The Steele Creek Historical and Genealogical Society
Of the Old Steele Creek Township
Mecklenburg County, North Carolina

The John Price Rock House

THE OLD ROCK HOUSE OF STEELE CREEK
From GLEANINGS, Vol 1, No. 1, Jan-Mar 1994

A photo (not available here) and description of house provided by two Price descendants

The old rock house resembled the Hezekiah Alexander house in Charlotte that is now open for tours. It was built about the same time, but as you will see, in the early 1900s, it was torn down and the rock was crushed for a road. What a loss this was for our community.

The old rock house was located off Shopton Road West and across from Rock Island Road. It was built by John Price and his wife, Mary White Price in 1770. John Price obtained his land grant in Steele Creek in 1764. Both are buried in Steele Creek Presbyterian church cemetery.

The following description of the old rock house was written by a descendant of this old couple in 1911 while the house was still standing.

"The old farmhouse which I shall attempt to describe was situated about a quarter of a mile from my home. This old farmhouse could be seen for several miles around. What attracts our attention first is it’s general appearance. When we first see it, we can tell that it is built of stone, and by a large crack in one of it’s walls, we suppose it has been standing for a some time. Another thing that attracts our attention is a rock with the builder’s name on it and the date, 1770.

Another attraction is the way that the rock over the windows and doors are chiseled off. They look just like large bricks.

We go inside, into a large room which serves the purpose of parlor, hall and living room. The thing that attracts us most in this room is the large fireplace, many times larger than the fireplaces of today. But the peculiar thing is the way that it is built. Instead of the rock resting on a broad piece of iron, a large log serves the purpose, which it seems would have caught on fire. To our right are two smaller rooms. On each side of the chimney there is a closet. In one of these there is a stairway leading to the second floor, in the other is a stairway leading to the cellar.

We then go down into the cellar and in this we find a good spring, together with the other things usually found in an old cellar.

Now let us turn and go upstairs to the second floor. We go up by a winding stairway. On the second floor we find two large rooms, with good big fireplaces. Then we go up another stairway to a large garret. Beside the stairway is a window, and here we notice the thickness of the walls. They are fully half a yard thick. We also notice the plastering. It is thick and is made of good material. Directly under this window there is a large crack in the rock. We notice the sparrows flying to and from this crack in which they build their nests. We also notice the creeping ivy which covers a good part of the building and adds very much to it’s beauty."

It is known that when Shopton Road West was improved into something larger than the original muddy "wagon road", the rock from this old house was crushed and used to "macadamize" the road. (macadam roads were actually roads covered with crushed rock)

This road was improved about 1920 so it would have been at that time the house disappeared. In trying to find out more about the house, we found that it was common at that time to have a spring in the cellar so that water was easily available to the house in winter and also for protection of being "under siege". There were still many Indians in the area in 1770 since the Catawbas had not yet been contained to a reservation. They still roamed freely in the community and not all were Catawbas. The Catawba still had other tribes harassing them from time to time. It was just a year or two prior to the Price’s building this house that the wife of Col. Thomas Neel, who lived just across the Catawba River from Steele Creek, was killed by Indians. It was believed to be a band of Shawnees that invaded the home asking for food. When she turned to get food from the cupboard for them, they grabbed her and scalped her.

The picture that was seen of this house showed it to be completely made of large stones. The two front windows and the front door were arched with the stones described above fanned out over the top of them. The two front windows on the second floor were slightly smaller than those on the first floor and the top of the windows reached almost under the eaves of the roof. The house had already stood for 150 years at the time it was torn down. The picture shows the roof in bad repair, but straight as an arrow. No doubt it would still be standing today, if it had not been an inexpensive source for gravel.

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