S r 11 rise Survivor The Mayfair's Rebirth As The Dunhill Shows Older Structures Can Be Saved Three weeks ago as dynamite shattered the heart of the old Hotel Charlotte and sent its stately facade crashing into shapeless rubble Brad Holcorn watched from the roof of another old Charlotte hotel and winced Except for the vision of his partner Doug Patterson and himself and the daring of lenders such as Southeastern Savings and Loan his old hotel — now Charlotte's newest — might have suffered a similar demise Brad Ho !corn 31 and Doug Patterson 41 are partners in the Dunhill Companies a development firm that has turned the 59-year-old Mayfair Manor at Tryon and West 6th streets into the 60-room Dunhill Hotel with This a touch of European elegance To many old- And time Charlotteans rlace restoration of the slim 10-story May- fair (more recently known as the James Lee Inn) has been a pleasant surprise Who would have thought 10 years ago that the drab Mayfair would outlive the other venerable structures then standing along Tryon Street: the Independence Building Charlotte National Bank the Wilder Building and the Masonic Temple? Temple's Fate An Incentive In fact it was the fate of the Egyptian-Revival Masonic Temple at 2nd and Tryon that stiffened the HolcomPatterson resolve to rescue the Mayfair and revive its faded glory The Temple's demolition was "shortsighted" Brad Ho !corn said "It would have made super executive offices" The Ho 'corn-Patterson restoration of other old buildings in the community including the Biberstein house at 1600 Elizabeth Avenue and the 1880s Heath-Reid General Store in Matthews had proved to be popular and successful But with narrow floors low ceilings and tight external constraints the Mayfair would be "a major design challenge" they said Yet the results would be worth the gamble "We wanted to do something opposite from what was being done" Brad Holcom said "We noticed that other older buildings had leased well Charlotte has so few that they are like rare antiques And when the supply is limited the demand is strong which makes for good economics" Nlayfair's Troubled Past Though bitOt for elegance the Mayfair never achieved prestige Until the mid-1920s its site was occupied by the Tryon Street Methodist Church which in 1927 merged with Trinity Methodist to form First Methodist The site was sold to Drs JP Matheson and CN Peeler founders of the Eye Ear Nose and Throat Hospital then in the first block of West 7th With plans drawn by Louis Asbury one of Charlotte's premier architects Drs Matheson and Peeler had the Mayfair built with a bath a telephone and a radio in each of its 100 rooms It also offered a fireplace in the lobby and another on its penthouse floor When the building opened on Nov 15 1929 Dr Matheson occupied one penthouse (with a balcony overlooking Tryon Street) and banker Julian Little of Independence Trust Co occupied the other But the stock market crash that occurred 17 days earlier touched off a depression that drained much of the Mayfair's potential Though it survived a series of owners and remained in business until October 1981 it was not the executive suite its developers had t 0A tSe Holcom its developers had envisioned A 3-Year-Old Partnership The $6 million effort to convert it into the Dunhill has been the most ambitious project of the three-year-old Holcom-Patterson partnership Brad Holcom grew up in southern Oregon and came east to attend the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Finance finishing in 1980 He was recruited by Wachovia bank and assigned to its Charlotte offices From there he joined Merrill-Lynch in selling suburban real estate Doug Patterson is a Pilot Mountain native who attended Brevard College and Guilford Tech came to Charlotte with Duke Power and was working with a construction firm when he and Brad Holcom began to pool their ideas and resources As a sideline the two bought one old property and fixed it up then another then another Brad Holcom managed the financing Doug Patterson handled sales In 1985 they decided to form a development firm that specialized in converting under-utilized older buildings for higher uses "We didn't want to go out and build offices or shopping centers" Brad Holcom recalled "Renovating old buildings takes more creativity than building something new" After Dunhill renovations were in progress they acquired neighboring properties on North Tryon opened the Thistle Restaurant and bought the Morehead Inn at 1122 East Morehead a bed-and-breakfast house that they are converting into an executive conference center To relieve the More-head's parking problems they bought adjacent properties onto which they hope to expand Brad Holcom was in England this week looking over convened manor houses for ideas Restoring Oak Lawn Another acquisition has been Oak Lawn the white-frame plantation house near Huntersville that Benjamin Davidson built for his bride Betsy Latta (daughter of James Latta of Hopewell's Latta Place) in 1818 The Dunhill partners made Oak Lawn their home a year ago restored its interior and added a modern kitchen Their success is a reminder that despite the impression left by spectacular implosions such as the Hotel Charlotte's developers with courage and imagination have preserved some of Charlotte's historic buildings and with luck might preserve others thereby enriching the streetscape "Any interesting city has a blend of the new and old" Brad Holcom said JACK CLAIBORNE Associate Editor e"- A- '1- : :'r!!:? 4t 1:: : -: " 14":1-'4 : f 4 : :: ': :10 1‘0:"' - : : o
