Barnum and Sarah Sustare House
(ca. 1899)
Before their 1915 move into Matthews, Barnum and Sarah Sustare lived in what is now the last late-1800s farmhouse on that portion of Idlewild Road.
13700 Idlewild Road, Matthews, NC 28105
The Queen Anne style Barnum and Sarah Sustare House, originally the centerpiece of an approximately 40-acre farm, is the last remaining late 1800s farming era house on this section of Idlewild Road. The initial owners were Barnum Adam Sustare (1862-1951) and his wife Sarah Amanda Ferguson Sustare (1867-1962). Born in Lancaster County, South Carolina, Barnum moved to North Carolina in the mid 1870s as a boy with his widowed mother and his four siblings, including his identical twin brother James Ervin Sustare (1862-1931). They were likely drawn by the economic opportunities presented by the recent completion of the Carolina Central Railway, a line that stopped at Matthews as the trains traveled between Wilmington, North Carolina, and Tennessee.
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Barnum was an innovative entrepreneur. In addition to being a prosperous cotton farmer, he participated actively in the business and civic affairs of Matthews, where he and Sarah eventually relocated about 1915. A trustee and stockholder in the Bank of Matthews, Barnum served for many years as a town alderman, a member of the school board, and a deacon of Matthews Baptist Church. He also developed a recreational and entertainment center just north of the central business district of Matthews named “Sustare’s Pool.” It featured the county’s then-largest swimming pool, a refreshment stand, a faux beach, and a place to dance and listen to music. Meanwhile, the Barnum and Sarah Sustare House and a portion of the original farm remained in the hands of Sustare family members until 1981.