Back Alley Brawl
The lawsuit that threatened titles and property values in Southern Pines
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By Bill Case
ome stories lead to others. That occurred recently when PineStraw’s creative director, Andie Rose, mentioned that a gentleman who was the subject of an article I was writing “lives in one of those houses in the middle of the block” in Southern Pines. As a relative newcomer to the Sandhills, I had no idea what she meant. Sensing my confusion, Andie told me to follow her to the town’s utility billing office at 180 Southwest Broad Street. Arriving after our short amble from PineStraw’s offices, she pointed to an ancient oversized map hanging in the hallway adjacent to the clerical area where Southern Pines residents pay their water bills. Titled “Map of Vineland [later Southern Pines], Moore Co, N.C.”, the weathered line drawing depicted town founder John T. Patrick’s original 1884 scheme for the layout of the streets, alleys and lots in downtown Southern Pines. My attention was immediately drawn to the unusual and repeating pattern of lines contained within each of the 125 street blocks shown in the drawing. Those lines showed a series of alleys leading to squares in the center of each of the blocks. It was Andie’s understanding that these “center squares” were originally designed as either small parks or horse stable areas for the mutual benefit of each block’s surrounding lot owners, but that over time residential and commercial buildings came to be erected on most of the squares. Most of the alleys depicted on the 1884 map were now similarly obstructed or obliterated altogether by structures, including some of the town’s prominent commercial and public buildings. Apparently John Patrick used the same design configuration for the blocks and streets in Pinebluff, which he also founded. The alleys and squares in that town were likewise covered over with houses and other structures. As a retired attorney, I could not resist posing a couple of legal questions to Andie: (1) Were these alleys and center squares within each block considered public or private property? and (2) assuming they were public, how did structures come to be built on them? “Good questions!” exclaimed our creative director. “You should look into it and write something up!” Unwittingly, I had just talked myself into some exhaustive research that ultimately led to this article. To get started, I spoke with retired Southern Pines real estate attorney Rick Dedmond. When informed of the purpose of my inquiry, he chuckled and remarked, “Take a look at the case of Lee v. Walker. It was tried in Moore County and was appealed up to the North Carolina Supreme Court sometime in the early ’50s. I think it will answer the questions you are raising. The case caused quite a stir in Southern Pines back in the day.” Did it ever! I perused the Southern Pines Library’s mammoth bound volumes of The Pilot to study the local newspaper’s coverage of the dispute. It became clear that Lee v. Walker was an acrimonious and controversial affair filled with lots of backbiting between the litigants. For a time, the case presented the real possibility of an outcome which would mean that the multitude of buildings erected in the alleys and center squares of Southern Pines had no legal right to be placed there, and could even be subject to removal as public nuisances. Coincidentally, the contentious litigation involved the very downtown block
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January 2016P���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills