1600 Patton Avenue

Built in 1959. First owner-occupants were Rev. Calvin M. Young, Jr. and spouse Margaretta R. Young. Rev. Young was one of McCrorey Heights’ many Presbyterian ministers, but unusual in the fact that he did not work in Charlotte but rather commuted to Gastonia, where he led that city’s main African American Presbyterian congregation for a quarter century.  His wife Margaretta taught at Highland High in Gastonia and West Charlotte High near McCrorey Heights.

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Calvin M. Young, Jr., (3.29.1908 – 2.8.2007) was born in Abbeville, South Carolina, where his father was a Presbyterian minister and educator who would cap his career as leader of the Catawba Synod. When Calvin, Jr. was born, the Rev. Young, Sr., had just started work as president of Harbison Agricultural College. He courageously took the job as the small Presbyterian school struggled against a series of racially motivated arsons which killed three students and eventually drove it from Abbeville to Irmo, S.C. (the campus is today part of Midlands Technical College).

The son followed in his father’s footsteps in the Presbyterian church. Calvin, Jr., graduated from South Carolina State College in Orangeburg then came to Charlotte to attend the Theological Seminary at Johnson C. Smith University.

Third Street Presbyterian Church in Gastonia, about twenty-five miles west of Charlotte, called him as its minister in 1947.  His long tenure there included constructing a new sanctuary on a spacious suburban campus. He also took regional and national leadership roles in the United Presbyterian Church, including Moderator of the Catawba Presbytery and Commissioner to the General Assembly.  He served until his retirement in 1973.

Calvin married Margaretta Reece Young (8.3.1912 – 8.29.1999) in 1933 “and they remained devoted to each other for sixty-six years,” his funeral program noted. Margaretta had grown up in Anderson, South Carolina, then went off to Knoxville College in Tennessee to earn a B.S. in Science and Mathematics (Class of 1933). As a minister’s wife, she took an active organizational role at Third Street Presbyterian. In addition she taught at Highland School in Gastonia, then joined the faculty at West Charlotte High. The couple raised four children: Calvin M. III, Christine, Harry and Morris.

The Youngs loved their connections to Charlotte, building this house in 1959 while commuting to Gastonia, then when Rev. Young retired they focused their lives here. Mrs. Young belonged to the Charlotte Chapter of NAACP and the McCrorey Heights neighborhood association, among other groups.

Mrs. Young passed away in 1999. In 2002 Rev. Young “moved to Baltimore to be near his devoted daughter Christine,” noted his funeral program. “He continued to be faithful to his beliefs, loved to sing old spirituals, and enjoyed reciting poetry.” Asked by his daughter how he wanted to be remembered, “he responded ‘that I made a difference in the lives of people.'” Rev. Calvin M. Young, Jr., died in 2007 at age 98.