Eugene Hodges House and Farm
(ca. 1908)
Eugene Hodges House and Farm have been owned and operated by the Hodges family for more than a century.
3900 Rocky River Rd, Charlotte, NC 28215
Eugene Wilson Hodges (1878-1943) grew up on his parents’ farm in the Crab Orchard township. Unlike his parents Calvin W. and Jane Hood Hodges, E. W. began purchasing land of his own in Crab Orchard in 1905. Over the years, he continued to buy additional acreage in numerous transactions within the community. At the time of his 1943 death, E. W. had accumulated almost 500 acres of land.
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According to family members, E. W. built his house in 1908. He designed the house himself, using lumber harvested from his land to build it. He cultivated a variety of crops including corn, oats, barley, hay, and cotton. He also raised livestock, including milk cows, heifers, and mules. His agricultural operations were aided by an unknown number of tenant farmers who resided and worked on the farm. After E. W. passed away, his wife Eunice Cochran Hodges (1880-1959) received a life estate in the house and the use of 100 surrounding acres. The remainder of the estate was divided between their two sons, E. W. Hodges, Jr., and James Franklin Hodges. In a 1969 final partition of the land between the two sons, James received title to the home-place tract. He transitioned the farm into a dairy operation that ran until 1999. His son James Franklin “Frankie” Hodges, Jr. became the Farm Manager in 1999, introducing such innovations as agri-tourism, education, therapy horses, and special events like the annual Pumpkin Patch. Now known as Hodges Family Farm, the farm and farmhouse remain in the Hodges family and are used for a variety of agricultural and other pursuits, including cross-country foot races, obstacle course-based events, a special events venue (located in its renovated 1932 Barn), and an online farm produce store offering homegrown fruits, vegetables, locally raised honey, and pasture-raised meat products. As a working farm owned and operated by the Hodges family for over 100 years, the state of North Carolina has given Hodges Family Farm the highly regarded designation as a “Century Farm.”
The circa 1908 Hodges House is architecturally significant as an early 20th Century interpretation of the traditional I-house type adapted and embellished with an array of vernacular Colonial Revival elements. When first constructed, the gambrel-roofed dairy barns represented a new innovative building type in Mecklenburg County. Other outbuildings on the property, such as the hip-roofed well-house, offer unique representations of both traditional and popular building types of their era.