CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — The Catawba Lands Conservancy announced a conservation effort involving a western Mecklenburg County farmhouse.

Property owners Missy Eppes and Jake Armour donated the conservation easement recently. The area sits off Moores Chapel Road between the U.S. Whitewater Center and the Iswa Nature Preserve.

“We feel that protecting wild lands and historic properties like ours is one of the greatest services a family can do for their community,” the owners said in a statement. “We really hope our conservation will inspire our neighbors throughout the Northwest Community to do the same!”

The effort will also get support from the North Carolina Land and Water Fund mini-grant program, which funds the transaction expenses.

Catawba Lands Conservancy officials say the 11-acre tract includes a Reedy Creek tributary stream and forest area in addition to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission-designated Thomas T. Sandifer farmhouse. The Sandifer Wilson Conservation Easement was once part of a 246-acre farm that extended to the Catawba River, where many early farms in Mecklenburg County existed.

The CLC said the 1850s-built house is one of the few remaining antebellum houses constructed along the Catawba River and serves as a typical example of the architectural style within the region during that period.

According to a press release, the Conservancy holds the conservation easement on the entire property. The landowners are working with Preserve Mecklenburg to protect the farmhouse from demolition through a preservation easement.