Lambeth-Sullivan House

The house is also associated with Ella Sayre Sullivan Robinson (1888-1971), widow of Charlotte Observer co-owner Walter Bernard Sullivan and an active philanthropist whose family owned the home for nearly sixty years. The French Revival styled house is also notable for its designer, the Philadelphia architect Charles Barton Keen (1882-1931) known for his opulent revivalist mansions, including Reynolda House in Winston-Salem for tobacco magnate R. J. Reynolds.  

By 1915, after moving to Charlotte in 1913 and starting work in the insurance department of the American Trust Company, Charlie had met and married Laura, a Salem Academy graduate whose father established Cannon Mills and founded the town of Kannapolis. The Lambeths built a Myers Park home in 1916 at 923 Granville Road. Now known as the Lambeth-Gossett House, that house is also a designated local landmark. But with the U.S. entering WWI and Charlie joining the naval aviation service, the couple left Charlotte, returning after Charlie’s 1919 discharge. They sold their first home in 1921, potentially to fund Charlie’s business interests which over time included an insurance business, car dealerships, and real estate development. After purchasing the Hermitage Road property in 1923, the couple retained Keen to design their house, in part because he had already designed the Charles A. and Ruth Coltrane Cannon House in Concord for Laura’s brother, Cannon Mills president Charles A. Cannon. Completed in 1927, the Lambeths’ extravagant new home soon became a social center for the Charlotte elite, as Charlie became a respected regional businessman and dabbled in local politics. His tenure as mayor was complicated by the adverse economic consequences of the Depression. Growing tensions within the marriage prompted the Lambeths to divorce in 1933. 

Laura moved to New York City, but retained ownership of the Hermitage Road home which she rented until selling it to Ella Sayre Sullivan in October 1935 for a mere $33,500. A native of Montgomery, Alabama, Ella first came to Charlotte with her husband Walter in 1916. Though he died only five years later, Ella remained in Charlotte where she was an indispensable member of the city’s philanthropic community. She served two terms as president of the YWCA of Charlotte and was the only woman president of the Community Chest, a forerunner to the United Way of Greater Charlotte. The Lambeth-Sullivan Hose became a frequent stop on public garden tours, featured several times on the Charlotte Garden Club tour and on the Mint Museum’s tour of homes. The highlight of the house was its notable rose gardens. Ella eventually remarried to Duke Power Company chairman William S. Robinson Jr. (1932-1967) in 1958. They resided in the house until their deaths, Robinson in 1967 and Ella in 1971. The house passed to Ella’s granddaughter Sayre Lineberger, who resided in the home until 1994.