Stout, John C. (1860-1921)
Variant Name(s):
John Christie Stout
Birthplace:
Randolph County, North Carolina, USA
Residences:
- Wilmington, North Carolina
- Wilson, North Carolina
- Rocky Mount, North Carolina
Trades:
- Builder
- Architect
Building Types:
Styles & Forms:
Beaux-Arts; Colonial Revival; Queen Anne
John C. (Christie) Stout (December 19, 1860-November 24, 1921), a contractor and architect from Randolph County, worked briefly in Wilmington, then moved to Wilson and to Rocky Mount. He had a large practice that extended throughout much of eastern North Carolina and concentrated in the railroad towns of the inner coastal plain. Like other practitioners in the region, he worked for a time in the Queen Anne style, but, especially after 1900, he began to incorporate neoclassical elements. Among his specialties were powerfully composed residences with grand porticoes, which suited his clients’ taste for the “Southern Colonial” style and became landmarks of their communities.
Stout was the son of Peter and Mary (Wrightsman) Stout of Randolph County. He was educated in the public schools and is said to have displayed a talent for architecture even in his youth. He trained as an architect and builder for three years in the office of Thomas A. Kluttz, a builder active in Asheboro, Fayetteville, and elsewhere, who worked at one time with Knoxville architect George F. Barber. In the 1880s Stout married Hattie Cornelia Jordan in Fayetteville, and the couple moved to the busy port city of Wilmington, where he established a practice.
By May 1891, Stout gained attention in the Wilmington Messenger for his work as contractor of the city’s YMCA. In 1897 Stout entered into a partnership with Thad F. Tyler, “under the firm name of Stout & Tyler, to carry on the business of contractors and builders” at 17 South Water Street. The announcement of the partnership in the Wilmington Dispatch asserted, “They are both experienced architects.” The partnership was short-lived, however, and by 1899 the two men were practicing separately. In November 1899 Stout advertised that he had “recently made arrangements with one of the best architects in the south, by which no charge is made for plans and specifications, where I am awarded the contract.” (This architect has not yet been identified.)
In September 1899 Stout gained a major commission that spurred his move from Wilmington to the central coastal plain. He became the contractor for the Atlantic Coast Line Relief Hospital in Rocky Mount. (The ACL was a major presence in Wilmington and its route led northward through the coastal plain.) After completion of this project in May 1900 he received many other commissions in the Rocky Mount area, and in 1900 he and Hattie were residing in Rocky Mount. He found abundant opportunity in the small market towns along the railroad lines, where tobacco manufacturing and sales along with textile manufacturing complemented local agricultural production and brought new people and wealth. In 1904, Stout bought a lot in Wilson, where he built his own home, a classically detailed cottage. He is credited with the design or construction of several residences in Wilson, as well as an annex to the Wilson Sanitorium.
By 1906, however, Stout had moved back to Rocky Mount, where he devoted himself exclusively to architecture. He was associated briefly (ca. 1908) with the prolific Wilson architect Charles Collins Benton. In 1910, Stout, listed as an architect, and his wife Hattie were still living in Rocky Mount, heading a household that included many young men living there as lodgers and working as clerks and dispatchers in local firms.
Stout distinguished himself as a master of the Southern Colonial Revival style that suited the prosperous industrialists and other businessmen of the coastal plain. In 1906, the Rocky Mount Record published a feature story about Stout and his work, and another story followed in the 1912 Rocky Mount Record, which noted, “He has made plans and contracted for some of the city’s handsomest residences.” In Rocky Mount and nearby communities he designed some of the area’s grandest examples of the Southern Colonial style. Notable among these was the massive, columned T. J. Hackney House, a grandiose, columned mansion that was a showplace of Rocky Mount; the grandiose Elm City School in the small town of Elm City; and the Bartholomew House in the small community of Castalia. He planned other opulent residences on Rocky Mount’s prestigious residential avenues of Church Street, Falls Road, Western Avenue, and Sunset Avenue, most of which have been lost.
Stout also designed in other classicially inspired styles, and built civic, religious, and commercial buildings in several communities. He used variations on the Neoclassical and Colonial Revival styles in such notable buildings as the First National Bank, the Rocky Mount Municipal Building, and the Phillips Building. In 1907, he submitted plans for the Robeson County Courthouse in Lumberton, but the large firm of Milburn, Heister, and Company won the commission. Stout’s practice culminated with his design of the Nash County Courthouse in Nashville, completed in 1921, The red brick courthouse with restrained detailing is a rare example of the Federal style revival in a courthouse of the period, when most such edifices followed the Beaux-Arts classical mode. A biographical sketch of Stout, published shortly before his death in 1921, stated, “Mr. Stout has proved a thorough master of his craft and has made an enviable reputation for himself as an architect.”
John C. Stout was one of the first licensed architects in North Carolina. His license certificate, issued in 1915, was #37 in the registration book of the North Carolina Board of Architecture, one of the early group of men who were licensed in the state based on their having been in professional practice prior to the licensing act of 1915.
Note: In addition to those included in the building list, a number of buildings were cited as Stout’s work in the Rocky Mount Record of 1906. Further information about their status and location is sought. These include the following: Beaufort County, Washington: J. D. Grimes House; George T. Leach House; B. B. Nicholson House; John H. Small House; and H. S. Ward House. Edgecombe County, Tarboro: Dr. Julian Baker House; T. H. Gatlin House; J. J. Green House; Mrs. James Pender House; Dr. Cliff Whitehead House. Nash County, Rocky Mount: J. C. Braswell House; J. D. Bulluck, Jr., House; James P. Bunn House; H. E. Crews House; D. D. Cuthrell House; E. L. Daughtridge House.
- Catherine W. Bishir and Michael T. Southern, A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Eastern North Carolina (1996).
- Branson’s North Carolina Business Directory (1896, 1897).
- Charlotte Vestal Brown Papers, Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, North Carolina.
- Richard Leonard Mattson, The History and Architecture of Nash County, North Carolina (1987).
- Nash County Records (Wills), North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, North Carolina.
- Kate Mearns (Ohno), Central City Historic Buildings Inventory, Rocky Mount (1979).
- Kate Ohno and Robert C. Bainbridge, Wilson, North Carolina, Historic Buildings Inventory (1980).
- William Reaves Files, New Hanover County Public Library, Wilmington, North Carolina.
- Rocky Mount City Directory (1908; 1912).
- Rocky Mount Record (1906; 1912).
- Rocky Mount Telegram, May 24, 1900.
- Wilmington Dispatch, June 12, 1897; Feb. 15, 1900; May 10, 1900; Oct. 22, 1910.
- Wilmington Messenger, May 22, 1891; Mar. 31, 1899; Aug. 11, 1899; Sept. 19, 1899; Nov. 10, 1899; Nov. 29, 1899.
- Wilmington Morning Star, Feb. 1, 1893; Apr. 7, 1896; Apr. 29, 1900; May 18, 1907; Jan. 10, 1911.
- Wilson County Records (Deeds), North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, North Carolina.
- Wilson County School Board Minutes, July 20, 1904.
Arrington Building
Contributors:John C. Stout, architect and builderDates:1912
Location:Rocky Mount, Nash CountyStreet Address:Rocky Mount, NC
Status:No longer standing
Type:Commercial
Atlantic Coast Line Relief Hospital
Contributors:John C. Stout, architect and builderDates:1899-1900
Location:Rocky Mount, Nash CountyStreet Address:Rocky Mount, NC
Status:No longer standing
Type:Health Care
Benjamin F. Lane House
Contributors:John C. Stout, architect and builderDates:Ca. 1898
Location:Wilson, Wilson CountyStreet Address:601 W. Nash St., Wilson, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Residential
Images Published In:Kate Ohno and Robert C. Bainbridge, Wilson, North Carolina, Historic Buildings Inventory (1980).
Note:One of Stout’s earliest surviving houses, the symmetrical dwelling has a 1-stsory wraparound porch with Ionic columns.
Bissette-Cooley House
Contributors:John C. Stout, attributed architectDates:1911
Location:Nashville, Nash CountyStreet Address:N. 1st St. at E. Washington St., Nashville, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Residential
Images Published In:Richard Leonard Mattson, The History and Architecture of Nash County, North Carolina (1987).
Note:Standing at the end of a dramatic axis, the large house with its dramatic Ionic portico overlapping a wraparound porch is a major landmark of the small county seat community. It was built for lumberman George N. Bissette and was later the home of Congressman Harold Cooley.
Captain T. W. Tilghman House
Contributors:John C. Stout, architect and builderDates:Ca. 1902
Location:Wilson, Wilson CountyStreet Address:W. Nash St., Wilson, NC
Status:No longer standing
Type:Residential
Charles T. Sinclair House
Contributors:Frank B. Simpson, architect; John C. Stout, builderDates:1914
Location:Carthage, Moore CountyStreet Address:403 McReynolds St, Carthage, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Residential
Images Published In:Catherine W. Bishir and Michael T. Southern, A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Piedmont North Carolina (2003).
Dr. Hassell Brantley House II
Contributors:John C. Stout, attributed architect and builderDates:1913
Location:Spring Hope, Nash CountyStreet Address:301 E. Branch St., Spring Hope, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Residential
Images Published In:Richard Leonard Mattson, The History and Architecture of Nash County, North Carolina (1987).
Dr. L. Gorham House
Contributors:John C. Stout, architect and builderDates:Ca. 1900
Location:Rocky Mount, Nash CountyStreet Address:Sunset Ave., Rocky Mount, NC
Status:Unknown
Type:Residential
Images Published In:Kate Mearns (Ohno), Central City Historic Buildings Inventory, Rocky Mount (1979).
E. A. Darden House
Contributors:John C. Stout, architect and builderDates:Ca. 1902
Location:Wilson, Wilson CountyStreet Address:315 W. Green St., Wilson, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Residential
Images Published In:Kate Ohno and Robert C. Bainbridge, Wilson, North Carolina, Historic Buildings Inventory (1980).
Note:Like many of Stout’s designs, the Darden House combines Queen Anne irregular massing with neoclassical details. Similar houses stand in Elm City and Tarboro.
Elm City School
Contributors:John C. Stout, architect and builderVariant Name(s):Durant Hall; E. G. Moore House; Martha Moore Home
Dates:1903-1904
Location:Elm City, Wilson CountyStreet Address:Elm City, NC
Status:No longer standing
Type:Educational
Images Published In:Kate Ohno, Wilson County’s Architectural Heritage (1981).
Note:The immense Southern Colonial style building, surrounded on three sides by towering Ionic porticoes, began as a school but became a private hospital and then a private residence owned by E. G. Moore. For the small community of Elm City, such an imposing building was an especially outstanding landmark. It was demolished in the 1970s.
F. Rheinstein and Company Building
Contributors:Alfred S. Eichberg, architect; John C. Stout, contractorVariant Name(s):F. Rheinstein Store
Dates:1891-1892
Location:Wilmington, New Hanover CountyStreet Address:222-226 N. Front St., Wilmington, NC
Status:Altered
Type:Commercial
Note:Designed by the Savannah architect who planned the New Hanover County Courthouse, Rheinstein’s store building was a 4-story, brick and stone edifice in Romanesque Revival style which was called in 1902, “the most imposing mercantile structure in the city.” It was altered extensively in the 20th century.
First Baptist Church
Contributors:John C. Stout, architectDates:1914
Location:Nashville, Nash CountyStreet Address:E. Washington St. at S. Alston St., Nashville, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Religious
Images Published In:Richard Leonard Mattson, The History and Architecture of Nash County, North Carolina (1987).
Note:The illustration shows a perspective drawing that was probably done by Stout.
First National Bank
Contributors:D. J. Rose, contractor; John C. Stout, architectDates:Ca. 1912
Location:Rocky Mount, Edgecombe CountyStreet Address:106 S. Washington St., Rocky Mount, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Commercial
Images Published In:Kate Mearns (Ohno), Central City Historic Buildings Inventory, Rocky Mount (1979).
Frank S. Spruill House
Contributors:John C. Stout, architect and builderDates:Ca. 1908-1912
Location:Rocky Mount, Nash CountyStreet Address:462 Falls Rd., Rocky Mount, NC
Status:No longer standing
Type:Residential
Images Published In:Richard Leonard Mattson, The History and Architecture of Nash County, North Carolina (1987).
Note:The massive house with full-width, full-height portico was one of several mansions of similar character that once stood on Falls Road.
James Cox House
Contributors:John C. Stout, attributed builderDates:Ca. 1900
Location:Elm City, Wilson CountyStreet Address:NW corner Main St. and Parker St., Elm City, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Residential
Images Published In:Kate Ohno, Wilson County’s Architectural Heritage (1981).
James W. Keel House
Contributors:John C. Stout, architect and builderDates:1914
Location:Rocky Mount, Nash CountyStreet Address:Nash St., Rocky Mount, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Residential
Images Published In:Richard Leonard Mattson, The History and Architecture of Nash County, North Carolina (1987).
John C. Stout House
Contributors:John C. Stout, architect and builderDates:Ca. 1910
Location:Rocky Mount, Nash CountyStreet Address:422 Western Ave., Rocky Mount, NC
Status:No longer standing
Type:Residential
Judge W. T. Bannerman Cottages
Contributors:John C. Stout, architect and builderDates:1899
Location:Wilmington, New Hanover CountyStreet Address:Walnut St. between Front St. and 2nd St., Wilmington, NC
Status:No longer standing
Type:Residential
Nash County Courthouse
Contributors:John C. Stout, architectDates:1921
Location:Nashville, Nash CountyStreet Address:Washington St., Nashville, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Public
Images Published In:Richard Leonard Mattson, The History and Architecture of Nash County, North Carolina (1987).
Phillips Building
Contributors:John C. Stout, architect and builderVariant Name(s):Bulluck-Phillips Building
Dates:1907
Location:Rocky Mount, Nash CountyStreet Address:126 NW Main St., Rocky Mount, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Commercial
Ricks-Strickland House
Contributors:Harvey Smith, contractor (1915); John C. Stout, architectDates:Late 19th century; 1915 [remodeled]
Location:Nashville, Nash CountyStreet Address:W. Washington St., Nashville, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Residential
Images Published In:Richard Leonard Mattson, The History and Architecture of Nash County, North Carolina (1987).
Note:A late 19th century Queen Anne style house was expanded and given a 2-story portico designed by John C. Stout and built by local contractor Harvey Smith.
Robert C. Merritt House
Contributors:John C. Stout, architect and builderDates:1899
Location:Wilmington, New Hanover CountyStreet Address:Chestnut St. between 4th St. and 5th St., Wilmington, NC
Status:No longer standing
Type:Residential
Rocky Mount Municipal Building
Contributors:John C. Stout, architect and builderDates:Ca. 1900
Location:Rocky Mount, Nash CountyStreet Address:NE corner Main St. and Thomas St., Rocky Mount, NC
Status:No longer standing
Type:Public
S. A. Woodard House
Contributors:John C. Stout, architect and builderDates:Ca. 1900
Location:Wilson, Wilson CountyStreet Address:604 W. Nash St., Wilson, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Residential
Images Published In:Kate Ohno and Robert C. Bainbridge, Wilson, North Carolina, Historic Buildings Inventory (1980).
S. F. Craig House
Contributors:John C. Stout, architect and builderDates:1899
Location:Wilmington, New Hanover CountyStreet Address:2nd St. between Grace St. and Walnut St., Wilmington, NC
Status:No longer standing
Type:Residential
S. J. Bartholomew House II
Contributors:John C. Stout, architect and builderVariant Name(s):Bartholomew-Lancaster House
Dates:1918
Location:Castalia, Nash CountyStreet Address:Main St., Castalia, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Residential
Images Published In:Richard Leonard Mattson, The History and Architecture of Nash County, North Carolina (1987).
Note:Built for a local merchant, the large frame house features a locally unusual, monumental portico that extends across the entire front of the house. Houses of such grandeur are rare in such small communities as Castalia. This is one of Stout’s largest Colonial Revival houses still standing.
T. A. Brinkley House
Contributors:John C. Stout, architect and builderDates:Ca. 1910
Location:Rocky Mount, Nash CountyStreet Address:Sunset Ave., Rocky Mount, NC
Status:No longer standing
Type:Residential
T. J. Hackney House
Contributors:John C. Stout, architect and builder; D.J. Rose, contractorVariant Name(s):Hyman-Battle House; Hackney-Battle House
Dates:Ca. 1900
Location:Rocky Mount, Nash CountyStreet Address:Sunset Ave., Rocky Mount, NC
Status:No longer standing
Type:Residential
Images Published In:Richard Leonard Mattson, The History and Architecture of Nash County, North Carolina (1987).
Note:Featured in a postcard as “one of the South’s most beautiful homes,” the immense Southern Colonial Revival style house was built for T. J. Hackney and later owned by Hyman Battle, president of the Rocky Mount Mills. It was razed in 1977.
W. D. Cochran House
Contributors:John C. Stout, architect and builderDates:Ca. 1900
Location:Rocky Mount, Nash CountyStreet Address:South Howell St., Rocky Mount, NC
Status:Moved
Type:Residential
Note:Around 1921, the building was moved in three sections from its original location on Main Street.
W. J. Toomer House
Contributors:John C. Stout, architect and builderDates:1899
Location:Wilmington, New Hanover CountyStreet Address:S. Front St. between Nun St. and Church St., Wilmington, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Residential
William R. Long House
Contributors:John C. Stout, architectDates:1921
Location:Smithfield, Johnston CountyStreet Address:216 N. 2nd St., Smithfield, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Residential
Images Published In:Catherine W. Bishir and Michael T. Southern, A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Eastern North Carolina (1996).
Note:The relatively small, 1-story house has remarkable presence because of Stout’s treatment of neoclassical components including the columned porch.
Williams-Holladay House
Contributors:Fore and Foster, millwork suppliers; R. H. Grant, plumber; Wm. W. Holladay, designer; C. C. Parker, painter; James F. Post, architect; Henry D. Sampson, builder; John C. Stout, builderDates:1889-1890
Location:Wilmington, New Hanover CountyStreet Address:117 S 4th St., Wilmington, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Residential
Note:According to the local historical marker on the house, the Queen Anne style Williams-Holladay House of 1889-1890 was built for George W. Williams for his daughter, Maggie M. Holladay; her husband William W. Holladay, a native of Richmond, Va., designed the elevations of the house. Mrs. Holladay died before the house was completed.
YMCA
Contributors:Variant Name(s):Brunswick Hotel; O’Berry Hotel
Dates:1891
Location:Wilmington, New Hanover CountyStreet Address:301-305 N. Front St., Wilmington, NC
Status:No longer standing
Type:Recreational
Images Published In:Susan Taylor Block, Cape Fear Lost (1999).
Beverly Tetterton, Wilmington: Lost But Not Forgotten (2005).Note:The 1891 Y. M. C. A. was later used as the O’Berry Hotel and the Brunswick Hotel. Its purpose was supplanted when a “new” Y was completed in 1913. Both buildings have been destroyed.
Z.W. Whitehead House
Contributors:Henry E. Bonitz, architect; John C. Stout, contractorDates:1899
Location:Wilmington, New Hanover CountyStreet Address:211 S 2nd St., Wilmington, NC
Status:Standing
Type:Residential
Images Published In:Historic Wilmington Foundation, http://www.historicwilmington.org.