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

The Whitehall Post Office

WHITEHALL
(By Linda Blackwelder)

It is believed that Whitehall was not an actual post office but was a central location in the Steele Creek District where mail was dropped off and people living within several miles of the area could come and pick up the mail. There are letters in the 1780s and 1790s addressed to several families in the area. The Neely family, the Price family and several others had mail sent to them from Tennessee showing the name of the person, then the name Whitehall and then Mecklenburg County. On one other, it showed "in care of" at Whitehall, Steele Creek.

In 1801, Upton Byrum leased Whitehall. By that time, it appears to have been a "stop over" or "inn" on the road leading to Bigger's Ferry. There is also one reference to it about 1810 as being a stage coach stop. Though it was to old to have been termed a "post office", there is little doubt that mail was received at this location.

From the description of the lease to Upton Byrum, it appears that it sat on the road to Biggers Ferry, today, being Hwy 49 - South Tryon Street and prior to city annexation, the York Rd. It would have been located in the vicinity of where today Arrowood Road intersects York Rd. (S. Tryon St.). It was believed to be on or near Coffee Creek.

Many recall the old Johnston's Horse Farm at this location and the old home that sat on the knoll south of Coffee Creek. Mr. Johnston called it "Whitehall". I personally contacted Mr. Johnston before his death years ago and ask him how he had determined to call the farm Whitehall and he stated that his horse farm in Kentucky was called Whitehall and so he named it the same here. He told me that he thought the old home that sat there was built originally around 1840 and that it could have been older. He had no records of the land that indicated it had been called Whitehall prior to his purchase of the property.

Upton Byrum, at the time he leased Whitehall, was married to Dolly McDowell, the daughter of William and Esther McDowell. The William McDowell property was on a creek a called "Little Rocky Sugar Creek" which is today, Coffee Creek. His lease was for only one year. Dolly McDowell inherited her father's property which was north of the area he leased and located more closely to Byrum Drive on Coffee Creek. At the time Dolly died, Upton Byrum, as her husband would have inherited the property from his wife and he remained on this property until his death.

There is no doubt that "Whitehall" was the first location in Steele Creek where mail would have been dropped off for the community. It is presumed that a "post rider" would have stopped here to leave the mail.

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