Ritchie Hill Family Estate in Concord's Historic District
Imagine living in Concord on one of the most beautiful streets, Union Street in the Historic District, in a home that has been in the same family for more than 100 years and that retains most of the original architectural details of the early 1900's.
This home sits in an unspoiled setting of 4.48 acres of beautiful, untouched serene privacy right in the middle of one of the most vivacious and energy filled areas of Cabarrus County and the entire region. Land fronting Sunnyside and Ingleside Streets also offers the potential for residential development by the owner.
The home:
- Has five bedrooms, two-and-a-half baths and two kitchens
- Retains most of its original architectural details
- Includes a unique grand porch of more than 1,800 square feet, plus two upstairs sleeping porches
- Has frontage on three city streets for maximum access to all parts of this historic property
- Is the largest tract of land available in downtown historic area
- Sits within easy walking distance of R. Brown McAllister Elementary School and the downtown business district.
Ritchie Hill was purchased by Charles F. and Lily Patterson Ritchie in 1906. It originally stood on 12 acres of land, which was divided several times beginning in the 1920s to provide building lots for the Ritchies' five sons.
The wrap-around porch and sleeping porches were added after 1906. The 1,800-square-foot grand porch allows for entertaining rain or shine. It was the setting for a wedding rehearsal dinner that seated 85 guests and could easily have accommodated tables for 100 or more. Large enough even for children's skates, tricycles and tag!
The sleeping porches add more than 500 square feet of additional space off of two upstairs bedrooms. These were used year-round by earlier generations and provide wonderful fresh-air views.
An addition was made to the rear of the house about 1945. The original barn and other outbuildings have long since disappeared. The child's playhouse was built in the late 1950s to three-quarter size and has electric power.
The home has two kitchens, allowing for a mother-in-law suite or a great feature for teenager “hang out” area!
The home is structurally sound but will need some updates. Landscaping was tended by R. Lee Ritchie Sr. until the mid 1990s and features specimens and cuttings he took from many classic cultivars of azalea and camellia, as well as other flowering shrubs and numerous perennials. Mature hardwoods shade the lawns and fill the heavily wooded areas, with a few remnants still in evidence of the orchard that was created in the 1950s. Some fruit trees remain, along with native grape vines, prolific blackberries, walnut and pecan trees. The dense stand of century-old hardwood trees covers rolling hillsides behind the residence and provides the atmosphere of a mountain retreat, tranquil isolation in the midst of a thriving historic neighborhood.
According to “The Historic Architecture of Cabarrus County North Carolina” by Peter R. Kaplan, 1981 and 2004:
"The extraordinary Caldwell-Ritchie house is a Queen Anne residence that underwent a Colonial Revival remodeling early in the twentieth century when the property was purchased by Concord hardware merchant Charles F. Ritchie (d. 1941), who commissioned an unknown architect to prepare plans for the remodeling. As originally constructed, the house appears to have been an L-shaped, two-story dwelling somewhat larger than but basically similar to several other houses being built in dispersed locations on South Union St. at about the same time. The remodeling transformed the house into an imposing residence on the same scale as the larger houses in the North Union St. area.
"The major element of the remodeling was the addition of the exceptionally deep porch that carries across the full facade and wraps around both sides of the house. Paired, tapered Tuscan columns, grouped in threes at the corners, rise from a shingled parapet to support the porch, which has as much floor space as many modestly proportioned houses of the same period. The porch has a second story on the south-side of the house and there is also a porte-cochere on the south elevation. The gables of the house display Queen Anne style bargeboards with decorative cut-outs and spindles.
"The interior is well-preserved and appears to retain elements of its original finish as well as features added during the Ritchie remodeling. The four first-floor mantels, all of which have mirrored overmantels, are perhaps the finest appointments found inside the house. Three of these have classical detailing that suggests they date from the time of the remodeling, while the fourth has turned spindles and posts and may be an original feature. The five-panel doors framed by symmetrically molded surrounds with corner blocks are also details installed when the house was first built.”
| 
Subscribe
