David Arneke

This Week’s Best: An Intriguing Restoration Project, a French Eclectic Gem and a Glencoe Mill House

September 23, 2025

An intriguing restoration project, a variety of historical styles and a mixed bag of sales are among the most interesting historical homes for sale this week. In Yadkinville, the Mackie Family House, 420 Carolina Avenue, went up for sale at $325,000, $126/square foot. The house is one of three in town with the Mackie family name attached. This one belonged to Solomon Lee Mackie (1863-1929) and Fannie W. Robertson Mackie (1867-1946) for about 40 years. Lee operated a tannery, which was just southwest of the house.

“The front block of this house appears to be a 1910s addition to an older turn-of-the-century one-story dwelling which is now the ell,” the State Historic Preservation Office says. “There is a shed roof porch on the original front elevation of this house and another along the north side. An enclosed porch carries across the rear of the two-story addition and along the ell.”

This Week’s Best: A Kerner Family Home in Kernersville and Two Elegant Houses in Greensboro

September 15, 2025

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.

This Week’s Best: An 1871 Italianate on the National Register, a Notable Architect’s Bungalow and a Relatively Affordable MCM

September 7, 2025

This week’s most notable new listing was built by a member of Alamance County’s Holt family in 1871. Sunny Side, 2834 Bellemont Alamance Road, was originally owned by Lawrence Shackleford Holt (1851-1937), a third-generation member of the pioneering mill owners. they were to 19th-century Alamance County what the Scotts were to 20th-century Alamance, although the Holts produced only one governor (Thomas, 1891-1893) compared to the two Governor Scotts (Kerr, 1949-1953, and his son Bob, 1969-1973).

The house is way down on the south side of the village of Alamance, an Italianate with well preserved Gothic Revival details.

This Week’s Best: An 1825 Cottage in Milton And in Eden a 1972 MCM and a 1928 Brick Foursquare

August 31, 2025

It was an interesting week up along the Virginia border. A cottage built in 1825 came up for sale at $349,900 in Milton. There are now six 19th-century houses for sale in Caswell County, including three in Milton.

Also, two of the week’s most interesting new listings are in Eden. A striking 1928 brick foursquare in the Leaksville historic district was listed Monday for $550,000. Its original owner was a surgeon and a founder of Leaksville Hospital. The next day, a 1972 Mid-Century Modern came onto the market for the first time. The current owner built the house 53 years ago and has lived in it ever since.

This Week’s Best: A Major 1912 Mansion in Reidsville and ‘H&G’ to Two B&B’s

August 24, 2025

It was an uncommonly boring week until Thursday. That’s when a listing appeared for Belmont, the most notable of the three houses in the the Robert Payne Richardson Houses Historic District in Reidsville. The Neo-Classical Belmont, 1700 Richardson Drive, is a standout in every way — architecturally significant (“an opulent example of the style, one of the finest in the state”), perched up on a hill overlooking the road, wonderfully maintained, with a range of features from a spectacular ballroom to a beach volleyball court (the mansion is now a wedding venue, after all). If you’re looking for about 9,000 square feet of truly impressive history on almost 10 acres, Belmont is up for $2.4 million, a relatively reasonable $256 per square foot. You could pay a lot more, per square foot, for a lot less (see below).

It was ‘H&G’ for two B&B listings this week.

This Week’s Best: A Grand Tudor and a Couple Craftsman Gems

August 17, 2025

It was a quiet week, more of a back-to-school week than a let’s-sell-the-house week.

The best new listing is in High Point’s Emerywood neighborhood. If there’s a more attention-getting house for sale in High Point than 427 Woodbrook Drive, I’d love to see it. The Alex and Adele Rankin House is a grand Tudor Revival on a big lot, white with yellowish-brown half-timbers, shutters and trim. It’s for sale at $950,000; at 3,753 square feet, the price is $253/square foot, relatively reasonable for a house like this these days. Built in 1924, it has a grand vaulted Tudor living room and period color tile in the bathrooms.

This Week’s Best: A Literary Connection in Reidsville and a Striking House in Elkin

August 10, 2025

Some intriguing houses and past owners this week.

Who knew the connection between Reidsville and one of Britain’s most important writers and theologians of the 20th century? This 1930 house was the boyhood home of Walter Hooper (1931-2020). “All of us who know and love the writings of C.S. Lewis owe a great debt to another figure, highly regarded in the field of Lewis scholarship but less well known to the wider world of readers: Walter Hooper. Over the course of six decades, Hooper served as literary advisor to Lewis’ estate, dedicating his life to editing, preserving, and sharing the work of C.S. Lewis.” There’s an appropriate Lewis quote painted on a kitchen wall.

An Elegant 1915 Home Gets A Quick Makeover While For Sale

August 7, 2025

124 S. Mendenhall Street in Greensboro is proving to be a surprisingly tough house to sell. It’s a striking place, built in 1915. “Its walls and oversized gambrel roof clad in shingles, this house is a rare Greensboro example of the shingle style,” the neighborhood’s National Register nomination says.

Among its other distinctive features, the house has a remarkably wide front porch that wraps around on the right with French doors opening onto the foyer and another door at the end of the porch. Interior features include unpainted pocket doors in the living room, a long window seat along a triple window in the dining room and a kitchen island with a counter that seats five. I’ve been in the house a couple times (it’s around the corner from my house), and I can tell you it’s impressive.

It was listed last September at $850,000 ($273/square foot), which was pushing the upper end of the price range in the College Hill Historic District, though not wildly. It’s a big, beautiful house (3,100 square feet). With some give in the price, one would expect it to sell fairly readily. The price did come down substantially, to $695,000, and the owners accepted an offer. The house was under contract for an unusually long time before the deal fell through (four months, from March through June).

In July, the owners took the house off the market for three weeks, changed real-estate agents and relisted it this week with a significantly lower price, $615,000. What a difference those three weeks made. You rarely see a house made over so significantly after it already has been put up for sale. Perhaps the new agent felt that the sellers’ taste for dramatic colors and wallpapers wasn’t helping (and it did hit you the minute you walked in). That’s all gone now. Here are some before-and-after photos (click on the photos to see them larger):

This Week’s Best: Two National Register Houses, a Sweet MCM in Asheboro and an 1875 House in Greensboro

August 3, 2025

Two houses on the National Register were put up for sale this week. The John Randle House, circa 1800, on Lake Tillery near Norwood has 27 acres, a richly detailed history and a million-dollar price tag. The J.L. Hemphill House in Wilkesboro is an 1895 Queen Anne with just about the shortest National Register nomination you’ll ever see. Those things usually read like the writers got paid by the word.

This 1979 Mid-Century Modern home in Asheboro is an outstanding example of the style, which isn’t too common in the region’s smaller towns but does keep popping up here and there, now and then.

This Week’s Best: Merry Oaks, Super Condos and a Very Discreet $2 Million Sale

July 27, 2025

This week’s highlights:

Sale of the Week: The Merry Oaks Hotel. Built in 1880, the property is all that’s left of a once-thriving little railroad town in Chatham County. The 3 1/2-acre tract includes the hotel, post office and general store; it went for $400,000.

There are several new listings for historic-building condos this week, including two very high-priced units in notable buildings in Winston Salem. One is in the Indera Mills complex, a former apparel factory, listed at an eye-opening $779,000 (and $336/square foot!). And the owners accepted an offer in one day. The other is at Piedmont Leaf Lofts for $499,000. Both buildings are on the National Register.

Piedmont Historic Homes

Historic homes for sale in the Piedmont Triad

Author: David Arneke