Sharecropper House / Photo by Jason Benavides

Feb. 11. By Dave Vieser. The historic tenant farmer house on the Alexander Farm property will be saved. “We are over the hump and headed toward a great preservation victory,” says historian Dan Morrill, with Preserve Mecklenburg Inc.

In a letter this week to the media and the community, Morrill said the Town of Cornelius has hired Viz LLC to evaluate possible locations to which the tenant house can be moved. Owner Gary Fankhauser is a landscape architect with specialties in urban design and land planning.

The small, wood-frame house sits on the northwest corner of the property where the development of a large mixed-use project will bee built.

WIN Development plans $100-million-plus development that includes a 3.2 acre park on the 55-acre Alexander farm. A consultant determined that the tenant house was worth saving since there are very few such structures remaining in what was once an agricultural county.

“The developers have done exactly what the law requires,” said Morrill, a consultant for Preserve Mecklenburg, which will actually pay to move the house, thanks to a contribution from WIN.

A memorandum of agreement on moving the house is being reviewed by the US Army Corp of Engineers.

What’s left to make it happen?

—Evaluate and identify a temporary site to move the structure

—Coordinate with Preserve Mecklenburg for the actual move.

—Identify a permanent site, hopefully same as the temporary site

—Evaluate and identify long-term use and costs for the structure

The sharecropper house is sited in the upper left corner of the 55 acre farm facing West Catawba. West Moreland runs along the bottom of the image taken from Mecklenburg County property records