Piedmont Historic Homes

From the 1770s to the mid-20th century, from rural Yadkin County to downtown Mebane, these are the most notable, interesting and historic homes sold in recent years in the Piedmont Triad.

Best of 2023
Best of 2021
Best of 2020
Best of 2019
Best of 2017-2018

Notable Non-Sales — Significant properties that have been withdrawn without sales

2177 Highway 801 S., Advance, Davie County
The John Edward Belle Shutt House
Shutt House NRHP

• Sold for $256,000 om December 22, 2022 (listed at $249,000)
• 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1,593 square feet (per county), 6 acres
• Price/square foot: $161
• Built in 1885
• Listed November 30, 2022
• Last sale: $200,000, July 2022
• Note: The Shutt family had owned the property since before the original house was built in 1885. Now the house is on the market again after being sold in July 2019 and July 2022.
  • The original one-and-a-half story timber frame house was built in 1885; the larger three-bay-wide weatherboard story-and-a-half house was added in 1905. They’re connected by a breezeway, providing air circulation throughout the house.
  • The listing says seven mini-split systems have been installed. How the interior components of the systems fit into the rustic look of the house is an intriguing question, but none are visible in the listing’s interior photos.
• National Register nomination: “The J.E.B. Shutt House and outbuilding complex is an intact reminder of the emergence of a nineteenth- century, middle-class, subsistance-farm family who forged a successful business through inherent skills, careful management, and prosperous ventures. …
  • “During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Davie County, the Greek Revival style was being succeeded by the Italianate style which was followed by the Queen Anne style. Rarely did the rural house reflect the full expression of an architectural style but rather builders adapted details to traditional house forms.
  • “The post-bellum farmhouses in Davie County applied details of both Greek Revival and Italianate styles onto traditional house forms. The J.E.B. Shutt House form and simple stylistic details of both the 1885 block and the 1905 block are products of this post-war rebuilding era.
  • “The J.E.B. Shutt House, a typically conservative dwelling, blends delayed architectural details of Greek Revival and simple Italianate in the 1885 block with simple Queen Anne detail in the 1905 block. As such, the J.E.B. Shutt house personifies the traditional farmhouses of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and relates to their characteristics in general form and detail.
  • “The house is also a reflection of J.E.B. Shutt’s craft in that while the 1891 extension of the Southern Railroad allowed more access to manufactured goods, including mass-produced millwork, he elected to produce the woodwork for his new addition in his shop.
  • “Although J.E.B. Shutt was not a trained architect, evidence shows he had some knowledge of the architectural fashions of the day. This is exemplified by the entrance hall staircase which reflects the craftsmanship of J.E.B. Shutt while conveying his effort to achieve style.
  • “J.E.B. Shutt demonstrates his independence from the pure Greek Revival and Italianate styles through several characteristics in design. While the existence of both paired and single doors reflect the Greek Revival and the Italianate styles, five-panel doors are predominant instead of the more traditional one, two, and four panel doors of the Greek Revival style. The large panes of the front door and north side breezeway double doors express the Italianate detail. The simple door and window surrounds deviate from the typically ornate Greek Revival and Italianate houses.
  • “Although the characteristics of the mantels deviate from the more ornate Greek Revival and Italianate styles, the basic post and lintel mantelpieces are indicative of that style. Similar to many houses in the area … the hip-roofed porch extends over most of the front elevation with four posts linked by a balustrade support. The turned post and balustrades feature J.E.B. Shutt’s artistry in decorative detailing which are typical in the Queen Anne houses.”
  • “Wood products, such as furniture, grain cradles, coffins, and building materials, were the domain of the Shutt family who operated wood shops for nearly a century. John Edward Belle Shutt [1860-1932], son of John Wesley Shutt (1823-1888) and Mahala (Mahaley) Jane Sidden (1827-1870), in addition to maintaining a subsistence and cash crop farm, continued the family craftsman tradition with the 1898 establishment of his woodworking shop in an outbuilding adjacent to his house. He expanded his business into a separate commercial building on an adjacent lot to the north around 1905. …
  • “He furthered his enterprise by combining his blacksmith skills with woodworking to repair farm equipment and build wagon wheels, and later added to his expertise that of a licensed undertaker and coffin and casket dealer.”

484 S. Salisbury Street, Mocksville, Davie County
The Hall-Call House

• Sold for $340,000 on December 21, 2022 (originally $375,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 3,207 square feet (per county), 1.03 acres
• Price/square foot: $106
• Built circa 1828
• Listed August 9, 2022
• Last sale: $190,000, March 2014
• Neighborhood: Salisbury Street Historic District (NRHP)
• Note: The listing shows only 2,885 square feet.
• District NRHP nomination: “Three-bay, vigorous vernacular Italianate house; original log house probably built by Reverend William A. Hall of Joppa Church about 1828;
• “purchased in 1871 by carpenter Samuel M. Call and wife Sallie, remodelled by Call;
• “rear ell and gabled appendages added; semi-octagonal bay constructed on south elevation with hipped porch over it;
• “hipped front porch with chamfered posts, trellis railings, flush-sheathed wall; six over six sash; bracketted cornice;
• “step-shouldered exterior chimney on north elevation; standing seam metal roof;
• “rear ell raised to two stories by daughter Martha Call ca. 1930.”

1096 W. 4th Street, Winston-Salem
The Thomas Patterson House

• Sold for $550,000 on December 15, 2022 (listed at $525,000)
• 7 bedrooms, 4 1/2 bathrooms, 5,119 square feet, 0.22 acre
• Price/square foot: $107
• Built in 1890
• Listed November 2, 2022
• Last sale: $150,000, August 1986
• Neighborhood: West End Historic District (local and NRHP)
• Note: About 100 years after being divided into apartments and then turned into a duplex, the house has been returned to single-family home.
• District NRHP nomination: “The Patterson House, one of the oldest dwellings in the West End, is a large two-story frame house of transitional late Victorian-Colonial Revival design.
  • “It has weatherboard siding, a pedimented gable roof, both one-over-one and nine-over-one sash windows, a projecting bay on the northeast side, and a wrap-around porch with paneled Classical posts, a plain balustrade, and a balustraded upper deck.
  • “A distinguishing feature of the house is its projecting center bay with double-leaf entrance surrounded by sidelights and transom, pair of second story windows headed by wooden sunburst designs, and pedimented gable.
  • “The first city directory listing for the house was in 1894/95, when it was the residence of Thomas Patterson, a manager at R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. He and his wife, Sallie, lived here until the late 1910s.
  • “In 1921 George C. Tudor listed the property for taxes, and he converted the house to apartments. The house was renovated as a two-family dwelling in 1985.”

2446 Glencoe Street, Glencoe Mill Village, Alamance County

• Sold for $275,000 on November 30, 2022 (listed at $275,000)
• 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1,817 square feet, 0.26 acre
• Price/square foot: $151
• Built in 1885
• Listed October 19, 2022
• Last sale: $237,500, March 2020
• Neighborhood: Glencoe Mill Village Historic District (local and NRHP)
• Note: Renovated and expanded mill house
• District NRHP nomination: “The Glencoe Historic District is located on the east bank of Haw River about three miles north of Burlington in Alamance County. It is a typical but remarkably well-preserved example of nineteenth century industrial villages that once flourished in North Carolina’s Piedmont region. …
  • “The original village part of Glencoe is still largely intact. The wooden schoolhouse is gone, replaced by a brick structure. The church fell in 1976.
  • “Of the 48 original wood frame dwellings, 41 remain. (Several houses are known to have burned down) … The mill village includes three basic house configurations, all with brick hand sawed timbers, tin roofs, brick pier foundations and simple, functional design. Houses vary in size from three to six rooms, with 16 1 by 16′ the average room size. …
  • “The predominant house type was originally a four room, two-story structure typical of North Carolina rural housing of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The front porches are two bays wide and supported by four unornamented posts.
  • “A central hallway opens onto rooms to the east and west. The western rooms of houses on these two streets do not have windows on the river (west) side. Chimneys are set on the east. Upstairs there are usually two rooms, with the railing from the narrow staircase extending into the west room. …
  • “A later modification of the mill housing is the kitchen, attached at the back of the east wing of most houses, forming an L. These rooms had, by 1910, largely replaced the detached kitchens, of which only a handful remain. The connected kitchens have chimneys and customarily have side porches facing the river and the mill (west).”

501 N. Main Street, Troy, Montgomery County
The J.C. Hurley House

• Sold for $365,000 on November 28, 2022 (listed at $385,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 3,772 square feet (per county), 0.8 acre
• Price/square foot: $97
• Built in 1900
• Listed October 27, 2022
• Last sale: $150,000, December 2008
• Note: The listing shows 3,912 square feet.
  • James Carson Hurley Sr. (1875-1948) was a native of Montgomery County. His obituary in The Charlotte Observer identified him as an industrialist and promoter of the town of Troy.

207 Hillcrest Drive, High Point
The Kenneth C. Denny House

• Sold for $660,000 on November 7, 2022 (listed at $649,900)
• 4 bedrooms, 5 1/2 bathrooms, 4,368 square feet, 0.30 acre
• Price/square foot: $151
• Built in 1926
• Listed October 5, 2022
• Last sale: $265,000, November 1990
• Neighborhood: Emerywood, Uptown Suburbs Historic District (NRHP)
• Realtor Babble: “A once in a lifetime opportunity … !”
• District NRHP nomination: “This one-and-a-half-story, truncated-hip-roofed, Tudor Revival-style house has a steeply-pitched slate roof that extends down to the first-floor level on the facade and left (east) elevation.
  • “It has stuccoed exterior with brick veneer around the entrance and at the inset porch, and faux half-timbering in the dormers. It has a wide, partially inset gabled dormer on the left end of the facade and smaller, partially inset dormers on the right (west) end of the facade and on the left elevation.
  • “The house has metal casement windows with rough-hewn lintels. Windows in the large front-gabled dormer are paired, diamond-light casement windows.
  • “The decorative brick chimney with double flues rises to the right of the entrance, a batten door with strap hinges in a basketweave brick surround.
  • “An inset porch across the left half of the facade is supported by rough-hewn posts with slender braces. A one-story, shed-roofed porte-cochere on the right elevation has matching supports and faux half-timbering in the gables.
  • “The earliest known occupant is Kenneth C. Denny (secretary/treasurer, Denny Veneer Company) in 1928.”

• Sold for $510,000 on October 25, 2022 (listed at $495,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, 4,901 square feet (per county), 4 acres
• Price/square foot: $101
• Built in 1860
• Listed September 20, 2022
• Last sale: $130,000, July 1992
• Neighborhood: Richardson Houses Historic District
• Note: One of three houses in the Richardson Houses Historic District
  • The listing shows only 4,800 square feet.
• NRHP nomination: “The Robert Payne Richardson Houses Historic District, on the outskirts of Reidsville, North Carolina, is significant in the history of the town and the state as an outstanding example of a plantation complex chronicling the rise and decline in the fortunes of a family and a community over a period of nearly one hundred and fifty years. The associated buildings, including three principal houses and an important group of surviving domestic and farm-related outbuildings, combine to present a graphic picture of the development of the plantation complex through the continuous occupation of one family from the early 1840s to the present [i.e., 1986], although the majority of buildings were built prior to 1930.
  • “Built about 1842, the first house, a modest, hall-and-parlor plan Greek Revival
    structure, is probably the oldest house surviving in Reidsville and predates by some thirty years the incorporation of the town. Its builder, Robert Payne Richardson, Sr. (1820-1909), who was only twenty-two at the time, became a prominent plantation owner, merchant and tobacco manufacturer in the second half of the nineteenth century.
  • “The more substantial structure that he added to the earlier house about 1860 reflects the steady rise in.his fortunes. The Italianate elements incorporated in the basically Greek Revival house anticipated the strong popularity of the Italianate style for substantial Reidsville residences in the quarter century following the Civil War. Richardson continued to live in the large, two-period house until his death in 1909.”
  • “The Robert Payne Richardson Houses Historic District consists of a complex of twenty-two buildings and structures sited on approximately thirty acres of land located some one and one-half miles southwest of the center of Reidsville in Rockingham County. Standing on sites elevated above the surrounding countryside are the three principal buildings in the district, the Robert Payne Richardson House I (ca. 1842), the Robert Payne Richardson House II (ca. 1860), and the Robert Payne Richardson House III, Belmont (1912).
  • “The houses are accompanied by a variety of outbuildings, both domestic and farm-related, on the three separate tracts comprising the district — the eleven-acre House I tract, the five-acre House II tract, and the fourteen-acre Belmont tract. These tracts are only a small portion of the more than 1600 acres which made up the Richardson plantation in its heyday.
  • “Although the surviving farm buildings attest to the once-significant farming operation, the acreage which remains associated with the houses now consists of woodland (behind and to the west of all three houses), terraced lawns (around the Robert Payne Richardson Houses II and III), and fallow fields (around the Robert Payne Richardson House I ). …
  • “It is believed that the house built by Robert Payne Richardson Sr. in the early 1840s originally stood on the site now occupied by Belmont, built by his son in 1912. This appears likely since the Belmont site is clearly the most commanding of the three on which the Richardson houses stand. Tradition also holds that the second house built by Richardson was joined to the first house, either directly or by a breezeway, and that the two were separated and moved to their present locations to the northeast and southwest of Belmont when the latter was constructed.”

2115 Georgia Avenue, Winston-Salem

• Sold on October 24, 2022 for $2.1 million (listed at $2.1 million)
• 5 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, 6,873 square feet, 1.43 acres
• Price/square foot: $306
• Built in 1928
• Listed September 6, 2022
• Last sale: $750,000, April 2014
• Neighborhood: Buena Vista
• Note: Designed by Luther Lashmit, original landscape design by Thomas Sears
  • The property includes a garage apartment of 817 square feet, 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom.
  • Something you don’t see very often: HVAC in the main house is geothermal.
  • From 1971 to 2014, the house was owned by Dr. George Podgorny. “George Podgorny was born in Iran, but his heritage was Czech and Armenian. His father taught physical education to the children of the Shah of Iran, and his mother wrote children’s books.
  • “It was decided that George would come to the United States after high school because the family felt that a U.S. university education would be superior. Dr. Podgorny left his family and came alone to Maryville College in Tennessee and decided to go into medicine. He became enamored with Wake Forest University School of Medicine (then the Bowman Gray Medical School) and its Baptist Hospital, was accepted there for medical school, and never left the region.” (ACEP Now: The Official Voice of Emergency Medicine)
  • After his residency in cardiothoracic surgery, Dr. Podgomy’s interest in trauma surgery led to a pioneering career in emergency medicine. He was instrumental in establishing emergency medicine as a medical specialty in the United States, serving as the first president of the American Board of Emergency Medicine and president of the American College of Emergency Physicians. He was honored as one of the founders of the specialty by the ACEP. He was instrumental in developing the EMS system and first responder program in North Carolina and served for many years as Forsyth County medical examiner for Forsyth County.
  • “One of his varied interests was herpetology, and he became recognized as a global expert in snake bites often fielding phone calls at all hours seeking advice on the appropriate treatment of snake bites and spider bites.
  • “He was a Renaissance man who spoke seven languages, lectured around the world on the history of medicine, published prolifically throughout his life, and had a keen appreciation of the Arts.” (full obituary here)

419 N. Stratford Road, Winston-Salem
The Garber House

• Sold for $945,000 on October 7, 2022 (listed at $975,000)
• 5 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, 4,195 square feet, 0.41 acre
• Price/square foot: $225
• Built in 1922
• Listed August 6, 2022
• Last sale: $785,000, December 2017
• Neighborhood: Buena Vista
• Realtor babble: “Stratford Road is the heartbeat of Buena Vista!”
• Note: This house has been sold six times since 2010.
  • The original owners were Grace Archer Garber (1890-1984) and Daniel Mason Garber (1888-1956). They moved to Winston-Salem from New York. Mason was a building contractor. They were first listed on Lovers Lane — the original name of Stratford Road — in 1925.
  • Two of their three daughters continued living with them as adults. Both women lived in the house until their deaths in the 21st century. Cornelia Mason “Neely” Garber (1921-2007) was a graduate of Salem College. She was a community volunteer with diverse interests, including Bundles for Britain during World War II, the Junior League, the Winston-Salem Arts Council, Family Services and the Winston-Salem Symphony, among others. She was the 1961 Arts Council Volunteer of the Year.
  • Her sister Mary Ellen Garber (1916-2008) was a pioneering and nationally recognized sportswriter. After graduating from Hollins College, she joined the Twin City Sentinel in 1940 as society editor. During World War II, she became a news reporter and then, briefly, a sportswriter. She returned to the sports section in 1946 and stayed there until she retired 40 years later. In retirement, she continued covering sports for the paper (by then merged into the Winston-Salem Journal) until 2002.
  • “When Miss Garber started writing about sports full time in 1946, the craft was essentially a man’s domain,” The New York Times said in its obituary for her. “Coaches often treated her with condescension, fellow sportswriters ignored her and professional associations kept her out.” Initially assigned to cover black high school and Winston-Salem State University, she became an early advocate for covering African American sports teams.
  • Her perseverance and professionalism gained her respect throughout the region and the nation. In 1990, the Atlantic Coast Conference established the annual Mary Garber Award to honor the conference’s top female athlete. In 2005, she became the first woman to receive the Associated Press Sports Editors’ Red Smith Award. The next year, the Association of Women in Sports Media renamed its Pioneer Award as the Mary Garber Pioneer Award.

• Sold for $1.25 million on September 28, 2022 (originally $2.5 million)
• 7 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, 4,000 square feet, 92 acres
• Price/square foot: $312
• Built in 1840
• Listed February 12, 2021
• Last sale: $575,000, August 2012
• Neighborhood: Hyco Lake
• HOA: $150/year (Person Caswell Lake Authority)
• Note: The property includes a barn, a guest house, a wedding venue, a garage, a workshop and three miles of trails.
  • It has a Semora (Caswell County) mailing address, but it’s just across the county line in Person County.

128 Pet Burwell Road, Warrenton, Warren County
The John Watson House
National Register of Historic Places

• Sold for $1.149 million on September 20, 2022 (listed at $1.149 million)
• 6 bedrooms, 7 1/2 bathrooms, 6,909 square feet, 9.89 acres
• Price/square foot: $166
• Built in 1815, expanded 1855 (per county; see note)
• Listed June 18, 2022
• Last sale: $685,000, December 2019
• Note: Now the Historic Magnolia Manor wedding venue
  • The wedding venue website says the original house was built in 1779. The National Register gives 1855 as the date of the expanded house.
  • Built by Jacob Holt: “Although not trend-setting or sophisticated, Jacob Holt’s work is important as a consistent and highly personalized oeuvre within the mainstream of mid-nineteenth-century American vernacular architecture.
  • “Particularly significant are three aspects of his work: he was prolific, constructing dozens of buildings in a many-county area, perhaps as many as eighty; many of his buildings are documented and either surviving or pictured; and at least two mid-nineteenth-century pattern books are known to have been his sources.
  • “His handsome Greek Revival buildings and distinctive, more ornate Italianate ones are an important element in the mid-nineteenth-century architectural fabric of North Carolina.” (NCpedia)
• From the National Register nomination: “… a unique example of the Greco-Italianate mode of Jacob Holt and his school. His style dominated Warren County and nearby areas in the decade before the Civil War.
  • “The Watson House is unusual in two respects: for the use of a front cross-hall and side wings seldom seen in Holt’s work, and for the construction of the 1850s house as an expansion of a much earlier dwelling. While most of Holt’s houses were built all of a piece, he was clearly not above expanding an existing house in his distinctive style — and leaving the early house pretty much intact.
  • “The house, typical of Holt’s two-story Italianate structures, has one of the county’s most beautiful porches and front entrance with well proportioned sawnwork brackets and graceful detail. In addition to the plan, the interior is important for its excellent and extensive marbleizing and woodgraining.
  • “The earlier house still retains its original integrity from the simple Federal finish of the baseboards and flat paneled mantel in the attic room of the ell to the fine mantel in the first floor east room, typical of the Federal era in Warren County.”

2842 S. Bitting Road, Winston-Salem

• Sold for $1.21 million on September 12, 2022 (originally $1.499 million)
• 5 bedrooms, 5 1/2 bathrooms, 5,066 square feet, 1.0 acre
• Price/square foot: $239
• Built in 1915
• Listed May 10, 2022
• Last sale: $251,500, August 1978
• Neighborhood: Country Club Estates
• Note: The property includes a carriage house.
  • Something you don’t see every day: “Exterior is made of historic stucco with rolled roof edges designed to look like an English thatched roof.”
  • From 1969-1978, the house was owned by Frank Christian Gray (1939-2001), one of five sons of Bowman Gray Jr., president of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company (as was Bowman Gray Sr.). Chris was a graduate of Yale. He worked for RJR in New York but then struck out on his own, establishing a consumer market research company. He later returned to Winston-Salem and worked for Merrill Lynch. He was a board member of Forsyth Technical Community College and Warren Wilson College, and he hosted the Piedmont Opera’s annual Magnolia Ball at the family farm, Brookberry, in Lewisville. He was married and divorced three times.
  • In 1978, Gray sold the house to the current owners. He lived for much of the rest of his life at Brookberry Farm.

615 N. Main Street, Mount Airy, Surry County
The Robert E. Smith House, also known as The Blue House

• Sold for $385,000 on August 31, 2022 (listed at $425,000)
• 5 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, 4,344 square feet (per county), 0.61 acre
• Price/square foot: $87
• Built in 1910
• Listed April 4, 2022
• Last sale: Unknown; it was bequeathed to its current owner, the Gilmer-Smith Foundation, by the will of interior designer and preservationist Gertrude Smith (1891-1981).
• Neighborhood: Mount Airy Historic District
• Note: The listing shows only 4,182 square feet.
  • The house served as the medical office of Gertrude Smith’s brother, Dr. Robert Edwin Smith (1897-1971). He was an ear, nose and throat specialist and a veteran of World Wars I and II.
  • Later, the house was the location of the Mount Airy Visitors Center and, for the past 17 years, the home of the Blue House Art Studio, which conducts art programs for special-needs artists. The home’s park-like backyard hosted summer music events.
  • The Blue House art program has been forced to close by the upcoming sale of the house. The Gilmer-Smith Foundation says it can no longer afford to maintain the programs and the house. It will continue to own the Gertrude Smith House at 708 N. Main, which is now a house museum, as dictated by Mrs. Smith’s will.
  • District NRHP nomination: “Two-and-one-half story frame Colonial Revival style house with projecting front and side bays.
  • “Tall corbelled chimneys extend above a high hip roof with gabled dormers; dormers accented by fanlighted windows and sawn shingles.
  • “Originally the house had a wrap-around one-story porch with sawn brackets; a portion remains as the south, side porch, where it was moved from the main elevation and replaced by an elaborate Federal style door surrounded by transom, sidelights and oversized dentils and metopes.”
  • The nomination identifies it with R.L. Haymore, a founder of the National Furniture Company, and his sister Martha.

7980 Valley View Drive, Clemmons, Forsyth County
The Robert and Nancy Lasater House

• Sold for $2.65 million on August 24, 2022 (originally $3.9 million, later $2.2 million)
• 7 bedrooms, 8 full and 4 half bathrooms, 12,881 square feet, 4.45 acres
• Price/square foot: $206
• Built in 1928
• Listed October 9, 2009
• Last sale: $625,000, December 2006
• Neighborhood: Fair Oaks
• Note: Designed by Charles Barton Keen for Robert E. Lasater (1867-1954), an executive of R.J. Reynolds, and his wife, Nancy Margaret Lybrook Lasater (1877-1952), a niece of R.J. Reynolds. Nancy’s mother, Mary Josephine Reynolds Lybrook (1844-1888), was a sister of RJR. She was the first of 12 children; only seven survived to adulthood.
  • Landscape architecture by Thomas Sears, designer of Reynolda Gardens.
  • Listing: “One of the largest and most historical private homes in NC. Magnificent woodwork, intricate mural, crystal chandeliers, restored original Otis elevator … Circle drive / Antique Samuel Yelin wrought-iron staircase railing / Wide plank oak floors / Nine wood burning fireplaces / Intricate woodwork and molding / Restored Zuber wall mural / Antique chandeliers and sconces by E.F. Caldwell.”
  • The house has been listed and withdrawn without a sale several times since 2009.

428 S. Main Street, Old Salem
The Dr. J.F. Shaffner House

• Sold for $1.899 million on August 23, 2022 (listed at $1.899 million)
• 5 bedrooms, 5 1/2 bathrooms, 7,124 square feet, 0.45 acre
• Price/square foot: $267
• Built in 1873
• Listed June 22, 2022
• Last sale: $600,000, March 2018
• Listing: “hidden secrets to be disclosed once under contract!”
  • The house includes an apartment with a kitchenette.
  • District NRHP nomination: “This fine example of the Second Empire style, the Shaffner House, is symbolic in many ways. Associated with three historically significant families in Salem: Shaffner, Vogler and Fries, the house represented growth and expanding wealth of Forsyth County in the 1870s and that manifestation in the town of Salem. In addition, the house was also a hotly-debated preservation issue during Old Salem’s first forty years, with many eager to remove it as an intrusion and interpret the important early pottery site on the lot.”
  • Located on the unusually large Lot 48, previously the site of a building that housed the Salem Pottery (1768-1829) and then the Concert Hall, the Temperance Society, the 1849 Forsyth County courthouse, and a school. The lot was sold to John Nissen in 1865 and then in 1868 to Dr. J.F. Shaffner (1838-1908).
  • “Shaffner, a Salem native and son of potter Heinrich Schaffner, was then recently back from service as a doctor in the Civil War. A protégé of Francis Fries since before the war, Shaffner became a prominent physician and was an active participant in the railroad, industrial pursuits, the Moravian Church, and the Town of Salem.
  • “By 1871, Dr. Shaffner was operating a drug store in a building constructed by Nissen on Lot 48. The pottery buildings were cleared and construction of the Shaffner House began in 1873 by Fogle Brothers Company.
  • “Elias A. Vogler was the architect of this new house for his niece Caroline Fries [1839-1922] (daughter of Francis and Lisetta Vogler Fries) and her husband Dr. Shaffner. Vogler was an artist and former merchant who had designed Salem Cemetery (1857) and stylistic renovations to homes in Salem in the 1870s.”
  • “It was the first large house to be built in Salem after the Civil War. The highly decorative, two-story brick house on a brick foundation has a clipped-corner, gray slate Mansard roof with concave sides. The house was set well back from the street and connected to the pre-existing drugstore and an icehouse by several porches.
  • “The main block of the house is five bays and has a pressed brick facade of running bond (other elevations common bond) with many decorative features, including red glass transoms and sidelights at the arched paneled double door centered entrance, richly ornamented pediments and bracketed sills at the tall four-over-four sash windows, and a center-bay tripartite window above the portico.
  • “There are pilaster strips at the corners, rectangular brick panels between paired scrolled brackets set on small molded shelves supporting wide eaves, and decorative hood molds at the round arch dormers.
  • “The tall brick end chimneys feature recessed arches above the roof line (south corbelling is missing). The paired brackets and brick panels at the cornice continue around the house; however, other decorative features are less apparent on other elevations.
  • “A large frame decorative bay window room on the south elevation served as a greenhouse for Dr. Shaffner. …
  • “Following the deaths of Dr. Shaffner and his adult son John Francis, Jr. [1874-1910], their widows (Caroline and Margeretta, respectively) had changes made to the house and lot in 1913. The drugstore and icehouse were removed and a two-story brick addition (with one-story rear brick section) was made to the north side of the house by Fogle Brothers. A new dining room and kitchen were included in this addition which is dominated by a large bay window on the first floor facade, the remaining fenestration (without decorative pediments and sills) and roof line continue from the main block. The three-bay front porch was altered at this time from Italianate to Classical Revival with four Ionic columns and a modillioned cornice. The 1874 main block and the 1913 addition blended together to create a unified and pleasing whole.”
  • Margeretta Shaffner (1874-1952) left the house in 1938, and things gradually got messy. The house was unoccupied until 1944, when it was bought by Evan and Emma Norwood, Moravian missionaries returning from China. They remodeled the house as six apartments and lived in one of them. Later, their son John took responsibility for the house.
  • “It was during the Norwood family’s ownership that the house became the subject of great controversy in the debate of the restoration in Old Salem. Because of the pottery site significance and because the Shaffner house was beyond the interpretive dates for Old Salem (1766-1856), there was a strong desire to acquire Lot 48 and remove the house. John Norwood repeatedly refused to sell the property for demolition.” John died in 1993, and his brother Wilson sold the house in 1994 to owners who restored it as their single-family residence.

518 Fountain Place, Burlington, Alamance County
The Atwater-Pyne House

• Sold for $550,000 on August 16, 2022 (listed at $525,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, 3,972 square feet, 0.56 acre
• Price/square foot: $138
• Built in 1923
• Listed June 25, 2022
• Last sale: $365,000, April 2016
• Neighborhood: West Davis Street-Fountain Place Historic District (local and NRHP)
• Note: Home of J. Minetree Pyne and Jessie Ormand Pyne from 1963 to 1997 (owned by Alamance County Hospital 1963-1980 and by the Pynes 1980-1997). James Minetree Pyne (1917-1994) served as administrator of Alamance County Hospital from 1956 to 1980. He was a member of the first Alamance County Historical Commission. Preservation Burlington gives an annual award bearing his name to outstanding restorations of historic homes.
  • The property includes a detached three-car garage.
• District NRHP nomination: “Built ca. 1925 for James Atwater, president of the Alamance Lumber Company, this two-story frame structure exhibits many of the hallmarks of the Colonial Revival style of architecture used for Period Houses of the 1920s and 1930s.
  • “Featuring a three-bay facade, the house has a side gable roof with a simple box cornice and now is clad in aluminum siding. Palladian windows light the attic area from the gable ends, and one-story side wings with flat balustraded roofs create a Georgian configuration.
  • “Single, stepped shoulder brick chimneys rise between the central block and the wings. Eight-over-twelve windows with five-light sidelights flank the classical entrance; the latter has an elliptical fanlight and four-pane sidelights and is sheltered by a gable-roofed single-bay entrance porch with paired Roman Doric columns.
  • “The house is situated at the center of a double lot and faces the fountain for which the street is named.”
  • Atwater (1982-1958) lived in the house until his death. It was sold to Alamance County Hospital after the death of his wife, Lillian Anderson Atwater (1876-1961).

• Sold for $81,000 on August 5, 2022 (listed at $110,000)
• 1,935 square feet, 18.92 acres
• Price/square foot: $42
• Built ca. 1820 or earlier
• Last sale: December 1999, price not recorded on deed
• Listing: “… a remarkably intact early 19th century tobacco farm situated in the rolling foothills of Rockingham County between Madison and Wentworth. ” “The original tall two-story log house is thought to have been built in the 1820s, but could be earlier according to some historians. It is constructed of hand hewn square-notched logs. A one-and-a-half story addition of similar construction was built in the 1840s next to the earliest section creating two rooms on the first floor separated by a center hall. A two-room rear ell was added to the back of the 1840s section around 1904 creating even more space.”
  • “The log house will require extensive rehabilitation in the 1820s section including foundation work and new flooring, ceiling repair, and the installation of mechanical systems including electrical, plumbing and HVAC. The 1840s side with rear ell is habitable, but will benefit from cosmetic updates and possibly some system upgrades. A fire in 2006, which started on the second floor of the 1840s side and spread to the attic, resulted in the replacement of the roof, and loss of much of the original clapboard siding, the flush gable ends and boxed cornice.”

1604 N. College Park Drive, Greensboro 
The George O. Fowler House
Blog post — Classic House of the Week: ‘One of Greensboro’s Most Elegant’ Homes In College Park, $749,000 (previous listing)

• Sold for $515,000 on August 2, 2022 (listed at $475,000)
• 5 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, 3,372 square feet, 0.58 acres
• Price/square foot: $153
• Built in 1926
• Listed July 3, 2022
• Last sale: $554,500, May 2022 (included a 0.32-acre lot behind the house facing Mayflower Street)
• Neighborhood: College Park
• Note: The property does not include an adjacent lot behind the house on Mayflower Drive.
  • Greensboro: An Architectural Record: “The Fowler House is one of Greensboro’s most elegant. Joining the Mediterranean and Spanish Revival styles, the yellow-brick villa is shaded by an arcade of fluted Doric columns that is topped by a green-tiled pent roof, brackets and a ballustrade.”
  • The original owners were George O. Fowler (1881-1948) and May Patterson Fowler (1884-1980). They bought the property in 1926; May sold it in 1970. George was manager of the Patterson Brothers grocery store, working with brothers, a sister and an uncle of May. He had joined the company by 1905 and in 1907 was listed as one of the proprietors. George and May married in 1912 and were together until his death 36 years later. She outlived him by 32 years but never remarried.

2309 Lafayette Avenue, Greensboro
Blog post on Greensboro Historic Homes — Two Million-Dollar Mansions Sell Suddenly in Irving Park, But You Still Have a Few to Choose From

• Sold for $972,000 on July 15, 2022 (originally $1.049 million)
• 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 3,002 square feet, 0.66 acre
• Price/square foot: $324
• Built in 1924
• Listed July 13, 2020
• Last sale: $550,000, March 2003
• Neighborhood: Irving Park
• Listing: The property includes a detached 1,600 square-foot “guest house/garage/rec room/office” with two bathrooms. Also “Moss walkways, Blue Stone patios & Koi Pond.”
  • From 1924 to 1930, the property was sold five times. In 1930, it was bought by its first long-term owner, surgeon Richard B. Davis. He owned the house until 1945.
  • Hampton Shuping, an executive with J.P. Stevens and his wife, Margaret, owned the house from 1958 to 1982. Stevens may be best remembered today as the bitterly anti-union textile company that served as the villain in the film Norma Rae. Stevens’s resistance to unionization was characterized by The New York Times in 1981 as “one of the ugliest episodes in recent labor history.”

2177 Highway 801 S., Advance, Davie County
The John Edward Belle Shutt House
Shutt House NRHP

• Sold for $200,000 on July 8, 2022 (listed at $144,500)
• 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1,593 square feet (per county), 6 acres
• Price/square foot: $126
• Built in 1885
• Listed June 10, 2022
• Last sale: $82,500, July 2019. Before that, the property had been in the Shutt family since before the houses were built.
• Note: The original one-and-a-half story timber frame house was built in 1885; the larger three-bay-wide weatherboard story-and-a-half house was added in 1905. They’re connected by a breezeway, providing air circulation throughout the house.
  • National Register nomination: “The J.E.B. Shutt House and outbuilding complex is an intact reminder of the emergence of a nineteenth- century, middle-class, subsistance-farm family who forged a successful business through inherent skills, careful management, and prosperous ventures. …
  • “During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Davie County, the Greek Revival style was being succeeded by the Italianate style which was followed by the Queen Anne style. Rarely did the rural house reflect the full expression of an architectural style but rather builders adapted details to traditional house forms.
  • “The post-bellum farmhouses in Davie County applied details of both Greek Revival and Italianate styles onto traditional house forms. The J.E.B. Shutt House form and simple stylistic details of both the 1885 block and the 1905 block are products of this post-war rebuilding era.
  • “The J.E.B. Shutt House, a typically conservative dwelling, blends delayed architectural details of Greek Revival and simple Italianate in the 1885 block with simple Queen Anne detail in the 1905 block. As such, the J.E.B. Shutt house personifies the traditional farmhouses of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and relates to their characteristics in general form and detail.
  • “The house is also a reflection of J.E.B. Shutt’s craft in that while the 1891 extension of the Southern Railroad allowed more access to manufactured goods, including mass-produced millwork, he elected to produce the woodwork for his new addition in his shop.
  • “Although J.E.B. Shutt was not a trained architect, evidence shows he had some knowledge of the architectural fashions of the day. This is exemplified by the entrance hall staircase which reflects the craftsmanship of J.E.B. Shutt while conveying his effort to achieve style.
  • “J.E.B. Shutt demonstrates his independence from the pure Greek Revival and Italianate styles through several characteristics in design. While the existence of both paired and single doors reflect the Greek Revival and the Italianate styles, five-panel doors are predominant instead of the more traditional one, two, and four panel doors of the Greek Revival style. The large panes of the front door and north side breezeway double doors express the Italianate detail. The simple door and window surrounds deviate from the typically ornate Greek Revival and Italianate houses.
  • “Although the characteristics of the mantels deviate from the more ornate Greek Revival and Italianate styles, the basic post and lintel mantelpieces are indicative of that style. Similar to many houses in the area … the hip-roofed porch extends over most of the front elevation with four posts linked by a balustrade support. The turned post and balustrades feature J.E.B. Shutt’s artistry in decorative detailing which are typical in the Queen Anne houses.”
  • “Wood products, such as furniture, grain cradles, coffins, and building materials, were the domain of the Shutt family who operated wood shops for nearly a century. John Edward Belle Shutt [1860-1932], son of John Wesley Shutt (1823-1888) and Mahala (Mahaley) Jane Sidden (1827-1870), in addition to maintaining a subsistence and cash crop farm, continued the family craftsman tradition with the 1898 establishment of his woodworking shop in an outbuilding adjacent to his house. He expanded his business into a separate commercial building on an adjacent lot to the north around 1905. …
  • “He furthered his enterprise by combining his blacksmith skills with woodworking to repair farm equipment and build wagon wheels, and later added to his expertise that of a licensed undertaker and coffin and casket dealer.”

853 Buttonwood Drive, Winston-Salem

• Sold for $880,000 on July 6, 2022 (listed at $799,900)
• 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 3,071 square feet (per county), 1.77 acres
• Price/square foot: $287
• Built in 1981
• Listed June 15, 2022
• Last sale: $699,900, June 2021
• Neighborhood: Sherwood Forest
• Note: Designed by Ed Bouldin.
  • The listing shows 3,582 square feet.
  • Previous listing: The property includes an Asian style landscape, two-level Japanese tea house, greenhouse/four-season sun room off the master bedroom.

1101 Virginia Street, Greensboro

• Sold for $680,000 on July 5, 2022 (listed at $629,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, 2,254 square feet, 0.31 acre
• Price/square foot: $302
• Built in 1913
• Listed May 6, 2022
• Last sale: $550,000, March 2021
• Neighborhood: Fisher Park Historic District (local and NRHP)
• Listing: “meticulously restored”
  • The property includes an outdoor fireplace, outbuilding and hot tub.
  • District NRHP nomination: “German Revival: Clipped gables extend over 2nd-story windows, both of which have a flower box with rounded supports that match the exposed eaves of the main hipped roof; gabled portico has upturned eaves & a rounded arch supported by 2 battered posts; windows are in groups with small multi-paned upper sash.”
  • The original owners appear to have been cotton broker Robert L. Thompson and Anne Busbee Thompson. he original address appears to have been 300 W. Bessemer Avenue, an address that no longer exists. They sold the house in 1919 to Grover Cleveland Cox (1885-1944) and Mable C. Cox (1896-1928). Grover was secretary-treasurer of Gate City Motor Company, the local dealer for Oldsmobile, Chalmers, Cole and Overland cars.

• Sold for $1.75 million on June 24, 2022 (originally $1.99 million)
• 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 6,713 square feet, 2.94 acres
• Price/square foot: $261
• Built in 1933
• Listed August 6, 2021
• Last sale: $77,000, May 1976
• Neighborhood: Fair Oaks
• Note: The house is on Lasater Lake, through which Blanket Creek flows on its way to the nearby Yadkin River.
  • The mill was designed by Northup & O’Brien. It was built as an outbuilding for Robert E. Lasater (1867-1954), an executive of R.J. Reynolds, and his wife, Nancy Margaret Lybrook Lasater (1877-1952), a niece of R.J. Reynolds. Nancy’s mother, Mary Josephine Reynolds Lybrook (1844-1888), was a sister of RJR; she was the first of 12 children, only seven of whom survived to adulthood.
  • Listing: The mill house is functional.
  • “Listing includes three additional parcels including a boat house/guest quarters.”
  • A website that was never fully built out suggests the house was or was going to be an art gallery around 2009.

4798 Pfaff Lane, Pfafftown, Forsyth County
The John Henry Pfaff House

• Sold for $339,900 on June 22, 2022 (listed at $339,900)
• 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, 2,641 square feet, 0.58 acre
• Price/square foot: $129
• Built in 1904 (per county property records)
• Listed May 19, 2022
• Last sale: $166,500, February 1997
• Note: Forsyth County Historic Landmark, qualifying for a property-tax reduction of up to 50 percent.
  • “It is a fine example of traditional, vernacular houses built in the Piedmont during the early 20th century,” the county’s description of the house says. “It is a two-story frame dwelling with an L-shaped configuration and Colonial Revival detailing. The house features a brick foundation and weatherboard siding.
  • “The gabled roof is pierced by interior brick chimneys. A one-story, gable-roof rear ell projects westward from the northwest corner of the house. The windows are two-over-two sash, and most have the original wood louvered shutters.
  • “On the front façade of the house, a shed-roof porch supported by Tuscan columns covers the three-bay façade and wraps around the projecting left front wing. The central entrance is composed of a pair of glass-and-wood paneled doors.
  • “At the southwest corner of the property stands a frame granary that was probably constructed around the same time as the house.”
  • John Henry Pfaff (1858-1949) was the great grandson of Peter Pfaff (1724-1804), the town’s namesake. After working in stores in Winston-Salem and Bethania, John Henry came home and opened a store of his own in 1891. It operated until 1972 at the corner of Yadkinville Road and Pfaff Lane.
  • “Pfaff’s store sold groceries, general merchandise, sewing machines, watches and clocks, gasoline, Goodyear tires, Ford automobile parts, and Johnson Harvester machinery, such as reapers, mowing machines, hay rakes, and plows. Highly esteemed in the community and known for his benevolent spirit and deeds, Pfaff operated his store until the mid 1940s, a few years before his death” at age 91.
  • Late in life, he was faced with choosing between two daughters, who didn’t get along, to inherit the house. Brilliantly, he left it to his sons to decide after his death. It would be interesting to know how the brothers felt about their sisters; from their Solomon-like decision, it’s impossible to tell.
  • “They had the property resurveyed, with a dividing line running through the center hall of the house. Louise received the portion of the house located north of the line, while Anna received the part south of the line.” How well the arrangement suited the sisters isn’t documented, but it lasted for 34 years, until both died in 1983.
  • The property was left to Louise’s children (Anna was unmarried). In 1988, they sold it to new owners who restored it.

148 Bridge Street, Milton, Caswell County
The Gordon-Brandon House

• Sold for $25,000 on June 15, 2022 (listed at $32,500)
• 1,968 square feet, 1.7 acres
• Price/square foot: $13
• Built around 1850
• Note: The buyer in this sale was the Historic Preservation Foundation of North Carolina.
  • Listing: “It was purchased by an absentee owner in 2000 and suffered several years of neglect. Happily, it was recently purchased by a local preservationist who has enlisted Preservation NC’s assistance to find someone to purchase and restore it to its former elegance.”
  • “An unusual example of a uniquely Milton house type, the Gordon-Brandon House is a modest-scale raised Greek Revival cottage consisting of a brick lower level and a wood frame upper level containing the main entrance and ornamentation.”
  • “The house has suffered neglect for several years and will need a complete rehabilitation.”
  • The property is located in the Milton National Register Historic District and is eligible for tax credits.
  • In better days:

212 Worth Street, Asheboro, Randolph County
The D.B. McCrary House

• Sold for $400,000 on June 9, 2022
• 6 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, 4,100 square feet, 0.57 acre
• Price/square foot: $98
• Built in 1890
• Not listed for sale in MLS
• Last sale: $45,000, October 1985
• Note: The house is built on the site of the home of Gov. Jonathan Worth (1802-1869), who served after the Civil War from 1865 to 1868 (that home no longer exists). This house was built by Doctor Bulla McCrary (1875-1946), known as “D.B.” (His actual first name was ‘doctor”; for more on his unusual name, see “Doctor Bulla McCrary” in The Strangest Names in American Political History). Also on the site are the homes of D.B.’s two sons, Charles Walker McCrary and James Franklin McCrary, both of which are Randolph County Historic Landmarks.
  • D.B. was born on a farm near Asheboro and attended Oak Ridge Military Academy and Trinity College, before its move to Durham.
  • NCpedia: “His earliest business experience was as a dealer in timber products. In 1898 he established residence in Asheboro where he opened a hardware and farm implement store in partnership with Thomas Henry Redding, who became his brother-in-law. In 1908 the two acquired Acme Hosiery Mills, a small plant in Asheboro making women’s cotton stockings. In 1916 they purchased Sapona Cotton Mills, which had been operating as a cotton yarn mill in nearby Cedar Falls for about eighty years. Sapona was a source of yarn for the hosiery plant until cotton was superseded by silk and synthetic fibers.
  • “McCrary Hosiery Mills was established in 1927 to produce ladies’ full-fashioned silk stockings to complement the circular knit product made in Acme. In 1936 the cotton mill became the Sapona Manufacturing Company, converting to silk processing at the time and later to the production of nylon and other synthetic textured yarns. With the acquisition of Marlowe Manufacturing Company of Florence, S.C., after McCrary’s death, the textile complex that he had founded became Acme-McCrary Corporation, one of the largest of its kind.”
  • McCrary led the establishment of Randolph Hospital and served as mayor of Asheboro and as a district commissioner and interim chairman of the N.C. State Highway Commission.
  • Later, the home was bought by Bartlette B. Walker (1922-1973), CEO of the B.B. Walker Shoe Company. He started the business in 1947. It is still operating, selling mainly to wholesalers. In 1985, the property passed from his widow, Edna Andrews Walker (1924-2020), to their children, Bartlette Jr. and Lorraine W. Foster, the sellers in this sale.

303 S. Mendenhall Street, Greensboro
The Effie M. Anderson House
Blog post (2020) — 303 S. Mendenhall Street: A 1914 Harry Barton Classic in College Hill, $449,900

• Sold for $645,000 on May 31, 2022 (originally $575,000, later $699,000)
• 6 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 3,807 square feet
• Price/square foot: $172
• Built in 1914
• Listed October 19, 2021
• Last sale: $449,900, December 2020
• Neighborhood: College Hill Historic District (local and NRHP)
• Note: For sale by owner
  • Designated as a Guilford County historic landmark
  • Designed by Harry Barton. Few architects have been as historically prominent in Greensboro and across the state as Harry Barton. For more than 20 years until his death in 1937, he designed several of the Greensboro’s most notable buildings, including the UNCG Auditorium, the Quad and others on the campus; the Guilford County Courthouse; the Cone Export and Commission Building; First Presbyterian Church and Presbyterian Church of the Covenant; and World War Memorial Stadium. 
  • Effie McLean Anderson (1884-1946) was a widow. She bought the house in 1915, about a year after her husband died; they had been married less than four years. She had no children and never remarried. (Effie did have a step-daughter, Fannie Anderson Sutton, but may not have raised her. Fannie’s mother died at age 30 in 1910, when Fannie was four years old. Fannie lived to be 99, dying in 2006 at her home at Well-Spring Retirement Community.)
  • Effie owned the house until February 9, 1946; she died eight days later at the age of 61.
  • Her husband, William Irvin Anderson (1878-1914), died at age 35 while having his appendix taken out. He was the founder and owner of W.I. Anderson Produce at 245 E. Friendly Avenue. His building has been converted to offices but is still identifiable by the words “♦ FRUITS ♦ PRODUCE ♦” over the door facing East Friendly (click on the photo to see it bigger):

1601 N. College Park Drive, Greensboro
The Cox-Ellinwood House

• Sold for $652,000 on May 27, 2022 (listed at $637,500)
• 4 bedrooms 3 bathrooms, 3,092 square feet (per county), 0.52 acre
• Price/square foot: $211
• Built in 1925
• Listed April 5, 2022
• Last sale: $345,000, July 1995
• Neighborhood: College Park
• Note: The listing shows 3,271 square feet.
  • The property was sold three times in less than 18 months in 1924-25, around the time the house was built. The first owners who lived in the house appear to have been Grover Cleveland Cox (1885-1944) and Mabel Clarice Causey Cox (1896-1928). Grover was secretary-treasurer of Gate City Motors, which sold Chrysler cars and Firestone tires. The house was sold after his death in 1944.
  • In 1949, Dr. Everett Hews Ellinwood (1901-1969) and Hulda Eggleston Holloman Ellinwood (1901-1993) bought the house and owned it for 44 years. Everett was the county health director. In 1950 he declared a ordered a quarantine of dogs because of an outbreak of rabies. In one month, 22 people were bitten by rabid animals; eight dogs were found to be rabid. After his death in 1969, Hulda owned the house until her death in 1993.

1948 Farmington Road, Farmington, Davie County
The Charles F. and Jane A. Bahnson House

• Sold for $535,000 on May 20, 2022 (listed at $539,900)
• 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 3,364 square feet and 6.1 acres (both per county records)
• Price/square foot: $159
• Built circa 1878
• Listed March 31, 2022
• Last sale: $474,900, May 2021
• Neighborhood: Farmington Historic District (NRHP)
• Note: The property has a Mocksville mailing address. Farmington is 9 miles north of Mocksville and 9 miles west of Clemmons.
  • The listing shows 3,700 square feet, a bit larger than county records say.
  • The property includes a barn and two tractor sheds.
  • Listing: “There is also a detached workshop with electricity that could be turned into living space.”
  • NRHP district nomination: “This I-house features a projecting, full-height, gabled central entrance bay with a double-leaf door and a hip-roofed front porch with a gable over the entrance.
  • “Turned porch posts have replaced the original square, bracketed posts and a square vent now pierces the front gable in place of the original decorative gable vent, but the house retains Italianate-style elements such as the heavy sawn work brackets that ornament the boxed cornices and the original two-over-two sash that illuminate the interior.
  • “A bay window projects from the north elevation’s first story, and a bracketed flat-roofed hood shelters the south elevation’s first-story window. Six-over-six sash light the attic. A standing-seam metal roof protects the house.
  • “The rear ell consists of two small gabled sections. The two-room western section is slightly taller and has a central brick chimney and a bay window on the north elevation.
  • “The shed-roofed porch on the south elevation has been enclosed to create a sun porch.
  • “According to family tradition, the ell’s east end was originally a detached kitchen and has been remodeled to serve the same function.
  • “A small room in the southeast corner, which served as a pantry, has been converted into a laundry room, while the adjacent room, originally a meat storage closet, is now a bathroom. The shed-roofed porch on the south elevation has been enclosed to serve as a garage.
  • “The interior retains original plaster walls, tall baseboards, plaster ceilings, and a stair with a turned newel post, turned balusters, and a molded handrail that rises from the center hall’s east end to a landing above the front door.
  • “As in several other Farmington dwellings, plaster arches frame the recesses on either side of the chimney and the bay window in the northwest room, which served as the parlor. The parlor and south second-floor bedroom mantels feature circular medallions incised from the central panels. …
  • “Molded trim surrounds the windows and original two-raised-vertical-panel doors. Two-light transoms surmount each door that leads into a hall.
  • “Electric light fixtures, probably installed about the time Farmington received electric service in 1921, remain in several principal rooms. The brass chandeliers in the dining room and hall were removed from Farmington Methodist Church when the interior was updated in the late 1980s.
  • “Carpeting covers the original wide cypress floors in the halls and bedrooms. Central plaster medallions ornament the parlor and dining room ceilings. The south second-floor bedroom ceiling features decorative plaster work in each corner.”
  • “Charles Frederic Bahnson (1840-1911) and his wife Jane Amanda Johnson (1842-1926), known as Jennie, erected the two-story main block after inheriting money from his mother’s uncle Israel George Loesch’s estate in 1878, but the one-story ell is older. Jennie’s parents, George Wesley and Martha Williams Taylor Johnson, gave the couple land in Farmington that included two small houses (formerly slave quarters according to oral tradition) at the time of their marriage on December 6, 1865. The Bahnsons initially resided on Johnson family property (which is now Tanglewood Park), but moved to Farmington and joined the two existing dwellings to create their home, which they occupied in August 1867.”
  • “The young couple established a successful farm on the land her parents gave them in Farmington, and Charles opened a small office and jewelry shop in a one-room building adjacent to their home. He also traveled throughout the region offering watch repair and optometry services in county seats on court days.”

1011 Center Church Road, Eden, Rockingham County
The Johns Manor House (also known as the Johns-Osborne House)

• Sold for $395,000 on May 20, 2022 (listed at $395,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 3,970 square feet (per county), 2.55 acres (per county)
• Price/square foot: $99
• Built in 1840 (sometimes listed as 1850)
• Listed June 18, 2019
• Last sale: $366,500, August 2021
• Note: Designated as a historic landmark by the Eden Historic Preservation Commission
  • The house was built by Dr. Anthony Bennings Johns Sr. (1800-1874), one of the first physicians in Leaksville. It originally was a two-story brick farmhouse.
  • Epitaph: “In the comfort of a reasonable, religious and holy hope.””
  • The family called it Bleak House.
  • Dr. Johns left the house to his daughter Annie Eliza Johns (1831-1889). Annie was a nurse during the Civil War and a poet. Her novel, Cooleemee, a Tale of Southern Life, was published in 1882. It is available to be read online through the Library of Congress.
  • Epitaph: “Asleep in Jesus” (guessing on the last word, which isn’t very legible)
  • Annie gave the house to her brother, Dr. Anthony Bennings Johns Jr. (1835-1915). He was an 1857 graduate of Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. His thesis was titled, “The Diseases of Rockingham County, N.C.”
  • During the Civil War, Anthony rose to the rank of captain in the infantry before becoming an army doctor in 1863. He was left behind after the Battle of Gettysburg to care for the wounded. He was taken prisoner, but within three months he was back with the 45th N.C. Infantry as assistant surgeon. In early 1864 he resigned his commission due to ill health (anemia and diarrhea), apparently resulting from his time as a prisoner of war. After the war he practiced in Leaksville with his father.
  • Epitaph: “Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace. Psm 37:87”
  • Around 1950, the house was bought by Douglas Floyd Osborne (1910-1974), an attorney and mayor of Leaksville. His family continued to own it until 2009.
  • The property has been used as an event center in the past.
  • City ordinance designating the house as a historic landmark: “The original house was a large brick, one-room-deep, two-story structure with a rear two-story ell. …
  • “The main house was enlarged in the late 19th or early 20th century with a two-story addition behind the original structure.
  • “In the mid-20th century, a one-story wing over a basement was added on the rear and east side of the main house. A wide two-story portico with square columns was also added sometime in the 20th century, giving the home a ‘Mount Vernon’ style appearance.”

1224 Glade Street, Winston-Salem
The Carroll-Trivette House

• Sold for $690,000 on May 12, 2022 (listed at $645,000)
• 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, 2,976 square feet, 0.21 acre
• Price/square foot: $232
• Built in 1910
• Listed April 12, 2022
• Last sale: $465,000, August 2009
• Neighborhood: West End Historic District (local and NRHP)
• District NRHP nomination: “The Carrell-Trivette House is a simple but bold example of the Colonial Revival style typical of many built in the first quarter of this century, including several in the West End.
  • “The two-story weatherboarded dwelling has a hip roof with overhanging boxed eaves, a hipped dormer, twelve-over-one sash windows with louvered shutters, and a wrap-around porch with paneled Tuscan posts and a plain balustrade.
  • “Beneath the porch is a projecting central entrance with Craftsman door, sidelights, and transom. Of necessity the house has steep front steps and steep flights of steps leading up the terraced front lawn. A stone retaining wall borders the front yard.
  • “The 1912 Sanborn Hap shows a one-story house on this site, but in 1917 the present house was depicted on the map.
  • “Until at least 1930 it was the residence of Cary L. and Lettie Carroll. He was a bookkeeper for Crawford Plumbing and Hill Supply.” Cary (1880-1959) also worked at various times as chief clerk for Union Guano Company, a fertilizer firm, and in real estate. He was one of 11 children, all of whom reached adulthood.
  • After Lettie’s death in 1931 at age 50 (Letitia Brown Lemy-Carroll, 1880-1931), he appears to have moved to Stokes County, where by 1936 he was serving on the Stokes County Board of Elections. He lived in King and later Mountain View. He didn’t sell the house until 1943.
  • “In 1943 the Carrolls sold the house to Harter H. and Blanche G. Trivette, and their family occupied it until 1975.” Presumably, the sellers were Cary and his second wife, Naomi King Carroll, 1913-1986. Naomi was 33 years younger than Cary and six years younger than his daughter.
  • Harter Trivette (1883-1964) was a bookkeeper for R.J. Reynolds. His epitaph: “May the Lord watch between me and thee while we are absent one from the other.”
  • Epitaph for Blanche Elizabeth Garner Trivette (1902-1988): “Not my will but Thine be done”

506 N. Mendenhall Street, Greensboro
The Grubbs-Wilson House
Blog post: Sold: A 1920 Craftsman Bungalow in Greensboro That Might Best Be Called The Nina Riggs House

• Sold for $650,000 on May 11, 2022 (originally $675,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, 3,233 square feet, 0.34 acre
• Price/square foot: $201
• Built in 1920
• Listed March 11, 2022
• Last sale: $300,000, November 2010
• Neighborhood: Westerwood
• Note: Oliver Leslie “Ollie” Grubbs (1881-1957) and Alice White Grubbs (1887-1964) bought the property in 1920 and were listed at the address in 1921. Ollie was a real-estate lawyer and an official of Southern Mortgage Loan & Land Company. They lost the house to foreclosure in 1928.
  • Jane Gilkeson Wilson (1889-1979) bought the house out of foreclosure in 1930. Her name alone was on the deed, although the name of her husband, Lawrence White Wilson (1887-1951), was on the mortgage along with hers. They had been married since 1912. Lawrence was a salesman for Greensboro Motor Car Company, which sold Buick cars, GMC trucks and Frigidaire appliances.
  • Jane sold the house in 1963. Curiously, on the 1930 deed, Jane was identified as “Jane G. Wilson” with no indication of her marital status; on the 1963 deed, she was “Mrs. L.W. (Jane Gilkeson) Wilson, Widow.”
  • 506 North Mendenhall may be known from now on simply as the Nina Riggs House. She and her husband, attorney John Duberstein, bought the house in 2010. Much has been written and deserves to be read about Nina Riggs. Her spare Wikipedia entry:
  • “Nina Ellen Riggs (March 29, 1977 – February 26, 2017)^[1] was an American writer and poet. Her best known work is her memoir, The Bright Hour,^[2] detailing her journey as a mother with incurable breast cancer. It was published shortly after her death. The book received critical acclaim.^[3][4][5][6] Riggs also contributed an article to New York Times series Modern Love.^[7]
  • “Riggs was born in San Francisco, California.^[1] She was the great-great-great granddaughter of Ralph Waldo Emerson.^[4] She received a bachelor’s degree in creative writing from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master of fine arts degree in poetry from UNC at Greensboro.^[1]
  • “Riggs was married to John Duberstein, an attorney with whom she had two sons. They lived in Greensboro, North Carolina.^[1]

5838 N.C. Highway 61 N., Gibsonville, Guilford County
The Simeon Wagoner House

• Sold for $605,000 on May 10, 2022 (listed at $579,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 4 1/2 bathrooms, 4,067 square feet, 8.33 acres
• Price/square foot: $149
• Built in 1861
• Listed March 22, 2022
• Last sale: $275,000, November 2004
• Note: The property includes a detached building that can be a garage or workshop.
  • NRHP nomination: “A brick dwelling with distinctive recessed panels and corbelling, the Simeon Wagoner House is a unique antebellum expression of the Italianate style in Guilford County. It was built in rural Guilford County in 1861 for Wagoner, a successful merchant and farmer, and his wife, Elizabeth.
  • “The structure’s stylish exterior finish, coupled with its vernacular. center-hall, single-pile plan and form, reflects the convergence of two contrasting forces in the county just prior to the Civil War: the sway of the traditional in an almost exclusively vernacular landscape and the impact of the North Carolina Railroad, which pulled the county into a more urbane world of architectural ideas.
  • “The house’s unusual Italianate features were probably drawn from the railroad, either directly, via the enterprise’s antebellum Italianate repair facilities in nearby Burlington, or indirectly, via other Italianate style structures the Wagoners could have viewed along the railroad’s line.”
  • “Simeon Wagoner (1827-1887) built his house, a mile northwest of the North Carolina Railroad’s Gibsonville depot, in the German Lutheran community of Friedens. An enterprising man whose commercial activities must have brought him into contact with a world beyond his rural community, Wagoner was a farmer, tanner, whiskey distiller, brickmaker, and store owner.
  • “At his general store, he sold meat, fish, whiskey, brandy, clothes, and leather goods. He shipped his whiskey by train from Gibsonville and by wagon along the Fayetteville Road, now Route 61 or Friedens Church Road, at the edge of which he built his house.
  • “In 1853 Wagoner married Elizabeth Summers (1831-1914). Four years later he inherited 103 acres of land from his father’s estate. Four years after that, in 1861, they built their house. Clay for the brick was dug locally and molded and fired into bricks across from the house.”

1000 Fairmont Avenue, Greensboro
The Langley-Mackenzie House

• Sold for $375,000 on May 6, 2022 (listed at $405,000)
• 3 bedrooms, 1 1/2 bathrooms, 2,030 square feet (per county), 0.25 acre
• Price/square foot: $200
• Built in 1931 (per county, but probably earlier)
• Listed April 2, 2022
• Last sale: $23,000, October 1970
• Neighborhood: Westerwood
• Note: The original owners were Philip G. Langley and Grace T. Langley. They bought the property in 1923, and the address appeared in the city directory in 1924. They sold the house in 1944. Philip was the co-proprietor of Langley Sales Company, a wholesaler of heating equipment. His partner was Cordes P. Langley. No other digital records relating to the Langleys appear to be available except for a patent issued to Philip in 1927. He and Christen Christensen of Chicago were awarded a patent for an electric switch, the lengthy explanation of which is here.
  • In 1970, the house was bought by Dr. David MacKenzie (1927-2008) and Patricia W. Mackenzie. David was a history professor at UNCG from 1969 to 2000 (then professor emeritus), specializing in Russian and European history with a particular interest in Serbia. He was elected to the Serbian Academy of Sciences in recognition of his works on Serbian history. He served with the Counter Intelligence Corps in Germany in 1946. He received the UNCG research excellence award in 1993 and the Southern Council Slavic Studies research award in 1994. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and was an organizer of the Greensboro Table Tennis Club. He was fluent in Russian, Serbian, German and French.

819 Washington Street, Eden, Rockingham County
The J.W. Hopper House
Blog post — The Best Example of Tudor Revival in Eden’s Central Leaksville Historic District, $245,000

• Sold for $245,000 on May 6, 2022 (originally $215,000, later $245,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, 3,941 square feet, 0.31 acre
• Price/square foot: $62
• Built in 1923
• Listed January 5, 2018
• Last sale: $35,000, February 1973
• Neighborhood: Central Leaksville Historic District (NRHP)
• Listing: “Paint allowance for exterior with acceptable offer. Sold As-Is.”
  • Previous listing: “Hardwoods under all carpet.”
  • The air conditioning appears to consist of mini-split systems throughout the house.
  • Out-of-state owner
  • District NRHP nomination: “The best example of the Tudor Revival style is the J.W. Hopper House located at 819 Washington Street (#98). Around 1920, James W. Hopper (1888-1965) Leaksville’s foremost architect, designed this academic rendition of the style for his family.
  • “The large two-and-one-half story house features the characteristic elements of applied half-timbering on rough stucco on the second story, brick first story, prominent gabled wings, and bands of multi-pane casement windows.”
  • “Careful exterior detailing includes soldier courses of brick above the first-story windows and just below the second-story windows and carved raking boards with brackets in all of the gables.
  • “This attention to detail continues on the interior where all of the trim, including deep crown molding, and all of the doors, which are the vertical two-panel type, are stained.
  • “Except for the tile floor in the solarium at the southeast corner of the house (which has been converted to a library with walnut paneling and shelves lining the walls), all of the floors are white oak.
  • “In the living room, tall walnut wainscoting rises to rough plaster walls and exposed beams highlight the ceiling.”

614 N. Spring Street, Winston-Salem
The James J. Norman House

• Sold for $493,000 on April 29, 2022 (originally $539,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, 2,618 square feet, 0.31 acre
• Price/square foot: $188
• Built in 1890
• Listed April 1, 2022
• Last sale: $87,000, July 1995
• Neighborhood: West End Historic District (local and NRHP)
• District NRHP nomination: “The Norman House is a little-altered vernacular Queen Anne dwelling built at the same time as 643 and 655 N. Spring St. Its asymmetrical plan includes a two-story L-shaped section with a one-story north side wing and rear ell.
  • “The weatherboarded frame house is ornamented with wood shingled gables (the peaks of which project slightly) and the ubiquitous wrap-around porch with turned posts and balustrade and sawnwork brackets.
  • “The city directories first list James J. Norman at this location in 1894/95, and the tax records list him as the only owner until … 1975. Norman was a principal in the wholesale grocery business, J.J. Norman Co.”

3290 U.S. Highway 158, Smith Grove, Davie County
The Sheek-Kimbrough House

• Sold for $350,000 on April 29, 2022 (listed at $319,900)
• 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2,482 square feet, 2.0 acres
• Price/square foot: $141
• Built in 1853
• Listed March 15, 2022
• Last sale: County records unavailable online
• Note: The house has a Mocksville mailing address but is in the Smith Grove community north of the town.
  • The property includes an in-ground swimming pool.
  • The Greek Revival house has been on the study list for the National Register since 1986.
  • From the valuable The Historic Architecture of Davie County, North Carolina: “In the county’s oldest brick buildings the highly decorative Flemish bond was used, sometimes only on two elevations. Flemish bond is characterized by the pattern of alternating headers and stretchers in the brickwork. … The latest use of this type of brickwork is in the Sheek-Kimbrough house in Smith Grove, built about 1852 …
  • “The Sheek-Kimbrough House is typical of Greek Revival style dwellings erected in Davie County during the 1850s. Its symmetrically arranged front (north) elevation is focused on the central entrance which is framed by wide sidelights. A gable-roofed porch with square posts formerly shielded this entrance.
  • “The house’s four walls are laid up in Flemish bond, the only surviving Greek Revival style structure in the county which exhibits such extensive use of this bond type. The ell originally had a porch but this was enclosed and brick veneered; the veneer was also unfortunately applied to the remainder of the brick ell.
  • “Inside, the dwelling displays a variety of symmetrically molded surrounds and two-panel doors. There is frequent use of a ceiling molding which is, in fact, a molded surround more typically found framing doors and windows. A mantel in the parlor is a fancifully decorated feature containing molded pilasters with corner blocks and a carved frieze.”
  • The house apparently was built by Albert Sheek (1825-1873), who at various times worked as a carpenter, machinist, postmaster and grist mill operator.
  • “This dwelling, which is thought to have been built in 1852, was long occupied by Dr. Marmaduke Kimbrough. Sheek had purchased a four-acre lot from his father in 1852 for $16. He sold it in 1858 to W.B. Brock for $1,050.00, a sum which surely implies that the house had been constructed.”
  • In 1870 Brock gave the house to his daughter Sarah E. Brock Kimbrough (1843-1931) and her husband, Dr. Maramaduke D. Kimbrough (1838-1910). They owned the house until their deaths.
  • Dr. Kimbrough was a physician. He was educated at Union Academy in Davie County and East Bend Academy in Yadkin County. He studied medicine under a local doctor and then at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1860. After serving as a surgeon in the Civil War, he practiced in Smith Grove until a few months before his death at age 72 and opened a drug store in Mocksville.
  • He and Sarah had nine children over a period of 28 years, all of whom reached adulthood and all but one of whom lived at least into their sixties.
  • Their daughter Rena (1871-1947) married Albert Sheek’s nephew James L. Sheek (1866-1931).

102 W. Decatur Street, Madison, Rockingham County
The Charles B. Pratt House

• Sold for $440,000 on April 21, 2022 (listed at $399,900)
• 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 4,049 square feet, 0.49 acre
• Price/square foot: $109
• Built in 1895
• Listed March 4, 2022
• Last sale: $234,000, March 2001
• Neighborhood: Decatur-Hunter Historic District (local)
• Note: The property includes a detached five-car garage.
  • An antique store operated in the house in the 1980s.
  • Charles Benton Pratt Sr. (1858-1928) was a merchant, businessman and livestock agent in Madison. He started a general merchandise store with his brother Thomas Ruffin Pratt (1856-1931); it later became the Pratt Hardware and Furniture Company.
  • “They sold farm implements, household hardware, building supplies and funeral supplies,” according to Following the Trails of the Southern Pratts, by F. P. Pratt. “They were the local agents for Oliver Plow Company and sold Majestic wood kitchen ranges. Charles also was livestock agent and sold horses, mules, and other livestock.”
  • The brothers also operated a funeral home.
  • Charles and Thomas had nine siblings. Two died in childhood; five others died by age 36.

530 Boone Road, Eden, Rockingham County
The King-Francis House

• Sold for $201,000 on April 6, 2022 (listed at $199,900)
• 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 3,141 square feet, 0.59 acre
• Price/square foot: $64
• Built in 1927
• Listed December 8, 2021
• Last sale: $49,500, May 1980
• Neighborhood: Leaksville, Boone Road Historic District (NRHP)
• District NRHP nomination: “The several units of this frame house reflect a complex history. The house originally consisted of the low two-story unit constructed in the late nineteenth century; its builder remains unknown.
  • “Prominent Leaksville businessman Doctor Franklin King owned the property as early as 1896 and may have built the original unit during the 1910s as a rental house.
  • “Upon his death in 1922, the house passed to his son, D. Frank King, and his wife, Anadel, who enlarged it with a series of additions. In 1936, a large one-story ell with a gable-end chimney was constructed and connected to the original house with the enclosure of a rear porch.
  • “In 1957, the original front porch facing the street was replaced with a small late nineteenth-century story-and-a-jump house moved from Bridge St. and attached to the front gable end. (The house moved from Bridge St. had been owned by D. Frank King’s uncle, John Seward King …).
  • “The shed-roofed board- and-batten building (#11a, contributing) south of the house was the original home of the internationally renowned King Chandelier Company, founded by D. Frank King in the early 1930s.”
  • The home was bought in 1980 by Harold David Francis (1921-2004) and his wife, Bonita Troxell Francis (1935-2019). Harold was a native of Draper and served in the Marines in World War II. He was the owner of Francis Photography and a charter member of the Eden Historic Preservation Commission, the Eden Preservation Society and Rockingham County Historical Society. Bonita, originally from Winston-Salem, was a graduate of Catawba College. She was a longtime teacher in the Rockingham County Schools. The house is being sold by their daughters.

118 Calahaln Road, Calahaln community, Davie County
The Dr. John F. Anderson House

• Sold for $325,000 on April 5, 2022 (listed at $325,000)
• 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2,432 square feet, 4.96 acres
• Price/square foot: $134
• Built in 1892
• Listed February 16, 2022
• Last sale: Apparently, it has been in the Anderson family since it was built.
• Neighborhood: Proposed Calahaln Historic District (on the N.C. study list for the National Register since 1986)
• Note: Dr. Anderson’s medical office, built in 1870, stands on the property.
  • The property is being sold by a grand-nephew of Dr. Anderson.
  • The property has a Mocksville address but is about 7 miles west of the town, just off U.S. 64.
  • John’s grandfather Captain Charles Anderson settled in Davie County in 1800. He was born in Scotland and served in the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War.
  • Dr. John F. Anderson (1837-1896) was a graduate of Davie Academy and New York City Medical College. He was an intern at Bellevue Hospital in New York. He began practicing in Davie County before the Civil War and continued until he died at age 59.
  • One of his sons, Dr. John Frederick “Fred” Anderson (1885-1957), played major league baseball in 1909 and 1913-18. A pitcher, he had a career record of 53 wins and 57 losses. He played for the Boston Red Sox, Buffalo Blues of the short-lived Federal League, and New York Giants. He pitched for the Giants in the 1917 World Series. He graduated from the University of Maryland in 1909 with a degree in dentistry. He also served in the U.S. Army in World War I. After the war, he practiced in Winston-Salem.

1040 Arbor Road, Winston-Salem
The Alex and Mamie Gray Galloway House

• Sold for $2.1 million on March 24, 2022 (listed at $2.385 million)
• 6 bedrooms, 6 full bathrooms and two half-bathrooms, 8,461 square feet, 2.23 acres
• Price/square foot: $248
• Built in 1926
• Listed September 2, 2021
• Last sale: $1.71 million, September 2006
• Neighborhood: Reynolda Park
• Note: Designed by Luther Lashmit, original landscape design by Thomas Sears
  • Designated as a Forsyth County historic landmark, qualifying it for a tax credit of up to 50 percent
  • The main house’s entire slate roof was replaced in 2019.
  • The property includes 1,458-square-foot guesthouse with recently remodeled kitchen and bath, not included in the square footage.
  • The house was built for Alexander Henderson Galloway Jr. (1870-1935) and Mary Eliza “Mamie” Gray Galloway (1876-1944). Alex had a diverse career among Winston-Salem’s leading corporations, including Brown Brothers Tobacco Company, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco and Wachovia Bank. Later he was a partner in the Galloway and Jenkins Insurance Agency before serving as manager of the Carolina and Zinzendorf hotels.
  • Mamie attended Salem Academy and at Miss Carey’s School in Baltimore. She and Alex married in 1901. She was a younger sister of Bowman Gray, who became president and chairman of RJR. He also was a benefactor and the original namesake of the medical school at Wake Forest University. Their father, James Alexander Gray, was one of the founders of Wachovia.
  • Alex died in an auto accident on the Greensboro-Winston-Salem highway. Mamie suffered a stroke that night and died nine years later after another stroke.

633 Jersey Avenue, Winston-Salem
The Huntley-Hauser House

• Sold for $499,000 on March 21, 2022 (originally $525,000)
• 3 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, 2,146 square feet
• Price/square foot: $233
• Built in 1922
• Listed April 18, 2020
• Last sold: $258,000, December 2007
• Neighborhood: West End Historic District (local and NRHP)
• Note: Out-of-state owner
  • District NRHP nomination: “This simple Tudor Revival house is a one-and-a-half-story stuccoed dwelling with multiple front and side gables, slightly projecting second story bays on the south side, grouped windows, and a corner engaged porch (now enclosed) beneath the sweeping north slope of the front gable.”
  • The original owners appear to have been Benjamin Franklin Huntley Jr. (1900-1962) and Elizabeth Bailey Royall Huntley (1897-1978). He was working his way up the corporate ladder in the companies of his father, one of Winston-Salem’s more prominent businessmen and president of B.F. Huntley Furniture, Huntley-Hill-Stockton of Winston-Salem and Greensboro, and Winston-Salem Hotel Company. Junior was Senior’s only son (he had five sisters). He later established his own firm, B.F. Huntley Associates, manufacturers agents. By 1926 he and Elizabeth were living elsewhere.
  • NRHP nomination: “Various owners through the years used this house as rental property, but between 1954 and 1985 Clifton K. and Cordie H. Hauser owned the house and occupied it for some, if not all, of those years.”
  • Clifton Kermit “Kip” Hauser (1901-1973) was a department manager at Hull-Dobbs, a Ford car and truck dealer. Cordie Irene Money Hauser (1905-1985) was the youngest of nine children, all of whom survived to adulthood (sisters Daisy, Esther, Minnie and Myrtle, and brothers Buret, Ralph, Raymond and Spurgeon). Like her husband, she was a native of Forsyth County.

349 Pine Valley Road NW, Winston-Salem
The Thad and Nell Lewallen House

• Sold for $980,615 on March 11, 2022 (listed at $1.2 million)
• 5 bedrooms, 3 full bathrooms, 2 half-bathrooms, 4,718 square feet (per county), 1.28 acres
• Price/square foot: $208
• Built in 1946
• Listed November 8, 2021
• Last sale: $285,000, May 1981
• Neighborhood: Buena Vista
• Note: Designed by William Roy Wallace
  • The listing shows 5,831 square feet.
  • The property’s original address was 410 Westview Drive.
  • The house was built by Alvis Thad Lewallen (1888-1945) and his wife, Nell Shippey Lewallen (1897-1979). They bought the property in 1943. After Thad’s death, Nell owned it until 1965.
  • In 1936, Thad was a partner in Bennett-Lewallen, a wholesaler of candy, fountain supplies, over-the-counter drugs, tobacco and other products, when he bought the rights to Goody’s Headache Powder from local druggist Martin Goodman. Although Goody’s was created after rival products B.C. and Stanback, Thad turned it into the market leader (and sponsor of Richard Petty). After his death at age 57, Nell and, later, their daughter, Ann Lewallen Spencer (1928-2016), ran the company. It was sold to GlaxoSmithKline in 1995 and then to Prestige Brands in 2012. (Click here for more on the company and the headache-powder industry)

4606 E. N.C. Highway 150, Browns Summit, Guilford County
Blog post — 4606 N.C. Highway 150 East: An African American Blacksmith’s 1913 Home to be Auctioned (October 2020)

• Sold for $237,900 on March 8, 2022 (listed at $237,900)
• 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2,230 square feet, 1.15 acres
• Price/square foot: $107
• Built in 1913
• Listed February 3, 2022
• Last sale: $138,470, November 2021
• Note: Prince E. Taylor Sr. (1865-1953) bought the property in 1904 from Cesar and Jeannette Cone. He paid $164. Taylor owned the property until his death.
  • His obituary in the Greensboro Daily News: “Veteran Blacksmith Claimed By Death: Prince E. Taylor, 87 year-old Brown Summit Negro blacksmith, died Friday at his home following a short illness. The elderly blacksmith had worked at his trade for more than 50 years. He continued to work until the last day of 1952 and became ill on New Year’s Eve. He is survived by four daughters, two sisters and three grandchildren. Funeral will be conducted at 2 p.m. Monday at the Locust Grove Baptist Church…Burial will be in the church cemetery.”
  • It’s unclear who inherited the house, but daughter Annie Taylor Buffaloe (1899-1992) inherited it in 1983. She sold it in 1987.

312 Indera Mills Court, Winston-Salem
National Register of Historic Places

• Sold for $451,500 on February 14, 2022 (originally $489,000)
• 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, 1,950 square feet
• Price/square foot: $232
• Built in 1910
• Listed November 20, 2021
• Last sale: $310,000, October 2011
• Note: For sale by owner
  • Condo in the Mill at Tar Branch, a former textile mill.

213 W Main Street, Yadkinville, Yadkin County
The S. Carter Williams House

• Sold for $287,000 on January 18, 2022 (listed at $339,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 3,098 square feet, 0.99 acre
• Price/square foot: $93
• Built in 1923
• Listed November 4, 2021
• Last sale: $36,000, April 2018
• Notes: Samuel Carter Williams (1887-1945) was a “widely known and popular lawyer” in Yadkinville (The Charlotte Observer, 1935). He also was a farmer, businessman and public official. He was born in Union Grove in Iredell County.
  • He served as register of deeds and county attorney for Yadkin County, representing Yadkin in apparently controversial negotiations with Forsyth County on the construction of a steel bridge across the Yadkin River in 1916.
  • He was elected mayor of Yadkinville in 1911 and served in the state House Representatives, 1915-16, and in the state Senate in the late 1920s. In 1929 he unsuccessfully proposed abolishing the state income tax and property taxes and replacing them with a statewide sales tax, excluding food. (On the same day, another senator proposed bringing back the whipping post for drunk drivers and bootleggers, among others.)
  • He was president of the Dixie Bond & Mortgage Company and of Southern Loan and Discount Company and Southside Realty Company, both of which were active in developing downtown Winston-Salem. He also served as a director of the Bank of Yadkin and the Statesville Air Line Railway Company.

313 S. Main Street, Old Salem, Forsyth County
The Belo-Stockton House
Blog post — Old Salem’s 1875 Belo-Stockton House: It’s Being Sold for the Second Time in a Year, This Time by a Certain Retired Banker

• Sold for $412,500 on January 6, 2022 (listed at $440,000)
• 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2,100 square feet
• Price/square foot: $196
• Built in 1875
• Listed September 9, 2021
• Last sale: $385,000, January 2021
• District NRHP nomination: “… John Levin Belo constructed his house on the northern half of Lot 83 (brother of Edward Belo … 455 S. Main St.). The house is commonly associated with Tilla Stockton, a music teacher who taught lessons in her home and at Salem College.”
  • “Set back from the street by a shallow yard with picket fence, the Italianate house is a one and one-half story common bond (5:1) brick building. The side gable roof (wood shingle) has open eaves with exposed rafter and purlin ends. There are two interior brick chimneys with corbelled caps.”
  • “The symmetrical five-bay façade features a prominent centered entry-bay portico with chamfered posts and turned balustrade. It shelters a double-leaf door with large two-light transom and sidelights.
  • “From a low concrete retaining wall at the sidewalk, three concrete steps lead to four wide wood steps which access the portico. Centered above the portico is a gabled wall dormer with narrow glazed doors set in a round arch, which open onto the flat porch roof. This basic configuration is repeated in simpler form on the rear elevation.”
  • “First floor windows are large light four-over-four sash. The upper gable ends have four-over-four sash windows at the second floor level and are flanked by four-light casement attic windows. All sash windows are hung with louver shutters.”