Charlotte couple gives new life to a landmark home

Anyone who has lived in the area for a few years and passed the corner of Queens and Sharon will recall the house across from Myers Park Baptist Church a genteel beauty that had fallen on hard times. The overgrown yard was choked with ivy and the house looked lets just say it haunted.

When Margy and Walt Pettit bought the home last year, they became guardians of its history. Margy learned all she could about the red-brick Tudor Revival, listed on the National Historic Register as the Albro House. Two years after it was built in 1926, it was partially destroyed by fire and rebuilt.

Since then, nothing save for one coat of paint had been added or changed. The house had been in the same family from 1929 until 2008, when the reclusive owner died.

The original hardware was still on the doors. The original terrazzo floor was (and is) in the sunroom. Even the servants bathroom and a coal furnace remained in the basement. So did some coal.

The plumbing and electricity were positively state-of-the-art for the 1920s. Remarkably unaltered is how the Blast for the Past Historic Charlotte Preservation Award submission charitably describes the house as the Pettits found it.

Yet they were undaunted. We loved it as it was, says Margy.

The Pettits hired an architect and contractor who loved the house, too. Jack Rorick, a Myers Park resident who served as general contractor, calls the Pettits brave for taking on the massive restoration. Allen Brooks of ALB Architecture says the house, like any great work of art, speaks for itself.

Despite the houses ramshackle appearance, a structural report indicated it was sound except for the roof. Rorick painstakingly took the tile roof off, shored it up and put it back on, tile by original tile. He estimates 85 percent of the tiles are original.

Brooks wrote in the application for the Historic Charlotte Preservation Award (to be presented Oct. 15), Great economic burden was expended toward the purpose of completely dismantling (the) red clay tile roof and reinstalling with new guttering. Judges agreed and awarded the team the residential preservation excellence award.

The Pettits, who have two grown children, had long been aware of the house, but they werent even contemplating a move. Then a friend told Margy the price had dropped for the fourth time and Margy thought it was time to take a look. Walt agreed.

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Charlotte couple gives new life to a landmark home