Captain’s Chair
From left, Brad and Rick Howard of Mooresville co-own Langtree Plantation.
by Lori K. Tate photography by Glenn Roberson
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ick Howard and his son, Brad, are learning a lot about weddings these days. As the co-owners of Langtree Plantation, a new (yet old) wedding/event venue in Mooresville, the Howards know what’s important in creating a successful soiree. They also know the importance of preserving history. Built in 1850, the main house on the property stands surrounded by oak trees just as it did back then. For Rick and Brad, Langtree Plantation is a way of preserving the area’s heritage and giving the people in the Lake Norman community a place where they can make their own history. With the official opening slated for this spring, we recently spoke with Brad and Rick, both Mooresville natives, to learn more about what’s going on at Langtree Plantation.
lake norman currents | February 2015 | www.lncurrents.com
What was going on with this property before you purchased it? Rick: Before we bought it, the house was a private residence. It was built by Dr. Henry Yeoman Mott in 1850. He lived here, and then his son lived here. It was purchased by Carl Malz in the 1970s, and we bought it from him.
How did you come up with the idea to turn the property into an events venue? Rick: I’ve lived here all of my life. He’s [Brad] lived here all of his life. Originally when we started the other Langtree [LangTree Lake Norman], part of the vision for that was
Rick and Brad Howard want you to make memories at Langtree Plantation planning for the future and trying to respect the heritage of the community. This property [Langtree Plantation] was one of the largest land tracts that could be developed, and it had a lot of history with it. We bought it to try to preserve it, and at the time we bought it we had no idea for sure what we were going to do with it. We did a lot of research and looked at a lot of communities outside of here. People started calling wanting to have weddings here. We started to do focus groups and visit places. We thought this would be a great place for events. What will it evolve into? It’s changing every day. We started out with weddings. There was recently a surprise birthday party for a 70-year-old. There have been