"Von Haverlah was born in a Victorian farmhouse on Auten Road, home to four generations of her family, so when she sold the property to the city last year she said her only solace was believing the house could be preserved.

That is no longer certain, and Haverlah is grieving as if a family member were dying.

After 9-11, the city began buying property along Auten Road near the Brookshire Boulevard water treatment plant to create a buffer to protect a nearby reservoir from acts of terrorism. The reservoir lies on what was once a cow pasture behind the farmhouse, with a natural spring where Haverlah's mother cooled milk. In the distance looms the Charlotte skyline.

The house is Haverlah's heritage. When she talks about her memories, she is also talking about Mecklenburg County and its transformation from simple Victorian homes to sophisticated skyscrapers, from farming community to banking center.

"I have cried so long that my eyelids are swollen and purple and red and green," she said. "This is where I was born. It's where my daddy was born."

Haverlah figured it was only a matter of time before she would have to sell her land. She decided it would be better to start over now, at 73, than later.

And so, on Nov. 3, she and her husband, Don, sold the family homestead to the city for $263,000. It is one of four properties on Auten Road that the city has bought, at a cost of $689,000.

What a city official says he promised and what Haverlah remembers him promising are different, but they agree on this: Neither wants to see the farmhouse destroyed."

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Original article from Charlotte Observer (8/27/2011)