Melton-Davis House
Also known as: Melton, Cannie, House
Why it's listed
Built about 1904, this one-story weatherboarded frame house sits on a rise above DePriest Road in northeast Rutherford County, North Carolina, with a barn, a granary, a shed and a pump house nearby. It began as the home of a small fifty-acre farm. The house has an asymmetrical Queen Anne form, with two gable-front blocks flanking a center hall, a bracketed front porch, diagonal-board gables with louvered vents, and original mantels and doors inside. Changes have been limited mainly to a concrete block foundation and a bathroom added in 1976-1977. The Davis family owned it as a rental from 1922, and members of the Melton family farmed cotton and corn here for about three decades afterward. The house is regarded as an intact example of the modest one-story farm seats built around the turn of the twentieth century. The barn, dated ca. 1904 to ca. 1915, contributes to the farmstead, while the granary, shed and pump house are later.
Significance in brief: The nomination argues the house is a remarkably intact example of the sizable, simply finished one-story Queen Anne frame houses built as farm seats in rural Rutherford County around the turn of the twentieth century. It survived essentially unaltered as a rental property of the Davis family from 1922. The barn and setting add to its value as a farmstead on a modest fifty-acre holding.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · National Archives catalog entry. NRHP reference 08000813, listed August 29, 2008. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29, confidence medium).
Key facts
| Address | 477 DePriest Rd., Bostic |
|---|---|
| County | Rutherford County |
| Listed | August 29, 2008 |
| Reference number | 08000813 |
| Resource type | Building |
| Period of significance | ca. 1904-ca.1915 |
| Architectural style | Queen Anne |
| Criteria |
|
| Areas of significance | Architecture |
| Level of significance | Local |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | Rental property since 1922 with a succession of renters; the barn and granary are deteriorated, and the house was underpinned and given a bathroom in 1976-1977. |
| Acreage | 2.1 |
| Coordinates | 35.43178, -81.81438 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
National Register listing is honorary for a privately owned home: it does not by itself restrict what an owner may do with their own money, and it does not require public access. Restrictions come from local landmark or historic-district ordinances, which are separate (how they differ).
Owner-occupied houses are not eligible for the 20% federal rehabilitation tax credit, which applies to income-producing buildings, but many states offer credits for homeowners. Listing also opens the door to preservation easements and to buying a plaque. Start with what listing means for homeowners, renovating a listed house and selling one.
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.
Sources and further reading
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places database (snapshot May 2026), reference 08000813.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking only; text not reproduced here)
- Wikidata Q19987075
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.