The Reynolds and Hanes families are as emblematic of Winston-Salem as Old Salem or Bethania. The Lewallens came along a bit later and never achieved the same profile, but they, too, built a business and made their brand the industry leader and a household name (in the Southeast, at least).
The Thad and Nell Lewallen House in Buena Vista sold last week for $980,615. It was designed by William Roy Wallace (more here), one of the state’s more prominent architects of the period. It’s a big (4,700 square feet), Georgian mansion with a slate roof and a view of the Forsyth Country Club golf course. Its rooms are elegant and spacious, as is the well-landscaped 1.28-acre lot.
The house was built by Alvis Thad Lewallen (1888-1945) and his wife, Nell Shippey Lewallen (1897-1979). They bought the property in 1943. After Thad’s death, Nell owned it until 1965.
In 1936, Thad was a partner in Bennett-Lewallen, a wholesaler of candy, fountain supplies, over-the-counter drugs, tobacco and other products. That’s when he had the somewhat risky idea of buying the rights to Goody’s Headache Powder from local druggist Martin Goodman. Although Goody’s was created after rival products B.C. and Stanback, Thad turned it into the market leader (and sponsor of Richard Petty).
After Thad’s death at age 57, Nell and, later, their daughter, Ann Lewallen Spencer (1928-2016), ran the company. It was sold to GlaxoSmithKline in 1995 and then to Prestige Brands in 2012. (Click here for more on the company and the headache-powder industry)
William Roy Wallace
William Roy Wallace (1889-1983) learned architecture working for the renowned Philadelphia architect Charles Barton Keen (1868-1931). Wallace worked his way up from office boy to draftsman to partner. In 1909, Keen brought Wallace along when he built Reynolda House. Keen opened a Winston-Salem office in the 1920s and put Wallace in charge. One of their first major projects was the R.J. Reynolds High School and Auditorium.
Among their many Winston-Salem works are the recently sold Thurmond and Lucy Hanes Chatham House (National Register and Forsyth County Historic Landmark) and the Emil and Anna Shaffner House. In the 1940s Wallace remodeled the 1798 Philip and Johanna Hoehns House.
“In 1928 Wallace settled permanently in Winston-Salem, where he established a practice with Harold Macklin and James M. Conrad,” the NCSU Libraries relate. “Like Keen, Wallace and his son William Roy Wallace, Jr., who joined the practice after World War II, continued in a Beaux Arts revivalist tradition that shaped the distinguished architectural heritage of Winston-Salem and other communities.”
349 Pine Valley Road NW, Winston-Salem
The Thad and Nell Lewallen House
- Sold for $980,615 on March 11, 2022 (listed at $1.2 million)
- 5 bedrooms, 3 full bathrooms, 2 half-bathrooms, 4,718 square feet (per county), 1.28 acres
- Price/square foot: $208
- Built in 1946
- Listed November 8, 2021
- Last sale: $285,000, May 1981
- Neighborhood: Buena Vista
- Note: Designed by William Roy Wallace
- The listing shows 5,831 square feet.
- The property’s original address was 410 Westview Drive.
Piedmont Historic Homes 