By Emily Ford
eford@salisburypost.com
ENOCHVILLE ó David Murdock’s Rowan County home comes by its strange name honestly.
Murdock named “Pity’s Sake Lodge” in honor of the original farmhouse on the property, called “For Pity’s Sake.”
But how that old farmhouse got its name is another story. Three stories, actually.
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For Pity’s Sake served as the summer home for Charlie Cannon, longtime Kannapolis patriarch and owner of Cannon Mills.
The most common tale has Ruth Cannon exclaiming “for pity’s sake!” when she first saw the dilapidated farmhouse Charlie Cannon gave her in 1940 as a Christmas present.
That’s one explanation. Then in 1971, Salisbury Post columnist Mack McKa reported that Ruth Cannon had invited a group of Concord women to see her newly restored home.
“What are you going to call the place?” they asked.
“The first thing any of you say, as of right now, will be the name,” she replied, according to McKa.
“For pity’s sake,” said one guest, “what a strange way to name such a wonderful place.”
“That is the new name, For Pity’s Sake,” Ruth Cannon announced.
But the oldest account of how the Cannons named their home comes from a 1947 article written by Carl Goerch in The State magazine.
Goerch reported that Ruth Cannon wanted to buy and restore the rundown farmhouse, and she took her husband to see it.
When Charlie Cannon saw the askew shutters, missing clapboards and broken porch steps, he supposedly said, “For pity’s sake.”
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Regardless of who uttered the phrase, For Pity’s Sake had illustrious beginnings.
In 1895, Bolland Stirewalt, the brother of well-known Rowan County cabinetmaker and organ builder Jacob Stirewalt, built the farmhouse overlooking Irish Buffalo Creek. The home had handcarved mantels, double entrance doors and graceful staircases.
In 1940, the Cannons purchased the acreage and house. The working farm provided meat, dairy and produce for years to mill workers.
The Cannons renovated the home and in 1947, held the first community Easter sunrise service there.
Thousands of Kannapolis residents attended the annual services, which ended in 1963.
Two years later, Ruth Cannon died. Charlie Cannon removed the antiques and furnishings and sold For Pity’s Sake to Cannon Mills.
He died in 1971.
The house stood vacant for years, and on Nov. 5, 1975, the Kannapolis Volunteer Fire Department burned it down in a training exercise.
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When Murdock took over Cannon Mills in 1982, he bought all associated real estate, including the farm on Cannon Farm Road.
He built a $1.5 million, 12-bedroom home about 100 yards from the original site of For Pity’s Sake.
While the company officially dubbed it the “Cannon Sales Lodge,” nearly everyone called it “Pity’s Sake.”
The lodge was supposed to increase “sales and marketing abilities,” the Post reported. Potential clients stayed at the lodge, sleeping on Cannon Mills linens and drying off with Cannon Mills towels.
In 1983, the company fought the appearance that the lodge was a lavish, private retreat for Murdock.
“Customers not only see merchandise, they live with it,” a spokesman said.
In 1986, Murdock sold the mill to Fieldcrest Cannon but kept all the real estate, including Pity’s Sake Lodge. His company, Atlantic American Properties, occasionally rented out the lodge for retreats and other functions.
Murdock and his first wife, Gabriele, often celebrated holidays at Pity’s Sake with their sons Justin, David and Eugene.
After the separate deaths of Gabriele, David and Eugene, Murdock went for long periods without visiting Pity’s Sake. Now, he lives there for about one week each month, working on his legacy, the N.C. Research Campus.