Alexander Farms & Homestead

About This Site

The Alexander Farm and Homestead was a notable landmark in Cornelius, NC until 2021 when construction began to turn it into a mixed-use neighborhood featuring office spaces, shopping, restaurants, and housing. With this construction, many of the historic buildings were removed and demolished. Many, but not all. The historic tenant house survived, and currently sits at the corner of Westmoreland and Catawba awaiting restoration and preservation.

Among the buildings lost, were multiple barns, the homestead itself, and several other structures typical to rural North Carolina. Preserve Mecklenburg has written a great synopsis of the historical relevance of the tenant house itself, which is well worth the read. In addition to the buildings, we also lost one of the last examples of a farmstead and rural life in the area. Though the fields have not been tended in many years, prior to construction, the landscape remained.

This property was home to J. Wilson Alexander, who was a renowned farmer in the North Mecklenburg area. He earned a name for himself farming cotton and was an early adopter of novel technology such as the use of fertilizers and pesticides. Remarkably, his early use of pesticide allowed him to ward off the boll weevil infestation which devastated the crops of the area. Alexander was also a darling of the local media appearing multiple times as a spokesperson for farming in the region. He would lead a long a productive life as one of the many Alexanders to leave their mark in Mecklenburg County.

The one remaining building, the Alexander Farm Tenant House, was built in the very early 1900’s and housed many tenant farmers and, sometimes, their families. Tenant farming was a common way of life post-emancipation where formerly enslaved people were looking for a way to assimilate into their surrounding communities despite their lack of access to build wealth during their lives and the lives of their parents and grandparents. Tenant farming and sharecropping arose as financial options for the formerly enslaved, and many of them participated in this way of life. While not all sharecroppers or tenant farmers were African American, many were. The lifestyle appealed to many poor Americans through the 1900’s and into the Industrial Revolution where workers began leaving farms for cities for better opportunities in the factories.

Among tenant houses in Mecklenburg County, the Alexander Farms Tenant House is special, because it is one of the last to survive. We suspect there may be 1-2 others in the county, but expect they are in poor shape if they still stand. However, among tenant houses in general, the Alexander Farms Tenant House looks like most others. This reason alone is why many desire to see the building preserved – as an effort to save a final image of what rural life in North Carolina was once like.

Moving into the modern era, the Alexander Farms Homestead was eventually abandoned as the family moved away. The property was sold to a developer and prepared for construction. During our work, we saw evidence of vandalism inside the homestead, and it was clear as to why the property was so closely monitored. The homestead was in very poor shape with much of it unsafe to occupy. Asbestos also coated the inside and outside of the building, requiring remediation for preservation – and even for demolition. Remediation crews had to remove asbestos siding and flooring as well as other features from within the home before demolition could occur.

In the future, you will see this location develop further as it becomes a mixed-use development.

Photos From The Site