This Lincolnton landmark was built in 1826 by Paul and Ann Kistler. Kistler was a successful businessman who owned and operated a tannery between Water and Church Streets. Ann Kistler was the sister of David Smith, who built the remarkably similar East Lincoln residence known as Magnolia Grove only two years earlier.
The two-story Federal style home was built with Flemish bond brickwork and is five bays wide and two bays deep over a full basement. The gutter boxes at the facade are dated “1826” and the one-story ells at the west and south elevations are later additions.
When Mr. Kistler died in 1848, the house passed to his family. Augustus Pinckney and Mary McCullough James purchased the house from the estate of Lawson Kistler in 1871. The James family occupied the house from 1871 until 1935, when Charles Raper and Annie Elliott Jonas purchased it. Jonas was a prominent Lincolnton attorney and served in the United States House of Representatives from 1952 until 1972.
The house is listed individually in the National Register of Historic Places, and is a contributing building in the West Main Street National Register Historic District.
