Potts Place
11801 and 11825 Smith Road, Cornelius, NC 28031
Potts Place was the homestead of planter Robert Potts Jr., his wife Nancy Eveline Alexander Gillespie, and their ten children. The 217 acre estate was just a portion of the 636 acre estate that Robert’s father had inherited in 1770 from his father, John Potts. John purchased the land in 1753 from John Brevard, who had received the land by the direct bequest of King George II of England in 1752.
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The materials for the construction of Potts Place and its furnishings – logs, clapboards, and stone – were obtained from the property. Robert used enslaved labor to become one of the most successful planters in the area. Several outbuildings were constructed to support the estate’s agricultural operations, including cabins that likely housed enslaved people, a sizable log barn and accompanying shed, blacksmith shop, well shed, a rebuilt summer kitchen, and several later-era tenant houses. Some of those structures remain and date back to the 1811 construction date of the main house.
Robert used his wealth to purchase much of the remaining original 636 acre estate from his brothers, who had also inherited their parcels from their father. Robert served as a founder and Ruling Elder of Bethel Church, as well as a member of the first Board of Trustees of Davison College. Both institutions received much of his time and financial support. Three of his sons studied at the college. Potts Place has since remained in the Potts family, one of Mecklenburg County’s oldest families, for seven generations.