Stop 27 — Sloan-Davidson House

Address: 314 West 8th Street Year built: 1820 (original section) Style: Folk Victorian with 1890s enlargement Designation: CMHLC historic landmark Notable: The oldest remaining dwelling on the walking tour

The Sloan-Davidson House at 314 West 8th Street is the oldest building on the Fourth Ward walking tour. Per Friends of Fourth Ward, the 1820s original section is one of the earliest remaining dwellings in Fourth Ward. The 1890s enlargement and renovation made it a prominent house in the neighborhood.

The house is architecturally significant for exemplifying the interpretation of Folk Victorian housing with Queen Anne detailing — a specific regional style that layered later Victorian-era ornament onto earlier vernacular construction.

Note on the 1820 date and the Fourth Ward-founding question

The Sloan-Davidson House predates every plausible date of Fourth Ward's founding. Friends of Fourth Ward says the four-ward division of Charlotte happened "in the mid-1830s," which this house predates by more than a decade. Local historians have argued the ward division actually came later, closer to the Reconstruction era — which would place the Sloan-Davidson construction a full half-century before Fourth Ward became Fourth Ward. Either way, the 1820 origin of this house makes it older than the neighborhood its stop-27 sign now hangs in.

See also stop 32, the McCausland-Taylor House (1850, Federal style) — the second-oldest on the tour, with the distinctive crab-claw welcome-arms steps.

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