CityView Magazine

place his father, William Gillies, built with its wide boards made of long leaf heart pine, 14-foot ceilings and porches on front and back. Though the house is now long gone – built where Clarendon House is now – it held the distinction of being the only house in Fayetteville built and lived in continuously by the same family for more than 100 years. It housed family artifacts including the pistol of Ichabod Wetmore used in the War of 1812 and the saber of James An- drew Jackson Bradford, commander of the United States arsenal in Fayetteville and a family friend. Hal Broadfoot Jr., a lawyer, artist and renowned birder, still has that saber. In the depths of his law office downtown, where he carries on the tradition of his father, a respected Fayetteville lawyer, are the beautiful tall wooden doors and mantelpiece pulled from the family home. They are daily reminders of the legend of Col. Broadfoot. Looking back, it sometimes seems as if he were pres- ent for every major Fayetteville decision of his era. He helped save the Market House when the federal government wanted to raze it for a new post office in 1906. He rallied townspeople to the cause on the eve of World War I. He delivered the centennial address at St. John’s Episcopal Church. And would it surprise you that he dined on bear? From the archives of the Fayetteville Observer comes this nugget: “J.D. Jessup of Beaver Dam dropped off ‘souvenirs’ from a bear he had caught, including ‘one of the hams he presented to Col C.W. Broadfoot, who is very fond of bear steak.’” And then there was the tussle over the cow. In 1897, the colonel’s cow wan- dered from the limits of Haymount and into the city, where it was promptly arrested and locked up in the city cow pound. An 1895 law set penalties for cat- tle running at large in the city. City resi- dents were fined $1 while non-residents living within a mile should pay 25 cents. Broadfoot lived on top of Haymount hill nearly a mile from the town boundary so he offered the city a quarter. When the city refused it, the case went to Su- perior Court. Broadfoot won. The city 64 | Food & Wine • 2008 appealed. And finally, in a six-page opinion, Broadfoot won again. It’s fitting then that the chief justice of that court, an old friend, should write a letter of condolence to Broadfoot’s wid- ow in 1919. “A gallant soldier, a Christian gentleman, a noble man and a patriotic citizen has passed to his reward,” Walter Clark wrote. “His departure will leave a vacancy not only by your fireside, but in the hearts of his many friends through- out North Carolina.” There’s not a great-grandchild who hasn’t once wished they had known the colonel. Kip Broadfoot is one of them. He is one of a long line of Charles Broadfoots. His father built the Broadell Homes neighborhood with Charlie Cogdell, hence the name. The subdivi- sion was one of the city’s first middle- class subdivisions that welcomed black families. Charles Broadfoot became a developer, a departure from a long line of lawyers. It was his father (Kip’s grandfather) who served as clerk of Cumberland County Superior Court. Polio left him with a leg brace for life, but it did not hold him back from presiding over much of the court’s legal affairs. His children would recall that he could out walk, run and ride even the most energetic of his offspring. But it’s possible that he was outshined by his wife. Frances Walker Broadfoot may have married into the family, but she certainly carried on the clan’s wicked sense of humor. Kip Broadfoot remembers that his father once visited his grandmother at Highland House nursing home. He wasn’t much of a visitor and so, on a rare stop by his mother’s room, he found a cartoon pasted to the door. It depicted a man sitting in his easy chair, read- ing the newspaper and saying, “Oh my God, Mother died.” Charles and Frances Broadfoot owned a mountain home in Montreat. The Broadfoots, staunch Episcopalians, were practically surrounded by Pres- byterians who flocked to the nearby retreat center. As families walked back from church one Sunday afternoon, some passersby noticed the Broadfoot boys playing cards on the porch. They shouted up to Frances, asking her if she had given the boys permission to play cards on the Lord’s day. Her response, according to Hal Broadfoot Jr., would go down in family lore. “Hell no,” she shouted back, “I made ‘em!” Imagine the stories these cousins swapped. Their patient mothers ferried them from home to school to sports. Kip’s mother Katherine, nicknamed Mouse, was close friends with his Aunt Kate. They once took their boys to visit preparatory schools in Virginia and got snowed in. There was so much snow that Katherine couldn’t see the hotel swim- ming pool. She nearly drove straight into it with Kate inside the car. Today, Kate Broadfoot Holmes Slater is one of the last keepers of the Broad- foot history. She lost her husband, Oli- ver Wendell Holmes Jr., at a young age. His father opened an electrical contract- ing business on Hay Street in 1908. Now, as Holmes Electric celebrates its 100th anniversary, it remains on Hay Street, known for its security systems and gift shop. When Holmes died, Kate was left to raise five small children. But this saga ends with another love story. When her children were grown, Kate married a long-ago sweetheart, John Slater. They moved to New York for his job as vice president of McGraw-Hill Publications. But like many Broadfoots before her, Kate Slater came home. She still meets at least one of her girlhood friends for lunch occasionally, perhaps downtown, not far from where her grandfather, Col. Charles Broadfoot, once practiced law on “Pumpkin Row” and sometimes com- posed poetry for his own sweetheart. And it’s possible, just maybe, that one of his poems might come to mind. Charles Broadfoot was a lawyer Of credit and good name, Who had an office in Pumpkin Row, Where all his clients came. Charles Broadfoot said unto this dear: “Since married we’ve grown old; Yet for our vinegar we’ve had No vessel that would hold On this our Sixteenth wedding day If you will have a mind To untie the bundle I give you, A couple you will find.”CV

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