Groundbreaking surgeon’s home nears landmark status

TROY HULL | THE CHARLOTTE POST

Linda Comer and Chuck Assenco sit in their home in Hyde Park Estates in west Charlotte. The home, built in 1962 by surgeon C.W. Williams, has been nominated for historic landmark designation by the city of Charlotte.

Dr. C.W. Williams’ Hyde Park Estates home is again a showplace.

It’s also moving toward historic status.

Charlotte City Council will host an Aug. 25 public hearing on designating the split-level ranch home on Crestwood Drive as a historic landmark. Williams (1925-1982), a surgeon who in 1962 became the first Black doctor on staff at Charlotte Memorial Hospital – now Carolinas Medical Center – was also a pioneer in the city’s medical and business communities. 

In addition to breaking the color barrier for Black physicians, he launched a health center in 1981 that still bears his name and co-developed East Independence Plaza, the first Black-owned professional building in Uptown. Williams was a partner in developing Hyde Park, a suburban enclave for upper middle class Black people off Beatties Ford Road. His home, built in 1962 on a 1-acre spread, has been owned by Chuck Assenco and Linda Comer since 2006.

“We’re really excited about it,” said Assenco, a Marine Corps veteran and retired sheriff’s deputy. “We didn’t have to even think about it because we were fond of Dr. Williams and what he had done in his lifetime, and we wanted to make sure that his family would also be very excited and pleased with what we were doing at the time, with a lot of work. But we enjoyed fixing it up every single day that we worked on this house.”

When Assenco and Comer moved to Charlotte from Kalamazoo, Michigan, they were retirees migrating for warm weather and a community to match.

“We wanted to get out of the snow and the cold and move south,” said Comer, a retired teacher and school administrator. “And Chuck asked me about Greensboro, and I said, ‘No, I don’t think I want to live in Greensboro.’ He said, ‘Well, where do you want to live?’ And I said, ‘I think I want to live in Charlotte.’ He said, ‘Well, that's a good compromise.’”

Next was finding a home. The couple visited neighborhoods across the city before spotting Hyde Park. The didn’t buy in immediately but returned when the Williams house went on the market.

“The Realtor called us and said, ‘there's a house that I think is going to go up for sale, and I think you'll like it, and I'll give you a call,” Comer said. “I had to go back to Michigan, but Chuck stayed down here, and he got the call about the house. He came in and looked at it first, and called me and said, ‘I need you to come down here and look at this house, I think we might like it.’”

The Williams house had curb appeal but needed major rehabilitation, Assenco and Comer recall. The interior from flooring to ceiling was faded and outdated; even the in-ground pool that was the centerpiece of gatherings a half-century earlier was in disrepair and overgrown. 

Remaking the space required initiative and sweat equity, but Assenco was intrigued.

TROY HULL | THE CHARLOTTE POST

Chuck Assenco and Linda Comer stand in the yard of their home in Hyde Park Estates. The home built by surgeon C.W. Williams in 1962, has been nominated for historic landmark status. Williams, the first Black doctor to desegregate Charlotte Memorial Hospital’s staff, was co-developer of Hyde Park, a neighborhood for upper middle class Black people.

“I was so excited about this house the first time I looked at it from the outside,” he said. “When I came inside, I was really disappointed because it was in pretty rough shape, but I kept telling myself we can do this. We never had a house this big, a property this large where we came from. But I was so excited about it, I was ready to buy it on sight.”

Upgrading the interior was a long-term process to create a sense of place. The first task was removing the floor-to-ceiling mirrors, then installation of hardwood flooring. 

“As we started to live in it and we knew we were going to have it for a while, Chuck would tell me, ‘Linda, you’ve got to be patient. It’s going to take a while for us to make the house into what we want,” Comer recalled. “Patience was the key word for me, because I can be an impatient person.“

Assenco went to work on upgrades, with the help of contractors where necessary. Big windows, African American art and granite countertops were in. Out went clutter and relics, even the exterior pink and purple paint job.

“We began to talk about what we really wanted,” Comer said. “How can we make this house what we want so that we can feel good in it as well? The kitchen was one of the first things the home had, like a breakfast nook, and then the cooking area, and so Chuck, he had great skills at that point. 

“I said one day, ‘can you just get rid of this cabinet? It's out and I can't see to do what I need to do.’ And he said, ‘Sure, I can take it down. You have to move all the things out, though.’ So, I was taking everything out, and before I knew it, he had taken that down, which opened up that space.”

Said Assenco: “I’m a patient person outright, and I just enjoyed every single minute, second, hour, day, month, year, working on this house. It was a dream come true for myself and Linda and our family. I was just in awe of what we were putting together in terms of an old house that was in pretty bad shape when we bought it, and turning it into something that we're really proud of and that the neighborhood is part of.”

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