Bandy Farms Historic District

Two two-story brick farmhouses built in the mid-1880s stand on adjacent farms in east central Catawba County, North Carolina, near Bandy's Crossroads. Theodore Lafayette Bandy completed his house in November 1884, and the date 1887 is painted on the chimney of his brother Joseph Schofield Bandy's house. Both are nearly identical in plan, with a central hall flanked by two rooms per floor and a rear ell. The T. L. Bandy house has common bond brickwork with pencilled joints, a transomed front door, Classical mantels, and a stair with sawnwork brackets. Its brick outbuilding, probably used as a smokehouse and granary, has raised brick lintels, corner pilasters, and corbelled gables. The houses are significant because brick was rare in the county at that time, and they represent a small surviving group of late nineteenth-century rural brick dwellings. The brothers were also county surveyors and teachers.