Poplar Apartments

Upon acquiring the property in 1928, the Willetts Construction Company of New York intended to build the five-story Poplar as “cooperative homes,” similar to those in New York City, with 99-year leases and the issuance of stock in a co-operative apartment house. Willetts retained Lockwood, Greene and Company, a national architectural and engineering firm, to design the building. Construction costs were estimated at $250,000, a considerable sum for a residential building not in the very center of town. By October 1929, work on the building had progressed to the point where Willetts had contracted with local firm Home Real Estate and Guaranty to manage and handle leases for the apartments. The contract was signed on October 24, the day of a massive stock sell-off in New York and five days before “Black Tuesday,” when the bottom fell out of the stock market. Construction continued, but in December, Willetts needed to borrow $125,000 to finance its March 1930 completion. 

The Jacobethan Revival styled Poplar was unique in many ways. The thirty-nine-unit building was fireproof and soundproof. As there were no inside rooms, each of the luxury apartments enjoyed cross-ventilation and an unobstructed view. With apartments ranging from three to seven rooms, and corresponding monthly rents between $70 and $150, each apartment was equipped with a working open fireplace, a fully equipped modern kitchen (with electric refrigerator), tiled baths, and the latest steam heat and incinerator systems. A basement garage for the residents’ motorcars was one of Charlotte’s first residential parking garages. 

Unfortunately for Willetts, the economic climate only worsened. Four months after the grand opening, Willetts defaulted on its loans, and the Poplar was sold to Charlotte’s Stephen Thomas Henderson (1896-1940) – president of Home Real Estate and Guaranty – for $165,000. Although Henderson’s company managed to operate the property for five years, they also eventually fell victim to the effects of the Depression. Poplar Apartments, Inc., a company formed in 1935 by William Latimer Brown and his wife Ruth Harding Brown (1894-1982 and 1895-1980, respectively), purchased the building in 1935 and operated the dwelling for fifteen years. New shareholders assumed ownership of the Poplar in 1950, renaming the entity Jones Realty Company, Inc. (later Jones-Brown Realty Co., Inc.). After nearly thirty years of ownership of the Fourth Ward landmark, the company sold the Poplar to NCNB Community Development Corporation in 1978. In a joint development venture with SYNCO, Inc., a major Charlotte developer, the venture (renamed Hackberry Place Associates) converted the Poplar into condominiums.