Jones-Garibaldi House

Jones, the original owner of the house, was a South Carolina native who was educated at the old Charlotte Military Institute and later graduated from the Citadel in Charleston. He took business training at the Poughkeepsie Business College in New York. In 1894, after his arrival in Charlotte, Jones organized the Piedmont Fire insurance Company. While under his management, the company built Charlotte’s first office building in 1898 near the center of town. That same year, Jones contracted with the Charlotte Consolidated Construction Company (known as the 4 C’s) – founded by Edward Dilworth Latta (1851-1925) – to build a new house for his family in Dilworth. Three years earlier, in 1891, Jones had married Ida Clarkson (1873-1953), a sister of prominent Charlotte attorney Robert Heriot Clarkson (1863-1942) who later became a North Carolina state supreme court justice. 

The Joneses raised their three children in the Park Avenue house. In 1903, Furber died suddenly of pneumonia. In 1904, Mrs. Jones sold the house to Joseph Garibaldi. The home remained in the Garibaldi family until 1971. The son of Italian immigrants, Joseph was born in Mecklenburg County. At the age of twelve, Joseph became an apprentice to French jeweler P. Lasne, whose store was located on West Trade Street opposite the First Presbyterian Church. After a four-year apprenticeship, Joseph returned to school to finish his education before going to work for several different jewelry firms. In 1896, after eight years of working for Farrier Jewelers, he and co-worker William L. Bruns (1872-1937) decided to open their own jewelry store in 1896. During the day, both young men sold merchandise; by night, Joseph repaired watches, and William did all the engraving and jewelry repair. Having opened in the early years of a sustained growth boom in Charlotte, the firm of Garibaldi and Bruns soon became very successful. In May 1904, Joseph purchased the Jones House. He married Edna Dunklin (1881-1970) two months later. The Garibaldis raised four children, and Joseph became a respected civic and political figure, serving in several capacities including on the Board of Alderman and in the state legislature. He also served on the board of directors for the Charlotte National Bank, St. Peter’s Hospital, and the Salvation Army. 

The 4 C’s hired C. C. Hook, the first professional architect to live in Charlotte, to design many of Dilworth’s early houses. Over the course of his career, Hook designed some 800 to 1,000 homes and buildings across the Carolinas, including Charlotte’s U.S. Post Office and Courthouse, City Hall, Carolina Theater, three local fire stations, and several buildings on college campuses across North Carolina (including the Chapel Hill and Greensboro campuses of the University of North Carolina, Davidson College, and N.C. State, Duke, and Queens Universities).