Flow-Lee House
(ca. 1890)
Once located in Mint Hill’s town center, the Flow-Lee House is a rare surviving example of the county’s once-prevalent vernacular Victorian domestic architectural style.
4122 Hoodridge Lane, Mint Hill, NC 28227
One of Mint Hill’s few remaining historic buildings, the Flow-Lee House was built around 1890 by Thomas Jefferson Flow. The house was originally located in Mint Hill’s town center. Little is known about Flow. He was born in 1844, married three times, and had no children. He also served as an elder in the Philadelphia Presbyterian Church, one of the seven eighteenth century Presbyterian churches in Mecklenburg County. Flow married his third wife Jeannette Davidson Rankin in 1905, and she continued to live in the house after his death in 1913.
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In 1920, Mrs. Flow sold the house to John Newton Lee and his wife Catherine Miller Wilson, who were also members of Philadelphia Presbyterian Church. Lee was a prosperous entrepreneur, owning and operating a cotton gin, a grist mill, and three farms in the area. The Lee grist mill was located on Bain School Road. John Lee died in 1927, but his wife continued to live in the house with her son Louis Wilson Lee and his wife. Louis, a carpenter and farmer, rented the two front rooms of the house to local school teachers during the Depression. The family continued to take in boarders through World War II. After Louis' death, his widow remained in the house until 1984.
Rapid suburban growth since World War II compromised many of the once rural communities of Mecklenburg County. Because of its location on one of the main streets of Mint Hill, the Flow-Lee property was rezoned for business and the house was slated for demolition, despite the fact that it was a rare surviving example of vernacular Victorian domestic architecture in Mecklenburg County. Fortunately, the owner elected to relocate the house approximately 1 mile from Mint Hill’s town center to its current location.