Lyles-Sims House

Eli W. Lyles was a prosperous strawberry farmer who was the first to raise the fruit in Mecklenburg County. Born in Anson County, Lyles settled on a plantation four miles northeast of Charlotte (near Sugar Creek Church) in 1858. He was married three times, to: Elizabeth Ann Williams (1834-1856) of Union County; Jane Elizabeth Moore (1832-1885), also of Union County, and Elizabeth Douglas of Mecklenburg County. As was common in those days, Lyles bought and sold real estate in the city and county for investments. In 1863, he bought an acre parcel of land fronting on what is now Poplar Street to build the Lyles-Sims House, selling the house to James Sims in 1870 for $1,500. 

A native of Cabarrus County, James came to Charlotte as a young man and began his grocery merchant career as a clerk in M. D. L. Moody’s store, located opposite the First Presbyterian Church on West Trade Street. During the Civil War, James served in the Confederate army Company A, 11th North Carolina Regiment, as quartermaster. Wounded in the first days of fighting at Gettysburg, he fought alongside Henry Wyatt, the first soldier to be killed in the war. After the war, James returned to his job in Moody’s store. He married Fannie Moody of Lenoir in February 1869. At the time of her marriage, Fannie was living with her uncle, M. D. L. Moody – James’ employer. James and Fannie raised four daughters to adulthood; one son died at the age of four months. 

Soon after returning from the war, James went into the grocery business with Henry McGinn and a Mr. Cochran, eventually opening his own store in the late 1870s on the west side of North Tryon Street, just north of Trade Street. James operated his store until about 1912, during Charlotte’s unprecedented sustained era of prosperity that resulted from New South industrialization. His profitable store enabled James to sell the Lyles-Sims House and build an even larger home at the southwest corner of Eighth and Poplar Streets in the late 1880s. Some twenty years later, James and Fannie moved to Dilworth, the city’s first streetcar suburb (opened in 1891) and built another house on South Boulevard. Local contractor A. Earle McCausland (1870-1934) and his wife Ella T. McCausland (1871-1949) purchased the Lyles-Sims House in 1902. Predeceased by her husband, Ella lived in the house for forty-seven years. 

By the 1970s, the house and its surrounding neighborhood were both in significant decline. The collaborative efforts of several dedicated individuals and groups, including the Junior League, Berryhill Preservation, and the Historic Landmarks Commission, resulted in the complete transformation of the neighborhood by preserving the Lyles-Sims House and other remaining original houses, allowing for the establishment of the Fourth Ward historic district.