The most remarkable development last week was the sale of 225 N. Main Street in Kernersville. The house is notable in its own right, but the sale itself is also worth noticing. The house was for sale for almost two years when the owners accepted an offer on September 7. The sale closed four days later — an astonishingly quick end to a surprisingly long process. The sale price was $340,000, down a substantial $125,000, 27 percent, from its original $465,000. The house was sold by its next-door neighbor, the Paul J. Ciener Botanical Garden.
The house was built by Rephelius Byron Kerner (1849-1881), a great-grandson of the town’s namesake, Joseph Kerner. Rephelius was a cousin of Julius Gilmer Korner (1851-1924), aka Reuben Rink, a commercial artist, Bull Durham barn painter and builder of Korner’s Folly.
The Folly and “seven other Kerner/Korner houses – substantial, architecturally significant Greek Revival and Italianate two-story brick houses dating from 1857 to 1889 – face one another across South Main Street. These houses are a testament to the importance of the successive generations of Kerners to the growth of Kernersville in the nineteenth century,” according to the South Main Street Historic District nomination to the National Register.
Rephelius and his wife, Anna Elizabeth Marcella Matthews Kerner (1855-1881), had tragically short lives. He studied at Trinity College and came back to Kernersville to enter the tobacco business. They had three children before his death at age 31; she was pregnant with their fourth when he died. She, too, died just 10 months after him at age 26.
His death inspired a remarkably sorrowful obituary in the Raleigh Christian Advocate: “So much of hope, so much of joy, is fled! So many hearts are desolate, broken, bleeding, and cannot be healed save by the balm of ‘slowly rolling years!’”
The two most interesting new listings were both in Greensboro. Built around 1917, 129 S. Tate Street is a foursquare built on a corner with essentially two front entrances ($510,000, $195/square foot). The property was owned from 1916 to 1947 by William Sylvester Jobe (1868-1936) and Mary Elizabeth Hinshaw Jobe (1869-1947). William had a varied career — co-founder of a milling company, director of the Greensboro Motor Car Company and then 20 years in the machinery business. Mary’s estate sold the house in 1947. More recently, it was the home of Dr. Spoma Jovanovic, prominent UNCG faculty member in communications studies, and Lewis Pitts, a well-known civil rights lawyer.
Not too far away is 208 S. Tremont Street, a period cottage with two front-facing gables ($609,000, $359/square foot). Originally a rental property, the house was bought in 1936 by Frederick William Sarles (1895-1965) and Chloe Belle Sarles (1907-1993). It remained in their family until 1993. Born in Colorado, Fred was a World War I veteran. He worked for Inter-Ocean Casualty for 36 years. Chloe was born in Iowa. She was volunteer with the Red Cross and a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Bookmarkers Club and served as president of the Presbyterian Women at First Presbyterian Church.
Unrecognizable New Listing of the Week: 3281 Skyhaven Drive in Randleman. Built in 1950, its style is … brick. Very, very brick. It has evolved dramatically from its original look:
$1.3 million and it’s yours — 2,700 square feet on almost 5 acres with “multiple large buildings,” including a 10-car garage/workshop, which is undoubtedly the Garage of the Week.
Piedmont Historic Homes 