A historic home in the Charlotte region was just sold for over $2 million. Here’s more

One of the most iconic properties in Belmont and the greater Charlotte area, the nearly century-old, two-story brick Stowe Manor, recently was sold for over $2 million.

The over 8,000-square-foot home at 217 S. Central Ave. near downtown Belmont, west of Charlotte, had been owned by the Stowe textile family for three generations since it was built in the 1920s.

The home had been used for weddings and other events, including corporate parties and reunions, for nearly 30 years now. The last wedding was Nov. 13.

The Stowe family owned the home and it was managed and maintained by Samuel Stowe III and his wife Martha, a teacher and Belmont city councilwoman for 14 years.

The home on 3 acres with nine bedrooms and four baths was listed for sale at $1.95 million by Helen Adams Realty. Designed by architect Hugh White, the Renaissance Revival house has 12-foot ceilings on the main level, a laundry chute and central vacuum from the year it was built in 1924, according to the real estate listing.

On Dec. 7, David Alexander Hostetler II and his wife Wendy bought the Stowe home, according to the Gaston County Register of Deeds office. David Hostetler declined to comment.

Realtor Frank Warren represented the Stowe family in the sale, and said the house sold for $2.2 million. He said it was on the market for only one day and generated interest from several buyers in the Charlotte region.

Warren said the new owners plan to return Stowe Manor to a private home.

Martha Stowe, who would often be seen mowing the lawn, said the manor was a lot to keep up for her and her husband.

“Our biggest concern was that (the house) would be torn down,” she said. “We’re really pleased someone is going to use it as a residence.”

History of the manor

The house with beamed ceilings is about 8,500 square feet. It was designed by Hugh White for Samuel Pinkney Stowe Sr., called S.P.

The Stowes owned four textile mills in Belmont, Martha Stowe said, and her husband’s grandfather was owner of the company later known as Belmont Heritage Corp.

Stowe built the manor for his second wife who liked to entertain, including having tea for teachers in the 1920s and ‘30s, according to a video narrated by Martha Stowe on the manor’s website. The website was taken down by Friday.

The house was built in 1922 but it burned and was gutted before the family could move in. It was rebuilt two years later. It cost $50,000 to build the house, with $75,000 to rebuild, according to the video. Spending $125,000 in the early 1920s would be the equivalent of about $2 million now, when adjusted for inflation.

Three generations of the Stowe family lived in the home until 1967.

The Stowes renovated the house in 1994 in conjunction with a fundraiser for the East Gaston YMCA. Local designer Sally Stowe Abernathy and a team of designers created the event space that could seat up to 100 people inside, plus unlimited outdoor seating.

Martha Stowe credited The Charlotte Observer with helping to raise $50,000 for the capital project.

The first floor includes a large kitchen, library, parlor and dining room, sun porch and side porch. The Renaissance Revival architecture, Martha Stowe said, means everything is symmetrical, including an embracing arm staircase in the foyer topped with a grand colonnade.

More about the manor

Other highlights about the manor:

▪ The house had the first electric refrigerator in the town.

▪ The only room the lighting has been changed in is the library.

▪ House plans show piping for an indoor water fountain in the back hall.

▪ It was built for cross ventilation.

▪ The main bath has an enclosed shower with a turn-of-the-century Jacuzzi, the same one that’s in The Biltmore house fitness room in Asheville.

▪ The property was originally 10 acres.

Behind the Stowe name

The Stowe family name graces roads, a park, YMCA and one of Gaston County’s top attractions, the 380-acre Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden on Lake Wylie. The Stowe family started its yarn business in 1936, including Stowe Mills in 1939.

“The Stowes have always been a prominent family,” said Belmont Library branch librarian Katie Love. “There’s a lot of Stowe influence.”

In fact, the Belmont library on North Central Avenue, which is part of the Gaston County Public Library system, was started by the Stowe family, Love said.

“The Belmont branch library is actually the Minnie Stowe Puett Memorial Library,” Love said. In 1937, Minnie Stowe donated $50,000, which amounts to almost $900,000 today, for a public library, Love said. Unfortunately, it was built in 1960, after she had died.

The Stowes were philanthropic, including buying the town’s first fire truck after the manor burned, Martha Stowe said. She said her husband’s grandmother told the teachers at her teas that anyone who didn’t have shoes to go to the Stowe mercantile store and she would foot the bill.

Memories at the manor

While Stowe Manor was a family home, it had always been shared with the community for parties, Martha Stowe said, including an annual Easter Egg hunt.

“One of the nicest things people have said to us is how much they appreciate us sharing this with the community,” she said. “We just wanted to make enough money to maintain the house because it was part of the town’s history and we didn’t want it to fall into total disrepair.”

Love said she’s only been inside Stowe Manor once for a Rotary Club meeting. “It was very beautiful,” she said about the ornately, richly decorated library room at the manor.

Among the comments on the manor’s Facebook page describing it as “a gorgeous event location” and “cool venue,”Archie Barrier Jr. posted his own memories of the home.

He said his mother used to take him to the manor on weekends to visit his Aunt Janie, who had worked for the Stowe family. After the family moved out, Janie was allowed to live there for decades, he said.

The Observer featured his aunt on her 100th birthday in 2000. Her work included laundry and cooking for the Stowe’s for 60 years. She moved to Belmont in the 1920s and worked until she was 80.

Barrier remember the stove and refrigerator in the kitchen being bigger than a small house.

As a child, he thought the house was spooky. “My cousins and I used to dare each other to go up stairs, because it was rumors of ghost up there,” he said on Facebook.

Warren, the real estate agent, had a personal connection to the house sale, too.

His grandfather worked as a foreman at Stowe Thread at the time the house was built. “Nearly 100 years later, here I am selling their house for them,” Warren said.

This story was originally published December 13, 2021 at 6:10 AM.