Piedmont Historic Homes

Best of 2022
Best of 2021
Best of 2020
Best of 2019
Best of 2017-2018

• Sold for $247,500 on May 24,2023 (listed at $259,000)
• 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2,290 square feet, 0.29 acre
• Price/square foot: $108
• Built in 1932
• Listed May 1, 2023
• Last sale: $169,900, May 2019
• Neighborhood: Colonial Drive School Historic District (local)
• Note: Ethel Elizabeth McCormick Cox (1891-1973) bought the property in 1920, and it remained in the Cox family for 99 years. Although she had married Carson Clay Cox Sr. (1893-1948) by then, her name alone was on the deed. By 1933 they had built the house and were living there.
  • Carson was a coffee roaster and later vice president and general manager of the Lexington Grocery Company. He served on the Thomasville school board and during World War II on the local draft board and ration board.
  • Their son, Carson Jr. (1926-2000), and his wife, Pauline Phillips Walker Cox (1930-2017), owned the house after Ethel. Twelve heirs sold the property in 2019.

• Sold on April 28, 2023, price not listed on deed (listed at $635,000)
  • The seller was the executor of a will; the buyers appear to be the children of the deceased man.
• 3 bedrooms, 4 1/2 bathrooms, 2,155 square feet, 0.39 acre
• Price/square foot: $295
• Built in 1974 (see note)
• Listed April 6, 2023
• Last sale: $200,000, March 1991
• Neighborhood: Old Salem Historic District (local and NR)
• Note: The house is a faithful reconstruction of the 1824 house built by silversmith Traugott Leinbach, using handmade brick, Hendricks tile for the roof, copper gutters, antique hardware and locksets, handmade lighting fixtures, antique mantels and millwork.
  • The property includes a detached guesthouse/office of about 300 square feet with a full bathroom.
• District NR nomination: “The Traugott Leinbach House was reconstructed in 1974 by Thomas Gray, who had previously restored the Christman House, Lot 74, 500 Salt Street.
  • The Leinbach house is built against the sidewalk and has a picket fence surrounding the lot. The house is a one and one-half story Flemish bond brick building with side gable roof (ceramic tile) with flush ends and a kick at the eave. The box cornice has bed molding and a plain frieze board.
  • “The house has interior end chimneys with corbelled caps and is on a high stuccoed foundation. It was the last house in Salem to be constructed in the Flemish bond.
  • Built as a house/shop configuration, the façade has five bays with two entries. The centered entry to the residence is a six panel door with a fanlight; the shop entry is also a six panel door. Each door has a stone door sill at a brick and stucco arched stoop with a flight of stone steps off the north ends of each, down to the sidewalk.
  • “Window sash is nine-over-six with six-over-six sash on the second floor at the gable ends and flanked by vertical two-light attic casements. Windows are hung with three panel shutters and are evenly spaced.
  • “A shed roof addition is across the rear and partially enclosed (weatherboard). The enclosed portion has a reconstructed masonry bake oven with stucco and a brick chimney.
  • “The open porch has chamfered posts with arch decoration and simple balustrade. There is a full story cellar, with grade level access at the rear due to the sloping lot. Window sash at the cellar is six-over-six with single leaf shutters.
  • “The plans for the house were presented by Traugott Leinbach in October 1823 and construction was completed in 1824. Leinbach had apprenticed to renowned silversmith John Vogler (Lot 64, 700 S. Main Street) and became even more accomplished in hollow ware than his teacher.
  • “In 1854 Leinbach, silversmith and watchmaker, constructed a three-story addition to the north side of his house. His interests were many, including, galvanic battery operations and Daguerreotype photography.
  • “In 1860, Leinbach moved to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and the house and lot were turned over to son Felix. … Outbuildings recorded on the 1885 Sanborn Insurance maps included a kitchen and large shed; the attached bake oven is noted as well.”
  • By 1912, the house had been demolished. Four houses were built on the lot; they’ve all been removed.

508 McReynols Street, Carthage, Moore County
The Dr. John Shaw House

• Sold for $120,000 on April 10, 2023 (listed at $130,000)
• 3 bedrooms (per county), 2 1/2 bathrooms, 2,540 square feet, 1.49 acres
• Price/square foot: $47
• Built in 1853 (per county, but perhaps earlier; see note)
• Listed March 24, 2023
• Last sale: December 1982, price not recorded on deed
• Neighborhood: Carthage Historic District (NR)
• Note: The listing gives the date of the house as 1800 and says it has 4 bedrooms.
  • “The home has no utilities.”
  • The listing says the owners who sold the property in 1853, the Glascocks, “were first cousins of (President) George Washington, and it is said that a young George Washington would come from Virginia to visit his cousins the Glascock’s.”
• The historic district’s National Register nomination references the Glascock family but doesn’t mention George Washington: “frame house combining three periods of construction and architectural style: gable-front, two-story wing with one-story, single pile, gabled wing extending to east at perpendicular; one-story porch shelters three front bays of one-story east wing, enclosed on east elevation;
  • “has bracketed turned posts, sawn balustrade, molded handrail; one-story rear ell; rear porches enclosed; beaded siding with rosehead nails on rear wall of one-story wing under enclosed porch; aluminum siding on rest of house;
  • “nine-over-nine and six-over-six windows; paved single-shoulder, exterior-end chimneys on west elevation of two-story wing;
  • “Italianate door with tabernacle panes, contemporary with late 19th century porch, opens to broad hall connecting two wings; rear door, next to beaded siding is early 19th century raised six-panel beneath transom; other doors are two-panel, matching several mid 19th century Greek Revival mantels; single Italianate mantel on second floor; quarter-turn with landing stair begins in hall, rises between rooms in two-story wing;
  • “Dr. John Shaw, purchased tract known as Patty Glasscock land in 1853, apparently made additions to small existing house, probably dating to second quarter of 19th century; Patty Glasscock was widow of Dr. John Glasscock;
  • “Dr. Shaw was physician and prominent town and county citizen — Register of Deeds, county commissioner, two terms in state house of representatives, trustee of Carthage Academy.”

716 S. Main Street, Reidsville, Rockingham County
The Wray-Rainey-Webster House
Blog post — New Listing: The 1850 Wray-Rainey-Webster House in Reidsville, $350,000

• Sold for $334,000 on March 30, 2023 (listed at $350,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, 3,494 square feet, 0.23 acre
• Price/square foot: $96
• Built in 1850 (per county)
• Listed January 20, 2023
• Last sale: July 1986, price unknown
• Neighborhood: Reidsville Historic District (NRHP), Old Post Road Historic District (local)
• Note: The listing gives the date of the house as 1860. the district’s National Register nomination puts it at circa 1860.
• District NRHP nomination: “Believed to be one of the oldest houses surviving in the district, this two-story frame residence has changed hands more than most of the pivotal houses, and its original location was some one hundred yards to the south on the present site of the Hugh Reid Scott [House].
  • “The first occupant is said to have been Richard H. Wray, a later postmaster of Reidsville, although supporting documentation has not been found. The first recorded owner was John Rainey, a farmer, who was followed by Colonel John R. Webster (1845-1909), publisher of Webster’s Dollar Weekly, and later by Hugh Reid Scott, as well as several others.
  • “These changing ownerships have resulted in alterations to the house, although the exterior of the front section remains relatively intact in its late 19th century appearance. This two-story single-pile section is topped by a low hipped roof of standing seam tin with deep bracketed eaves and a paneled frieze, relating it to more elaborate Italianate houses in the district.
  • “The three-bay facade is spanned by a one-story Eastlake-style porch with central two-tier pedimented pavillion. Ornamentation includes a spindled frieze, turned and bracketed posts, spindle balusters, and sawn gable ornament on the porch and paneled cornerboards.
  • “Windows are six over six sash in simple surrounds, and the brick chimneys rise in an interior end location.
  • “A one-story, two-room ell was added across the rear early in the 20th century; a more recent one-story addition rests on brick piers.”
  • The Colonel started Webster’s Dollar Weekly in 1875. At some point in the 1880s, it was renamed Webster’s Weekly. It was published until 1916.

305 E. Hendrix Street, Greensboro
The John and Helen Kleemeier House

• Sold for $424,900 on March 15, 2023 (listed at $424,900)
• 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1,745 square feet, 0.11 acre
• Price/square foot: $243
• Built in 1918
• Listed February 1, 2023
• Last sale: $335,000, February 2021
• Neighborhood: Fisher Park Historic District (local and NR)
• Note: The property includes a wired storage building.
• District NR nomination: The original owners were John August Kleemeier (1879-1957) and Helen L. Bouldin Kleeneier (1884-1920). John, a native of Cincinnati, was president of Wysong & Miles. He sold the house in 1937.
  • Wysong & Miles was a manufacturer of machine tools and woodworking machinery established in 1903 (still in business).
  • For 48 years, from 1955 to 2003, the house was owned by Guy Delafield (1920-2008) and Letitia Carter Delafield (1920-2008). Guy was the office manager for the Lassiter Corporation, which sold cellophane products. Carter was an associate professor of English at Guilford College. She received her master’s degree in English from UNCG in 1966. Her thesis was titled, “Flannery O’Connor: Prophet and Evangelist.”
  • Guy and Carter were born six months apart in 1920 and died eight days apart in February 2008.

214 N. Main Street, Troy, Montgomery County
The Wade-Arscott House
Blog post — The Wade-Arscott House: A Much-Admired Judge’s 1871 Queen Anne in Troy, $369,000

• Sold for $365,000 on March 1, 2023 (listed at $369,000)
  • The deed was signed March 1 but wasn’t filed until April 5.
• 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 3,474 square feet, 0.24 acre
• Price/square foot: $105
• Built in 1871
• Listing date unknown
• Last sale: $120,000, December 2016
• Neighborhood: Troy Residential Historic District (NR)
• Note: Now a well-reviewed B&B
  • One of five structures in the tiny Troy Residential Historic District
• District NR nomination: “A notable example of Queen Anne architecture in Troy is the two-and-a-half-story Wade-Arscott House, a rambling frame residence that is enlivened by widely spaced windows, a one-story wraparound porch supported by square posts and enclosed by plain balustrades, a cylindrical, weatherboarded and shingled tower capped by a helmet roof at the southwest corner of the structure, and a peaked gable dormer incorporating a recessed balcony.
  • “Two entrances afford access to the house: from Main Street, steps lead to a central bay containing a four-panel door framed by paneled sidelights and a three-section transom; on the south side, similar steps rise from the driveway to the porch where a glazed upper-panel door opens into a narrow stair hall.
  • “Windows contain two-over-two sash within simple frames, but the upper story of the tower is enlivened by small-paned curved sash containing colored glass inserts. A heavy cornice surrounds the house and the gabled roofs are covered with asphalt shingles. A large central chimney rises through the roof ridge, while a secondary flue marks the location of the kitchen in the rear wing.
  • “Inside, the house appears to have two separate construction dates. Marks in the floors and walls of the North section indicate that the two-story house originally contained two rooms, with four Greek Revival-style mantels, two-panel doors and a staircase in the Northeast corner of the North room.
  • “According to Richter’s Montgomery County Heritage, this portion was built in 1871 for Christopher Columbus Wade (1837-1915), Judge of Probate, and his wife, Sarah Margaret DeBerry (1845-1920).
  • “In the 1890s he enlarged the structure by removing the walls and stairs in the old section, and extending the house to the south with a wraparound porch, cylindrical tower, and a new entrance and staircase opening to the South porch.”
  • C.C. Wade (1837-1915) enlisted in the Confederate Army in 1861 at age 24, soon contracted bronchitis and was invalided out eight months later. He and Sarah were married in 1866. He became the county clerk of court in 1868, serving for 21 years. In 1904 he was elected state House; he declined to seek re-election, “preferring the quiet of his home and attention to his farming and business interests,” The Asheboro Courier related in a wonderfully laudatory obituary. The newspaper called him “an able, wise, prudent member, always carefully guarding the public good. Few members have served in the general assembly in our memory who ranked higher.
  • “His wisdom and sound judgment appealed to all, and his advice was often sought and always followed. His long experience and knowledge of men and public affairs peculiarly fitted him for the position.”
  • In 1930, 10 years after Sarah’s death, the house was sold by the administrator of C.C.’s estate for $8,015 in a public auction. The estate may have been a complicated one; parties to the sale included at least seven descendants, three other individuals and, perhaps reflecting diverse business interests on C.C.’s part, the American Exchange Bank of Greensboro, Stylebuilt Garments Company, Process Trim Hat Company, Flo Frocks Inc., and G.W. Allen & Son.
  • The property was purchased in 1946 by Lloyd Arscott (1901-1967), owner of a local office supply business, and his wife, Millie Blake (1906-1996). Their children sold the house 51 years later for $88,000.
  • After that, the house may have fallen on hard times. It was sold for $37,000 in 2003 and $21,000 in 2004. It apparently was restored before selling for $120,000 in 2016.

204 E. Railroad Avenue, Gibsonville, Guilford County
Blog post — National Register Property For Sale: Gibsonville’s ‘Most Stylish and Impressive’ Turn-of-the Century Home, $425,000
The Francis Marion Smith House

• Sold for $350,000 on February 28, 2023 (originally $475,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, 3,536 square feet, 1.12 acres (per county)
• Price/square foot: $99
• Built in 1898
• Listed June 9, 2022
• Last sale: $143,500, August 1989
• Note: County records show the square footage as 1,921, which looks way off.
  • The property includes a storage building and a gazebo.
• NRHP nomination: “The Francis Marion Smith House, erected in 1898, is the most stylish and impressive residence in Gibsonville surviving from the 1890-1910 period that witnessed the town’s major growth.
  • “The two-and-a-half-story frame house combines elements of the Colonial Revival and Queen Anne styles, including an elaborate program of classical trim and turned ornament.
  • “It is one of three notable late nineteenth and early twentieth residences associated with the Whitsett Institute, a boarding secondary school and junior college in the Whitsett community near Gibsonville. The three houses (one of which has already been listed in the National Register) are among the finest houses combining Colonial Revival and Queen Anne style elements in eastern Guilford County.
  • “Francis Marion Smith [1864-1910] was a farmer, businessman, and civic official in and around Gibsonville. His wife, Lizzie E. Whitsett [1869-1922], taught at the Whitsett Institute both before and after her marriage.”
  • Lizzie’s brother was the renowned William Thornton Whitsett, founder of the institute. The 1883 mansion of their father, Joseph Bason Whitsett, is now under contract to be sold; the listed price is $1.3 million. The property, located on U.S. 70 just east of Whitsett, includes 11 acres of land.
  • The Smith house remained in the Smith-Whitsett family until 1976. Lizzie bequeathed the house to her sister, Effie Whisett Joyner (1877-1976). After her death, the house was sold for $20,000 to Jerry Nix, who has restored several historic properties in Gibsonville. Nix sold it to the current owners in 1989.

2001 Crescent Drive, Graham, Alamance County
The Jim and Jane Ferrell House

• Sold for $687,500 on February 24, 2023 (originally $787,500)
• 4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, 5,219 square feet, 1.84 acres
• Price/square foot: $132
• Built in 1978
• Listed August 26, 2022
• Last sale: The property hasn’t been sold since the house was built.
• Listing: “Based off an original design by architect Avriel Shull.” Avriel Joy Christie Shull (1931–1976) was an architectural designer/builder and interior decorator who worked primarily in Indiana. She is best known for her mid-century modern residential designs. In the 1970s she began selling house plans in do-it-yourself home-building magazines.
  • Something you don’t see every day: “large entertainment room with bar and dance floor”
  • The property was bought in April 1975 by James Miller Ferrell (1938-2017) and Katherine Jane “Pookie” Ferrell (1937-2021). They operated Ferrell Manufacturing Company in Graham. At the time of his death, Jim had remarried and was living in Kyiv, Ukraine.

101 W. Academy Street, Madison, Rockingham County
The Pratt-Van Noppen House

• Sold for $180,000 on February 24, 2023 (originally $199,900)
• 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2,350 square feet, 0.36 acre
• Price/square foot: $77
• Built in 1890
• Listed July 1, 2022
• Last sale: $200,000, September 2016
• Neighborhood: Academy Street Historic District
• Listing: “Zoned for business and/or residential use.” County tax records describe it as an office building.
• District NRHP nomination: “Two-story frame T-shaped house with two tall interior brick chimneys.
  • “Distinguishing features are a two-story, three-sided bay in projecting gabled wing of facade, richly carved pendant brackets all along the roofline, and classical details, including Tuscan porch columns and molded architraves topped by boxed heads above doors and windows.
  • “Thomas Ruffin Pratt (1856-1937), prominent local civic and business leader, had the house built during the 1890s. The current [as of 1980] owner is Pratt’s grandson.”
  • Thomas and Maybud Julia Pratt (1861-1932) had at least four children. Ownership of the house apparently passed to the eldest, Annie Pearl Pratt Van Noppen (1886-1968). Her husband, John James Van Noppen II (1871-1919), was a first-generation Dutch American and a dentist in Spray. He died in the Spanish Flu pandemic.
  • Annie was a teacher and contributed articles to Madison’s newspaper, The Messenger, including a series on historic homes along the Dan River in Rockingham County. After John’s death at age 47, she never remarried and outlived him by 49 years.
  • From Thomas’s findagrave.com listing: “Thomas and his brother, Charles Benton Pratt, operated a general merchandise store located in the south half of the Carter-Moir Hardware Store.
  • “The two-story building that housed their general merchandise store is located in the Leaksville Commercial Historic District and is included in the National Register of Historic Places. It is a two-story brick building built in the 1880’s and noted for its decorative brickwork. The building may also have housed the Bank of Leaksville, chartered in 1889.
  • “In the 1890’s Thomas built a two-story T-shaped house at 101 W. Academy Street noted for richly carved brackets and classical details. Thomas also sold insurance. His other business pursuits included a brick manufacturing plant and a mortuary.
  • “He served as a Rockingham County Commissioner and was involved in the infamous story of Rockingham County’s ‘Bridge to Nowhere‘, a bridge built in 1929 across the Dan River with no approaches or connecting roads. Thomas was the chairman of the Rockingham County [Board of Commissioners] when the contract was approved for building the bridge. That resulted in a lengthy and famous lawsuit between the county and the builders, Luten Bridge Company.”
  • In an entertaining academic legal paper, the Luten Bridge/Mebane Bridge case is recounted as “a remarkable story, one that arose within a heated tax revolt pitting the county’s farmers against its most celebrated industrialist. Much more than a crisp illustration of the duty to mitigate, Rockingham County v. The Luten Bridge Co. offers a window into a southern community’s struggles with a divided social order, the introduction of wealth into local politics, and a changing economy.”

518 E. Davis Street, Burlington, Alamance County
The John Foster House

• Sold for $230,000 on February 17, 2023 (listed at $250,000)
• The listing says it’s divided into three apartments with five bedrooms and an unspecified number of bathrooms. County records say there are two, so there’s probably one that that was added without a building permit.
• 3,388 square feet, 0.34 acre
• Price/square foot: $68
• Built ca. 1888 (per National Register)
• Listed January 20, 2023
• Last sale: $116,000, May 2000
• Neighborhood: East Davis Street Historic District (NR)
• Note: The listing says, “Needs work”; no interior pictures are included.
  • County records date the house to 1910.
• District NR nomination (2000): “A number of late-nineteenth and early twentieth century Queen Anne style houses stand in the district. These are generally two-story frame dwellings with a gable and wing form. The earliest example of this style is the well-preserved John R. Foster House at 518 East Davis Street.
  • “Built circa 1888 for John R. Foster of Foster Shoe Company, the house started as three rooms and was enlarged into a twelve room, two-story dwelling with a pressed tin roof, shingle siding in the gable ends and a one-story wraparound porch with a second story balcony over the entrance. Turned posts and balusters, spindle friezes, and sawnwork brackets decorate porch and balcony. …
  • “John R. Foster … opened the Foster Shoe Company in the 300 block of Main Street in 1890. The store was one of the first specialty shops in Burlington. The store moved to E. Davis Street after Foster’s death in 1934 and continues to operate there today [as of 2000; it appears to have closed].
  • “By at least 1913 the house reached Its present configuration facing E. Davis Street. Upon Foster’s death in 1934, his wife Sallie moved to another house on E. Davis Street and the dwelling was divided into four apartments and rented. In 1935 the house was occupied by Robert Shoffner, clerk of Burlington Mills; Richard Pindell, an overseer; and Robert deFord of Scott’s Billiard Parlor.
  • “William A. Patty of Patty Appliances bought the house in 1949 and converted it back to a single family residence. A utility shed and barn which housed a cow, horse and chickens, were originally located at the rear of the property. The barn, which stood on the present lot of 123 Cameron Street, was removed by 1936 when the lot was sold to Faye Simpson. The utility shed was expanded in 1949 to provide a vacuum cleaner repair shop for William Patty.”
  • John Foster’s shoe store on a particularly busy day in 1918:

303 W. Greenway Drive North, Greensboro
The Mary and Hugh Preddy House

• Sold for $915,000 on February 6, 2023 (originally $995,000)
• 3 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, 3,961 square feet, 0.61 acre
• Price/square foot: $231
• Built in 1928
• Listed July 14, 2022
• Last sale: $160,000, December 1981
• Neighborhood: Sunset Hills Historic District (NRHP)
• Note: The house is on a hill overlooking Sunset Hills Park.
  • Architect Lorenzo Winslow (1892-1976) designed the house. Among his other local works are the Irving Park Apartments on North Elm Street. He later served for 20 years as architect of the White House, responsible for the complete reconstruction of the interior from 1948-52.
• District NRHP nomination: “The two-and-a-half-story, three-bay, side-gabled, brick and half-timbered Tudor Revival-style house features a projecting, two-story, front gable containing the entrance.
  • “A wood batten door with metal strap hinges and pierced by a small window with diamond-patterned wood muntins is set in a Tudor arched-head brick surround. Narrow windows with stone sills flank the door.
  • “Square posts support a porch that extends along the façade of the south end of the house. It is topped by a wood balustrade enclosing a balcony. French doors replace the original windows and allow access from a second floor bedroom to the balcony. A metal spiral staircase joins the balcony and lower level porch.
  • “Windows throughout are primarily casement and six-over-six and four-over-four. A variety of decorative brick patterns grace the first level.
  • “On the north elevation, two side-gabled wings of differing heights project from the main block. A one-and-a-half-story, side-gabled wing occupies the south gable end.
  • “Two brick chimneys rise from the house, one on the south gable end of the main block and one on the rear roof slope. A wooden Tudor arch crowns a rear recessed entry that is sheathed in weatherboard. A slate roof tops the dwelling.
  • “The interior follows a center hall plan with the stair originating in the rear portion of the passage. Just inside the door, the original tile floor remains.
  • “The interior remains largely unchanged, except for the removal of a wall between two second floor bedrooms.”
  • Hugh Newell Preddy (1886-1952) and Mary Dodson Preddy (1891-1963) bought the house in 1928. Hugh was a clerk for E.A. Pierce & Co., one of the brokerage houses that later were merged into Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith.
  • After the stock market crash, he lost job, and in 1933 the Preddys lost the house to foreclosure. By then, five other family members and a lodger were living with them. The house was bought by the estate of Mary’s grandfather, allowing the family to stay until 1941, when the house was sold.
  • The next owners, Wylanta McKay Buckner (1902-1981) and David Buckner (1894-1956), owned the house until 1981, when the current owners bought it. David Buckner was an actuary and later an executive with Jefferson Standard Life Insurance.

109 Oakwood Street, High Point
The David O. Cecil House

• Sold for $230,000 on February 3, 2023 (listed at $250,000)
• 13 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 3,345 square feet, 0.39 acre
• Price/square foot: $69
• Built in 1925
• Listed November 17, 2022
• Last sale: $63,500, August 1994
• Neighborhood: Oakwood Historic District (NRHP)
• Listing: “Has been a Boarding house … During Covid the owners shut it down and planned to remodel but have decided to sell.”
  • “Needs cosmetic work such as sheetrock work, painting, and refinishing flooring. … Kitchens and Baths are ready for your renovations.”
• District NRHP nomination: “large bungalow/craftsman house that is very distinctive due to its quartzite stone exterior; gable roof with wide front dormer that is gable front at each end with a shed in between; front porch with massive tapered stone piers extending to porte cochere. Approximately ],670 square feet.
  • “The Cecil House is among the finest examples of the bungalow/craftsman style house found in High Point.
  • “Cecil was a furniture manufacturer with his plant not far from this home on English. In the 1920s, Cecil started a chain of car service stations and an oil supply company supply them.”

1024 Savannah Lane, Hamptonville, Yadkin County

• Sold for $190,000 on February 2, 2023 (originally $215,000)
• 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1,352 square feet, 0.62 acre
• Price/square foot: $141
• Built in 1994
• Listed November 10, 2022
• Last sale: $155,000, June 2020
• Note: Hexagonal house built into an embankment
  • The house was sold in 2019 for $18,000.

7075 Kivette House Road, Gibsonville
The Kivette House
Blog post on Greensboro Historic Homes — The Kivette Houses, Both Now For Sale: The Gibsonville Homes of Two Sisters Who Loved Parties and Elon
listing withdrawn November 8, 2018; relisted September 9, 2019
contract pending April 28, 2021

• Sold for $900,000 on January 9, 2023 (originally $875,000)
  • Closing occurred a year and eight months after the property went under contract
  • Bought by a couple whose address is in Thomasville
• 7 bedrooms, 4 1/2 bathrooms, 6,336 square feet, 13.28 acres
• Price/square foot: $142
• Built in 1934
• Listed March 11, 2018
• Last sale: $365,000, December 2004
• Note: The property includes a two-story carriage house.
  • The property was marketed previously as a residence or as a b&b/event venue (although there already is one in Gibsonville).
  • For more about the colorful Kivette family, click here.

7241 Burlington Road, Whitsett, Guilford County
The Joseph Bason Whitsett House
Blog post — The Joseph Bason Whitsett House: A Possibly Endangered 1883 Guilford County Landmark, $1.3 Million
sale pending February 1, 2022; no update since then

• Sold for $3.89 million on January 6, 2023 (27 acres; the listed price was $1.3 million for 11 acres)
• 5 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, 6,983 square feet, 11.33 acres
• Price/square foot: $557
• Built in 1883
• Listed September 28, 2021
• Last sale: $176,000, October 1987 (11 acres)
• Note: Designated a historic landmark by Guilford County
  • The house is now used for offices by a financial firm.
  • Listing: The property has three buildings, including a 700 square-foot guest house.
  • The house was built by Joseph Bason Whitsett (1835-1917). Joseph was a railroad man, his obituary recalled: “Twenty-five years of his life was [sic] spent in various capacities of railroad work, and he was identified with the first railroad building ever done in this section of the old North Carolina Railroad: afterwards with the Richmond and Danville system, and for a short while with the Southern.” (Greensboro Patriot)
  • In 1863, Joseph 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 boarding school for boys. 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).
  • William’s death prompted an especially mournful report in The Burlington Daily Times-News, March 22, 1934:
  • “Dr. William Thornton Whitsett has passed away!
  • “The sun sank behind the horizon of the life of this illustrious citizen of North Carolina at twelve-forty o’clock last night, following a critical illness of ten days with pneumonia. He was 67 years old. His works will echo and re-echi [typo, probably] throughout many years to come.”
  • In addition to the residential listing, the owners have posted a commercial real-estate listing that positions the property for redevelopment, initially referring to the house as “an office building”:
  • “Prime development opportunity along the I-40/I-85 corridor in the fast-growing E. Guilford and W. Alamance market. Two properties consist of an office building on 11 acres and a vacant tract of 67 acres. Highest and best use is mixed use residential consisting of apartments, townhomes and SF lots. … Beautiful Victorian House built in the 1880s is currently used as office.”