Historic Dilworth home in the shadow of uptown may face changes in the future
A historic home on East Morehead Street in Dilworth — among the last of its kind in Charlotte with its Victorian interior features — may face changes in the future as local preservationists work to find it another property nearby.
They said they’re helping scout another site for the 1902 John and Idella Mayes House in case the valuable property near uptown is ever sold.
“It’s always possible the property could be sold in the future,” owner James Wyatt told The Charlotte Observer on Friday.
Wyatt runs his longtime law practice in the house, which is in the 400 block of East Morehead across from Dowd YMCA. Thousands of drivers pass the home each day on their way to and from uptown.
If the property were ever sold, he said, a buyer could choose to leave the home where it is and put apartments or other uses in it, or decide to develop the property in another way.
The house, on the National Register of Historic Places, originally belonged to textile magnate John Mayes. The house remains “one of the last vestiges of the grand residential boulevard that formed the northern boundary of Dilworth,” according to the Charlote-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission.
Wyatt said he bought the house and land in 1993 and has worked since then to preserve its many unique Victorian features. That includes many of its original interior and exterior features, such as the exterior slate roof and leaded glass windows and interior wood paneling, embossed wall coverings and wooden pocket doors, according to the commission.
“My history shows I’ve been very dedicated to the preservation of the Mayes House,” Wyatt said.
While Wyatt has filed a demolition-related certificate of appropriateness with the Landmarks Commission, he said such a measure is unlikely to happen. The commission can take up to a year to decide and move forward with such a request, he said.
Dan Morrill of Preserve Mecklenburg told the Observer his group is helping find another landowner for the house in case the property is ever sold.
“It’s a stunning house,” Morrill said. Only two other homes in Charlotte are anywhere near like it, he added.
As Preserve Mecklenburg describes it, “The John H. Mayes House is among the finest Victorian era houses surviving in Charlotte. Once part of an elegant residential neighborhood on East Morehead Street, the Mayes House is now sitting on an extremely valuable piece of land immediately south of center city Charlotte.”
This story was originally published February 1, 2020 at 5:00 AM.