History of the Allen Hills - Carrie Hills Neighborhood

Q. We have enjoyed the "histories" on some of our other Neighborhoods, but what's the story behind Allen Hills-Carrie Hills?

Where to begin? I've written previously that most of Derita was comprised of big family farms, which were slowly divided as Patriarchs died and the bigger farms were divided among family and in-laws, or portions sold to newcomers that they thought would make good neighbors. It really wasn't until the mid-1950's that the population really shifted to this side of Charlotte.

In my DSRCO files, I found copies of some photos of the J.J. Allen dairy farm http://community.webshots.com/album/573295351HZeUqA which shows the old farmhouse, milking shed, barn, and the two lakes where Manning Rd, Lake Rd., and Elizabeth Rd. would soon be cut. It was pretty much vacant pasture land in these photos. I'm sure that a good many of the old tree stumps had been buried along the future Alpine Ln. and many others had been hauled off to a south pasture near the current Allen Hills Pool; land that would eventually be sold to developers in the late 1990's as the site of Carrie Woods . . . named after Mrs. Carrie Allen.

Now I have mentioned T.D. Little before, who as a young lad had grown up in one of the two houses back then on Peach Street in Derita (next street north of the Post Office) and now lives near the intersection of Allen Rd. South & Allen Rd. East. I appreciate his help in refreshing my memory here.

You may recall, long before T.D. earned his fortune selling insurance, he earned spending money during the summers by hiring on to pick cotton and other crops at the one of the large local farms. Two that he mentioned were the Young farm (at the hard left curve on Rumple Rd.) and the Griggs farm across the railroad tracks from Derita Presbyterian Church. At one farm, he could earn 65 cents a day + dinner, and the other offered $1 a day + dinner, but turns out that that farmer's wife was not as good a cook as the first. He left after the just one day. T.D. was able to re-negotiate his old job back receiving the same wages as Black workers, earning 70 cents per 100 lb of cotton he could pick. T.D. averaged 200 lbs per days and remembers himself as "rolling in cash that summer."

Family farms on Eargle Rd (later to become Grenelefe Village), at Stephens Farm Lane (later to become Poplar Springs) and the huge Hunter Farm ( soon to become Hunter Acres, and later Christenbury Hills, Devongate & General's Point) --- just to name a few, kept Derita folks pretty busy and Derita a well-known railstop. But try as you will, there was only so much money to be made at farming. Folks on the southside of Charlotte had become rich by turning their pastures into new home developments. Folks here took notice.

Back in the early 1940's, my Dad bought several acres of the old Overcash Farms wheat fields that had gone fallow. He paid $100 an acre, turning down several choice lots between here and the Railroad tracks, because he was afraid trains passing in the night might keep him from sleeping. (That property is now all I-1 & I-2). I look across the street at the Nat'l Metals warehouse, and next to it at Harris Mustang Parts, the cell tower and Truck Tech Car & Auto Repair and remember the fields of yellow grain. --- Rest assured, land in Allen Hills never again sold so cheap.

What roads existed, were dirt & gravel back then. Pavement on Graham Street (2 lanes) stopped at an huge wood workshop next to the rail line where craftsmen fashioned funeral monuments out of granite. It stood several blocks south of the current Atando Ave. rail crossing, says T.D. Little. From there, on through Derita, Mallard Creek and all the way to Concord, the roads remained dirt & gravel.

By the time my family built our house (on Camel's Hump -- what folks called these hills & the big dip on Allen Rd. South back then) pavement was extended into Derita and a short stretch of Allen Rd South had even been paved, stopping at the end of my driveway. There it became gravel again. Stayed that was until I was in junior high school at JM Alexander in Huntersville --- Yeah, I was part of the school-bussed generation).

Beside the railroad track at North Graham, I remember seeing the huge 4 x 8ft pink, white & black wooden sign announcing 300 new brick homes to be built in Allen Hills. It stood there for years. That's where I often caught the school bus each morning, so I could "run the track" for school bus driver Tommy Nix who still lives nearby on Racine Ave.

J.J. Allen and his son Tom, along with Dr. J. Allen were building a neighborhood that would attract returning servicemen who wanted to raise families. Most were ranch style homes and came with a community water system --- the Allen Hills Water Company. A covenant on most deeds called for brick houses. Can't say that they ever reached all 300 homes, but with Carrie Hills, I think the count is now about 560.

It was a busy time as the City edged north toward Derita. Swamped with home requests, the Allen's sold off part of their land to developers like M.B. Tadlock who built the houses along Twin Lane. Not far away, Robert Hunter was building Hunter Acres. In the next decade would come Randomwood off Mineral Springs Rd, Derita Woods off Derita Rd. (now Graham St.) and Ridgeview (off Rumple Rd.) Growth was overtaking us.

Why we even had one house here in Derita that was ordered out of the Sears & Roebuck catalog and arrived by rail. You folks in Devongate probably know which one I'm talking about.

We would likely have been up to our ears in "New Neighbors" before now, but the City annexed our area in the 1970's and re-zoning became a lot more complicated and costly than in the County. Many developers opted to buy the open farm land in Mallard Creek and along Prosperity Church Rd. where they could build with fewer headaches. Now what was your question again?
--- submitted by Bernie Samonds
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