Roosevelt Wilson House
(ca. 1890s)
The Roosevelt Wilson House stands at the crest of a hill that factored significantly in the founding of the town of Cornelius.
21207 Potts St, Davidson, NC 28036
Built in the 1890s, the Roosevelt Wilson House is the only extant nineteenth-century residence evidencing a traditional vernacular architectural style in the northern portion of Cornelius. The house is located at the top of a hill that once divided Cornelius from neighboring Davidson both geographically and in terms of cotton production.
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In the late 1880s, following the decision by the city of Charlotte to appoint an official weigher of raw cotton, a majority of Davidson residents voted to follow that example and hired their own town cotton weigher. R. J. Stough, the proprietor of a successful Davidson cotton firm disagreed with that decision. He believed that cotton purchasers should be allowed to weigh any cotton that they intended to buy. Stough moved his scales down the hill and outside of Davidson’s town limits. Rain typically left the road into Davidson impassable, as that hill would quickly become too muddy for heavy wagonloads of cotton. Cotton farmers who grew their crops south of Davidson found it easier to use Stough’s scales rather than attempt the treacherous road into Davidson. Stough gradually supplemented his rural cotton weighing operation with a mercantile store, a cotton gin, a cotton purchasing business, and a cotton mill, ultimately laying the foundation for the town of Cornelius.