The E.Y. Webb House is a fine example of Colonial Revival residential architecture Photo courtesy of Uptown Shelby Association

The E.Y. Webb House is an example of the Colonial Revival residences popular in Shelby and throughout the county in the early 20th century. The house was built from 1911 to 1916 for Edwin Yates Webb, a member of the Shelby Dynasty. Featured in the 1916 edition of the Cleveland Star Biographical and Trade Edition, the two-and-one-half-story frame residence has a tall-hipped roof accented by a dormer window with a Palladian motif. The house also incorporates some Queen Anne elements--notably its projecting bays and high profile rooflines.

E.Y. Webb, part of the Shelby Dynasty, served in the N.C. Assembly and the U.S. Congress Photo courtesy of Uptown Shelby Association

E.Y. Webb was born in 1875. Both he and his brother James L. Webb lived on prestigious Washington Street and were attorneys practicing law out of the Cleveland County Courthouse in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Their grandfather had been the first pastor at the First Baptist Church. E.Y. Webb served in the North Carolina General Assembly and as a United States congressman (1903-1919) during which time he introduced a bill chartering the Boy Scouts of America, pioneered legislation governing purer food and drugs and helped draft the 18th Amendment, which established the era of Prohibition. Shortly after he built his house, Webb became a Federal judge of North Carolina's western district court in 1919. He continued to serve on this court, and live here on Washington Street, until his death in 1954. His widow, Alice Pender Taylor Webb, lived in the house until she died on March 28, 1993.

The E.Y. Webb House is located at 331 S. Washington St. in the Central Shelby Historic District. It is now a real estate office, open during normal business hours.