Bagley-Mullen House
(ca. 1895)
The Bagley-Mullen House, constructed by Charlotte entrepreneur Edgar M. Andrews, is the only local example of the French Chateauresque architectural style.
129 N Poplar St, Charlotte, NC 28202
Native Charlottean Edgar Murchison Andrews (1850-1920) is best remembered for his role in establishing the Andrews Music Company, a corporation that operated locally through most of the twentieth century. In 1881 he opened a West Trade Street furniture store that would become the largest wholesale and retail furniture establishment in North Carolina. Edgar soon brought his brother Frank H. Andrews into the business to manage a music room in which pianos and organs would be sold. Edgar also owned and operated the Charlotte Undertaking Company, but it was his music business that made Edgar a pivotal figure in the history of this community.
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Like most North Carolina towns, Charlotte had expanded initially along its major thoroughfares, Tryon and Trade Streets. The more imposing residences of the community were located on those two streets. But in response to the growing demand for substantial dwellings for the city’s newcomers in the 1880s and 1890s, Edgar instead purchased lots on streets that intersected those two major thoroughfares to build homes for sale. Edward Dilworth Latta, President of the Charlotte Consolidated Construction Company and developer of Dilworth (Charlotte’s initial streetcar suburb), once credited Edgar Andrews for doing more to make Charlotte a livable city than any ten men of his day. In the opinion of one observer, Edgar was “the first man in Charlotte who built nice homes on back streets.”
One of those nice homes was a two and one-half story brick house constructed at the corner of North Poplar and Fifth Streets on property Edgar purchased in 1892. That house is the only local example of the French Chateauresque style of architecture, a design that appeared initially in France in the second quarter of the nineteenth century based upon the architecture developed during the reign of that nation’s King Francis I (1515-1547).
The first owner of the Bagley-Mullen House was Johnston County native Andrew Joyner Bagley (1856-1931), who purchased the house in 1895. He moved to Charlotte from Shelby to work in the freight office of the Carolina Central Railroad, and later became assistant ticket agent for the Southern Railroad. But following the 1896 death of his wife Bertha, Bagley relocated to Lincolnton, selling his home to Walter Nixon Mullen (1853-1910) of Elizabeth City. Mullen operated a grocery store on South Church Street. He became something of a local celebrity by 1897 as the inventor of the "Hornet's Nest Liniment," a widely acclaimed medicinal brew that proved financially successful. In 1946, his descendants sold the Bagley-Mullen House to the Charles H. Litaker Insurance Company for use as its corporate headquarters.
As for Edgar, he had married Martha “Pattie” Parker (1864-1888) of Stanly County in 1882. The couple had two daughters – Grace Andrews (1885-1913) and Onnie Parker Andrews Patterson (1888-1977) – but Pattie died within months of Onnie’s birth. In 1891, Edgar married Ella Sergeant (1870-1946) of Greensboro. Ten years later, Edgar sold his E. M. Andrews Furniture & Music Company. He and Ella moved to Greensboro in about 1905, where Edgar died in 1920.