Oak Lawn

As a member of the large and locally prominent Davidson family, Benjamin lived the life of a prosperous cotton planter, including owning and using enslaved labor for his agricultural operations. According to the 1820 U.S. Census, Benjamin owned five enslaved men aged 26 and older, three enslaved women aged 26 to 44, and four enslaved girls under the age of 14. Benjamin died in 1829 at the age of 42, leaving his widow with six sons ranging in age from the 10-year-old Robert Franklin Davidson to the eight-day-old infant Benjamin Howard Davidson. Following her husband's death, Betsy remained at Oak Lawn until January 1835, when she married Rufus Reid, widower of one of her deceased sisters who had left three young daughters. The couple lived at Reid’s estate, known as Mount Mourne, until Betsy’s death following the birth of their first child, a daughter. Reid later married the stepdaughter of the third Latta sister, who was a widow with a daughter. That marriage produced four more children. In the meantime, Oak Lawn passed from the Davidson family to John W. Moore who bought the property at the courthouse door in December 1886. The house has since hands several times over the years. 

Once approached from the main road by an oak and cedar lined avenue of nearly one mile, the transitional Georgian-Federal style Oak Lawn featured several flower and herb gardens and was surrounded by a high brick wall with four gates. The house is especially significant for its elaborate vernacular woodwork of a vigorous and distinctive character, suggesting the handiwork of the same carpenter who produced very similar work at the nearby Holly Bend estate (3701 Neck Road, Huntersville), a house related by family as well as stylistic connection to Oak Lawn. Other distinctive architectural features shared by the two houses include the main entrances, the hall stair rails and balustrades, and the parlor chimneys.