Renfrow-Lemmond House
(ca. 1924)
This impressive Craftsman-style bungalow was once the home of John Renfrow, longtime Register of Deeds for Mecklenburg County.
344 W John St, Matthews, NC 28105
The circa-1924 Renfrow-Lemmond House was built by John Renfrow, a son of prominent Matthews businessman and farmer Thomas Jefferson “Captain” Renfrow. Captain Renfrow, as he was popularly known, was the proprietor of Renfrow’s Hardware and General Store on North Trade Street who also owned four cotton gins and an automobile dealership over the course of his career. Captain Renfrow moved his family from Davidson County, North Carolina – where he had worked as Captain of Operations for the Rea Gold Mine, thereby acquiring the “Captain” moniker – to Matthews in the late 1800s, just as the small town was transforming from an isolated farming community to a railroad hamlet.
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Originally known as Stumptown, due to the countless tree stumps left from earlier construction and agricultural projects, the community was settled by small farmers who raised cotton, corn, and subsistence crops and over time became a stagecoach stop between Monroe and Charlotte. The community grew exponentially after 1874 when the Central Carolina Railroad constructed a rail line through the area – connecting Wilmington, North Carolina, and the State of Tennessee via Charlotte – and added a depot near the local stagecoach station. Chartered in March 1879, the community was renamed Matthews in honor of Watson Matthews, director of the Central Carolina Railroad. Within one year, a small commercial district developed near the railroad tracks that included the town’s first general store, McLaughlin and Barrnette. Within four years, six other stores and a druggist had joined the Matthews commercial row.
Captain Renfrow started his general merchandise business in Matthews in 1900 and built the town’s cotton gin behind his store in 1906. Over time, he later served as a member of the North Carolina state legislature, the chairman of the state’s Prison Board, and a member of the town’s school board. Captain and his sons John and Dow opened a Ford dealership in 1919. Shortly after the 1921 sale of that business venture, John became the Register of Deeds for Mecklenburg County, a post he was elected to thirteen times between 1922 and 1960. He built this substantial two-story Craftsman-style bungalow on John Street (named for him) at about the same time for his wife and their six children, but Depression-era financial woes and overdue taxes forced the family from the house in 1940.
The house was purchased in 1942 by S.R. “Rea” Lemmond who, nine years earlier, had acquired the Ford dealership once owned by John, Dow, and Captain Renfrow. Lemmond added a garage and filling station at the dealership, followed by the construction of a “modern” service station on the corner of John and Trade Street in 1954. The Renfrow-Lemmond House remained in the possession of the heirs of Rea Lemmond until 2004.