The Joseph Suttle House is also known as Twin Chimneys Photo courtesy of Uptown Shelby Association

The Joseph Suttle House is one of the best known ante-bellum residences surviving in Cleveland County, and reflects the growing prosperity of the planter class of ante-bellum society in the western Piedmont of North Carolina. The two-story Federal style dwelling features massive gable-end chimneys, good quality Federal interior woodwork and an ornamental late 19th-century porch--all characteristic of the development of the vernacular Federal architecture style in this region. The Joseph Suttle House, known locally as Twin Chimneys, was built southwest of Shelby sometime between 1820 and 1847, probably for Minor W. Smith. The Smiths moved to the Shelby area around 1817 from Wilmington, North Carolina. In 1853, after Minor Smith and his wife Jane died, the property was sold by the court to one of his heirs, Thomas F. Elliot. Elliot kept the property for a short time and sold it to Joseph Suttle in November of 1854 for $1,500--the same price he had paid.

The Joseph Suttle House is one of the best known ante-bellum houses in Cleveland county Photo courtesy of Uptown Shelby Association

Suttle was one of the area's most prominent advocates of Missionary Baptism and was also active in the effort to prohibit liquor. In 1846 he married Elvira Blanton, daughter of Charles Blanton the first Sheriff of Cleveland County. The 1860 census shows that he improved 100 of his 540 acres and his real estate was valued at $4,400. He grew large amounts of Indian corn, sweet potatoes, wheat and oats, along with a substantial production of butter. Joseph Suttle had four children and when he died on May 26, 1861, he willed the property to his wife with a provision that two-thirds of the property should "be sold and equally distributed among my children at each coming to the age of 21 years and that the remaining third be given to my wife." In 1883 the widow and heirs sold the property (532 5/8 acres) to J.F. Ledbetter for $5,320.62. Ledbetter sold the property to W.P. Shuford in 1891 and Shuford sold the property to William McSwain in 1902. McSwain kept the land until 1906 when he sold it to Joe W. Wesson. By that time the property had been reduced to 128 acres. Wesson owned the house and tract of land until 1943 when he sold it to J.L. Suttle, Jr. and M.A. Spangler. Suttle, a great-grandson of Joseph Suttle, obtained full title to the property in 1951. He passed away in 2000 but his family continues to own the property, which includes the cemetery with the graves of Minor Smith, his wife Jane and Joseph Suttle.

The Joseph Suttle House is located at Twin Chimneys Rd. It is a private residence and not open to the public.