Vacca House
This is the home of Mickie and Jim Vacca. It is on Elm Street and is in the Broad Street - Davie Avenue District.
The story of our house at 125 North Elm Street is still in its formative stages. I have just begun to investigate the families that have lived here before we purchased the property in 1980.
The style of the house is a vernacular Victorian farmhouse built in 1884. The January 16, 1885 edition of The Landmark lists “Last Year’s Improvements [in Statesville]” on Elm Street as a new dwelling built by AA Hampton with two stories and ten rooms. Local lore [the earliest neighbors when we moved here in 1980] places it as the first house on Elm Street with the well furnishing water for workers on other properties. The 1890 Sanborn Map of Statesville shows the lot extending from Elm Street to Green Street with various outbuildings.
This shot shows the bracketing around the bay window in the front of the house.
“A.A. Hampton & Son, dealers in dry goods, groceries, hardware, in short, general merchandise, are now closing out their stock at cost. They are going out of business. The senior partner has grown tired of merchandise. They are offering their customers bargains. When they say cost, they mean it, for they are not the people to attempt to deceive the public.”
Although the exact location of the Hampton’s store is not known yet, the January 23, 1880 Landmark tells of the “erection of two brick storehouses on the lot between the stores now occupied by Irvin & Co. and AA Hampton & Son.”
Adlai married first Mary J. Thomas. They may have lived in the Bethany Township on what was later referred to as the “old homeplace.” Their children were Dr. David A. Hampton, L. B. Hampton, and Gizelle Margaret Hampton Jones. After Adlai retired, his sons moved to Texas. Mary Thomas Hampton died sometime during the 1860s.
Adlai remarried Martha Evaline Hill. Martha’s family lived in the Sharpesburg Township and she had six brothers. Adlai and Martha had three children: Thomas (1874-1880) who died young, Margaret “Maggie,” and Minnie. Adlai died at the Elm Street house in 1897 and his sister, Rebecca (“Becky”), an invalid, died there soon after.
This photo shows the bay window on the right front of the house.
Minnie Hampton became a school teacher. In the late 1880s she traveled out to Ennis, Texas, to stay with her brother and taught there for a year, but she returned to North Carolina. She taught for a year in Sparta and a year in the Greensboro School System. Ultimately she returned to Statesville where she taught for a time around 1891 at the “new” Davie Avenue Graded School. She married W. A. Eliason. Their home was located at the corner of Sharpe Street and Tradd but was demolished in the 1970s. As a member of the DAR, Minnie wrote a history of Fort Dobbs that is reprinted in the Iredell County Landmarks book.
One of Martha Evaline’s brothers was Professor James Henry Hill, a well-known educator in Iredell County who was the Head of the Statesville Male Academy. Another brother, Dr. Melmoth Wilson Hill, lived at the corner of Elm and Davie Avenue where he had his medical office. The Hampton’s settled on Elm Street and Dr. Hill married and built the house nearby.
“Hon. Adlai E. Stevenson, First Asst. Postmaster of the US, arrived here last Thursday and spent 24 hours with his relatives going hence to Asheville. He spent the night with AA Hampton Esq. and dined next day with J. B. Connelly, Esq. . .”
Other mentions of Stevenson include from May 7, 1891, “a native of Iredell, Mr. AA Hampton has furnished The Landmark with a copy of remarks made on the 10th of April by his kinsman, Hon. Adlai E. Stevenson at the funeral of Athelia McKenzie Gunnell. . .”
On June 30, 1892, “Hon. Adlai Ewing Stevenson, Democratic Nominee for Vice President visited his kinspeople. . .Mr. Adlai A. Hampton of Statesville and Mrs. J. Rufus Adams, near town, are first cousins to his mother [Maria Ewing, daughter of John Ewing] . . .ran against the Harrison ticket. . .other relatives are J.A. King and J. W. C. Long.”
The final mention of Adlai A. Hampton in The Landmark is on April 13, 1897:
“Death of Mr. A.A. Hampton
Died at his home on Elm Street about 9 o’clock Friday evening. . .heart trouble. He was 76 years old last September. He was born and reared in the Bethany neighborhood. After the Civil War, he was a partner with W.S. Phifer, later associated with Mr. W.F. Hall and later with son, Mr. L. B. Hampton as AA Hampton & Son, a mercantile business. He retired in 1881 or 1882. He was a quiet unassuming man, respected by the community. He married twice.
First, Miss Mary Thomas, sister of Dr. A. J. K. Thomas and Mr. S.N. Thomas of the Shiloh Township. They had three children, Mrs. Gizelle Margaret Jones, Sparta, Alleghany County; Dr. D. H. Hampton, Cook County, Texas, and Mr. L. B. Hampton, Ellis County, Texas.
Second, Miss Martha Evaline Hill, sister of Prof. J. H. Hill and Dr. M. W. Hill. They had two children, Miss Minnie Hampton, faculty of Greensboro Graded Schools, and Mrs. Margaret H. Crowe of Kentucky. [Thomas is not mentioned.] The last member of his family is one sister, Miss Rebecca “Becky” Hampton, an invalid who lived with him. A cousin is the ex-Vice President of the US, Adlai E. Stevenson. He was a member of the Presbyterian church. The funeral services were conducted from his residence Sunday afternoon at 3 o’clock and interment was in Oakwood Cemetery. [The Hampton family is buried in Section 4 of Oakwood Cemetery. Rebecca died on May 25, 1897 at the age of 85.]
I
am in the process of researching the
deeds for the properties on Elm Street.
Several deeds listed property from the children of Adlai and
Mary to his
second wife because of their “high esteem” for her.
Many prominent names are mentioned in these deeds and I am
putting together a map to show the relationships of the late 19th
century properties.
The House
The Hampton House is a simple front gabled L dating from 1884. The original house had Italianate details but was remodeled in the 1950s with the expansion of the porch to its current configuration. The railings and columns for this remodeling came from a house located in the area of the Bunch Johnson Funeral home. The original bracketing at the eaves of the house remains although the original pilasters on the porch can only be seen in ghost-outlines. I suspect that the original porch roof was much smaller and the brick platforms leading to the current porch were added in the 1950s. The bay window on the front is part of the original fabric of the structure.
The Hampton House has undergone several expansions. Early in the 20th century a rear upstairs porch, small bedrooms upstairs and down, and an expansion of the back porch were added. In the mid-20th century, the house was divided into apartments and some of the rooms served as a boarding house. When we purchased the house in 1980, we returned the house to a single family structure and enclosed the open-air back porch as an updated kitchen, reconfiguring the exterior entry stairs into the existing kitchen. We also removed the upper porch railing because it was falling off and we had small energetic children who loved to climb out on the rickety balcony. The balusters from this railing were later reused on a porch.
In the late 1980s we added a “grandparent” apartment for my elderly, ailing mother and this necessitated moving the original shed to the rear of the lot. The shed had already been moved several times as additions were added to the house. The shed was used at one time for chickens as the aroma has lingered on, and was added on to several times with lean-to additions. The current carport was added in the 1950s when carports became popular instead of full garages. Here again the posts from the Davie Ave. structure were reused.
The original Hampton lot appears to have stretched from Elm Street to Green Street and the 1900 Sanborn Map shows many outbuildings. We have been told that there was an especially ornate privy on the property and the slump where the barn was probably located can be seen today. I am hoping during my retirement that I will be able to do some archaeology on the lot to locate exactly where outbuildings stood. I would be very appreciative of any pictures of the house, property, or family members that would be loaned for scanning. I plan to compile as complete a house history as possible to leave with next owner.
Mickie Vacca
Mickie has used such charming colors in her house. When entering into the foyer,
it is impossible to feel blue with this cheerful scene.
This is a shot of the beautiful mantle in the living room.
This photo of the study shows a painting of the Vacca family - Mickie, Jim, and their four enchanting daughters.
I would like to thank Mickie and Jim for sharing these photos of their home with us, and a special thanks to Mickie for the interesting history of the house.
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