A Shelby Home Built with Louisiana Lottery Winnings

In the late 1850s, Augustus W. Burton built a house on South Washington Street in Shelby using part of five thousand dollars in golden eagles that he had won in the Louisiana lottery. The house later became widely known as the “old McAfee house.” It was designed by a well-known architect, Guion I. Crink, and the extensive grounds were landscaped by an experienced gardener. At one time the yard was surrounded by a mock orange hedge, and within it grew a variety of rare shrubs. By the time Mamie Jones wrote about the house, both the building and the grounds had deteriorated greatly.

Burton and his wife, Julia Olmstead of Lincolnton, lived in the house only a short time before the War Between the States began. Burton was elected captain of the Cleveland Guards, the first military company from Shelby to go out to fight for the Confederacy, and he later sold the house to Reese Roark. Over the years the house was occupied by members of families connected to governors, senators, judges, ministers, and other prominent figures in North Carolina. Jones noted that no area so small as that section of South Washington Street had produced so many notable personalities or the parents of notable people.

Source: Mamie Jones