Piedmont Historic Homes

The Walter Thomas House: An 1850 Restoration Project in Caswell County, $149,000

December 24, 2020

One of the happier developments among historic houses recently is that the Walter Thomas House in Leasburg has gone under contract. It’s a great restoration opportunity, and it’s been for sale for a year and a half. Leasburg is somewhat out of the way, 10 miles from Yanceyville or Roxboro.

Some of the work has been done — a restored staircase, new septic system, plumbing, electrical upgrades, new insulation and reinforced chimneys. The metal roof is less than 15 years old. Add in five chandeliers, seven fireplaces (one with a Thomas Day mantel — this is all according to the listing), the columns out front and the upstairs balcony, and you’ve really got something special.

Feature of the Day: A Tudor Front Door

October 19, 2020

Doors can be such interesting features. This is the front door of 245 N. Hawthorne Road in Winston-Salem. Very distinctive shape and construction (wide, too). Just the kind of front door a Tudor Revival should have. The whole house is gorgeous, as its $525,000 price suggests. It went on the market last week, and the owners accepted an offer four days later.

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The H.D. Poindexter Cottage: A National Register Property in Winston-Salem’s West End, $299,900

October 13, 2020

124 West End Boulevard is the smaller half of a two-house entry on the National Register of Historic Places. Winston-Salem’s H.D. Poindexter Houses date back to the 19th century and consist of two adjacent homes, the Poindexter House and the smaller Poindexter Cottage. The cottage was put up for sale last week at $299,900 and almost immediately went under contract.

The houses now stand side-by-side in the West End Historic District, but they started out a few blocks away in a neighborhood that was wiped out by the expansion of Winston-Salem business district in the mid-20th century. Their rescue was an early victory for preservation in the city. By the time the historic district was created, the Poindexter houses already had escaped into its friendly surroundings.

The Ray-Jamerson House: An Affordable 1886 Beauty in Eden

September 27, 2020

Update: The Ray-Jamerson House sold for $217,500 on October 29, 2020.

Maybe it’s time to take another look at Eden. I drove up there recently to visit the Central Leaksville Historic District, particularly to take a drive-by look at 527 Patrick Street. Gorgeous neighborhood, gorgeous house, and amazingly affordable. After an afternoon wandering around town, I came away wondering if the town might be the Triad’s best undiscovered place for affordable historic homes.

County records list 527 Patrick as being built in 1920, but that would be way late for a Queen Anne like this. The historic district’s National Register nomination gives a more likely 1886 date. The house has three bedrooms and three bathrooms in 2,456 square feet. The listing’s pictures show the house to be in very good condition. The lot is 0.57 acre. It’s priced at $219,900, $90 per square foot. That’s a fabulous price compared to what a similar house would cost in, say, one of the historic districts in Greensboro or Winston-Salem.

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New Listing: The Gibson House, An Ice Cream Man’s Mid-Century Modern Mansion in High Point, $775,000

September 4, 2020

Update: The house sold for $801,000, above the asking price by $26,000, on September 25, 2020.

When Sloan and Geneva Gibson built their home in 1955, they were thinking modern all the way. The great room has bi-fold doors with motorized screens, opening the room to the outdoors. It was among the first homes in High Point with heat and air conditioning from an electric heat pump, NCModernist says.

The house merits a mention in The Architecture of High Point North Carolina for, among other things, its landscaping, designed as part of the house to provide privacy, and the concrete, tinted green so it wouldn’t stand out so much.

The Gibson House went on the market this week at $775,000. Even though it’s 65 years old, the listing describes it as “contemporary.” It started out modern, but it’s become timeless.

New Listing: A 1927 Classic in Winston-Salem, Designed by Luther Lashmit, $599,000

September 2, 2020

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418 Oaklawn Avenue, Winston-Salem

The house was designed by Luther Lashmit. Lashmit, a partner in Northrup & O’Brien of Winston-Salem, designed two of the city’s most famous houses, Graylyn for Bowman Gray and the Internationalist classic Merry Acres for R.J. Reynolds Jr. (Merry Acres was donated to Wake Forest University, which, incredibly, demolished it.).

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The Owen Moon Jr. House: Sold for $1.495 Million, Apparently Without Even Trying

August 24, 2020

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It can be quite a feat to sell a million-dollar house. Some of them remain on the market for years. It’s an even neater trick to sell one without even listing it for sale. It happens, but rarely. And the Owen Moon Jr. House in Winston-Salem is a rare one.

The house, at 1077 E. Kent Road in Reynolda Park, sold for $1.495 million on August 6 without being listed. It was built in 1926. The last time it was sold, in 2015, a listing called it an “English Cotswold Cottage.” I don’t know about the Cotswolds, but around here cottages tend to run quite a bit smaller than 5,500 square feet. The ~~cottage~~ mansion has six bedrooms and five and a half bathrooms. It sits on a two-acre lot. The price came out to $262 per square foot, which isn’t so high at all for a house this grand, especially in a neighborhood this grand.

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Boxwood Lodge: An Elegant National Register Mansion-Wedding Venue-B&B near Mocksville, $3.45 million

July 21, 2020

boxwood night.jpg — Photo from https://www.boxwoodestate.com/

There are only four National Register properties for sale in the Piedmont right now (that I know of, at least, plus one under contract), but they represent a wide variety, particularly in size and price. There’s the small and unforgettable Villa Fortuna in Reidsville, just 1,500 square feet and $99,900 (needs some work). And then there’s Boxwood Lodge in Davie County, 9,300 square feet and $3.45 million (needs nothing but your $3.45 million).

Boxwood was built in 1934 and has been a B&B since 1995. The listing says a $5 million renovation was completed in 2007. The house is set on 51 mostly wooded acres near the Yadkin River, It has eight bedrooms, six full bathrooms and two half-baths in 9,304 square feet (according to county records). That comes to a remarkable $371 per square foot. But, then, it’s a remarkable house.

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The Maya Angelou House in Winston-Salem: A Literary Giant’s Modern Mansion, $2.395 Million

July 16, 2020

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Update: The house sold for $2 million on October 7, 2020.

The Maya Angelou House has had a $1 million-plus makeover since she died in 2014, so it’s quite different from what it was when she lived there. But it was her house for 20 years, so it definitely deserves its name. It’s for sale now at $2.395 million.

Maya Angelou became the third owner of the house in 1994. She had come to Winston-Salem in 1981 as the Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest. After her death, the house was bought for $500,000 by Shelley and Daryl Bible. The current listing agent told Triad Business Journal that the couple “wanted to stay true to the essence of the home and its legacy, but it needed a lot of renovation.”

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Hidden Away in Montgomery County: An 1880 Home Way Back in the Woods, $100,000

July 11, 2020

Update: The house sold for $70,000 on January 11, 2021.

There are a couple commonly used real-estate phrases that don’t make much sense if you read them literally. One is “hard to find” (as in, “hard to find brick ranch in 1950s neighborhood”). Do you want a home that’s hard to find? I suppose some people actually do, and if you’re one of them, there’s a house for sale in Montgomery County you should see. If you can find it.

Historic homes for sale in the Piedmont Triad