Piedmont Historic Homes

1970georgia

1970 Georgia Avenue, Winston-Salem

• Sold for $1.335 million on November 24, 2025 (listed at $1.25 million)
• 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 4,600 square feet (per county), 0.51 acre
• Price/square foot: $290
• Built in 1928
• Listed October 23, 2025
• Last sale: $210,000, November 1979
• Neighborhood: West Highlands
• Note: The property includes a detached three-car garage.
  • The house is a Georgian Colonial Revival, displaying the style’s characteristic symmetry; pediment, pilasters and transom above the door; side-gabled roof with dormers; and cornice with dentil molding.
  • It has had only four owners. The original owners were likely Washington Allen Wilkinson (1866-1939) and Lucia Swanson Wilkinson (1876-1969), who were listed on Georgia Avenue in the 1925 city directory, which didn’t yet list house numbers on the street. Washington was manager of Wachovia’s insurance department.
  • Around 1930, the Wilkinsons sold the house to Andrew Fuller Sams Sr. (1872-1939) and Miriam Young Bonner Sams (1881-1963). They lived in the house for the rest of their lives. Born in Mars Hill, Andrew was a Wake Forest College graduate. He was initially a school teacher and principal in Cary and Marshville before taking up the law. He practiced in Marion and then Thomasville, where he served as the town’s only lawyer, if one can conceive of such a thing. He moved to Winton-Salem around 1909. Andrew was elected three times to the state Senate. He also owned movie theatres for more than 20 years, “for many years being the main operator of theatres in Winston-Salem,” his obituary said.
  • After Miriam’s death, William H. Boyce and Doris Shore Boyce bought the house. William was a doctor. He graduated from Davidson College and received his medical degree from Vanderbilt. “He was a veteran of the Italian Campaign in World War II and the post-war hostilities in Trieste, where he served as an important back-channel link between Josef Broz, known as Tito, and the Truman administration,” his obituary said. William was a nationally prominent urologist and head of the department of urology at Bowman Gray School of Medicine. President Kennedy appointed him chairman of the National Institute of Health.
  • The Boyces sold the house in 1979 to a Bowman Gray colleague, Peter Emens Parker (1934-2025), and Margaret Sanford Parker. Peter was an attending surgeon at Bowman Gray. He served as a Navy combat surgeon during the Vietnam War, receiving a Bronze Star. He left the Navy in 1969 and relocated to Winston-Salem, where he practiced for 50 years. He was an accomplished golfer who played in the British Senior Open.
  • From his obituary: “Pete’s final gesture was to ensure that his pacemaker was donated to a veterinarian. While used pacemakers cannot be given to another person, dogs with life-threatening cardiac problems can have them implanted, giving them more years of love with their families.” His estate is now selling the house.

3306 Gaston Road, Sedgefield, Guilford County
Gaston Oaks

• Sold for $1.645 million on September 24, 2025 (originally $1.895 million)
• 5 bedrooms, 5 full bathrooms, 2 half-bathrooms, 7,128 square feet (per county), 1.09 acres
• Price/square foot: $231
• Built in 1926
• Listed March 31, 2025
• Last sales: $1.55 million, May 2023; $380,000, July 2013
• Note: The listing shows 7,549 square feet.
  • The basement has a separate entrance, living room, bedroom, 1 ½ baths, kitchenette, office space and a sauna. The 2023 listing said it also had a safe room.
  • “In addition, this property is available furnished with a few exceptions.”
  • The property includes a swimming pool, cabana, outdoor fireplace and “a ‘secret garden’ fountain bathed in wisteria.”
  • Realtor hype: “a testament of marriage between architectural history & modern conveniences.”
  • If the 1926 date is accurate, this is one of the oldest houses in Sedgefield. The community was developed beginning in 1923, when the Southern Real Estate Company bought a 3,660-acre hunting preserve between Greensboro and High Point. Development was slow; by one accounting, only 35 of the community’s 620 homes were built before 1940. About half were built between 1970 and 1999.
  • For this particular property, no early history can be found. No deeds earlier than 1946 can be identified online, and no city directories covered Sedgefield, lying well beyond both Greensboro and High Point for decades. Similarly, Sedgefield lies outside area of interest for the two cities’ libraries and history museums.

804 Fayetteville Road, Rockingham, Richmond County
The Ledbetter-Leath House

• Sold for $320,000 on September 16, 2025 (listed at $394,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, 5,377 square feet (per county), 1.25 acres
• Price/square foot: $60
• Built in 1888
• Listed May 18, 2025
• Last sale: $200,000, March 2005
• Neighborhood: Rockingham Historic District (NR)
• Note: County records give the date of the house as 1960. The district’s National Register nomination says 1888.
• District NR nomination: “In 1881 John Ledbetter and his uncle, Thomas B. Ledbetter, returned to Richmond County after clearing over $20,000 from a turpentine venture in Georgia. For $2,500 they purchased South Union Mill (subsequently named Ledbetter Mill), and had the yarn factory in full operation by 1883.
  • “Shortly thereafter, in 1888, John Ledbetter had this picturesque two story Victorian residence built. In 1923 the elegantly detailed house was purchased by M.B. Leath, secretary of Hannah Pickett Mill No. 1, from 1920 to 1946. …
  • “Exterior decorative features include splayed window and door surrounds, bracketed shelf entablatures, and leaded transoms and sidelights Porch and roof cornices are bracketed with paneled friezes. In the early 1960s the interior of the house was extensively remodeled to the Georgian Revival Style with the assistance of Otto Zenke of Greensboro.”
  • John Steele Ledbetter (1848-1922) served as president of the Ledbetter Mill for nine years after Thomas’s death. He and Sarah C. Mattox Ledbetter (dates unknown) had no children. John was secretary of the Methodist church Sunday school for 20 years.
  • MacLean Bacon “Mac” Leath (1875-1958) and Corinne Horne Leath (1878-1957) owned the house for the rest of their lives. In addition to his duties as secretary-treasurer of the mill, Mac also managed the mill’s company store from 1920 until his retirement in 1946. He served on the Rockingham city school board for 16 years. Mac and Corinne were married for 55 years; Mac died just three months after Corinne did.
  • Ownership passed to one of the Leaths’ sons Thomas Horne Leath (1905-1978), and daughter-in-law Mary Hadley Connor Leath (1899-1989). Thomas was an attorney and served as president of the N.C. Bar Association. In 1985 Mary provided part of the funding to move the city library to a new building. The library is now known as the Thomas H. Leath Memorial Library. The house was sold by Mary’s estate in 1989.

1603carlisle

1603 Carlisle Road, Greensboro

• Sold for $3.55 million on August 13, 2025
• 6 bedrooms, 6 1/2 bathrooms, 6,669 square feet, 0.44 acre
• Price/square foot: $532
• Built in 1930
• Not listed publicly for sale
• Last sales: $1.8 million, September 2005; $330,000, June 1985
• Neighborhood: Irving Park Historic District (NR)
• Note: The buyer is an LLC associated with the CEO of a reinsurance company based in the Cayman Islands, “closely held with seeded capital from ultra-high net worth financial backing.”
  • The house is across the street from the Greensboro Country Club.
• Greensboro: An Architectural Record: “Typical of the later Colonial Revival-style houses in Irving Park … A severely finished symmetrical brick structure, it has a classical entry-bay portico and reduced-height wings.”
• District NR nomination: “Pediatrician Marion Y. Keith was the original owner of this Colonial Revival dwelling. The two-story brick house has a slate-covered gable roof with a dentiled cornice, A five-bay facade with a pedimented central entrance porch, and slightly recessed two-story side wings one bay in width. A large two-story ell has been added to the rear of the house. A small playhouse is in the back yard [as of 1994].”
  • Dr. Marion Yates Keith (1898-1961) and Hattie Caroleen Lambeth Keith (1900-1982) bought the property in a foreclosure sale in 1931. They were listed at the address that year, the first time it was included in the city directory. They lived in the house the rest of their lives. Their grandson sold it in 1985.
  • Marion was a particularly prominent pediatrician. He began his Greensboro practice in 1926. In 1930 he was appointed by President Hoover to the White House Conference for Children’s Welfare. He was one of the first members of the American Academy of Pediatrics. He served as chief of staff at Piedmont Memorial Hospital, St. Leo’s Hospital and Sternberger Hospital. His 1961 obituary said the new Wesley Long Hospital was being furnished and named in his honor.
  • Caroleen was a member of the Greensboro Preservation Society and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, God bless her. She was a member of the Greensboro Board of Health and the state Democratic Party Executive Committee and a director of Salem Academy.
  • The buyer in 1985 was William Johnston “Billy” Armfield IV (1934-2016). He was a second-generation textile company owner and co-founder of what is now Unifi. He served as president of the American Textile Manufacturers Institute and the North Carolina Textile Manufacturers Association. He was a major benefactor of UNC-Chapel Hill. He sold the house in 2005.

3054 Country Club Road, Winston-Salem

• Sold for $1.025 million on August 15, 2025 (originally $1.119 million)
• 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 4,551 square feet (per county), 0.56 acre
• Price/square foot: $225
• Built in 1922
• Listed May 9, 2025
• Last sales: $775,000, September 2017; $314,000, November 2011
• Neighborhood: Burkwood Place/Buena Vista
• Note: The property includes a three-car garage (two bays are drive-through), circular driveway and two additional driveways.
  • The property is across the street from the entrance to the Forsyth Country Club.
  • Winston-Salem’s Architectural Heritage: “As Winston-Salem developed to the west, property owners speculatively subdivided large parcels of land. Hinshaw and Marshall surveyed Ellen T. Harrison and Mamie M. Transou’s holdings on the south side of what is now Country Club Road in 1925, creating Burkwood Place. Two dwellings flank the subdivision entrance: a frame 1922 foursquare at 3054 Country Club Road and a stylish brick 1924 bungalow at 3100 Country Club Road. City directory information is not available for the early years, as the neighborhood was outside the city limits.”

• Sold for $820,000 on July 21, 2025 (originally $984,000)
• 5 bedrooms, 4 1/2 bathrooms, 4,772 square feet (per county), 8 acres
• Price/square foot: $172
• Built in 1932
• Listed April 9, 2025
• Last sale: $650,000, April 2024
• Neighborhood: Lexington Country Club
• Note: The 2024 listing said the property includes an outdoor kitchen, a patio and saltwater pool area, and a pool house with a sauna and two dressing rooms with showers.
  • The property was sold in 1962 or 1963 to Edward Calvin Smith (1918-2007) and Sarah Lanier Smith (1921-1998). Their heirs sold the house in 2024. Eddie and Sarah were listed at the address in the 1963-64 city directory, the first year it was included in the directory (it had been outside the city limits for all or most of its history).
  • Eddie Smith was born in Garner, just outside Raleigh. When he was 10, he and his three siblings were orphaned; they were then raised at the Junior Order Orphanage in Lexington. After working as manager of a taxi company, he founded the National Wholesale Company in 1952 and became one of Lexington’s most prominent business owners.
  • He served as mayor of Lexington, City Council member, and as chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, Davidson County Community College, and Lexington Memorial Hospital.
  • Eddie led the campaign to save and restore Lexington’s historic Carolina Theater as a civic center. It’s now named in his honor. He also led the effort to establish Family Services of Davidson County.
  • Photos from the 2024 listing:

3216 Forsyth Drive, Sedgefield

• Sold for $1.3 million on July 9, 2025
• 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, 4,160 square feet, 1.12 acres
• Price/square foot: $312
• Built circa 1925
• Not listed publicly for sale
• Last sale: $500,000, August 2010
• Neighborhood: Sedgefield
• Note: County records, which are often wrong about construction dates of older houses, give the date of the house as 1939. Deeds and city directories suggest a 1925 date is more likely.
  • Tully Daniel Blair (1896-1980) and Jessie Wicker Blair (1888-1968) bought the house in 1926 from the likely builder, Roy C. Millikan of Millikan Realty Company. Millikan had bought the undeveloped lot from Sedgefield Inc. in 1925. Tully was the agency manager of Pilot Life. The Blairs lost the house to foreclosure in 1933.
  • In January 1944, the house was bought by Viola F. Willis (1893-1969) and F. Clifford Willis (1885-1979). Clifford was an auditor at Pilot Life. They sold the house in 1950 to Neil W. Jones and Wilma J. Jones, who owned it until 1968. Neil was president of Jones Automotive Company, an auto parts wholesaler and machine shop.
  • In 1978, Carl E. Smith (1938-2024) and Shirley M. Smith (deceased, dates unknown) bought the house. They owned the house for the rest of their lives. Carl owned C.E. Smith Company, which did metal stamping and fabricating, welding and related work. Carl’s heirs sold the house in July 2025.

1111ferndale

1111 Ferndale Drive, High Point
The Albert and Nancy Henley House

• Sold for $2.2 million on June 24, 2025
• 5 bedrooms, 5 1/2 bathrooms, 4,940 square feet, 1.87 acres
• Price/square foot: $445
• Built in 1939
• Not listed publicly for sale
• Last sale: $1.85 million, July 2010
• Neighborhood: Emerywood West
• Note: Arthur Boyden Henley (1906-1979) and Nancy Carr Terry Henley (1911-1971) bought the property in 1939 and were listed at the address in the 1941-42 city directory, the first time the address was listed. Arthur was president of Parker Paper Company; Nancy was vice president. One of their sons, Nixon Carr “Nick” Henley (1936-2006) inherited the house and part ownership of the family business, by then Henley Paper Company.
  • A family trust inherited the house from Nick. It was sold in 2010 to Robert G. Culp IV and Leslie S. Culp. Robert of CEO of Culp Inc., which manufactures mattress and upholstery fabrics. They sold the house in July 2025.

638 N. Spring Street, Winston-Salem
The Thomas S. Douglas House
Blog post (2021) — From Listing to Closing in Two Weeks: The Douglas House, a 1907 Mansion in Winston-Salem

• Sold for $770,000 on July 15, 2025 (listed at $789,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 4 1/2 bathrooms, 4,287 square feet, 0.25 acre
• Price/square foot: $180
• Built in 1907
• Listed May 16, 2025
• Last sales: $635,000, July 2021; $170,000, September 1997
• Neighborhood: West End Historic District
• District NRHP nomination: The original owners were Thomas Sylvester Douglas (1863-1939) and Fannie Wilson Douglas (1870-1955). Thomas was a traveling salesman. They bought the house in 1907 and lived in it for the rest of their lives. Their sons established the Douglas Battery company.
  • “The Douglas House combines late Victorian irregular massing with Colonial Revival detailing. The two-story frame house has a multi-gable roof, with some of the sparse ornamentation seen in the Palladian window of the smaller front gable and in the trefoil attic vent of the larger gable.
  • “The present front porch features Tuscan columns and a slightly projecting pedimented entrance bay. However, the 1917 Sanborn Hap shows only a corner wrap-around porch. The porch was probably altered in the 1910s or 1920s, when the south side porch was converted to a sun room.
  • “In the last decade the house was sheathed with aluminum siding, but this was done without obstructing any of the detailing and has had little effect on the overall architectural integrity of the house.
  • “The interior includes a closed string Colonial Revival stair and several typical Colonial Revival mantels. …
  • “One of T.S. and Fannie Douglas’ sons, Wilson, experimented and made the first Douglas storage battery in the garage (no longer standing) on Spring St. Later he and his brother, Thomas Jr., built the Douglas Storage Battery Co. into the large industry which it is today [i.e., in 1986].”
  • The company operated from 1921 to 2010, when most of its assets were sold to EnerSys of Reading, Pennsylvania. The Douglas Industrial Battery Systems brand still exists, although it’s not clear who owns it (the EnerSys website doesn’t list it as a product line). The company’s last remaining presence in Winston-Salem is Douglas Auto Care & Battery.

4416 Holly Springs Road, East Bend, Yadkin County

• Sold for $799,000 on June 26, 2025 (originally $1.357 million)
• 5 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, 5,950 square feet, 11.67 acres
• Price/square foot: $134
• Built in 1850
• Listed January 8, 2024
• Last sales: $709,900, April 2022; $585,000, November 2019
• Note: The property includes circular driveway, a three-car detached garage with guest quarters, a shop and two barns (one new).
  • The house has an East Bend mailing address but is about 5 1/2 miles northwest of town.

2833 Forest Drive, Winston-Salem

• Sold for $1.16 million on June 13, 2025 (originally $1.27 million)
  • The buyer is an LLC in Nevada.
• 4 bedrooms, 4 1/2 bathrooms, 3,410 square feet, 0.46 acre
• Price/square foot: $340
• Built in 1936 (possibly a year or two later; see note)
• Listed March 31, 2025
• Last sale: $984,000, December 2009
• Neighborhood: Buena Vista
• Note: Designed by Luther Lashmit
  • The property includes a detached garage with guest suite.
  • Online listings show 3,961 square feet.
  • The original owners were Richard Edward Guthrie (1896-1963) and Eleanor Caroline Shaffner Guthrie (1904-1981), who were listed on Forest Drive from 1938. The house was sold by Eleanor’s estate in 1982.
  • Edward worked for R.J. Reynolds, originally as an accountant. He moved into manufacturing and became superintendent of cigarette manufacturing before retiring. He died of a heart attack at age 67.
  • Eleanor graduated from Salem College and taught harp at the college and at Salem Academy.

214 Lake Drive East, Thomasville, Davidson County

• Sold for $740,000 on May 22, 2025 (listed at $799,900)
• 5 bedrooms, 6 full bathrooms, 2 half bathrooms, 7,139 square feet (per county), 4.1 acres
• Price/square foot: $104
• Built in 1940
• Listed March 26, 2025
• Last sales: $460,000, October 2022; $390,000, August 2021
• Neighborhood: Erwin Heights
• Note: The house includes an in-law apartment.
  • The property includes a heated swimming pool.
  • The listing shows 9,178 square feet.
  • The original owners may have been James Erwin Lambeth Jr. (1916-1995) and Katherine Evermond “Kay” Covington Lambeth (1917-1998). They were listed in Erwin Heights from 1941, when the city directory gave no streets or addresses in the neighborhood, and at 214 Lake Drive East from 1960. One of their sons sold the house in 2021.
  • James and Katherine co-founded Erwin Lambeth, a furniture manufacturer, in 1946. Katherine served as president and James as secretary-treasurer. Katherine graduated from Meredith College, where she studied music; she studied interior design at the Parsons School of Design in New York City. Gov. Jim Hunt appointed her to the state Economic Development Board. She served on the Board of Regents of Oral Roberts University for 15 years and received an honorary doctor of laws degree.
  • James was a graduate of Duke University and Harvard Business School. He served on the Thomasville City Council from 1963 to 1967 and in the state House of Representatives from 1977 to 1980 and 1983 to 1984. He also served as director of the N.C. Wildlife Commission. James and Katherine both were active in Rotary and were named Paul Harris Fellows.

1205 Clover Street, Winston-Salem
The Sihon Cicero Ogburn House

• Sold for $990,000 on May 19, 2025 (listed at $999,000)
• 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 3,973 square feet (per county), 0.29 acre
• Price/square foot: $249
• Built in 1915
• Listed April 14, 2023
• Last sales: $925,000, August 2023; $795,000, June 2019
• Neighborhood: West End Historic District (local and NR)
• District NR nomination: “The Ogburn House is an impressive Colonial Revival dwelling which shows some influence from the Craftsman style. The large two-story frame house has a weatherboarded first story, while the second story is sheathed in scalloped siding which appears to be an early use of asbestos. (This siding appears in a 1924 photograph of the house and is also seen on the Thompson-Liipfert House (#337) of the same period at 1220 Glade St.)
  • “Also unusual are the ‘clipped’ front corners of the house. Other features of the exterior include a hipped roof and front dormer, both with widely overhanging eaves, nine-over-one sash windows, a broad front entrance with unusual etched glass sidelights and transom within a Classical surround, and a front porch with heavy paneled posts, a plain balustrade, and a balustraded deck.
  • “On the southeast side of the house is a sun room whose roof is cantilevered to form a porte-cochere — another unusual feature.
  • “The spacious interior has handsome Colonial Revival and Craftsman mantels, a Colonial Revival stair, some original lighting fixtures, and of particular significance, high wainscoting in the hall and dining room with well preserved simulated leather embossed papers.
  • “S.C. Ogburn purchased the property in 1912 and by 1915 he and his wife, Emma K., were listed at this location in the city directory. Ogburn was president of Home Real Estate Loan and Insurance Co. The Ogburns owned and occupied the house until the 1940s, after which it was converted to apartments until being restored as a single family dwelling in the early 1970s.”
  • Sy Ogburn (1879-1948) was active in several other companies, as well, serving as president of the Carolina Beach Corporation, Winston-Salem Title and Abstract Company and his own Ogburn Real Estate Company. He was elected to the Board of Aldermen, was an organizer of the local Goodwill Industries and was a 50-year member of the Knights of Pythias.
  • He was the sixth of 11 children in his family born over a period of 26 years, all but one of whom reached adulthood. His sibling’s names: Robert Lee, Minnie Victoria, Rufus Henry, Ella, George W., Mary, John Francis, Carrie Lillian, Paul Tise and Daisy Parmelia.
  • Emma Kapp Ogburn (1875-1946), like Sy, was a native of Forsyth County. She grew up in Bethania and was a graduate of Salem College, class of 1892. She served as treasurer of the local Women’s Christian Temperance Union for 25 years. She also was one of the first members of the local Sorosis Club, an organization for professional women. In Carolina Beach, Emma organized a Sunday school class and community church, which had grown into five churches by the time of her death in 1946.
  • Her obituary was front-page news in the Twin City Sentinel (“Mrs. Ogburn Dies Suddenly … Nearing her 71st birthday, she had been in her usual health until a few minutes before her death.”).

1025 Rockford Road, High Point
The Edgar and Eula Freeze House

• Sold for $1.4 million on May 15, 2025
  • The buyer is an LLC in the Columbus, Ohio, area.
• 7 bedrooms, 6 1/2 bathrooms, 6,664 square feet, 1.98 acres
• Price/square foot: $210
• Built in 1930
• Not listed publicly for sale
• Last sale: $450,000, July 1986
• Neighborhood: Emerywood
• Note: The original owners were Edgar Wilson Freeze (1878-1943) and Eula Ruth Parks Freeze (1884-1971). Edgar was president of Commonwealth Hosiery Mills. They were listed at the address in the 1933 city directory along with their son Edgar Jr., who was secretary-treasurer of the mill. Edgar Sr. was a director of Security National Bank and a past exalted ruler and for 29 years treasurer of the Elks lodge. Eula put the house in their children’s names in 1959. The children sold the house in 1972.
  • Robert Thomas Amos Jr. (1922-2006) and Martha Ross Amos (1927-2005) bought the house in 1972. Robert graduated from the McCallie School and Davidson College. He served in the Army in World War II, attaining the rank of captain. He was awarded the Bronze Star. After the war, he joined Amos Hosiery Mills, a company started by his father. He was president of the company when it was sold in 1988. He served as chairman of the board of the National Association of Hosiery Manufacturers and a director of the National Association of Manufacturers. In High Point, was was president of the Chamber of Commerce and chairman of High Point Regional Hospital, the YMCA, the United Way and the Haggai Foundation. He was a trustee of Davidson College, Guilford College and High Point College.
  • The Amoses sold the house in 1986 to Robert Lee “Buck” Kester (1947-2025) and Nancy Sherrill Lyles Kester. Buck was a graduate of Guilford College. He worked for his family’s business, Rose Furniture, one of the 100 largest furniture retailers in the county. He was president when the company closed in 2007. He served on the High Point Regional Hospital board for 10 years, including two years as chairman. He named the High Point Chamber’s Chamber of Commerce Small Business Person of the Year in 2000.

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

• Sold for $839,000 on May 15, 2025 (listed at $849,500)
• 4 bedrooms 3 bathrooms, 3,092 square feet (per county), 0.52 acre
• Price/square foot: $271
• Built in 1925
• Listed April 24, 2025
• Last sale: $652,000, May 2022; $345,000, July 1995
• Neighborhood: College Park
• Note: The house was already under contract when it was listed for sale.
  • Italian Renaissance Revival house with a symmetrical facade; projecting wings; a low-pitched, tile hip roof with wide overhanging eaves with decorative brackets; arches above the first-floor windows and doors; less elaborate second-floor windows; and a columned portico with a balustrade above, which is repeated atop the wings. The house sits high above the street above a terraced front lawn.
  • 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.

504 Emerywood Drive, High Point
The Crews-Thomas House

• Sold for $675,000 on May 12, 2025 (originally $750,000, later $785,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, 4,773 square feet (per county), 0.39 acre
• Price/square foot: $141
• Built in 1926
• Listed October 8, 2022
• Last sale: $210,000, October 1988
• Neighborhood: Emerywood, Uptown Suburbs Historic District (NRHP)
• Note: The property includes a carriage house with 1 bathroom, 2 bedrooms and a kitchen.
  • The listing shows only 3,537 square feet.
• District NRHP nomination: “This one-and-a-half-story, side-gabled, Tudor Revival-style house is three bays wide and double-pile with a projecting, front-gabled wing on the left (south) end of the facade and two hip-roofed dormers on the right (north) end of the facade.
  • “The house has a brick veneer with faux half-timbering in the gables and on the dormers. It has an exterior brick chimney with clay chimney pots in the right gable and vinyl windows.
  • “The batten door has a single light, with multiple, diamond-shaped panes and is sheltered by a front-gabled porch supported by grouped square posts supporting an exposed king-post truss.
  • “A one-story, hip-roofed porch on the right elevation has been enclosed with vertical wood sheathing and vinyl windows.
  • “The first known occupant is Dr. Numa H. Crews in 1928.” Dr. Crews (1888-1960) was an eye, ear, nose and throat doctor. By 1941, he and his wife, Louise Trux Crews (1893-1960), had moved to Greeneville, Tennessee, where he continued to practice until he retired.
  • 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.
  • John was a longtime volunteer with the Boy Scouts, both locally and nationally, serving as president of the local Uwharrie Council and on the national executive board. He also served as National Commissioner, the scouts’ highest ranking volunteer, and received scouting’s highest service award, the Silver Buffalo.
  • In 1988, they sold the house to their son Christopher Peyton Thomas (1955-2012) and his wife, Theresa Wilson Thomas. Christopher also worked for Thomas Built.

1085nmain

1085 N. Main St, Mocksville, Davie County
The Phillip and Sallie Hanes House

• Sold for $630,000 on May 8, 2025 (originally $925,000)
• 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 4,384 square feet, 4.57 acres
• Price/square foot: $144
• Built in 1900 (per county records)
• Listed September 4, 2024
• Last sales: $548,000, July 2020; $153,000, June 2012
• Neighborhood: North Main Street Historic District (NR)
• Previous listing: Outbuildings include an office with fireplace dating back to 1861, a barn with loft, and a garage.
• District NRHP nomination: “… substantial, three-bay, high-hipped frame Classical Revival style house; two-story side pavilions with pedimented gables; u-shaped, hipped porch with Tuscan columns, projecting pedimented bay over steps; slightly-projecting central bay with Palladian window on second level; large, pedimented dormer with hipped shoulders supported by pairs of short columns, flanked by hipped dormers; rear one- and two-story hipped wings; pair of large, corbelled-capped interior chimneys; double front doors with sidelights and transoms; two-over-two sash windows; lunar windows in side gables; louvered blinds; notable Classical Revival interior; built by a contractor named Ford for Philip Hanes (1851-1903) and wife, Sallie Clement Booe Hanes (1857-1927), daughter of Alexander Booe; Hanes was partner in B.F. Hanes Tobacco Company in Winston; Alexander Booe House was pulled down and new house built on site.”
  • Phillip’s business partner was a brother, Benjamin Franklin Hanes. Their brothers Pleasant Henderson Hanes and John Wesley Hanes founded their own tobacco company in Winston-Salem. After selling it to R.J. Reynolds, Pleasant and John Wesley each started a mill, which ultimately merged to create the Hanes Corporation.
  • Phillip died at age 51 after being kicked by a horse. Sallie lived in the house until her death 24 years later.
  • He is identified as “Philip” in some documents (including the National Register nomination quoted above), but his gravestone has his name with two L’s.

819 Oaklawn Avenue, Winston-Salem
The Stockton-Hibbits House

• Sold for $1.45 million on May 1, 2025 (originally $1.59 million)
• 5 bedrooms, 4 full bathrooms, 2 half-bathrooms, 6,202 square feet (per county), 0.53 acre
• Price/square foot: $234
• Built in 1928
• Listed March 7, 2025
• Last sales: $825,000, May 2014; $1.3 million, October 2007
• Neighborhood: Buena Vista
• Note: The property includes a guest house and a swimming pool.
  • The listing shows only 4,956 square feet.
  • The original owners were Ralph Madison Stockton (1897-1972) and Margaret Mae Thompson Stockton (1897-1978). Ralph served in the heavy artillery in World War I. He was a superintendent and later vice president with B.F. Huntley Furniture Company. He served on the city’s Board of Aldermen and the Winston-Salem school board. He also served as president of Goodwill Industries. Margaret was a graduate of Salem College. She taught piano before her marriage in 1921.
  • The Stocktons sold the house around 1958 to John Joseph “Jack” Hibbits (1921-2016) and Virginia Howard “Ginger” Lawrence Hibbits (1922-2014). They lived in the house 30 years. Jack flew a B-24 bomber during World War II in the central Pacific. He was sales manager of RJR Archer, an aluminum and packaging company. He retired as vice president and general manager of the packaging division and became CEO of Cooper D. Cass Company, an office-machines dealer, and Tekton Inc.

830 Oaklawn Avenue, Winston-Salem

• Sold for $1.45 million on April 28, 2025 (listed at $1.40 million)
• 5 bedrooms, 4 1/2 bathrooms, 4,809 square feet (per county), 0.67 acre
• Price/square foot: $302
• Built in 1924
• Listed March 5, 2025
• Last sales: $1.18 million, May 2022; $860,000, May 2004
• Neighborhood: Buena Vista
• Note: The listing shows only 4,363 square feet.
  • The property includes a garage-guest house with an exercise room.
  • The first known owners were Harry Holland Davis (1888-1937) and Lena Seward Davis (1892-1981), who bought the property in 1928. Harry was co-proprietor of Brown’s tobacco warehouse. They had moved by 1934.

212 Cascade Avenue, Winston-Salem
The Henry L. Trotter House

• Sold for $610,000 on April 24, 2025 (listed at $599,000)
• 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 3,888 square feet, 0.51 acre
• Price/square foot: $157
• Built in 1919
• Listed March 29, 2025
• Last sale: 1961, price illegible in online deed
• Neighborhood: Washington Park Historic District (NR)
• District NR nomination: “Frame foursquare house with deck-hip roof, hipped central dormer on front and both sides, three bays wide. Central entrance beneath later gabled and arched portico supported by paired classical columns; front door with elliptical fanlight and leaded sidelights.
  • “Shingled second floor, first floor originally weatherboard, now vinyl siding. One-story shed porch at west side. In 1937 Trotter added a two-story rear flat roofed ell with sleeping porch and one story rear hipped ell. Building permits indicate a porch was constructed in 1941.
  • “Trotter and his wife Adelaide moved here from 800 S. Main in 1922 … Property formerly included a garden at what is today 228 Cascade.”
  • Henry Lee Trotter (1879-1969) was a co-founder of Ideal Dry Goods Company. He served as secretary-treasurer, manager, president and chairman of the board. He and his wife, Adalaide Fischer Trotter (1882-1981), sold the house in 1957.
  • In 1961 the house was bought by Joseph N. Schumacher (b. 1927 or 1928) and Mary Virginia Schumacher (1928-2006). Joseph is now selling the house. He received a doctorate from Ohio State University and worked as a researcher at R.J. Reynolds for 33 years. In 2018, at age 90, he marked his 35th year as a deacon at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church.
  • Mary was born in Chicago and graduated from St. Francis University in Joliet, Illinois. She was a technician at Children’s Hospital in Chicago when she met Joseph. She taught English and arithmetic in elementary schools.

534 N. Stratford Road, Winston-Salem

• Sold for $1.12 million on April 16, 2025 (listed at $1.095 million)
• 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 4,074 square feet, 0.37 acre
• Price/square foot: $275
• Built in 1922
• Listed March 21, 2025
• Last sales: $825,000, June 2019; $688,700, April 2015
• Neighborhood: Buena Vista
• Note: The property has a two-car detached garage accessible from Virginia Road.
  • The original owners probably were John D. Stockton (1889-1963) and Lillian Tucker Stockton (1894-1967). They were listed simply in Buena Vista with no street address in 1923. In 1925 they listed on Lover’s Lane, the original name of Stratford Road and in 1928 at 534 N. Stratford. They lived in the house for the rest of their lives.
  • John was secretary-treasurer of Fogle Furniture Company, a manufacturer. He started the day after he graduated from the Salem Boys School in 1905, as the company was being organized. He became secretary in 1912 and in 1940 bought a controlling interest in the company, which he continued to run until his death at age 73. He also served as director of the Home Moravian Church Band No. 1 for 30 years and played coronet in the Moravian Easter Band.

1620 Fairway Drive, Reidsville, Rockingham County
The Benjamin and June Goodes House

• Sold for $594,500 on March 24, 2025 (originally $675,000)
• 5 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, 4,694 square feet, 5.29 acres
• Price/square foot: $127
• Built in 1952
• Listed July 26, 2024
• Last sale: $407,000, July 2021
• Neighborhood: Belmont Forest
• Note: The original owners were Benjamin Lawrence Goodes (1912-1997) and June Hooper Goodes (1819-1999). They bought the property in 1949 and were listed there in the 1953 city directory, the first to include residences on Fairway Drive. Benjamin was the owner of Cardinal Cleaners (“Cleaners, Hats Rebuilt”). He was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, and served in the U.S. Army air coprs during World War II. The house was sold by their sons after their deaths.

728 W. Davis Street, Burlington, Alamance County
The Pollard-Neese House

• Sold for $485,000 on March 16, 2025 (originally $575,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, 4,004 square feet, 0.31 acre
• Price/square foot: $121
• Built in 1910 (per county, but possibly 1918)
• Listed August 15, 2024
• Last sale: $288,000, November 2006
• Neighborhood: Fountain Place-West Davis Street Historic District (local and NR)
• Note: Another restoration project being abandoned. What’s unusual about this one is that the seller has owned the property for 18 years.
• District NR nomination: “Two of the district’s pivotal houses displaying neoclassical features are difficult to categorize stylistically. … They consist of simple, block-like flat-roofed forms in symmetrical compositions with roof balustrades of classically-inspired turned balusters. … [T]he Pollard-Neese House is fortress-like with its more condensed massing and exterior of random-coursed ashlar. …
• “On its corner lot next to the stone gates leading to Fountain Place, this highly unusual stone structure with classical elements is a key property in the West Davis Street area. Built in 1918 for Harold C. Pollard, prominent Burlington realtor, it was acquired in the mid-1920s by C. Freeman (‘Diamond Pete’) Neese, son of C.F. Neese who in the early 1880s opened the first jewelry store in Company Shops/Burlington. In 1926, ‘Diamond Pete’ joined with his brother-in-law to organize the Heritage Brothers Circus, the only such operation ever to emanate from Burlington. He also had the distinction of being born on the same day that the city’s name was changed from Company Shops to Burlington.
  • J.W. Long was the contractor for the two-story structure constructed of granite quarried in Mount Airy. Heavy stone balustrades cap the flat roofs of the central block, one-story entrance bay porch, and side porch and sunroom. A pair of paved single-shoulder chimneys rise in an exterior end position on the west elevation.
  • “Most of the numerous windows are nine-over-one double hung sash; those lighting the sunroom are twelve-pane double casements with transoms. Multi-pane transoms are repeated over the main entrance and sidelights and above a second-floor door and flanking windows.”
  • Diamond Pete (1887-1979) and Elon Heritage Neese (1890-1988) owned the house until their deaths. The Heritage Brothers Big Three-Ring Trained Animal Circus, sadly, lasted only one season, but what a show it must have been. It was organized by two of Elon’s seven brothers, Arthur and Albert Heritage. It operated from April to September 1926.

817 West End Avenue, Winston-Salem
The Robert and Ida Galloway House

• Sold for $955,000 on March 10, 2025 (listed in 2023 at $985,000)
• 5 bedrooms, 4 1/2 bathrooms, 4,641 square feet, 0.47 acre
• Price/square foot: $206
• Built in 1918
• Listed March 8, 2023; withdrawn May 30, 2023
• Last sale: $670,000, May 2019
• Neighborhood: West End Historic District (local and NR)
• Note: The house was designed by Willard Northup.
  • The house has had just three owners in 105 years.
  • The roof is Ludowici green tile.
  • Sold without being publicly relisted.
• Something you don’t see every day: “Mrs. Galloway’s baby grand piano has been tuned and can convey with the house.”
• District NR nomination: “One of the most handsome of the many examples of the [Colonial Revival] style is the Robert S. Galloway House, designed in 1918 by prominent local architect Willard C. Northup.
  • “With its white stuccoed walls and green tile roof, the two-story house suggests the influence of Charles Barton Keen’s design for Reynolda House.
  • “The Galloway House is detailed with blind arches over the first story windows, a modillioned cornice, and matching front, side, and rear porches with Tuscan columns, a full entablature with triglyph- and metope frieze, and a balustraded upper deck.
  • “The interior is designed with a variety of Federal Revival details.”
  • Ida Miller Galloway (1881-1972) bought the property in 1912. She and Robert Scales Galloway (1866-1964) built the house in 1918. He was as an accountant at R.J. Reynolds Tobacco and later president of Smith-Phillips Lumber Co. Ida and Robert lived here until they died. It was sold in 1972 to the owners who sold it in 2019.
• Included in Art Works of Piedmont Section of North Carolina (1924):

6043 Lake Brandt Road, Greensboro
Hillsdale Farm
2017 blog post

• Sold for $3.285 million on March 3, 2025 (listed at $3.59 million)
  • Sold without being publicly relisted five months after the listing was withdrawn.
• 7 bedrooms, 6 full bathrooms, 2 half-bathrooms, 13,625 square feet, 28.56 acres
• Price/square foot: $241
• Built in 1929
• Listed March 8, 2024
• Last sale: $2.335 million, February 2018
• Neighborhood: Just outside the Greensboro city limits on the northeast shore of Lake Brandt
• Note: A Guilford County Historic Landmark
  • The Colonial Revival house overlooks Lake Brandt.
  • The property was originally 2,800 acres.
  • On a square-foot basis, the house is far less expensive than many less remarkable properties for sale in Irving Park, Sunset Hills and other Greensboro neighborhoods.
  • The property includes a 1/6 ownership of the private, 26-acre Richardson Lake.
  • The driveway runs a half-mile from Lake Brandt Road, across the Richardson Lake dam to the house.
  • The property includes a 5-car garage with a 1,323 square-foot apartment (2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom). The property also has a pump house, playhouse, bath house, drained water tower, equipment barn and workshop.
  • A recent outdoor lighting design uses 100 percent LED lights, as detailed here (the photos above showing the lighting are from Southern Lights Outdoor Lighting & Audio of Summerfield).
  • The 2018 listing showed 8 bedrooms, 27 acres and said there was an indoor pool, which isn’t mentioned this time.
  • “The house was built in 1929 by Lunsford Richardson III (a son of the Vicks VapoRub inventor) [1981-1953] and his wife, [Margaret Blakeney Richardson, 1900-1979]. It was designed by nationally known architect Richardson Brognard Okie of Philadelphia. Okie used several design techniques to assure the illusion of history, such as rambling floor plans that appeared to have been added organically through time, massive masonry chimneys, and fine hand-carved woodwork.” (Guilford County Historic Landmark Story Map)
  • For a more complete description of the house, see the county landmark nomination.
  • Keeping track of the four Lunsford Richardsons is a bit tricky. Lunsford Richardson (1854-1919) invented Vicks Vapo-Rub. His father also was named Lunsford Richardson, but the son did not have Jr. appended to his name. The second Lunsford (the famous one) named one of his sons Lunsford Richardson III. Lunsford III carried on the family tradition but, inexplicably, named his son Lunsford Richardson Jr. (1924-2016). Lunsford Jr. named his only son James.
  • Lunsford Jr. sold the property in 1983 to Robert C. Lock, publishing entrepreneur, former UNCG librarian, and founder of the wildly successful early personal-computer magazine Compute! and the late, lamented Signal Research publishing company.
  • In 1988, Robert sold it to Louis Cornelius Stephens Jr. (1921-2007) and Charlotte Mary Adams Stephens (1929-2016). Louis was president and CEO of Pilot Life. He was a trustee of The Duke Endowment for 23 years and also served on the boards of UNCG, Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital and the Research Triangle Institute.
  • Michael R. Cooke and Eva K. Cooke bought the house from the Stephenses in 2003. Cooke is a second-generation local builder and a namesake of Weaver Cooke Construction. The Cookes secured the county historic designation for the house in 2010. They sold the property in 2018 to the current owner.

3215 N. Rockingham Road, Sedgefield, Guilford County
Ayrshire

• Sold for $2,807,990 on March 3, 2025 (originally $3.75 million, later $2.9 million)
• 4 bedrooms, 4 full bathrooms and two half-bathrooms, 13,218 square feet (per county), 5.50 acres
• Price/square foot: $212
• Built in 1935
• Listed August 22, 2008
• Last sale: The house had never been sold.
• Neighborhood: Sedgefield
• Note: Online listings show only 8,415 square feet.
  • Oddly, the listing shows no photos of the kitchen, which looked quite good in previous listings (see photos below).
  • The property consists of three lots with two undeveloped lots on either side of the house’s 2.91-acre lot.
  • Located on the first hole of Sedgefield’s Donald Ross-designed course.
  • The interior features butterfly pegged floors, wood and plaster moldings, leaded glass windows, solid wood beams, coffered ceilings and a marble wall fountain. A porte-cochere connects the house to its garages, two-bedroom guest quarters and herb garden. 
  • A 2011 article in O.Henry magazine details its interior design and the extravagant sourcing of its reclaimed stone and wooden beams, which came from an 18th-century grist mill in Stanly County. Nell’s father bought the mill and had the stone and beams brought to Sedgefield for the house.
  • The house was built by Nathan McNeil Ayers (1908-1996) and Martha Ellen “Nell” Adams Ayers (1909-1967). It was designed by Nathan’s uncle Sanford McNeil Ayers (1906-1959), a prominent Atlanta architect.
  • Nathan was born in Georgia and graduated from Georgia Tech. He served as a lieutenant colonel in the Army Air Corps during World War II. After starting his career with hosiery manufacturer Adams-Millis Corporation, he was chairman of Highland Yarn Mills of High Point, a director of National Association of Manufacturers, and chairman of National Association of Hosiery Manufacturers. He also served as master of the Sedgefield Hunt and president of the Sedgefield Horse Show.
  • Nell was the daughter of John Hampton Adams, a founder of Adams-Millis. She grew up in what is now the J.H. Adams Inn on North Main Street in High Point.
  • The house was sold by their daughter-in-law; their son, Jere Adams Ayers (1942-2025), died in February.
  • Photos from earlier listings:

204 Elmwood Drive, Greensboro
The Bailey and Elizabeth Sellars House

• Sold for $1.21 million on February 26, 2025 (listed at $1.299 million)
  • The sale closed six days after the offer was accepted.
• 4 bedrooms, 4 1/2 bathrooms, 4,244 square feet (per county), 0.26 acre
• Price/square foot: $285
• Built in 1942
• Listed December 5, 2024
• Last sales: $970,000, August 2017; $665,000, March 2015; $605,000, August 2005
• Neighborhood: Irving Park
• Note: The property includes a two-car detached garage.
  • The original owners were Walter Bailey Sellars (1905-1979) and Elizabeth Sellars (1908-2005). They bought the property in 1938 and were listed at the address in 1942, the first year it was listed in the city directory. They had rented 205 Elmwood across the street since 1938. Elizabeth sold the house in 1996.
  • Bailey was an executive with Burlington Industries, eventually serving as vice president of research and development. He was a member of the Research Triangle board of governors and the board of trustees of the Textile Research Institute.
  • Elizabeth was a graduate of Peabody College at Vanderbilt University and after graduation studied ballet in New York City.

212hillcrest

212 Hillcrest Drive, High Point

• Sold for $1.1 million on January 16, 2025
• 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 5,554 square feet, 0.60 acre
• Price/square foot: $198
• Built in 1923 (or a few years later; see note)
• Not listed publicly for sale
• Last sale: $370,000, July 1993
• Neighborhood: Emerywood, Uptown Suburbs Historic District (NR)
• Note: The original owners were Alvin Scott Parker (1877-1950) and Deborah Tomlinson Parker (1879-1957). Alvin was vice president and later president of Snow Lumber Company. He left Snow and started Parker & Brown Lumber Company, again serving as president. He was elected to the High Point City Council. He was a director and vice president of Perpetual Savings & Loan Association, trustee of High Point Memorial Hospital and of the Firemen’s Relief Fund. He was a longtime member of the Central Friends Meeting and served as its treasurer for 30 years.
  • Deborah attended Guilford College and the Women’s College. Along with her brothers, she was a founder of Tomlinson’s of High Point, a furniture manufacturer. She was a charter member of High Point’s first garden club and was active in the Hospital Guild. They sold the house around 1940.
• District NR nomination: “This two-and-a-half-story, side-gabled, Georgian Revival-style house is three bays wide and double-pile with a brick veneer, parapets on the gable ends, and a brick parapet with sections of open balusters across the facade.
  • “The house has a slate roof and three arched dormers across the facade, each with a three-light casement window. The house has eight-over-eight windows with applied wood lintels and aprons on the first story and stone keystones on the second story. The six-panel door is recessed slightly in a paneled bay with a classical surround with pilasters and a broken pediment with dentil molding.
  • “A one-story, flat-roofed carport on the left (west) elevation is supported by full-height brick piers with arched openings. A matching, one-story porch on the right (east) elevation has been enclosed with paired French doors with sidelights. The house has interior end brick chimneys in each gable and a modillion cornice on the facade. There is a two-story ell projecting from the left rear (northwest).”