Historic Home – Page 2 – Piedmont Historic Homes

Sold: Ayershire, an Impressive 1935 Mansion in Sedgefield, $2.8 million

April 14, 2025

For sale, on and off, for 17 years, one of Sedgefield’s most extraordinary homes has been sold. Ayershire, the 1935 mansion at 3215 N. Rockingham Road, had been in the family of textile executive Nathan and Martha Adams Ayers since it was built.

The price was $2.8 million. That figure works out to $212 per square foot, far less than the price of many relatively ordinary houses these days. But there just aren’t many buyers looking for 13,000 square-foot mansions. The buyers in this case live a half-mile away in Sedgefield, so we can hope that they appreciate its value and that Ayershire won’t meet the same fate as two similarly impressive multi-million dollar mansions — Adamsleigh in Sedgefield and the J. Spencer Love House in Greensboro — that were bought in recent years and then torn down by owners with more arrogance than sense.

A Huge Condo in a 1920 Building in Downtown Lexington, $535,000

April 12, 2025

A 4,000 square-foot, $600,000 condo would be uncommon anywhere in the Piedmont. In downtown Lexington, it’s a unicorn. 121 N. Main Street is the second floor of a commercial building dating back to 1920 or so. The building itself is a small but attractive contributing structure to the Uptown Lexington Historic District on the National Register. It’s at the corner of North Main Street and East 2nd Avenue.

Condos over downtown retail spaces are familiar in larger cities, but why an owner would create one gigantic condo instead of two smaller and more affordable units is a mystery (the unit is owned by one of the condo’s developers). The condo is relatively new; the building was converted to a condominium in 2021. The interior is contemporary with no trace of historic character, not even an exposed brick wall. Its most striking feature is a 1,300 square-foot space that now contains a home theatre, pool table, ping pong table and arcade video-game machine (if you know a teen-age boy who can afford a $600,000 condo, pass this along).

Four Remarkable 19th-Century Homes Listed One After Another

February 15, 2025

February is typically a rather slow month for new listings, and this one is no exception. And yet four outstanding 19th-century homes have popped up in the first two weeks of the month, scattered from one end of the Triad to the other among the region’s smaller communities. It’s a rare profusion of significant properties.

One is on the National Register. One is built into a hillside so snugly rocks form part of the interior walls. One has fallen on hard times (the other three are in great condition). One went under contract just three days after listing. All are well documented, which isn’t surprising, given their prominence.

Click on the address links for more information.

2 Extraordinary Restoration Opportunities

August 19, 2024

It’s no surprise that it’s taking a while to find buyers for these two grand houses. Both are large projects that will require a lot of effort, vision and money. Neither, however, appear to be absolute, falling-down wrecks, and they both have the potential to be well worth the investment.

They both have stories. The Merry Oaks Hotel in Chatham County was once the center of a small but lively railroad community. The Charles T. Sinclair House in Carthage was built in 1904 and has never been sold. And with some luck and hard work (and money), they may have glorious futures ahead of them as well.

A Digression: The Heritage Brothers Big Three-Ring Trained Animal Circus, April-September 1926

August 16, 2024

This is a digression — there’s an interesting historic house that’s marginally involved — but who knew that two guys from Burlington started a big-time circus? Here’s a brief history, necessarily brief as there’s not a lot of information about it online (or probably anywhere else). I’ll post this to Wikipedia if I can figure out the coding on the footnotes.

The Heritage Brothers Circus had the distinction of being the only circus ever organized in Burlington. Circus veterans and brothers Albert and Arthur Heritage put the show together in the winter of 1925-26. It began operations by April 6, 1926, when it visited Raleigh. It closed on September 1, 1926, in Stafford, Kansas. The Greensboro Record reported that “it is thought that the show closed because it was not making good financially, as there were many misfortunes at different points in the itinerary.”

The 11 Most Interesting Homes Sold in July

August 9, 2024

July was a spectacular month for historic-home sales in the Piedmont (this month’s summary is a bit belated — lots going on, houses to visit, furniture to move around the house, four inches of rain yesterday). Two of the Piedmont’s most impressive National Register houses sold — a 1909 mansion in Greensboro and “the most ornate 19th-century mansion in Alamance County.” In Glencoe Mill Village, where few homes at all have come up for sale in recent years, four homes sold very quickly.

Add in a remarkable Mid-Century Modern by Edward Lowenstein in Sedgefield, a pair of 19th-century houses in Alamance and Yadkin counties, a 1935 mansion in Alamance (what a month for Alamance County!), and a 1940 Period Cottage in Wilkesboro, and the month’s sales provide a splendid cross-section of historic homes in the region.

An Unexpected New Direction for Greensboro’s Double Oaks, a 1909 National Register Mansion

August 2, 2024

One of Greensboro’s grandest historic mansions has been sold to a new owner with a new vision. Known as Double Oaks Bed and Breakfast for much of the past 25 years, the house has been bought by Down Home North Carolina, a statewide community-organizing group working “to build multiracial and working-class power in small towns and rural communities across North Carolina.” The house will serve as a community center, event venue and meeting place for the organization.

Update, August 9, 2024: Here are their plans.

“Together, we are taking action to increase democracy, grow the good in our communities, and pass a healthy and just home down to our grandbabies,” its website says.

The organization paid $1.5 million for the house, 204 N. Mendenhall Street. The purchase was made possible by years of successful fund-raising, Down Home said. Among its recent major gifts was a $250,000 grant from the Katz Amsterdam Foundation in Colorado for “increasing voter registration in rural communities of color and addressing disinformation and voter disenfranchisement.”

The Most Intriguing Historic-Home Sale So Far in 2024 Was Quite Discreet

July 16, 2024

The most impressive historic home sold in the Triad this year may be the 1920’s Tudor Revival mansion in Winston-Salem designed by Charles Barton Keen for Dr. Frederick Moir Hanes and Elizabeth Peck Hanes. It’s definitely the most intriguing. It was a very private sale; the house wasn’t listed publicly. It sold for $1.84 million in April. It hadn’t been for sale since 1972.

Frederick Hanes was one of the most distinguished members of the Hanes family, though he never worked in the family businesses started by his father and uncle. Fred was a highly accomplished physician and teacher and a major figure at Duke in the 1930s and ’40s. He headed the department of medicine at the medical school and was chief physician at Duke Hospital. Betty, a former nurse, was greatly involved with the nursing school. “Betty Hanes was really a great person,” Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans said.

Fred’s influence at Duke extended beyond the med school. The Sarah P. Duke Gardens were his idea.

6 Historic Houses, All Still For Sale After 6 Months or More

July 7, 2024

Even though interest rates have chilled the housing market, there are still historic homes that sell as soon as they’re put up for sale, sometimes at irrational prices (like this one and this one — great houses, quick sales, wild prices). And, then, there are those that don’t. Here are six historic homes that have been listed for more than six months, all unsold.

In some cases, it’s easy to see why. Some of these are mansions — houses 4,000 square feet and up. They typically take longer to sell than more reasonably sized homes, although a few here and there sell quite quickly (especially in Winston-Salem). Sometimes price is an obvious reason, even in these days of $350 or $400 per square foot for bungalows. In other cases, it’s impossible to tell from the listings what the problem is. And with old houses, there’s no end to the possibilities.

Click on the links for more information about each house.

The 7 Most Interesting Historic Homes Sold in June

July 3, 2024

June’s most notable sales include an 1881 Italianate farmhouse, a couple of particularly sweet bungalows, a Mid-Century Modern house designed by one of the state’s first African American architects and a pair of intriguing restoration candidates.

Of particular note among the past owners is James Holt Green, owner of the Glencoe mill and village in the 1930s and one of the state’s great heroes of World War II. Although rejected by the Army, he was determined to join the war effort and finagled a posting with the Office of Strategic Services. He led units behind German lines in Yugoslavia and Slovakia, rescuing downed airmen and wreaking havoc. He didn’t make it back home.

Click on the links below for more information about the houses and their histories.

Piedmont Historic Homes

Historic homes for sale in the Piedmont Triad

Category: Historic Home