|
Survey and Research Report
On
The
Hezekiah
Alexander House |
|
|
|
Hezekiah Alexander was born January 13, 1722, in Cecil
County, Maryland. He was the son of James Alexander and Margaret
McKnitt. His grandfather, Joseph Alexander, had emigrated to
Maryland in the early years of the eighteenth century. Sometime
after 1754, Hezekiah, as well as his brother, John McKnitt,
emigrated to North Carolina.
The Alexanders quickly established themselves in their new
home, Mecklenburg County. Although Hezekiah had come to North
Carolina as a blacksmith, it was as a farmer that he made his
fortune. On April 1, 1767, he purchased, from his brother John,
a tract of land containing over three hundred acres located on a
branch of Sugar Creek. It was here that in 1774 he built a stone
house to accommodate his wife, Mary Sample, and their growing
family. The house was to remain Hezekiah's residence until his
death in 1801, and became the center of his expanding farming
enterprises. Both Hezekiah and John McKnitt Alexander were
active in the affairs of their county. John was a crown surveyor
and county magistrate. Hezekiah played an active role in the
church, being an elder in the
Sugaw Creek Presbyterian Church. He was also a trustee of
Queens College, chartered in 1771, renamed Liberty Hall in 1774.
Both brothers numbered among their friends and associates the
prominent community leaders of Mecklenburg; among these were
Thomas Polk, William Sample, Ephraim Brevard, the Phifers, the
Averys, and Jeremiah MaCafforty.

With the approach of the Revolution, both of the Alexander
brothers became increasingly involved in the events which would
culminate in independence from Great Britain. In 1775 both men
were members of the Mecklenburg County Committee of Safety. On
August 21, 1775, Hezekiah was appointed by the Provincial
Congress meeting in Hillsborough to the Salisbury District
Committee of Safety which was to serve as the local governing
body for a multi-county area. In November, 1776, Hezekiah joined
other state delegates at Halifax to form the Fifth Provincial
Congress which was charged with the task of writing the first
state constitution. After the Halifax Congress, Hezekiah joined
the Fourth Regiment of North Carolina Troops as Paymaster.
Hezekiah Alexander's stone house is possibly the only extant
structure belonging to a framer of the state's first
constitution.
Architecturally, the Hezekiah Alexander House reflects the
influence of the German emigrants who came to North Carolina
from Pennsylvania in the 1750s and 60s. During that period
several thousand families settled in Mecklenburg and the
adjoining counties. Many of those settlers constructed houses of
native stone similar to that of Alexander's. They were quite
similar in form to houses built by the Germans in Pennsylvania
and the Dutch in the Hudson Valley. The Hezekiah Alexander House
is one of the few surviving examples of this architectural type
in North Carolina.

Exterior: The Hezekiah Alexander House was constructed
of native Piedmont
stone in a random pattern with oyster shell mortar. The
walls are two feet thick. The structure is two full stories over
a high basement. The front and rear facades are each of three
bays with contour doors. The attic is lit by a pair of small
windows in the west
gable and one in the northeast corner of the east gable. The
windows are
six-over-six in configuration, all having batten shutters.
Segmental
arches were originally constructed over all windows and
doorways. Those on the front and rear facades have keystones.
Some of these arches were eliminated during alterations to the
house, probably at sometime during the nineteenth century. In
the west gable there is an intersecting blind round window. The
roof is now covered with asbestos shingles; originally it was
covered with cypress shakes. The wide overhang of the eaves is
not original. The exterior dimensions of the house are length
36' 5" and width 35' 5".
Interior: The present interior plan has one long room
across the front of the house with an open stair in one end and
a corner fireplace in the other. Originally there was a wooden
partition dividing the stair hall from the parlor. The present
stair is a replacement from the original enclosed one. Behind
this room are two smaller rooms, a kitchen and bedroom, divided
by a small passage leading to the rear door. The right-hand wall
is one of a later date. Originally there were two rooms of
unequal size on the rear. There are corner fireplaces in both
rear rooms. The chimney breasts were originally plastered. There
is a warming cupboard over the fire place in the right-hand rear
room. This room must have been used as the kitchen.
On the second floor there are three rooms and a stair hall.
The wall between the stair hall and the room behind it is of
dubious form and may not be original. There are no fireplaces on
the second floor. The basement is divided into two rooms of
unequal size by a transverse stone wall. There is a stair to the
second floor and an exterior entrance in the southeast corner if
the east room. All ceilings show exposed structural members. All
of the stone walls are plastered on the interior. The other
interior partitions are composed of simple vertical wooden
sheathing. |