Themes: Architectural, Community development, Industry

2-4 Buxton Court - Jane Perkins House

Lewis Street & Buxton Court were planned about 1893-5 by Lewis T. Hardy and Joseph Cole, partners in the firm of Hardy and Cole 1874-1915. The property was the former Major Joseph Low estate at 80 (70) North Main Street purchased on June 30, 1892 from Mary Ann Low and the remaining heirs of the property.

Hardy & Cole divided up the Low estate property creating parcels to the north of the house on No. Main St. and the new road and court to the south and west.

Lewis St. named for Lewis Titus Hardy and Buxton Court after Ira Buxton. Buxton was the first to build a home on the Court in 1898. He was a carpenter for Hardy & Cole at that time.
#3 Lewis Street was the first home constructed by Hardy & Cole and then purchased by Abby Stimson on November 20, 1897. Annie M. McMillan purchased the first lot on Buxton Ct. at #3 on June 20, 1897. Ira Buxton followed in November 12, 1897 with lot #5. Buxton Court was sometimes referred to as Lewis Court and “Tyrian Way” in deeds.

Most of the homes in this neighborhood were constructed as two family duplexes and for the most part owner occupied with the second units used as rental income. The majority of the first residents were operatives in the nearby businesses of the Tyer Rubber Company, Smith & Dove Manufacturing Co. and Marland Mills of the J.P. Stevens Company.

Jane Perkins purchased a lot on Jan. 6, 1898 and then additional lots on Jan. 6, 1898 and March 17, 1900. Jane and her husband George Perkins, a carpenter, owned 8 Lewis St. where they resided. [see 8 Lewis St. for Perkins history] She took a mortgage on the land and buildings in March 1909 and held the property until 1916.