2009 Patton Avenue
Built in 1960-61 for schoolteacher Ira Brewer, Jr., and his wife Arcasia Brewer.
Mr. Brewer, a native of Cabarrus County about an hour northeast of Charlotte, graduated from North Carolina A & T University in 1947. He taught art at Unity High School in Statesville, N.C., during the late 1940s before moving to Charlotte. He was an art teacher in Charlotte’s public schools for thirty-four years.
Like many of his McCrorey Heights neighbors, Ira Brewer took pride in social and civic involvement. He was active in Omega Psi Phi fraternity, the NC A&T Alumni Association, and in retirement worked part-time for Charlotte Mecklenburg’s Park & Recreation Department. In 1976 he founded Los Bravos, a non-profit organization of fifteen African American men from Mecklenburg and Gaston counties who met regularly to work for charitable causes, a partner organization of the Charlotte chapter of the women’s group Las Amigas, Inc. Los Bravos continued its work well after Mr. Brewer’s death, still active at this writing in 2017. Its annual Sweethearts Ball each February and other activities had by then raised over $100,000 for more than 20 beneficiaries during 40 years.
Las Amigas, the sister organization of Los Bravos, grew from its 1957 Charlotte founding to become a multi-state service organization. When the group donated health supplies to Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools in 2017, a press release read: “Las Amigas, Incorporated is a national, public service women’s organization founded by two dynamic ladies, the late Mrs. Dora R. Mason and the late Mrs. Mary Q. Moore, on February 5, 1957 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Today the organization has a total of 22 chapters in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, DC and Pennsylvania.”
Ira Brewer Jr. died in 2000. His wife Arcasia D. Brewer passed away on January 5, 2017.
![Patton-2009-b-web Patton-2009-b-web](https://mccrorey.historysouth.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Patton-2009-b-web.jpg)
Architecture
Ranch house, 1-story in tan brick. There is a gable roof with a brick center chimney. All three front windows and one west end window are large, wide “picture windows.”
Building permits
Patton-2005-permit
Date issued: May 18, 1960
Owner: Ira Brewer, Jr.
Contractor: Ira Brewer, Jr.
Estimated cost:
Other permit info: to build residence
Patton-2005-permit-a
Date issued: July 8, 1960
Owner: Ira Brewer
Contractor: Medlins Electric Service
Estimated cost:
Other permit info: saw service
Note: Building permits were issued prior to when house numbers were finalized. While the permits list 2005 Patton, current house number is 2009 Patton.
Building permit files, Robinson-Spangler Carolina Room, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.
First appeared in city directory
1965 – Ira Brewer, Jr. & Arcasia
He: Teacher, Irwin Avenue Jr High School
She: No oc listed
City directory collection, Robinson-Spangler Carolina Room, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.
Resources
Brewer, Arcasia D., death notice in the Charlotte Observer, January 12, 2017. On-line at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/charlotte/obituary.aspx?pid=183548555
Brewer, Ira, Jr., obituary on the GenealogyBuff.com website. On-line at: http://www.genealogybuff.com/nc/gaston/webbbs_config.pl/noframes/read/247
“Las Amigas H.E.A.L.S.” on the CMS website of Westerly Hills School. On-line at: http://schools.cms.k12.nc.us/westerlyhillsES/Pages/WesterlyHillsintheNews.aspx
Los Bravos website. On-line at: http://www.losbravoscharlotte.org/our-history/
“Unity High has 1948 Graduating Class of Thirty,” Statesville Landmark,May 27, 1948. On-line at: https://www.newspapers.com/image/3988621/