CC Coddington House

Having worked as a reporter for the New York Evening Journal in his early twenties, New Jersey native C. C. Coddington (1878-1928) sought a commercial venture suitable for his energy and talents. He settled on the fledgling automobile industry. In 1907, having received exclusive distributorship rights in the Carolinas from the three-year-old Buick Motor Company, C. C. moved to Charlotte. While en route, he made a chance stop at a Greensboro drug store, where he encountered Marjorie Lyon (1884-1925). He was so taken that he stayed in Greensboro to woo the Thomasville, North Carolina-born Marjorie. Wed within a year, the couple moved to Charlotte in 1909. C. C. set up his Buick distributorship, garage, and automobile supply company at 209 South Church Street. In early 1917, after living in several Charlotte locations, the couple built a new home on the Morehead Street extension, at the corner of what was first known as Coddington Avenue (now Berkeley Avenue). They hired one of Charlotte's most skilled architects, William Henry Peeps (1868-1950), to design a house patterned after an old family farmhouse of Marjorie’s forebearers.

Born in London, England, Peeps was four years old when his family immigrated to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Like his father, Peeps started as a furniture designer. Once he arrived in Charlotte (between 1905 and 1910), his reputation-making design of the Latta Arcade and Brevard Court, built in 1914 for Edward Dilworth Latta, captured local attention. After all, it was Latta that developed the Dilworth suburb that spurred Charlotte’s growth in the 1910s. Other prominent Peeps-designed structures include the Ratcliffe Florist Shop, the Hovis Funeral Home building, and two skyscrapers (the Johnston Building and the First National Bank Building). In 1915, Peeps became one of the first men certified by the State of North Carolina to practice architecture professionally. He later served as president of the North Carolina chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

Coddington’s car dealership prospered, making him one of the area’s wealthiest men. In 1925, he purchased WBT, the Carolinas’ first radio station. He was also one of the organizers of the Charlotte Motor Speedway, the owner of a 5,000-acre estate in Jacksonville, North Carolina (where he raised thoroughbred horses), a state boxing commissioner, and president of the National Association of Automobile Dealers. In 1926, he swapped the Coddington House for the Duke mansion in Myers Park. The former Coddington House changed hands several times over the years before being converted in 1984 into a bed and breakfast known as the Morehead Inn.