Moore, Alexander, Farm

This farmstead on the south bank of the Catawba River, now part of Lake Norman, centers on a two-story frame house dated 1843 by an inscription on its brick chimney. Alexander Moore, who bought 320 acres in 1831, built the house in a plain vernacular style with minimal late Federal details. Surviving outbuildings include a log wagon shed, a log smokehouse, a mid-nineteenth century log barn with half-dovetail notching, and a large frame barn from around 1900. The property has shrunk from the original tract to about 27 acres, but it still reads as a nineteenth century piedmont farm. In 1860 Moore raised corn, wheat, cotton, hay and a range of other crops and livestock, showing the self-sufficient character of local farming. The farm passed through five generations of the family, which supports its listing for both agricultural history and architecture.