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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listing withdrawn November 8, 2018; relisted September 9, 2019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.”