It is not every day that Ashe High Country Realty offers a property for sale that has a history such as this lovely 1900's farmhouse. This property is located in Creston, NC with original outbuildings, fruit trees, stream, meadow, woodlands, views, and situated on 6+ acres. The home is in good condition and waiting for someone who enjoys the simplicity of the North Carolina Mountains and the history this home in Ashe County has to offer.
It is not difficult to stretch the imagination and see what life must have been like in Ashe County, NC over a century ago but it may be a little inconceivable to realize that the sleepy crosstown community of Creston, NC was once a larger and more thriving center than that of the county’s seat, Jefferson. Even the county hub of West Jefferson paled, for a time, in the shadow of the trade and commerce conducted in North Fork.
Creston, known as North Fork until 1882, ascended from the main thoroughfare in the county, Buffalo Road. The Buffalo Road, or Trail as it was known, was said to have been formed long before the first settlers came to the area. A time when the mighty animals migrated in herds to the Piedmont area of North Carolina. The trails were used by American Indians, and later huntsman and herdsmen and explorers. It was the only access from the Yadkin Valley through Ashe County to Trade, TN, which like its name, was a commerce center for fur trappers, Native Americans and pioneers at the base of Snake Mountain.
The Buffalo Road dictated the development of some of the oldest settlements in Ashe County. North Fork was among the oldest, having been developed during the early 1800s by entrepreneur merchants Stephen Thomas and David Worth, who each officiated as the first and second Postmasters of North Fork beginning in 1830. Within just a few years, North Fork included a post office, tavern, a livestock trader, a large mercantile store, a small carding mill, textile and clothing factory, as well as a carriage and furniture factory. The variety and sizeable scale of these business operations outshined the profit margins of much of the surrounding county. North Fork had a church, a church camp, circuit ministers and evangelical singers, even a physician who lived near the community and operated an “at home” medical school and office. The local merchant’s store expanded to include flour, bacon, grains, livestock, manufactured wagons, and furniture and building materials like doors, blinds and shingles. The onset of the community was promising.
Catalogued in world traveler and literary critic, Charles Dudley Warner’s mid 1880’s adventure, On Horseback: A Tour in Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee (1889, pg. 24, 29-32), North Fork is detailed in warm remembrance and with distinction:
"What a lovely country… How charming the open glades of the river, how refreshing the great forests of oak and chestnut, and what a panorama of beauty the banks of rhododendrons, now intermingled with the lighter pink and white of the laurel! In this region the rhododendron is called laurel, and the laurel (the sheep-laurel of New England) is called ivy."
Outside the commerce of a bustling North Fork, lay the farming lands that dominate the area and most of the county well into current day. The mostly rural area was once described as the “Lost Province” due to its remote access even though the county was never truly isolated from trade due to the Buffalo Trail. North Fork’s commerce flourished between 1830 and 1850 and the economy continued to hold strong through local copper mining enterprises throughout the 1870s. Though Ashe County was disabled after the “Late Unpleasantness” of the Civil War as the result of enormous loss of lives and resources, Creston as it came to be known in 1882, remained the only commercial outpost between Jefferson and Trade.
“At Worth's, well on in the afternoon, we emerged into a wide, open farming interval, a pleasant place of meadows and streams and decent dwellings. Worth's is the trading center of the region, has a post office and a saw-mill and a big country store; and the dwelling of the proprietor is not unlike a roomy New England country house. Worth's has been immemorially a stopping-place in a region where places of accommodation are few...” “Our travelers (Warner and a companion) did not expect to find a house in this region with two pianos and a bevy of young ladies, whose clothes were certainly not made on Cut Laurel Gap, and to read in the books scattered about the house the evidences of the finishing schools with which our country is blessed…”
Sometime between 1894 and 1898, Wm. James McEwen married just such an educated young lady, Alice Baker. McEwen and his wife, both born during the height of the Civil War in 1861 and 1865 respectively, lived in Creston throughout their lifetime. He was a farmer and together they had six children, five daughters and a son, from the years 1899 to 1917. It was during the year their son, William Thomas, was born in 1913 that McEwen bought a farm in partnership with one of Creston’s founding heirs, John Dixon (J.D.) Thomas, grandson of North Fork’s earliest settler. It was here that McEwen built his family home, a stately farmhouse, barn and carriage building.
On April 29th 1914, Mrs. McEwen, Alice Baker, passed her Civil Service Examination and became Creston’s eighth recorded Postmaster, the third woman to hold the position. The event warranted announcement in May 1, 1914 edition of The Charlotte News.
Even today, when you enter the property it is easy to see the land as it was so long ago, approached on horseback or with wagon. Later, buggies and the motorized vehicles would appear on what was known as the “haul road” which matured and became NC Rt. 88 West, the only connector from Jefferson to Trade that underwent construction in 1938.
When Farmer McEwen and his postmaster wife built this 3,100 square foot farmhouse in 1918 it was the jewel of the area. Close to one hundred years later, it has not lost any of its charm or character.
The front of the home invites guests with a large foyer with comfortable railed staircase to the second floor. The first floor boasts close to 10’ ceilings giving an exceptional height and posture to each room. Six inch flat base and case molding runs throughout each room framing the floors and doorways in keeping with the simplicity of the architecture. The original hardwood floors which run throughout the house, with the exception of the kitchen, are beautifully preserved given their age. Each room throughout the house offers period chandeliers and ceiling lighting, much of which is original to the period, possibly hand chosen by Alice B. McEwen herself. Each interior door, including several original six panel doors, have unique brass or enamel antique doorknobs and locks. Most of the original hinges remain on the doors, built in closets and cabinetry. Almost all of the double hung windows radiate the charm of old glass manufacturing, slightly bubbled and distinctly rippled with the telltale signs of having been hand blown and flattened. These incredible details continue to lend the home character and authenticity allowing the owners and visitors a glimpse through time.
The downstairs boasts a parlor and a formal living room, dining room, bedroom, bath and kitchen with butler’s pantry. The front parlor and rear living room each offer separate wood burning fireplaces with traditional wood mantles, halved columns, flat moldings, brick facades and hearth. Each spacious room offers ample storage closets with wood shelving. There is plentiful light streaming in through the windows. The spacious downstairs bedroom provides beautiful views of the side gardens.
French paned glass doors welcome guests into the dining room. With a floor to ceiling Cherry wood China cabinet, the dining room, with its richly stained hardwood floors, stands out with vintage elegance and decorum. Two period ceiling mounted brass lights illuminate the room that contains enough space for an extended dining table and chairs, additional buffet and customary sideboard.
The large kitchen has bright light and provides access to a side porch and gardens. Reminiscent of the past, the kitchen holds a potbellied wood stove for warming. The room is large enough for sizeable family gatherings. The butler’s pantry holds cabinetry, shelving and storage for large scale cooking and food preparation. There is entry to a sizeable side covered porch perfect for a furniture grouping of table and chairs, alfresco dining, and additional seating by the gardens and side yard. Behind the kitchen and pantry is a converted root cellar. Built into the cooling slope of the back yard, this root cellar still functions as incredible storage, as well as a laundry and utility room.
There are five additional rooms upstairs along with a full bath. The second floor is incredibly bright and comfortable with pastoral views from every window. The upstairs rooms each have significant space and closets, each would easily house large or multiple beds and additional suite furniture. The vintage feel of these large rooms easily giving way to lace and chintz fabrics, solid maple and mahogany furniture. A separate hall and staircase lead to the third floor attic, complete with full pine ceilings, flooring and open gables. The attic is opportune for room conversion.
The home is wrapped on three sides with close to 1400 square feet of covered porches. These welcoming galleries offer ample space to sit and enjoy the harmony of the surrounding grounds. Like much of what Charles Dudley Warner experienced some sixty years before, the porches are capable of lulling one back through time:
“As they sat on the long veranda, the voice of a maiden reading the latest novel to a sewing group behind the blinds in the drawing-room; and the antics of a mule and a boy in front of the store opposite; and the arrival of a spruce young man, who had just ridden over from somewhere, a matter of ten miles' gallop, to get a medicinal potion for his sick mother, and lingered chatting with the young ladies until we began to fear that his mother would recover before his return; the coming and going of lean women in shackly wagons to trade at the store; the coming home of the cows, splashing through the stream, hooking right and left, and lowing for the hand of the milker.”
Around the farmhouse are lush green lawns and gardens with heirloom perennials, irises and day lilies passed from generation to generation. Long thick trunked oaks and hardwoods shelter the property from the sides and add to the grandeur of old. Trees that were native to the property for a hundred years or more, still full of life, gracious and sprawling. A small mountain stream, complete with a narrow foot bridge, carries water to the New River below the hillside. In the distance, Three Top Mountain is clearly visible. Beyond the grounds, pasture land and thickly wooded pine forests balance the remaining property.
To the left of the farm home is a magnificent Chestnut wood barn with faded red foot wide vertical siding and metal roof. The barn is fully floored, rich in the scent of hundred year wood and hay. The barn, complete with stalls, feed room, tack room, and loft, has multiple windows for natural light. Fully functional and wired with electricity, this barn is ideal for horses or other herd animals. A covered entry services the large, double pulley doors into the barn.
There are vintage apple trees in a small orchard behind that include multiple native varieties and an imported Pound Sweet Apple. This particular species, said to have originated in Connecticut in 1834, may easily have been a special trade made at the nearby Worth’s & Thomas Store. Not far from the orchard are groomed blackberry and red raspberry patches. Grapevines, too, all for pies and jams and canning.
Behind the home sits another outbuilding on the property. Possibly an early carriage house with its dual bay framed facade, this building now serves as storage with separate stair access to an overhead attic that has full electrical and includes pipe access for a wood stove. It appears the upstairs could have easily served as boarding for caretakers or travelers. A covered wood shed sits convenient to the side of the building and for access from the rear of the home.
The McEwen farmhouse remained in the family, passing from father (d.o.d. 1940) and mother (d.o.d. 1954) to the daughters Mary and eventually Helen, Louise, and Elizabeth. In 1970, after almost sixty years, the property transferred to three new sisters who ran the house and the grounds until current day. During their tenure, they maintained the integrity of the home, collected and sold antiques in the area, and lived peacefully in the slow and easy backdrop of Creston.
In this small crossroads community, the post office is the only business that remains to designate Creston from its neighbors. Today, Creston is quiet, one of nine unincorporated townships in Ashe County, NC. It has a population of just under 620 residents that occupy the slightly shy of 29 square miles that make up the township’s land. Creston still shoulders the north fork of the New River, one of the two oldest living rivers and one of the very few that actually flow north. It is still a place of unspoiled splendor, and though minus the commerce, is not so far from the vision that Warner once marveled at:
"The traveler in this region must be content to feed on natural beauties . . . We were riding along… a charming wood (and water) road, under the shade of fine trees, with the rhododendron illuminating the way, gleaming in the forest and reflected in the stream...”
Share in the passion of generations before you. Recapture and preserve a home that is unique, steeped in history and heritage, and graced with a gorgeous landscape. This turn of the century farmhouse on six pristine acres is available for sale through Ashe High Country Realty. You can view this and any of our other exceptional real estate for sale or call us 800-729-0735 to schedule an appointment. Established in 1989, the realtors at Ashe High Country Realty are committed to providing you with the utmost of professional real estate service. We offer the 'best' in Ashe County Real Estate.
References:
http://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/symposia/newriver-84/sec7.htm
http://www.city-data.com/township/Creston-Ashe-NC.html
The Charlotte News, May 1, 1914, page 7
