Page 14 - Robeson Living Spring 2019

Mrs. Annie Caldwell Baker, wife of Dr. Horace Baker, Mrs. Margaret French McLean, widow of former North
Sr., had two great loves that were instilled in her by her Carolina Governor Angus Wilton McLean, in the late
mother, Dovie Carlyle Caldwell: flowers and downtown 1930s desired a place where she could entertain in a more
Lumberton. Mrs. Caldwell establish a sunken garden at casual atmosphere. Her Lumberton home on Chestnut
her home on the corner of Elm Street and Elizabethtown Street known as Duart House was a very formal home. Her
Road. Mrs. Baker continued to nourish the garden, which answer was to build a home on an eight-acre tract along the
was the talk of downtown Lumberton Lumber River that was once part of the National Cotton
Mill property in West Lumberton. She chose German-born
Her own garden was not the only place Mrs. Baker plant- stone mason Christian Meyer, who came to America in
ed and cared for flowers. An article in the April 3, 1939, 1905 and became naturalized in 1929. In October 1939, he
issue of The Robesonian announced that Mrs. Baker and arrived in Lumberton and worked at the St. Frances de Sale
her good friend, Kate Britt Biggs, were to serve as super- Catholic Church building a retaining wall along the Fifth
visors of the riverside beautification project. The project Street side of the property. The wall was concrete and built
established a garden along the banks of the river between to look like logs. It served as a flowerbox. He married Janie
the Fifth Street bridge and the American Legion building. Edmund, daughter of Ellen Tyson and William O. Edmund.
The labor for the project was provided by the Works Prog- He was 50 at the time he married 29-year-old Janie, a wait-
ress Administration, a New Deal program established by ress at Carolina Café. The couple lived with her mother and
President Franklin D. Roosevelt to provide replacement siblings on Old Whiteville Road.
jobs for those out of work due to the Great Depression.
Mrs. Biggs stated, “We want anything from privet hedges Meyer then began work on what has become known as
to petunias.” The gardens served not only as a wonderful “McLean Castle”. The home has the appearance of a Ba-
setting for a picnic, but as a place for those working down- varian mountain home but was constructed completely of
town to get away from their busy work day to sit for a cast concrete. The home was built directly on the edge of
few minutes by the dark waters of the river surrounded by the river bank with windows overlooking not only the dark
beauty. Sadly, nothing of the old garden survives except waters but also out into the gardens of the property. The in-
faded postcards. side of the house carried out the same log design as the out-
side. The partial wall that separated the main living area of
McLean Castle the house featured concrete trees with the appearance that
their upstretched branches were holding up the roof. The
room also featured a large fireplace. Meyer’s design for the
grounds included a maid’s quarters behind the main house
and a gazebo. There were small canals dug throughout the
gardens to let water flow under the oyster shell and con-
crete bridge. He also designed concrete planters that looked
like tree stumps and an old fashioned covered wishing well.

Things were not always good for this German immigrant
as the sentiments around the world turned against Germa-
ny after its invasion of Poland. The July 10, 1940, issue
of The Robesonian reported that rumors that were spread-
. The McLean Castle is literally feet from the dark waters
of the river. ing all over Lumberton about Meyer. They included that
he had been spirited away to Fort Bragg and forced to re-
veal his possession of extensive maps of Lumberton and
Fort Bragg, leading people to think that he was a German
spy and was studying where the area might be vulnerable.
Fort Bragg officials, as well as Meyer’s co-workers, all pro-
claimed the rumors as false.

The McLean family used the castle property for many years
to entertain and Mrs. McLean’s oldest son Wilton actually
lived in the home for a while. Her son, Hector, used the
property to host parties for his employees at the Southern
National Bank before the river side retreat was sold outside
The concrete trees inside the McLean Castle the family. The current owner, John Cox, grew up near the