MORE EXCLUSIVE HISTORICAL INFORMATION!
Our website also presents a recurring series of exclusive historical articles and illustrations on designated landmarks, events and other Davidson/Lake Norman area features – content researched and written by Hobbs Hill residents that provides unique insight into Past and Present life in Hobbs Hill and Davidson. Visit the “HOBBS HILL BLOG” section and look for articles tagged in the “Historical“ category!
Mecklenburg County, NC was created in 1762. The Town of Davidson’s original name was “Davidson College, NC”, based on the fact that the college predated the surrounding community before later changing to “Davidson, NC” in 1891. The College (and Town) was founded in 1837 after the Davidson family sold a large parcel of land to the Concord Presbytery to start Davidson College – named after Revolutionary War commander General William Lee Davidson.
The original inhabitants of the lands were Native Americans – specifically, the Catawba Nation, who were succeeded by settlement dating back to the Colonial and post-Revolutionary War time periods and associated ownership claims that changed hands several times in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Large tracts of land in Mecklenburg County (then known as Deweese Township) were eventually acquired and held by several families during those periods. The Davidson family, specifically William Lee Davidson II, owned several significant parcels including their plantation at Beaver Dam (in what later became East Davidson) and another 469 acres West of that location. Davidson II and Robert Hall Morrison became founding fathers of the College when in 1835, as members of a 5-person committee, they negotiated the purchase of those 469 acres from Davidson for the establishment of the College, agreeing to name the school after Davidson’s father and Revolutionary War hero William Lee Davidson. Morrison would also become the school’s first President.Other land owners who acquired and held notable tracts in the area during the 18th and early 19th centuries, as well as thru the Civil War period, included the families Jetton, Sloan and Armour, whose property in Northern Mecklenburg County included land near the Davidson family property sold for the College that comprises Hobbs Hill Neighborhood.
The entirety of Hobbs Hill Neighborhood, as well as adjacent Beaty Park, notably lies within the historic original 1.3 sq. miles of corporate limits for the Town, as established by the NC General Assembly in 1879 – and although the site of Hobbs Hill was historically open space, today the neighborhood adjoins the Town’s Historic District as recognized by the “National Register Historic District (NRHD)” adoption in 2009 following submission by the Town and State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO).In 1879, Arthur Armour passed various land holdings in Mecklenburg County to his son, R.M. Armour that included what would become Hobbs Hill. Between 1899 and the early 1900’s, R.M. Armour thereafter passed various parcels of land to his two sons, including some of the land comprising Hobbs Hill to Holt Armour.
Then in 1911, R.M. Armour sold land to A.L. Hobbs that included lots that were subsequently platted on Hobbs Street in the original “Armour Heights” historical plat – and later became parts of Hobbs Hill Neighborhood, including Lot #1 ). Following WWII, in 1946, multiple parcels of land owned by Holt Armour that included his parts comprising Hobbs Hill were auctioned by order of Mecklenburg County court to the winning bidder – J.K. Hampton. Hampton then sold that land that would become part of Hobbs Hill (Phase 1) to Verna K. Hobbs, A.L. Hobbs’ wife, in 1947. The Hobbs’ daughter, Julia Hobbs Masters, later assumed control of her mother’s assets and in March 1991, sold her family’s collective land parcels comprising Hobbs Hill Neighborhood (Phase 1) to the Kenneth and Clara Johnson family. Hobbs Hill was later developed by their son Michael and his wife Anita, along with partner David Mayfield; Hobbs Street, Julia Circle and Hobbs Hill Neighborhood were named after the Hobbs family members.
After initial work began on Hobbs Hill Neighborhood in 1992, the Johnsons acquired additional land in February 1993 from Dimetrics, Inc. including what would become “Phase 2” of Hobbs Hill Neighborhood, and the open space parcel donated by the Johnsons to the Town of Davidson for permanent conservation (today part of Beaty Park). Dimetrics was a subsidiary of General Time Instruments, which had acquired land along Armour Street from Duke Power in 1966. And as part of their land acquisitions for the formation of Lake Norman, in 1961 Duke Power had purchased that land from J.K. Hampton (the same party who in 1946 had acquired the previously described lands owned by Holt Armour, including the separate property Hampton had sold to Verna K. Hobbs in 1947 that also became part of Hobbs Hill).
The local area surrounding Hobbs Hill has various elements of officially recognized historical significance; the neighborhood lies adjacent to the Town’s historic railroad – originally the AT&O (Atlantic, Tennessee and Ohio) Railroad, which was incorporated in 1855. Construction and expansion of the AT&O line eventually connected Davidson to Charlotte in 1861, and then Statesville prior to the Civil War. The rail line was temporarily dismantled by the Confederacy to transfer its rail/timbers to higher priority wartime rails including the Piedmont Railroad, but reconstructed after the Civil War ended. Later the railroad was purchased by Southern Railway in 1894 and eventually designated the Norfolk-Southern “O-line”.
The entrance intersection of Armour and Watson Streets to Hobbs Hill Neighborhood is marked by one of the area’s diverse historic landmarks – the Armour Street Theatre, home to the Town’s renowned Davidson Community Players, a non-profit theatre organization, and “The Connie Company,” their youth theatre division. The Armour Street Theatre property was purchased by the Town of Davidson in 2007 specifically to preserve the historic brick building and create a community resource for the arts. The theatre structure is the former home of the First Baptist Church of Davidson and has recently been proposed to the Town and CMHLC by local advocates for official historic landmark designation.
First Baptist Church was founded in Huntersville, NC over 115 years ago, and the Mecklenburg Baptist Associational Board originally acquired the property including a mill home – which were part of the historic “Armour Heights” plat, in 1947. According to First Baptist leaders, the church was specifically located and built in this location to help serve mill and other area workers and their families in Davidson, and the church’s original pastor of First Baptist Church of Davidson together with other congregants built the chapel themselves in 1960. Today, the building is the only non-residential, historic structure over 50 years old in this area of Westside Davidson that was originally built as a community/religious structure and still used for public-community purposes today.
Another key part of Davidson and Mecklenburg County history lies just blocks from Hobbs Hill – the sites of the Town’s two original cotton mills, the Linden Cotton Factory on Depot Street (built in 1890) and the Davidson (originally Delburg) Cotton Mill (built in 1907) on Delburg Street. The historic significance of these mills and the Westside area in general cannot be overstated, as they epitomized the fundamental shift in the early 20th century economy of the Town (and nation) towards industrialization and non-agriculture industry. The Town’s mills became a focal point of Davidson’s growth and activities thru the 1930’s (before declines in the industry) and juxtaposed uniquely from a cultural and socio-economic perspective with the status afforded the Town with the presence of the College: despite the close proximity and interdependency of both regarding viability of downtown merchants and the Town itself.As increasing market changes saw the decline of the Carolinas’ mill industry by the 1930’s, the Linden Cotton Mill became the site of the Carolina Asbestos Company, and then later became known as the Metrolina Warehouse. Today, the site is home to several local businesses including the Rumor Mill Market – a diverse collection of vendors selling indoor/outdoor home goods and accessories.
The Davidson Cotton Mill, just 2 blocks from Hobbs Hill, has been designated “special historical significance” by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission as one of the best preserved cotton mill buildings in the entire county. After changing owners multiple times between the 1940’s-1970’s (including Bridegport Fabrics Inc.) for mill, fabric and warehouse purposes, the property was eventually acquired in 1996 by a local investment group, underwent a complete restoration/renovation and today boasts a variety of key local businesses in Davidson just a short walk from Hobbs Hill.
The “Cotton Warehouse” and “Transformer House” – two ancillary buildings for the Davidson Cotton Mill across Delburg Street from the main structure, also were eventually acquired by Bridgeport Fabrics Inc. and then in 2016, Davidson College purchased those properties, announcing a multi-million dollar investment (completed in 2018) to renovate and transform the Cotton Warehouse into “The Hub at Davidson” – a cutting-edge, LEED Gold-certified facility that serves as home for Davidson College’s innovation, entrepreneurship and emerging technology programs.Various other local historic landmarks surrounding Hobbs Hill within the “Village” (as downtown Davidson is often referred to) are associated with the Town’s early history and also officially designated by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission, further reinforcing the fact that Hobbs Hill Neighborhood lies in the middle of a local area integral to both the historic past of Davidson College and the Town, and their future!
To the immediate West of Hobbs Hill just across Beaty Street lies Lake Norman, a body of water that has historic significance to the entire region as the largest man-made lake in North Carolina! The section of Lake Norman North and East of Interstate I77/Exit 30 is also referred to as “Lake Davidson.” The historical Catawba River had been integral to the Catawba nation of Native Americans (or Iswa – which translated to “people of the river”) for an estimated many thousands of years prior to American colonial settlement. According to reports, the idea of damming the Catawba River to create the lake was first introduced in 1895, but wasn’t officially announced until 1957, when Duke Power revealed plans to build and name the dam at Cowan’s Ford, and construction began in 1959. Lake Norman was named after a former president of Duke Energy.
The dam and lake are additionally notable in our local Town history because the “Battle of Cowan’s Ford” was fought between American forces led by General William Lee Davidson (namesake of our Town) and the British Army’s Charles Cornwallis during the American Revolutionary War, on February 1, 1781 at Cowan’s Ford (“crossing”) on the Catawba River in Mecklenburg County, NC. General Davidson was killed during the battle and his name was later memorialized in the naming of the College and Town founded in 1837 in tribute to the lands acquired from the Davidson family. Today, the lake is an integral part of the Davidson and surrounding communities.
* images courtesy of various sources including Davidson College & Town of Davidson