The Glasgow Hicks House
Written by Corinne Gregson
Original Plaque Text:
Glasgow Hicks House
1928
William Draper Brinckloe, Architect
J.T. Ritter, Builder
English cottage style house built for Glasgow Hicks (1893-1957), insurance agency owner and elder of the First Presbyterian Church; and wife, Helen Russell (1899-1979), native of Spartanburg, SC. The dwelling was adapted from an “Ann Hathaway Home” plan published in House and Garden magazine. Remained in family for forty-eight years.
The Glasgow Hicks house is located at 410 N. 15th Street in Wilmington, North Carolina, at the entrance to Oakdale Cemetery. It is in the English cottage style, which, according to S. Carol Gunter in Carolina Heights, “was very popular during this period.”[1] An English Cottage house (sometimes called Cottage Revival) typically features architectural elements such as arched doorways, large chimneys, and steep roofs, and is largely a blend of craftsman-style and English Tudor styles. Additionally, a key element of an English Cottage structure is an asymmetrical design.[2] The Glasgow Hicks house is a unique example of an English Cottage because it features an archway in the roofline, but it is located over the window and not over the doorway. The house does not have a chimney but does feature a steep roof and an asymmetrical design.
The Glasgow Hicks house was adapted from the “Anne Hathaway Home” house plan published in the House and Garden magazine. The magazine describes this house plan as “inspired by the memories of Stratford-on-Avon, but built in modern manner.”[3] The house plan features a main floor bedroom and half bathroom along with two bedrooms and a full bathroom upstairs. The Anne Hathaway house plan was designed by William Draper Brinckloe, who was coincidentally from Wilmington, Delaware. Brinckloe (also sometimes listed as “Brinckle”) was born in 1872 and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with an architectural degree in 1895. He primarily worked in Wilmington, DE, and Easton, MD. He published multiple books on architecture and brochures on fire prevention, the most popular of his books being The Small Home: How to Plan and Build It, published in 1924.[4]
The Glasgow Hicks house is in the Carolina Heights Historic District, which is comprised of Carolina Heights and Winoca Terrace neighborhoods and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.[5] The district includes 421 buildings and approximately eighty acres. The registration form for the Carolina Heights Historic District to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places states that “The neighborhoods of Carolina Heights and Winoca Terrace, combined to form the Carolina Heights Historic District, are typical early twentieth-century streetcar suburbs.”[6] Both neighborhoods had access to a direct trolley line operated by the Tidewater Power Company that ran from the downtown waterfront along Princess Street to Seventeenth Street.[7] Thus, the period of significance for the district is 1908-1939, when the development in the Carolina Heights neighborhood began to the year that the streetcar ceased to operate in the neighborhood, which is also when development in both neighborhoods ceased.[8]
The Carolina Heights neighborhood was the vision of Mary Bridgers who founded the Christian Science faith in Wilmington. Bridgers sought to create “a suitable environment for the future Christian Science Church” and built the First Christian Church, Scientist in 1907, located at the corner of 17th and Market Streets, within the Carolina Heights neighborhood.[9] The original building is no longer standing, but the new First Church of Christ, Scientist structure was built in 1928 and sits on the corner of Chestnut and North Seventeenth Streets, and is almost identical to the original 1907 structure. The Glasgow Hicks house, however, is located in the Winoca Terrace neighborhood, which sits adjacent to Carolina Heights. Winoca Terrace was the vision of Thomas H. Wright and was named by eleven-year-old Mollie Beach as an acronym combining the first two letters of “Wilmington” and “North Carolina.”[10] According to the Carolina Heights Historic District registration form, both neighborhoods at the time of their development carried restrictions and covenants such as “no dwelling was to be erected upon the premises to cost less than (between $1500 to $4500, this figure varied from deed to deed)” and “the property was not to be sold, rented, or any other way conveyed to persons of African descent.”[11]
Glasgow Hicks and his wife, Helen Fayssoux Russell Hicks, who were both white, paid to have their “Anne Hathaway” house built in 1928, after purchasing the land in 1927.[12] Glasgow Hicks was born Lewis Glasgow Hicks on October 31st, 1893, in Wilmington, NC. Hicks served in the army between 1917 and 1918, serving overseas for World War I. After returning to the United States, Hicks attended Davidson College and then returned to his hometown of Wilmington to work in the insurance business. According to the Wilmington City Directory and census records, he worked for multiple insurance companies over the years including General Insurance Home Savings and Dependable Insurance, and eventually founded the Glasgow Hicks Insurance Company in 1924.[13] Glasgow Hicks Insurance Company was bought out by Oswald Trippe and Co., a Florida-based company, in 2008, and now exists under the name Aquesta Insurance Services with many of Hicks’ descendants continuing to work in the business.[14]
Glasgow Hicks died on November 14th, 1957 from lymphatic cancer, leaving behind his wife and four children, Helen Jr., Glasgow Jr., John, and Sallie Spears.[15] Prior to his death, Glasgow Hicks was a prominent member of the Wilmington community. He was an elder at the First Presbyterian Church located on South Third Street, and was also a member of the Carolina Yacht Club, Cape Fear Country Club, and the YMCA. Glasgow’s wife, Helen, was equally as active in her community. Helen was originally from Spartanburg, South Carolina and moved to Wilmington as the youth director of First Presbyterian Church. She also served on the board of directors of the YMCA. After Glasgow’s death, Helen stayed at 410 N. 15th Street until she sold it in 1974 to her four children for ten dollars total. Her sons Glasgow Hicks, Jr. and John Hicks then sold the house in 1979 to John Crossley for sixty thousand dollars.[16] Helen died in December that same year at the Cornelia Nixon Davis Nursing Home. Glasgow and Helen Hicks are buried beside each other in Oakdale Cemetery, the entrance of which is located directly next to 410 N. 15th Street.
[1] S. Carol Gunter, Carolina Heights: The Preservation of an Urban Neighborhood in Wilmington, North Carolina (Wilmington, NC: The Planning Department of the City of Wilmington, 1982), 38.
[2] Dianne Kett, “The Defining Features of Cottage-Style Homes,” DK Studio, August 21, 2022, https://www.studiodk.com/blog//cottage-style-homes-and-architecture.
[3] Gunter, Carolina Heights, 38.
[4] Glasgow Hicks House Plaque Application, October 2010, Port City Architecture Collection, New Hanover County Public Library Digital Collections, Wilmington, NC. https://cdm16072.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15169coll2/id/2060/rec/278
[5] Beth Keane, “National Register of Historic Places Registration Form” (Wilmington, NC: National Park Service, United States Department of the Interior, February 11, 1999). https://files.nc.gov/ncdcr/nr/NH1482.pdf
[6] Keane, “National Register of Historic Places Registration Form,” 163.
[7] Keane, “National Register of Historic Places Registration Form,” 150.
[8] Keane, “National Register of Historic Places Registration Form,” 148.
[9] Keane, “National Register of Historic Places Registration Form,” 6.
[10] Keane, “National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, 154.
[11] Keane, “National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, 151.
[12] Glasgow Hicks House Plaque Application, Port City Architecture Collection.
[13] John Staton, “Electric Cars in Wilmington NC Now and in the 1920s,” StarNews Online, August 12, 2023, https://www.starnewsonline.com/story/lifestyle/2023/08/12/electric-cars-in-wilmington-nc-now-and-in-the-1920s/70505424007/.
[14] Keith Larsen, “Glasgow Hicks Announces Changes,” WilmingtonBiz, October 1, 2013, https://www.wilmingtonbiz.com/more_news/2013/10/01/glasgow_hicks_announces_changes/5905.
[15] Glasgow Hicks House Plaque Application, Port City Architecture Collection.
[16] Glasgow Hicks House Plaque Application, Port City Architecture Collection.
