clearly by the tree-lined blocks of handsome residences built for the local elite as well as the middle class. The great majority of residential areas remains well-preserved. They are characterized by mature shade trees and shrubbery, and houses that represent both traditional, regional forms as well as the the most popular architectural styles of their time."
Cotton mills and other manufacturing plants were creating a robust economy in Cornelius. Farmers were drawn to Cornelius to work in the mills and factories and thereby were able to improve their economic standing.
In 2021, Lake Norman Realty encouraged Preserve Mecklenburg Incorporated (PMI) to take an exclusive, assignable option to purchase the houses and four tax parcels of land ready hopefully to assist in developing a financially viable preservation/development strategy for the two historical houses and the four "new homes" tax parcels. PMI holds a historical land easement on the rehabilitated homes for use by the Cain Center for the Arts and the developer was able to construct 6 new market rate homes.
The Queen Anne style of architecture was popular in middle class neighborhoods from roughly 1880 until 1910. Railroads and the appearance of the mechanical lathe and scroll saw facilitated the mass production and nationwide shipment of ornate decorations in wood. Queen Anne style homes, such as the Gabrial-Puckett House and the Perry Goodrum House, celebrate the industrial age.
Complexity was the guiding principle of Victorian architecture, including the Queen Anne style. The palette of paints used on Victorian buildings was complicated. Colors were bold and differentiated from one another. The impact of Victorian decoration has been compromised in many instances by painting Victorian buildings a single color, frequently white.
