Oldest Home in Gaston ~ Hoyle House

Click on the pictures for larger ones, to see the details!


Gaston County’s oldest home — the Hoyle Historic Homestead circa late 1700s — is located right on the Dallas Stanley Highway.

I have passed right on by this house many, many, times over my lifetime. Never realizing the significance of it, regarding our family history..simply amazing!

They had an open house back in September but I did not remember in time to go, but I am marking my calendar for next year.

Peter Hoyle, (father of Michael Hoyle) was part of the 18th Century settling of the North Carolina Piedmont by German and Scot-Irish immigrants traveling the Great Philadelphia Wagon Road south through the Shenandoah Valley then into the Carolinas.

Michael Hoyle married Catherina Margaretha Dellinger, sister to our John Philip Dellinger. Catherina Margaretha Dellinger was my 5th Great Grand Aunt.
She is the one that is buried not three miles from here, in the center of a plowed field of soy beans.

See the January post entitled “Catherina Margaretha Dellinger Hoyle”.

This was homesite was also the site of "Hoylsville”, the first Federal Post Office in present day Gaston County.

In 1738 Pieter Heyl, a miller from Adenbach, Germany, his wife, Catharine, and their children arrived in America on September 11, 1738 on the Robert and Alice, originally settling in northeast Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

The Heyl family, later Anglicized to 'Hoyle', then lived for some time in Frederick, Maryland, but by 1753 had moved to what is now Gaston County, North Carolina, then part of Anson County, North Carolina. Peter Hoyle died prior to January 20, 1761.

The exact date of construction of the house is not known, but various sources date it anywhere from 1750 to 1758. After Peter's and his eldest son Jacob's deaths, which occurred within a year of each other, the land was inherited by Jacob's minor son Martin, who then transferred his interest to his uncle John.



In 1794 the property went to Peter Hoyle's other grandson, Andrew, who became a farmer and entrepreneur. "Rich Andrew", as he was known, may have acquired the property with the house already standing and then improved the dwelling, or he may have built the house and later upgraded it with new finishes in the early years of the 19th century.



Apparently plans are under way to restore the old homeplace. There is a fencing around it now, protecting the old house. I am glad it will be preserved and not simply torn down in the name of 'progress'. We are losing so much of our history as it is.

House is on the right hand side of the road, going toward Stanley, NC. If you reach the Riverside Fish Camp you have passed it!

Check out the website: Hoyle Homestead