Michal-Butt-Brown-Pressly House (1849)
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Follow West Main Street across Government Street and the first house you will come to is the Michal-Butt-Brown-Pressly House.
In 1806 Conrad Michal purchased this lot for $80 and built his house before 1819. In 1825, Conrad Michal, who had moved to South Carolina, sold this lot to his son, John Michal, for $850. In 1841 John Michal was forced to sell his home on West Main Street in order to satisfy the claims of his creditors. The house passed to John Hoke, one of the owners of the early nineteenth-century cotton mill at Laboratory, but after his death in 1845, the property was sold in 1847 to Dr. Zephaniah Butt, a physician. The amount and sophistication of the house's Federal style detailing, along with documentary evidence, suggest that it was probably erected by Conrad Michal in the 1810's. It is possible, however, that it was not built until the 1820's by John Michal. It is likely that Dr. Butt was responsible for the Greek Revival modifications to the house. In 1857, Dr. Butt sold his house and lot four to Martin L. Brown, another physician, for $2,500. According to an 1889 article in the Lincoln Courier, Dr. Butt, who had been one of Lincolnton's most successful physicians, moved to Florida in 1860. A year before his purchase of the property, Dr. Brown married Catherine E. Bost, and the couple had two daughters-Violet and Lily. Although Martin Brown died in 1876, the house has remained in the ownership and occupancy of his descendants. In 1884 Violet Brown married physician John Pressly, but he died seven years later at the age of only thirty-one. Violet Brown Pressly survived until 1922; the Pressly's granddaughter is the current owner of the house.
This house is a contributing building in the West Main Street National Register Historic District.
