Potts Plantation

Potts Plantation is a historic farm and plantation complex located near Cornelius in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. The property has been associated with the Potts family since 1753, establishing a long continuity of family ownership and land use. Available reference material does not identify a single founder or provide a precise date for the establishment of the plantation as a formal complex. The central plantation house was built in 1811. It is a two-story, three-bay log dwelling with weatherboard siding and a low brick foundation. The house incorporates Federal-style characteristics associated with its early nineteenth-century construction. Later changes introduced additional architectural layers, including Late Victorian and Colonial Revival elements. One-story wings were added in 1947, demonstrating that the main residence continued to be used and modified well after its original construction. The historic district includes a range of agricultural and domestic resources. A smokehouse associated with the early period is dated approximately to 1811–1820. Other resources include a dependency, a double-pen log barn work area, and a corn crib constructed approximately between 1900 and 1920. A poultry house, dated approximately to 1920–1940, records later agricultural activity. These structures help illustrate food production, storage, livestock or poultry management, and general farm work connected with the property. The district also preserves sites connected with the people who lived and worked on the plantation. A slave cemetery is among the contributing sites, documenting the presence and burial of enslaved people associated with the plantation during the period of slavery. Five tenant complexes and the Smith Cottage Complex, including Smith Cottage dating from approximately 1891, reflect later patterns of residential and agricultural tenancy. Potts Cemetery, established in 1946, represents a subsequent phase in the property's history. Together, the resources form a layered historic landscape encompassing the plantation seat, outbuildings, agricultural work areas, tenant housing, cemeteries, and related sites. The district therefore records not only the architecture of the main house but also the changing organization of rural life, labor, family residence, and agricultural production in the area. Potts Plantation was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998. The designation recognizes the property as a historic district containing 11 contributing buildings, 12 contributing sites, and four contributing structures. The available material does not describe commercial operations, product sales, institutional management, restoration campaigns, or later ownership changes. It is consequently best documented as a heritage property rather than as a conventional brand.

• 1998

  National Register listing

  [1]Potts Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  Potts Plantation was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district.

• 1947

  Wings added to the main house

  [1]Potts Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  One-story flanking wings were added to the plantation seat, contributing Colonial Revival-era changes to the earlier house.

• 1811

  Plantation seat constructed

  [1]Potts Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  The principal two-story, three-bay weatherboarded log house was built on a low brick foundation.

• 1753

  Potts family association begins

  [1]Potts Plantationen.wikipedia.org

  The property has been in the Potts family since 1753, establishing the documented beginning of the family's long connection with the plantation site.

Historic plantation complex and cultural heritage site, not a documented commercial brand.

1. 1Potts Plantationen.wikipedia.org