Kilpatrick's Were Leading Brevard Builders

Branson’s North Carolina Business Directory, 1896 lists Kilpatrick Brothers Building in Brevard.  Chester Columbus and Robert Porter Kilpatrick were sons of Benjamin and Mary Kilpatrick.  Both worked in the construction business.  C.C. Kilpatrick also operated Kilpatrick Funeral Home for over 40 years and served as Transylvania County Sheriff for three 2-year terms.

Robert Kilpatrick’s obituary states that he “built a majority of the business buildings of Brevard and hundreds of homes.”  Several of the large homes on West Probart Street, including his own, were constructed by Kilpatrick.

Kilpatrick House

Bob and Alie Kilpatrick’s two-story brick home was built around 1905 on the north side of the street where Oaklawn Avenue meets West Probart.  The full front porch was supported by heavy square columns of brick.  Both the house and the porch had a low hip roof with deep eaves.  The home is no longer standing.

Other Probart Street homes built by Kilpatrick include the Mack Allison House, the Miller-McMahan House and the Rogers House.

Mack Allison House

The Allison and Miller-McMahan houses were originally quite similar to each other and to Kilpatrick’s home.  A 1910 Brevard Board of Trade brochure includes photographs of the two homes.  The Allison house was built on speculation and originally owned by R.H. Zachary.  The exterior had wood shingle siding which has been replaced by vinyl except on the gables.

Kilpatrick built a home for J.A. Miller, founder of Camp Transylvania for Boys, around the same time.  In the 1930s the McMahans significantly altered the original appearance of the house by replacing the one-story porch with a large two-story portico featuring fluted columns and pilasters.  The exterior was pebbledash on the first floor and wood shingle on the upper level.  The front façade is all pebbledash today.

Miller-McMahan House

The Miller-McMahan House and the Mack Allison House are on the north side of the street, just east of where Kilpatrick’s home was located.

The Rogers house, located further down Probart Street is completely different in style.  It was constructed in 1913 from a sketch drawn by the property owner, Ida Ellerby Rogers of Bennettsville, South Carolina provided Kilpatrick.  The two-and-one-half story clapboard "summer house" is much larger than traditional summer homes.    It has a large front gable dormer above a polygonal bay window.

Rogers House

Photographs and information for this column are provided by the Rowell Bosse North Carolina Room, Transylvania County Library.  Visit the NC Room during regular library hours (Monday-Friday) to learn more about our history and see additional photographs.  For more information, comments or suggestions contact Marcy at marcy.thompson@
transylvaniacounty.org or 828-884-3151 X242.