There used to be a real working crossroads where NC 150 meets Sherrills Ford Road in Terrell. A cotton gin. A grist mill. Cotton storage buildings. A general store and post office. Homes for the families who ran all of it. Almost none of that is left. What’s still standing just quietly changed hands, and there’s already a demolition permit sitting on file for it.
We’re talking about the T.F. Connor House at 9210 Sherrills Ford Rd. Here’s what we can actually confirm, what we’ve heard but can’t confirm, and why we think this is worth watching closely.
The house itself
The house was built in 1886 for Thomas Franklin Connor, the man local history remembers as “the father of Terrell” and the grandson of antebellum Congressman Henry W. Connor. It was designed by Charles H. Lester, believed to be Catawba County’s earliest known architect, in the Stick style, a Victorian style known for its exposed, decorative wood framing. T.F. Connor is also the man who built the separate Terrell Country Store and post office down the road in 1885, the building most people actually picture when they think “historic Terrell.”
That store didn’t survive. It was demolished in 2020 to clear the site for the Terrell Town Center development. The Connor House is a different building and, as far as we can tell, the last major historic residence still standing from that whole era.
What used to be here
This crossroads was a genuine trade hub in the 1800s and early 1900s: a cotton gin built in 1869, a grist mill, cotton storage buildings, and the Connor store and post office. The Terrell Historic District, covering this same intersection, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986 with 11 contributing buildings. A 2014 Catawba County Hwy 150 corridor study found the number had already fallen to just six: the T.F. Connor House, the Jason Sherrill House, the James Gillin House, the Walter Gabriel House, Rehobeth Methodist Church, and the Rehobeth Methodist Church Cemetery. Three of the original buildings were gone before that count even happened. With the Country Store’s demolition in 2020, the number is smaller still.
The good news: Rehobeth United Methodist Church, built in 1889 and organized before 1791, is still an active congregation today, right up the road at 9297 Sherrills Ford Rd. So the Connor House isn’t the last historic structure left in Terrell, but it may be the last historic home.
What’s happening right now
Here’s what Catawba County’s own property records show. The Connor House changed hands again this summer, now held by an entity called T F Connor House LLC. A demolition permit, number 000075385, was issued back on January 30, 2025, months before that sale closed. The property has changed ownership several times over the past few decades, consistent with a house that’s sat vacant and in need of real investment for a long stretch.
The property also sits inside the footprint of the roughly 10-acre Terrell Town Center development at this same intersection, approved by the county in December 2025. And one detail that matters: the Terrell Historic District isn’t a locally designated landmark, so Catawba County has no legal authority to block a demolition here, the same situation that played out with the Country Store in 2020.
What we’ve heard, but can’t confirm
This is the part where we need your help. A few things have come to us as local rumor, not fact, and we want to be upfront about which is which.
We’ve heard the property was given to an entity planning to preserve or restore it. What the county record actually shows is a standard sale into an LLC, not a donation, so we can’t confirm that version of the story. If you know something different, tell us.
We’ve also heard the house is supposedly haunted. We found nothing to confirm or deny that one either. If you’ve got a story, a memory, or even just something you heard from a grandparent, we want it.
And we’ve heard there used to be an annual event, something like “Terrell Day,” tied to this crossroads. We couldn’t find a trace of it in our research. If that rings a bell for you, or if we’ve got the name wrong, let us know.
Help us get this right
This is exactly the kind of story that only gets told right with the people who actually lived it. Know the real history of the Connor House? Have a photo? Know what “given to an entity to preserve” actually means, or where that idea came from? Ever heard the ghost stories firsthand? Send it our way. We’ll keep updating this piece as we learn more, and we’ll keep watching to see what actually happens to the last historic house standing at one of the oldest crossroads in Catawba County.
Sources: Catawba County GIS property and deed records · Terrell Historic District National Register nomination, NC State Historic Preservation Office · Terrell Historic District, Wikipedia · Rehobeth United Methodist Church