Piedmont Historic Homes

January 28, 2025

An 1892 House on Ruritan Road in Roaring River, $299,900

663 Ruritan Road, Roaring River, Wilkes County

• $299,900
• 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1,7080 square feet, 13.1 acres
• Price/square foot: $176
• Built in 1892
• Listed January 31, 2025
• Last sale: $128,500, May 1999
• Neighborhood: Located 12 miles west of Elkin
• Note: County records show only one bathroom.

January 28, 2025

A Very Neglected 1920 House in Reidsville, $99,000

329 Church Street, Reidsville, Rockingham County

• $99,000
• 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1,082 square feet, 0.15 acre
• Price/square foot: $91
• Built in 1920
• Listed January 16, 2025
• Last sales: $20,000 November 2020; $7,500, January 2018; $10,000, December 2017

Now priced 10 times higher than the selling price eight years ago with no apparent improvement in the property. The house has changed ownership 11 times since 1995 (sales and apparently at least two foreclosures).

January 27, 2025

An Intriguing ca. 1929 Brick House in Danville, $400,000

421 W. Main Street, Danville, Virginia

• $400,000
• 4 bedrooms, 3 full bathrooms and 2 half-bathrooms, 2,995 square feet, 0.20 acre
• Price/square foot: $136
• Built circa 1929 (see note)
• Listed January 24 2025
• Last sale: May 1963, price unavailable

Property records don’t give a date for construction of the house, which is unusual. The address appeared in the city directory by 1929. No central air conditioning. The house still has its radiators and gas furnace. The original owners were James Turner Hamlin Jr. (1894-1974) and Ellen Chester “Nell” Davis Hamlin (1900-1984). They lived in the house until around 1947. Junior was president of the Herb Juice Penol Company, which sold patent-medicine laxatives called Hamlin’s Pow-O-Lin and Miller’s Herb Juice. In addition to whatever herbs they might have contained, they were 11 percent alcohol.

January 26, 2025

A Relatively Affordable 1928 Brick House in Winston-Salem, $258,000

2514 N. Patterson Avenue, Winston-Salem

• $258,000
• 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2,004 square feet, 0.21 acre
• Price/square foot: $129
• Built circa 1928
• Listed January 22, 2025
• Last sale: $92,000, January 2023

Previously a rental. County records give the date of the house as 1930, but the address appears in the city directory from 1928. The original owners were William Frank Byrd (1884-1930) and Louanna Byrd (1886-1961), who bought the property in 1926. William was a justice of the peace and a notary. He had previously been a police officer and deputy clerk of Superior Court.

January 25, 2025

A 1920 House in Burlington, $274,900

801 N. Mebane Street, Burlington, Alamance County

• $274,900
• 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2,280 square feet, 0.51 acre
• Price/square foot: $121
• Built in 1920
• Listed January 25, 2025
• Last sale: $60,000, September 2016

Previously a rental, renovated on the cheap (replacement windows, low-end bathrooms, some particularly bad vinyl flooring in the kitchen, no landscaping). In 2022 it was one of 54 houses put up for sale for $7.8 million. They didn’t sell, or, at least, this one didn’t.

January 25, 2025

A 1900 House on Almost an Acre in Liberty, $400,000

228 S. Fayetteville Street, Liberty, Randolph County
The W.T. and Beulah Gilliam House

• $400,000
• 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2,436 square feet, 0.92 acre
• Price/square foot: $164
• Built in 1905
• Listed January 24, 2025
• Last sales: $242,500, December 2020; $240,000, June 2017
• Neighborhood: Liberty Historic District (NR)

District NR nomination: “The W.T. and Beulah Gilliam house is an excellent example of an upright-and-wing, two-story, frame residence. It has a high-pitched hipped roof with a large pedimented dormer at the south comer.”

January 25, 2025

An entrepreneur’s 1955 Mid-Century Modern House in Winston-Salem, $599,000

264 Knollwood Street, Winston-Salem

• $599,000
• 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, 1,777 square feet (per county), 0.74 acre
• Price/square foot: $256
• Built in 1955
• Listed January 24, 2025
• Last sales: $389,900, September 2020; $232,000, February 2015
• Neighborhood: Buena Vista

The original owners were Arvel Greene “A.G.” Foster (1921-2002) and Matelois “Lois” Walsh Foster (1921-2012). Arvel was a serial entrepreneur, best known as co-founder, CEO and chairman of Salem Carpet Mills, which became one of the nation’s largest carpet manufacturers.

January 23, 2025

A 1926 Craftsman Bungalow in Winston-Salem, $275,000

949 Hutton Street, Winston-Salem

• $275,000
• 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1,576 square feet, 0.18 acre
• Price/square foot: $174
• Built in 1926
• Listed January 23, 2025
• Last sale: $104,500, December 2013
• Neighborhood: Washington Park

A colorful Craftsman bungalow with its features fairly intact. The original owners were James Thompson Shouse (1894-1983) and Myrtle C. Peddycord Shouse (1897-1975), who bought the property in 1926. Thompson sold the house in 1975. For 38 years, he was a salesman for Standard Brands, which owned Chase & Sanborn coffee and Fleischmann’s yeast, among other brands.

January 21, 2025

A Much-Altered 1870 House in Reidsville, $199,000

501 Fontaine Street, Reidsville, Rockingham County

• $199,000
• 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2,280 square feet, 0.56 acre
• Price/square foot: $87
• Built in 1870
• Listed January 14, 2025
• Last sale: $8,000, May 2020; $20,000, November 1986
• Neighborhood: Old Post Road Historic District (local), Reidsville Historic District (NR)
• Note: Single-family house divided into two apartments

District NR nomination: “What seems to be a variety of alterations to the original house give this one and one-half story frame dwelling a very unusual appearance.”

January 20, 2025

An Octagonal 1978 Mid-Century Modern House in the Woods in Elkin, $379,000

164 Johnson Ridge Road, Elkin, Surry County

• $379,000
• 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom, 1,420 square feet (per county), 0.65 acre
• Price/square foot: $283
• Built in 1978
• Listed April 23, 2024
• Last sales: $172,000, May 2024; $61,000, October 2014
• Note: An unusual octagonal house with an open floor plan upstairs and the lone bedroom downstairs.

Flipped house with a markup of more than 100 percent (and the house didn’t appear to be in bad shape when they bought it — photos here); caveat emptor.

January 20, 2025

An elegant 1937 Cape Cod in Greensboro’s Irving Park, $1.15 Million

1504 Edgedale Road, Greensboro
The Charles and Minnie Pope House

• $1.15 million
• 3 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, 2,886 square feet, 0.22 acre
• Price/square foot: $398
• Built in 1937
• Listed January 9, 2025
• Last sale: $717,000, July 2017
• Neighborhood: Irving Park Historic District (NR)

The asking price is really pushing the envelope ($398/square foot!), even for Irving Park. That’s 60 percent more than the selling price eight years ago. The house sold at a remarkable premium then. It went for $717,000, $68,000 over the asking price of $649,000 (10 1/2 percent).

January 18, 2025

A 1912 House in Greensboro’s Dunleath Historic district, $369,000

515 Park Avenue, Greensboro

• $369,000
• 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, 1,680 square feet (per county), 0.16 acre
• Price/square foot: $220
• Built in 1935 (per county, but probably much earlier; see note)
• Listed January 17, 2025
• Last sales: $80,000, March 2005; $15,000, January 1975
• Neighborhood: Dunleath Historic District (local), Summit Avenue Historic District (NR)
• Note: The listing shows 2,269 square feet, an uncommonly large discrepancy from county property records (35 percent).

Both the National Register and county records appear to miss the date of the house by several years. William H. Osborn (dates unknown) bought the property in 1912, the first year the address appeared in the city directory. Osborn was president of Cunningham Brick Company and of the Keeley Institute. Osborn, who lived at the institute, used this house as a rental property. In 1922 the house got its first owner-occupants, Julia Maud Fox (1884-1976) and her sisters Emma Claudia Fox (1886-1983) and Mabel Clair Fox (1892-1969). Maud was a teacher; Claudie and Mabel were stenographers. They sold the house in 1927.

January 18, 2025

A 1908 House in Greensboro, Long Ago Divided into Apartments, $425,000

615 Joyner Street, Greensboro

• $425,000
• Bedrooms and bathrooms not specified (probably 3 and 3), 2,037 square feet, 0.21 acre
• Price/square foot: $207
• Built in 1908
• Listed January 24, 2025
• Last sale: $305,500, September 2023
• Neighborhood: College Hill Historic District (local and NR)
• Note: Single-family home divided into three apartments around 1973.

The property was bought in 1905 by John Townsend Hunt (1862-1933) and Margaret S. “Minnie” Stockton Hunt (1868-1953). John was a contractor. The address first appears in the 1909 city directory. John and Margaret used it as a rental property and lived nearby at 603 Walker Avenue. John had nine siblings, and College Hill was home to five of them and their widowed mother in 1909. Henry E. Sadler (1891-1967) and Annie Matlock Sadler (1893-1965) bought the house in 1915. Harry was a steam fitter and later a salesman for The Motor Company, an appliance dealer. He also served as captain of the nearby West End Hose Company. They were the first owner-occupants of the house, selling it in 1922.

January 17, 2025

A 1915 House in Reidsville That Needs Work, $249,900

409 Lindsey Street, Reidsville, Rockingham County
The Millner House

• $249,900
• 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 3,442 square feet, 0.42 acre
• Price/square foot: $73
• Built in 1915
• Listed January 16, 2025
• Last sale: $80,000, February 2022
• Neighborhood: Old Post Road Historic District (local), Reidsville Historic District (NR)
• Note: The house has been divided into four 1-bedroom, 1-bathroom apartments, possibly since the late 1960s.

District NR nomination: “Built in 1909 for J.W. [James William] Millner, a tobacco factory foreman, this two-frame Colonial Revival house sits well back from the street on a well-shaded lot.” For more than 50 years, it was the home of Millner and then, by the late 1920s, three of his sisters, Annie, Hattie and Jennie, all interior decorators. Any trace of their craftsmanship is long gone, the victim of low-end rental renovations.

January 16, 2025

A Mill Owner’s 1910 House in Burlington, $400,000

804 W. Davis Street, Burlington, Alamance County
The Ernest and Eleanor Sellars House

• $400,000
• 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 3,072 square feet, 0.43 acre
• Price/square foot: $130
• Built in 1910
• Listed January 16, 2025
• Last sale: $47,000, November 1979
• Neighborhood: West Davis Street-Fountain Place Historic District (local and NR)

The house has had only three owners. District NR nomination: “Typical of the Foursquare type of residential construction with Colonial Revival accents, this two-story brick veneer structure was built in 1923 for D. Ernest Sellers.” He founded the Sellers Hosiery Mill in 1907 with his brother, Charles V. Sellers. Ernest also served for many years as president of the Morris Plan Industrial Bank.

January 15, 2025

An 1834 Farmhouse Near Ruffin in Rockingham County, $199,000

176 Chrismon Farm Road, Rockingham County

• $199,000
• 4 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 2,598 square feet (per county), 2.27 acres
• Price/square foot: $77
• Built in 1834
• Listed January 14, 2025
• Last sale: $126,000, August 2007
• Neighborhood: Located near the Oregon Hill community, about 6 1/2 miles northwest of Ruffin and about 12 miles east of Eden. The property has a Ruffin mailing address.

Rockingham County records suggest that members of the Chrismon family owned the property from 1951 to 2001. Charlie Green Chrismon (1908-1975) bought a 38-acre tract that apparently included this property, in 1951 (the deed’s description of the land is vague). He was a conductor for Southern Railway for 30 years.

January 13, 2025

An Architect’s 1963 MCM Home on Almost an Acre in Burlington, $424,000

1307 Shamrock Drive, Burlington, Alamance County

• $424,000
• 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1,828 square feet, 0.92 acre
• Price/square foot: $232
• Built in 1963
• Listed January 8, 2025
• Last sale: The house hasn’t been sold since it was built.
• Neighborhood: Located a couple miles south of Interstate 40/85 off N.C. 49 and Monroe Holt Road.
• Note: The property includes a swimming pool and an attached workshop with an upstairs bedroom and bathroom.

The property was bought by Herbert Anderson “Andy” Carmen III (1929-2021) and Fleta Aline Hampton Carmen (1930-2024) in 1963. Andy designed the house. He was a founder of Alley, Williams, Carmen & King, an engineering and architecture firm in Burlington. It is being sold by Fleta’s estate.

January 13, 2025

A Dilapidated Farmhouse on 10 Acres near Liberty in Chatham County, $118,000

358 W. Perry Road, Chatham County

• $118,000
• 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 2,255 square feet, 10.52 acres
• Price/square foot: $52
• Built in 1900
• Listed January 13, 2025
• Last sale: 1955, price unknown
• Neighborhood: Located 7 1/2 miles north of Siler City and about 6 miles southeast of Liberty. It has a Siler City mailing address.

The property has probably been owned by the Perry family for more than 100 years. The owners are just giving up on this inherited house: “Home is sold As Is and all the belonings in the home and outbuildings go with the home. An agent MUST accompany all showings. Enter the home at your own risk.”

January 13, 2025

A 1918 House in Walnut Cove, $449,900

724 Summit Street, Walnut Cove, Stokes County

• $449,900
• 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2,930 square feet, 1.36 acres
• Price/square foot: $154
• Built in 1918
• Listed January 11, 2025
• Last sale: $70,000, November 2010
• Note: The property includes a brick garden shed and other storage buildings; apple, peach, pecan and walnut trees; grapevines; and a stream.

The original owners were George W. Neal (1877-1961) and Kate Griffin Neal (1878-1972). They bought the property in 1917, and it remained in their family for 93 years. George was the proprietor of Neal Hardware & Furniture in Walnut Cove; he worked until suffering a stroke two days before he died at age 84. Kate was the first student from Stokes County to receive a scholarship to attend the State Normal and Industrial College in Greensboro.

January 7, 2025

A 1910 Log House on 14 Acres in chatham County, $500,000

1115 Manco Dairy Road, Chatham County

• $500,000
• 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1,304 square feet, 14 acres
• Price/square foot: $383
• Built in 1910
• Listed January 6, 2025
• Last sale: $175,000, September 1972
• Neighborhood: Located 5 miles west of Pittsboro, just off U.S. 64.
• Note: The property has a conservation covenant.

The property’s seller also owns the nearby Alston-Degraffenreid House, a 106-acre National Register property built in 1810, and Harland’s Creek Farm, an organic farm on the Alston-Degraffenreid property.

January 7, 2025

An 1892 Restoration Project in a Mount airy Historic District, $169,600

241 Rockford Street, Mount Airy, Surry County

• $169,600
• 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2,961 square feet, 0.47 acre
• Price/square foot: $57
• Built in 1892 (per county)
• Listed January 7, 2025
• Last sales: $122,474, October 2024; $35,500, December 1986
• Neighborhood: Mount Airy Historic District (local and NR)

Listing: “This property is boarded up with no interior access. Property is uninhabitable and condemned.” Bank-owned property.

January 6, 2025

An Expanded 1870 Log Cabin on 18 Acres in Randolph County, $489,900

179 Stone Country Lane, Randolph County
Hearthstone Farm

• $489,900
• 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1,896 square feet, 18.80 acres
• Price/square foot: $258
• Built in 1870
• Listed January 6, 2025
• Last sale: $215,000, March 2017
• Neighborhood: Located just off U.S. 64 about 5.8 miles west of Asheboro. It has an Asheboro mailing address.

“This complex includes one log cabin original to the site and several other structures built or moved here by local antiquaries Frances and Lee Stone. The original cabin is a saddle-notched log structure now part of a larger dwelling.” (The Architectural History of Randolph County North Carolina, p.129)

Lee Jay Stone (1906-1998) was a famously successful high school football coach. His teams won championships in 1941 (Raleigh Broughton) and 1950, 1958 and 1965 (Asheboro Edwards). In 29 years, his teams never had a losing season.

January 6, 2025

A 1919 Colonial Revival in Denton, $400,000

572 Bombay Road, Denton, Davidson County

• $400,000
• 6 bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms, 2 half-bathrooms, 2,124 square feet (per county; see note), 1.84 acres
• Price/square foot: $188
• Built in 1919
• Listed January 4, 2025
• Last sale: February 1966, price not recorded on deed
• Neighborhood: On the eastern edge of town.
• Note: For sale by owner

The house was purchased in 1964 by Dwight Eugene “Tinker” Snider (1932-2021) and Aveline Richardson Snider (d. 2023). They moved it to its present location, which they bought in 1966. Dwight worked in a remarkable number of trades, including sawmill worker, welder, fabricator, steel rigger, crane operator and maintenance worker. He opened the Denton Ready Mix concrete plant and operated Snider Construction & Repair. He also worked for 30 years as an owner-operator trucker. The house is being sold by Aveline’s estate.

January 6, 2025

A 1915 Restoration Project Near Pinnacle, $69,000

2310 Shoals Road, Pinnacle, Surry County

• $69,000
• Bedrooms and bathrooms not listed (see note), 1,782 square feet, 1.12 acres
• Price/square foot: $39
• Built in 1915
• Listed January 6, 2025
• Last sale: $15,000, October 1987
• Neighborhood: Located 4 1/2 miles west of Pinnacle.

Yet another abandoned renovation attempt. No interior pictures are included, but the listing says the owner has gutted at least some of the rooms. No heat or air conditioning. Listing: “Can be a 3 bedroom 2 bath. … One of the best views of Pilot Mountain around.”

January 5, 2024

A Railroad Engineer’s 1927 House on a Somewhat Unfortunate Block in Greensboro, $560,000

709 Mayflower Drive, Greensboro
The Albert and Mary Waynick House

• $560,000
• 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2,120 square feet, 0.34 acre
• Price/square foot: $264
• Built in 1927
• Listed January 4, 2025
• Last sale: $146,000, June 2000
• Neighborhood: Brice Street

A few blocks north on Mayflower, across Walker Avenue in College Park, you’ll find houses like this one. Here, it’s somewhat out of place. More than half of the houses on the block are rentals (and not high-end rentals). It’s three doors down from a Burger King, and a Walgreens is behind it. The remarkable property includes a back-yard pergola (which appears to screen the Walgreens quite well), fountain, garage and a striking office-greenhouse.

The original owners were Andrew Bernard “Albert” Waynick (1890-1979) and Mary Sue Holden Waynick (1895-1970). Andrew was a Southern Railway engineer for 50 years. They lived in the house for 34 years, selling it in 1961.

January 4, 2025

Two Remarkable Mansions, Newly Relisted After Failing to Sell in 2024:

The 1915 Cicero Holt House in Burlington, an Extraordinary Restoration Project, $399,900

603 W. Davis Street, Burlington, Alamance County
The Cicero Holt House
Listing withdrawn October 22, 2024
Relisted January 3, 2025

• $399,900 (originally $432,000, later $359,900)
• Originally a single-family home, now a boarding house with 8 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 4,084 square feet, 0.52 acre
• Price/square foot: $98
• Built in 1930 (per county, or ca. 1915; see note)
• Listed August 18, 2022
• Last sale: $250,000, December 2020
• Neighborhood: West Davis Street-Fountain Place Historic District
• Note: Most recently, it was a 10-unit home with 3 bathrooms and a common kitchen.

Although it needs a huge amount of work, its original windows and floors are intact, and it otherwise hasn’t been compromised by on-the-cheap renovations. District NRHP nomination: “Originally a one-story ca. 1915 structure, this frame residence of Cicero Holt, a partner in Burlington Hardware Company, achieved its present configuration when the shingle-sided second floor was added in the early 1920s.

“The house is covered by a hipped roof and features a one-story wraparound porch, enclosed on the east side, with massive tapered wooden posts on brick piers. These tapered posts probably are replacement supports installed when the second story was added.”

An Impeccable 1926 Tudor Mansion in High Point, $700,000

504 Emerywood Drive, High Point
Listing withdrawn December 10, 2024
Relisted January 4, 2025

• $700,000 (originally $750,000, later $785,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, 4,773 square feet (per county), 0.39 acre
• Price/square foot: $147
• Built in 1926
• Listed October 8, 2022
• Last sale: $210,000, October 1988
• Neighborhood: Emerywood, Uptown Suburbs Historic District (NRHP)

The property includes a garage-guest house with 1 bathroom, 2 bedrooms and a kitchen. In 1956 the house was bought by John Willard Thomas Jr. (1927-2017) and Tommie Munford Thomas (1929-1999). It has been owned by their family ever since. John served in the Navy during World War II. He graduated from Virginia Tech in 1949 with a degree in manufacturing engineering. He joined Thomas Built Buses, which was founded by his brother, Pearley, and worked in engineering and sales before becoming president and chairman. He retired in 1992.