Piedmont Historic Homes

Update, June 12, 2023: Demolition is under way.

Correction, June 13, 2023: The house wasn’t designated as a landmark by Guilford County. That reference has been removed.

The City of Gibsonville has issued a demolition permit for the Joseph Bason Whitsett House, an 1883 mansion built by the patriarch of the nearby town that bears the family’s name. The Whitsett House is on the north side of U.S. 70 just east of N.C. 61; the address is 7241 Burlington Road. It’s easily recognizable by the cellar built into a hill at the front of the property.

The property was bought in January by Ardmore Gibsonville LLC, a unit of Ardmore Residential of Greensboro. The Business Journal (paywall) reports the company plans to build 335 apartments on the site. A Gibsonville city official confirmed today that a demolition permit has been issued for the house.

The house was built by Joseph Bason Whitsett (1835-1917). In 1863, he married Mary Lusetta Foust (1845-1938), whose family owned grist mills and were major landowners in the area.

Their son, William Thornton Whitsett (1866-1934), was a renowned educator. In 1888, he founded the Whitsett Institute, a private high school. He operated it until it was destroyed by a fire in 1918. He served on the Guilford County Board of Education for 21 years and as a trustee of the University of North Carolina for 22 years.

William also was a locally prominent literary figure and historian. The Whitsett Institute published a book of his poems, Saber and Song, in 1917 (now available in hardcover, paperback and Kindle).

The Whitsett House is the second historic home in Guilford County sold recently for demolition. Developer John Lomax bought the Kimrey-Haworth House in 2022 after it was rezoned for a medical office building to be built on its site. The house, at 5307 W. Friendly Avenue, is on the National Register of Historic Places.