Stopping time

Image courtesy of Statesville Historical Collection

 1902 . . .
The photographer stood in South Center Street and pointed his camera at the stately Sharpe House. The windows and doors of the house are open wide to catch the breeze. On the portico and balcony are chairs, rockers and small tables inviting all to sit, relax and maybe pass the time with an elderly gentleman enjoying the fine day. Seated in a rocker, the colonel's long white beard stands out in sharp contrast to his dark suit and dapper bowler hat. His long career or public service was largely at an end, but the residents of his town still looked to him for an opinion on what was good for the community. Little more than a year later, he would die of a massive stroke.

. . . 2010
Steve Hill kindly sent me a scanned image from his collection of historic images this week. Like a kid at Christmas, I devoured every detail of the 1902 image to glean details from that snapshot in time. I was struck by the number of chairs and tables on the porch and reminded that in our modern air-conditioned South, we have lost the fine art of sitting on front porches just to pass the time with friends and neighbors or watch the world go by. I hope we can remedy that soon.

Gentlemen callers

1866 . . .
Sarah McKee Sharpe understood the importance of gracious hospitality in the South. On the McKee plantation, she was accustomed to long visits from family and friends to their home. Distances were great, transportation slow. You didn't come visit for a couple hours, you stayed for days or even weeks. The same was true after the Civil War as her family moved into town. Statesville's role as the county seat meant long quarterly meetings of the court which provided government and dispensed justice for the residents of Iredell County. Family and friends could count on the Sharpe household to provide room, board and the latest news. To turn them away would have been unthinkable.

. . . 2010
Have you ever noticed that unexpected visitors come when your house is completely torn apart? The house was a small disaster yesterday morning when I got a call from Dave Ibach, editor of the Statesville Record & Landmark. They wanted to do a story for the newspaper on the reopening of the house. Wonderful! When? Today and we're sending a photographer. (Gulp!) So with a whirlwind slap-dash effort at clearing or camouflaging the chaos at the house, I met with reporter Jim McNally and photographer Bruce Matlock in the afternoon. Although I knew the house was "presentable", you wonder how someone else perceives it when they view it for the first time. The results of their visit made the front page of today's Record & Landmark. Gentlemen, thank you all for your gracious attention to this grand old house. Our doors will always be open to you. Sarah would have expected nothing less.

It all started in 1866

1866 . . .
Silas Alexander Sharpe was eager to move his young family from the plantation home of his wife's family to his dream house on Center Street just south of town. It was an ideal location for the successful owner of the Sharpe Tannery which was located only one block south of the house. He was finally able to set aside his duties as colonel of a NC militia unit and resume civilian life. It was time to accept the defeat of the Confederacy and begin the process of healing. And for him, the way to start was by getting settled in a stylish and expansive house he had started building almost a decade before.

. . . 2010
The Silas Alexander Sharpe Foundation has struggled for years with a problem facing many groups charged with caring for historic houses: "How do we bring this piece of the past into the 21st century?" The answers aren't easy and there is no one-size-fits all solution. So over the course of the next few months, we'll be trying a lot of new things. Not all of them will be successful, others will. It's going to be interesting to see where this journey takes us!