This Charlotte Observer article tells the story of how a preservationist saw potential in a nearly century old home when no one else did.  Now, just walking into this completely restored and improved home, one can feel the history come alive as you stroll from room to room.  If you ever wanted to live in a home with a fabulous staircase, huge solid oak pocket doors, a dining room large enough that truly entertains, and a modern kitchen with an old-timey butler’s pantry then this is your dream home!  A corner lot with a picket fence, big porches, and a huge White Oak (certified Treasure Tree) in the front yard beautifully frames this Victorian style home in the middle of NoDa neighborhood, known as The Arts District.  The original owner, JK Hand, and his house are described in Lois Moore Yandle’s book, The Spirit of a Proud People, which traces the story of the early development of Historic North Charlotte, the textile mills, and most importantly tells the tales of the hardy folk who lived, worked, played, and created a neighborhood that thrives today.

New Life: Renovated historic home sets tone for new class-styled development in NoDa

By Justin Parrish, Special Sections Writer

The capstone to an in-fill project in the historic North  Davidson neighborhood called NoDa is a Victorian house at 1201 Matheson Avenue. After a makeover that lasted eight years, the house, which has stood for more than a century, is ready for the next family to settle in.
Home builder and preservationist, Waymon Bullard, and his wife, Carol, painstakingly revitalized by the home retaining practically all of its original elements, including stamped-tin backsplash in the kitchen, wooden pocket doors in the dining room, push-button light switches throughout, and a white oak treasure tree in the front yard, making this house a rare find and a true piece of Charlotte’s history.

The Long Past
Bullard purchased the home and almost two acres of land at the corner of Matheson Avenue and Holt Street back in 1998. With the extra land, his plan was to construct an infill development called Hand Park.
“That’s the business I’m in – doing in-fill development,” said Bullard. “It was my intention to develop it in some way. The land went all the way to 34th Street. First thing

we did, we put houses on 34th Street, and then we came up with the plan for the development.”
The development’s namesake, Jasper K. Hand, was a prolific resident in the NoDa community in the early 20th century. He was the proprietor of Hand Pharmacy located at 3201 North Davidson St., now the location of Cabo Fish Taco. According to Carol Bullard, Hand nationally distributed an elixir he concocted called, “Liv-A-Lax”.
He had one son, Frank, who inherited the house after his parents died. Frank continued living in the house until 1998, the year the Bullard’s bought it.
The Bullards had a vision to restore the house to its original grandeur.
“Nobody else wanted to buy it because it needed too much work,” said Waymon Bullard. “In his report, the appraiser said it wasn’t even feasible to try and restore it. He said the best use was to tear it down and build houses.” But the Bullards were not deterred. “We like to preserve the historical integrity of a house,” said Carol Bullard. So the couple moved in and began making the much needed repairs.

The Renovations
The structural work came first. Waymon Bullard replaced the wallboard where a leaky ceiling had caused some water damage. New ropes had to be installed in many of the counterweighted windows. While most of the original wavy glass remained in the frames, some cracked or shattered panes had to be replaced. Some of the wiring was redone and most of the original light fixtures were put back in place.
Carol Bullard said sorting through an old shed behind the house yielded an assortment of treasures.
“It was like that HGTV show, ‘If Walls Could Talk’ in that we found old pharmacy bottles that Mr. Hand used to mix medicines, we found the original light fixtures and all kinds of stuff in there. I don’t think the Hands threw anything away.”
More recently, Waymon Bullard made several upgrades to the house to get it ready for the market, including laying new tile in the bathrooms and installing new insulation.
“We insulated the walls with a cotton insulation. It’s remnants of blue jeans. It doesn’t itch like fiberglass and it absorbs sound much better,” Waymon Bullard said.
Much of the outside work occurred during the time the Bullard’s lived in the house. Carol Bullard said curious neighbors were relieved to find out that the antique house wasn’t going to be torn down.
“When we first bought the house… they’d say, ‘Please don’t tear this house down and put up a shopping center’,” she said.

Hand Park assimilates to NoDa
During his tenure in the Hand house, Waymon Bullard set up an office in what used to be a servant’s quarters – the room has a separate staircase that leads down to the driveway. Then, he set about getting much of the surrounding land rezoned and divided into different lots for Hand Park.
One important aspect of this enclave of 14 craftsman homes was for it to integrate into the original from 1926,” he said. “She (Carol) gave me that catalog for Christmas one year and she said, ‘Let’s build these houses’. I did reconfigure the insides of the houses to be a little bit more modern.”
When Curt Seifart, a local agent with Helen Adams Realty, brought a buyer out to look at one of the homes in Hand Park, he said the buyer was amazed with the house, and was impressed with Bullard’s work in ‘urban pioneering’.
“Urban pioneering is moving into an area that has not been renovated yet,” Seifart said. “The people who do this are the ones with the vision. Waymon was in the right place at the right time, and he had the vision in order to grab this land and bring these craftsman-type homes into the neighborhood.”
Seifart is now listing the historic Hand home at 1201 Matheson Ave..

A Unique Opportunity
The meticulous work by the Bullards has yielded a rejuvenated and integral piece of North Charlotte history. This four bedroom, four bathroom house stands as a silent witness to the changes that have taken place to the community in the past 100 years.

Many things are still the same here, including the genuine thick-slate roof and the claw-foot tubs. The white oak in the front yard, the largest in the county, has lasted for at least two centuries, according to Carol Bullard. An interesting aside, when Matheson Avenue was constructed, the sidewalk was elevated to protect the root structure of the tree, said Seifart. The community, as a whole, continues to be very close-knit. “Everybody knows everybody and watches out for everybody,” said Carol Bullard. “Now with the new families moving in, it’s even more close-knit. We really enjoyed that while we were here.”

For today’s home buyer, the renovated house offers spacious rooms with 9-foot and
10-foot ceilings; a new heating, ventilating and air-conditioning system; and original oak and pine flooring throughout – all of this in a condition evincing the care that has been lavish here. Its location allows easy access to the interstates and the uptown area, but also represents an important spot in the history of North Charlotte.

“This house has so much history,” said Seifart. “It’s living history.”

Source: The Charlotte Observer