Beck House

Beck House, ca. 1922

James M. and Mable McKenzie Hill built this house in the early 1920s, but it takes its name from its longest occupants, Ralph and Eula Beck.

James M. Hill was the son of Dr. L. H. and Minerva Hill and had grown up in a locally privileged and influential family. In 1900, he was 19, living at home, and working as a sales clerk. By 1910, he had become the area’s first rural mail carrier, making him a trusted and well-known resident who was described in the Danbury Reporter on several occasions as “well liked” and “affable.”[1]

In 1918, at the age of 37, he married 21-year-old Mabel McKenzie, who also lived on Main Street in Germanton. By the time of the 1920 census, the couple was living next door or close to Mabel’s parents, L.M. and Carrie McKenzie, and in 1921, James and Mabel purchased a one-acre lot on Main Street. They sold half of that lot to Mabel’s parents and each family built a house on their half-acre. (See McGee House) [2]

The Danbury Reporter noted several parties and gatherings hosted by J.M. and Mabel Hill in 1923 and 1924, and Mabel’s parents had completed their house in 1922, so it is likely J.M. and Mabel finished this house in the early 1920s. In 1926, the Hills used this house a collateral for a loan, which may have signaled financial trouble for them because foreclosure proceedings started in 1928 and in 1931, the Commissioner of the Bank of North Carolina took possession of the house, selling it at auction in 1935.[3]

The highest bidder was Germanton native, Ralph T. Beck and his wife, Eula Grubb Beck. The couple had married in 1923 and were living with Ralph’s parents by 1930. Mrs. Beck hailed from Davidson County and she was a school teacher. Ralph Beck was a Germanton native, whose father was the first registered pharmacist in Stokes County and only the thirty-third registered pharmacist in North Carolina. Ralph served as Germanton’s post-master for nearly thirty years, and he was known for writing letters for others, listening to neighbor’s woes, and writing letters to Germanton men serving in the military. His wife described his work at the post office as “his true vocation.”[4]

Mr. and Mrs. Beck spent the remainder of their lives here. Ralph died January 1978, and Eula died in the spring of 1987.[5]

The house is a one-story bungalow with both Colonial Revival and Craftsman elements. Its simple Tuscan columns reference popular Colonial Revival tastes while the six-over-one sash windows are Craftsman characteristics. The house, and in particular the portico, are slightly awkward in their proportions, suggesting the design is based on a local builder’s interpretation of a plan, rather than construction executed directly from a plan. A North Carolina company that produced many popular plan books, and continues doing so today, is Standard Homes, and the Beck House appears to be based on Standard Home’s Thorndyke plan. 

A large outbuilding behind the house contains a garage and storage area that may have been a chicken house at one time, given its similarities to the chicken houses at the Styers House. 

Standard Homes' Thorndyke, accessed via Antique Homes:
http://www.antiquehome.org/House-Plans/1926-Standard-M/Thorndyke.htm

building on the site of the Beck House: nine-over-nine or nine-over-six sash windows, asymmetrical facade, boxed eaves, and flush gable ends suggest an early 19th century construction date
photo copied from The Heritage of Stokes County

 Sarah Woodard David, 2016

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[1] U. S. Census, 1900 and 1910, accessed via ancestry.com, and Danbury Reporter, August 14, 1912, page 1, and other Danbury Reporter clippings.

[2] North Carolina marriage records, accessed via ancestry.com; U. S. Census, 1920, accessed via ancestry.com; and H. H. Riddle to James M. Hill, Stokes County Deed Book 70, page 41, August 20, 1921.

[3] Danbury Reporter clippings accessed via newspapers.com; James M. and Mabel Hill to N. O. Petree, Stokes County Deed Book 76, page 223; James M. and Mabel Hill to N. O. Petree, Stokes County Deed Book 78, page 126, June 6, 1928; and Gurney P. Hood (Commissioner of Banks) to Eula Grubb Beck and Ralph T. Beck, Stokes County Deed Book 91, page 18, May 20, 1935.

[4] United States Census Records, 1930 and 1940, accessed via ancestry.com, and “R.T. Beck and Son,” in John R. Woodard, Jr., ed., The Heritage of Stokes County (Winston-Salem: Hunter Publishing Co., 1981), 184.

[5] Grubb Family Cemetery, Davidson County, accessed via findagrave.com.