With the exception of Fairview and Caldwell Lanes, the primary streets and roads throughout the neighborhood are named after Southern authors and writers. The narrow “byways” are all named for local people who were in the chain of title for property purchased for the New Neighborhood.
Wallace and Mary Gamble were the brother and sister that lived in the white duplex house at 857 Concord Road. Neither Wallace nor Mary ever married and Wallace maintained a large garden where the townhome building in which Norm Reid now lives was built. When Mary (now deceased) moved to a nursing home, Wallace acquired the small house across the street, leaving the duplex vacant. He sold the two acres and the house to St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, who then swapped that property with Doug Boone (Neighborhood Founder) for the 6.25 acres that the church now occupies. Doug Boone used the Gamble house for his office from 1999 until last 2003.
The Gamble house was originally the Patterson house and is mentioned in Mary Beaty’s book, Davidson: A History of the Town from 1835 until 1937. Wallace built a new residence, only keeping a small portion of the Patterson house (the portion that projects to the rear) in the early 80s. During the 80s and early 90s, Wallace and Mary’s house was distinctively different with large solar collector panels on the front roof. These were removed before being acquired by the church.
There is an amusing story about Doug Boone’s purchase of the Gamble house. When Doug approached Wallace about purchasing the property, the church also approached Wallace about buying the land at the same time. Wallace said, half joking, that he sold to the church to avoid making the members mad and to possibly gain some points for getting into heaven. To reinforce his point, he went into the next room to retrieve a card he had received from a monastery in South America. The card stated that as a result of a donation made by a friend of his, the monastery would say Mass in his name for his lifetime. Although Wallace had Presbyterian and Episcopal affiliations, he seemed to place some value in the possible benefits of monks saying Mass for him.