The Rural Hill Mansion House was built in 1788 by Major John Davidson and stood as a brick home regarded as the finest country residence in that section of the state. At the time it burned on November 4th, 1886, it was occupied by Mr. John Springs Davidson. A Charlotte Observer article published the next day called the fire one of the most unfortunate ever to occur in Mecklenburg and reflected broad sympathy for the Davidson family's loss of their treasured homestead. Later understanding of the house drew on an 1853 letter by Dr. John M.W. Davidson describing the home and on architectural plans by Louis H. Asbury commissioned by E.L. Baxter Davidson, Esq., whose death in the 1940s came before the project to rebuild the home could begin.