Stop 15 — Berryhill House

Address: 324 West 9th Street Year built: 1884 Style: Victorian Italianate Designation: CMHLC historic landmark Historical significance: The Junior League's 1970s flagship purchase — the restoration that began Fourth Ward's revitalization

The Berryhill House at 324 West 9th Street is the building that began the modern history of Fourth Ward. Per the Friends of Fourth Ward walking-tour document: "The mid-1970s purchase and renovation of the Berryhill House by the Junior League began the revitalization of Charlotte's Fourth Ward."

The building itself

Built in 1884 in the Italianate strain of Victorian architecture, the Berryhill House carries some of the most elaborate exterior ornamentation of any surviving Charlotte residence from its era. Per FOFW, the notable features include:

• Eight-foot-tall windows with pedimented heads
• Corniced eaves
• A square roof turret
• A wrap-around veranda

Why this stop matters beyond its own architecture

The Berryhill House is one of the 13 stops on the tour carrying a CMHLC historic-landmark designation, but its claim on this neighborhood's identity is larger than its own architecture. When the Junior League of Charlotte, working with UNC Charlotte and NCNB (now Bank of America), bought and renovated the Berryhill House in the mid-1970s, they established the template for the rest of the 1976 revival: historic houses bought at a discount, restored to original specifications, and sold to "urban pioneers" willing to live in what had become a neighborhood in decline.

Every subsequent restoration in Fourth Ward — the dozens of relocated houses on Pine and Poplar, the renovation of the Crowell-Berryhill Store (stop 10) into Alexander Michael's, the conversion of the Frederick Apartments (stop 38), even the McColl Center's 1999 rehabilitation (stop 37) — traces back to the pattern the Junior League set at 324 West 9th.

The Berryhill name

The Berryhill family threads through three stops on this tour: this one, the "Mother-in-Law" House at 523 N Pine (stop 9), and the Crowell-Berryhill Store at 401 W 9th (stop 10). The family was a fixture of late-19th-century Fourth Ward commerce and residential life; a century later, the family name became the anchor of the 1976 revival.

See also Mercury Local's longer historical overview of the Fourth Ward 1976 revival.

← Stop 14 · Back to walking tour hub · Next: stop 16, Alsop House →

Source: Friends of Fourth Ward, Self-Walking Tour (2016). Retrieved April 24, 2026.