Swan Ponds
|
Swan Ponds | |
  | |
| Location | About 4 miles W of Morganton off NC 126, near Morganton, North Carolina |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 35°44′36″N 81°45′23″W / 35.74333°N 81.75639°WCoordinates: 35°44′36″N 81°45′23″W / 35.74333°N 81.75639°W |
| Area | 8 acres (3.2 ha) |
| Built | 1848 |
| Architectural style | Greek Revival |
| NRHP Reference # | 73001299[1] |
| Added to NRHP | April 24, 1973 |
Swan Ponds is a historic plantation house located near Morganton, Burke County, North Carolina. It was built in 1848, and is a two-story, three bay, brick mansion with a low hip roof in the Greek Revival style. It features a one-story low hip-roof porch with bracketed eaves, a low pedimented central pavilion, and square columns. Swan Ponds plantation was the home of Waightstill Avery (1741-1821), an early American lawyer and soldier. His son Isaac Thomas Avery built the present Swan Ponds dwelling. Swan Ponds was the birthplace of North Carolina politician and lawyer William Waightstill Avery (1816–1864), Clarke Moulton Avery owner of Magnolia Place, and Confederate States Army officer Isaac E. Avery (1828-1863).[2]
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.[1]
==References==Posted: Tuesday, January 19, 2010 6:00 am Renee Elder, Special to The News Herald Swan Ponds, a historically significant antebellum home and 77-acre farm near the Catawba River, will remain perpetually undisturbed following a decision by the owners to legally protect the site with a historic preservation and conservation agreement. Jimmy Furr and Mary Lou Avery Furr and their daughters, Lydia Furr Daniel and Kathryn Furr Patten own the site of the 1848 Greek Revival home. They entered the agreement with Preservation North Carolina, protecting the Burke County landscape that has been in Mary Lou's family since shortly after the Revolutionary War. "The Furr family members were willing to give up their development rights in order to see the land and house preserved," said Mike Stout, director of Preservation North Carolina's Northwest Regional Office. Stout said the historic preservation and conservation agreement ensures that the architectural integrity of the house, outbuildings and historic cemetery will remain intact. It also protects the rural character of the land. "This property will not become another housing development but will continue to reflect the area's agrarian culture," Stout said. "A historic preservation and conservation agreement is a wonderful way to ensure the protection of historic and conservation resources for perpetuity." The agreement limits future development of the property, and the loss of those development rights is considered a charitable gift that will provide significant federal and state income tax benefits to the family. Mary Lou said the financial incentives will assist them in caring for the 5,000-square-foot home and farm buildings. The fertile acreage along the river in Burke County was settled in the late 1700s by Waightstill Avery, a lawyer and a member of the North Carolina Provincial Congress who helped draft the first North Carolina Constitution. Avery also served as the state's first attorney general from 1777 to 1779 and fought in the Revolutionary War. His son, Isaac Avery, constructed the house he called Swan Ponds near Waightstill Avery's original home. "When the property belonged to Waightstill, there were 12,000 acres," Mary Lou said. The fact that the once-immense plantation had dwindled considerably as it passed down through the generations prompted Mary Lou to consider her options for keeping the remaining land and house intact. "I studied this and began to see that if we kept chinking it apart, we would lose the site's integrity," she said. "So I started reading about easements and going to some workshops." She also discussed the issue with her sons-in-law, Warren Daniel and Thomas Patten, and six grandchildren. She said, "My husband and I wondered how everyone would feel. But after I explained what would happen if the land kept on being subdivided, they were supportive and enthusiastic." The agreement was recorded on Dec. 21. Stout praised the Furrs' efforts to protect the family land and home, which he called "one of the most important antebellum plantation houses" in the area. "This property is important for historic and conservation purposes," Stout said. "Not only will this easement ensure the protection of the historic house, one of the most important antebellum plantation houses of Burke County ... it will also ensure that the surrounding land is not developed, which will protect the view shed of the house. Also, since the land borders the Catawba River, it will help provide protection for the areas water supply." Mary Lou grew up on the property, which her father, Warlick Avery, operated as a dairy farm for many years. The center-hall-plan, brick plantation house has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1973 and recently received Century Farm Designation. Waightstill Avery was born in Groton, Conn., in 1741 and graduated from Princeton College in 1766. He came to North Carolina to practice law, initially living in Salisbury before settling in Charlotte in 1769. Avery roomed with the patriot and blacksmith Hezekiah Alexander, engaged in protests against tax support for the Church of England and, in 1771, became a trustee of Liberty Hall (Queen's College). Avery's law practice took him from Raleigh to Jonesboro, Tenn., which was then part of North Carolina. In 1778, he accepted a dueling challenge from Andrew Jackson, who was reacting to Avery's criticism of Jackson's legal positions in a Jonesboro criminal case. History records that each of the two combatants fired well above the other's head, and that the two men left the encounter as friends. In 1777, Avery bought the tract of land known as Swan Ponds from "Hunting" John McDowell and a year later married a widow, Leah Probart Franks of New Bern. The family relocated to Swan Ponds after Tories burned his library and office in Charlotte in 1780 Avery County, founded in 1911, was named after Waightstill Avery. Submitted by Renee Elder, director of communications for Preservation North Carolina.
2
Discuss Print
- 1 2 Staff (2010-07-09). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
- ↑ Survey and Planning Unit (January 1973). "Swan Ponds" (pdf). National Register of Historic Places - Nomination and Inventory. North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office. Retrieved 2014-08-01.
