Maxwell Chambers House

Maxwell Chambers House
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district Contributing property
Maxwell Chambers House. Ca. 1819. Federal. Salisbury, NC. West Square Local Historic District.
Show map of North Carolina Show map of the United States
Location	116 S. Jackson St., Salisbury, North Carolina
Coordinates	35°40′09″N80°28′20″W / 35.66917°N 80.47222°W / 35.66917; -80.47222
Area	0.5 acres (0.20 ha)
Built	c. 1814 (1814)-1819
Built by	Stirewalt, Jacob
Architectural style	Federal
NRHP reference No.	72000992 [1]
Added to NRHP	January 20, 1972

Maxwell Chambers House (also called Utzman-Chambers House ^[2] ) is a historic home located at Salisbury, Rowan County, North Carolina. It was built between 1814 and 1819, and is a two-story, three-bay, Federal-style frame townhouse. It has three interior end chimneys and a one-story full-width shed roofed front porch with Doric order columns. ^[3]

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. ^[1] It is located in the Salisbury Historic District.

Cabinetmaker Lewis Utzman bought the site in 1814 from Charles Fisher for $100 and sold it to Judge James Martin for $1026 in 1819. It is believed the house was built for Utzman between these two dates, possibly by Jacob Utzman, who may have been a relative. ^[4]

The house became the Rowan County museum in the years 1953 to 1979 ^[5] and was used for that purpose until the museum moved to the former courthouse in 2001. ^[6] In August 2025, the Historic Salisbury Foundation said it was moving out of the Salisbury Depot, which was sold to the city, into the Utzman-Chambers House. ^[5]

Maxwell Chambers

It was the home of Maxwell Chambers (1780-1855), a slave owner, planter and manufacturer in Salisbury. ^[7] He was also a representative from the Salisbury District in the North Carolina House of Commons in 1779, 1789, and 1790. ^[8]

References

1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
2. "Rowan Museum Inc" . Retrieved July 13, 2021.
3. John B. Wells, III (June 1971). "Maxwell Chambers House" (pdf). National Register of Historic Places - Nomination and Inventory. North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office. Retrieved February 1, 2015.
4. David Ford Hood (2000). The Architecture of Rowan County. Historic Salisbury Foundation. p. 49.
5. Sullivan, Robert (August 26, 2025). "Historic Salisbury Foundation moving offices to Utzman-Chambers House". Salisbury Post. Retrieved August 26, 2025.
6. Blankenship, Carl (July 11, 2021). "Rowan Museum kicks off summer series with historical toys". Salisbury Post. Retrieved July 13, 2021.
7. Wineka, Mark (July 21, 2015). "'They stopped in Oberlin': Freed slaves from Salisbury made a new life in progressive Ohio village". Salisbury Post. Retrieved April 7, 2020.
8. James S. Brawley (1979). "Maxwell Chambers". NCPedia. Retrieved April 18, 2019.