Piedmont Historic Homes

• Sold for $349,900 on June 26, 2024 (listed at $349,900)
• 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, 1,975 square feet, 0.32 acre
• Price/square foot: $177
• Built in 1967
• Listed May 10, 2024
• Last sale: 1967, price not recorded on deed.
• Neighborhood: Starmount Forest
• Note: John Norman Curtis and Gerda Q. Curtis bought the undeveloped lot in 1967 and hired architect Clinton Gravely (b. 1935) to design their house. Gravely’s father and grandfather were contractors in Reidsville. He worked with his father growing up and studied architecture at Howard University. After serving in the military, he came home and worked again for his father’s company. He joined Edward Lowenstein’s architecture firm, the first white firm to hire African American architects in North Carolina. Gravely started his own firm in 1967, designing more than 800 projects, including 100 churches and the N.C. A&T State University Library. He was the original architect for Greensboro’s International Civil Rights Museum, which was completed by the Freelon Group.
• Norman Curtis (1919-2005) was a cattleman and owner of Curtis Packing Company. He also owned the Greensboro Generals hockey team for a while in the 1970s and was a prominent amateur golfer. When he and Gerda (1937-2022) divorced, she got the house. It’s now being sold by her estate.
• The property’s early history has a surprising twist. It was bought in 1926 by Alfred Moore Scales (1870-1940) and Mary Leigh Penn Scales (1892-1960). Scales was a figure of historic significance in Greensboro as the developer of Irving Park and Hamilton Lakes. He was also a major political figure statewide. But he lost this property to foreclosure in April 1929. It was bought by the Starmount Company, which held it until 1967.

164 Johnson Ridge Road, Elkin, Surry County
The Janet Graham House

• Sold for $172,000 on May 17, 2024 (listed at $166,000)
  • Sold to buyers with a mailing address in Statesville
• 1 bedroom, 2 bathrooms, 1,233 square feet, 0.70 acre
• Price/square foot: $139
• Built in 1978
• Listed April 23, 2024
• Last sale: $61,000, October 2014
• Note: An unusual octagonal house with an open floor plan upstairs and the lone bedroom downstairs.
  • The house was built by Dr. Janet Hamilton Graham (1946-2006), who bought the property in 1978. She lived in Florida and may have used the home as a summer residence. She was minister of music and organist at Memorial Presbyterian Church in St. Augustine, Florida, and conductor of the St. Augustine Community Choir. She left the house to her brother; he sold it in 2014.

• Sold for $999,999 on May 10, 2024 (listed at $999,999)
• 5 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms, 7,128 square feet, 1.38 acres
• Price/square foot: $140
• Built in 1961
• Listed March 26, 2024
• Neighborhood: Emerywood Forest
• Last sale: $2,200, July 1961
• Note: Designed by Voorhees and Eccles
  • The property was bought and the house built by Edward S. Silver (1929-2010) and Suzanne Weiss Silver, now living out of state, in 1961. The deed is still in Edward’s name. Edward took over his family’s business, Silver Knit Industries, in 1951. He expanded the business significantly and sold it in 1983. He then started a successful second career in commercial real estate. Edward served as president of B’nai Israel Synagogue, as had his father.

1801georgia

• Sold for $853,000 on May 10, 2024 (listed at $799,000)
  • Sold to an LLC associated with an investment firm in St. Petersburg, Florida
• 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1,655 square feet, 0.64 acre
• Price/square foot: $515
• Built in 1953
• Listed April 18, 2024
• Last sale: $236,000, March 2014
• Neighborhood: West Highlands
• Note: The home’s original owners were Floyd Smith Burge Sr. (1903-1998) and Vivian Mildred Saylor Burge (1903-1977). Floyd founded Floyd S. Burge Construction Company. He sold the house in 1978.
• N.C. Modernist: “Designed and built by their son, J. Kenneth Burge [1926-2017], based on classes he took with George Matsumoto at the NCSU School of Design.” Ken Burge was a graduate of Reynolds High School and N.C. State University, with a degree in architectural engineering. He served in the Army in the Philippines during World War II. He joined his father’s firm and established Burge Enterprises; Home Lumber Company, an architectural millwork firm; and BB&L, a holding company. He headed all four companies until he retired in 1989.

• Sold for $760,000 on April 26, 2024 (listed at $750,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, 3,676 square feet, 0.62 acre
• Price/square foot: $207
• Built in 1968
• Listed March 29, 2024
• Last sales: $599,900, April 2022; $385,000, October 2012
• Neighborhood: Buena Vista
• Note: The house had two owners in its first 43 years. This would be its fourth sale in 13 years.
  • The house was built by Billy Eugene Tuttle (1939-2020) and Jenny Lee Cranfill Tuttle (1935-2001), who bought the undeveloped property from the Merry Acres Development Company in September 1968. Jenny sold the house in 1981.
  • The buyers in 1981 were Paul S. Davenport Jr. (1941-2022) and Jeanette Long Davenport. Paul was executive vice president and chief financial officer of Republic Mortgage Insurance Company. They sold the house in 2011.

407coffey

• Sold for $229,900 on April 18, 2024 (listed at $229,900)
• 3 bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms and 2 half-bathrooms, 1,943 square feet, 0.41 acre
• Price/square foot: $118
• Built in 1970
• Listed March 23, 2024
• Last sale: $92,000, December 1989
• Neighborhood: Finley Park

226 Pine Ridge Drive, High Point

• Sold for $280,000 on April 2, 2024 (listed at $275,000)
• 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, 2,305 square feet, 0.72 acre
• Price/square foot: $121
• Built in 1958
• Listed March 4, 2024
• Last sale: $150,000, December 2017
• Note: “Pool is inoperable but could be restored.”
  • The original owners were Rudolph T. Upton and Polly E. Upton (dates unknown for both), who bought the property in 1957. Rudy was a building contractor. The house was listed as under construction in the 1959 city directory and was completed by 1960. The Uptons sold it in 1962.

• Sold for $129,000 on February 15, 2024 (originally $199,000)
• 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1,416 square feet, 0.23 acre
• Price/square foot: $91
• Built in 1947
• Listed August 6, 2022
• Last sale: $29,000, May 2013
• Neighborhood: Mount Airy Historic District (NR)
• Listing: “Home will convey fully furnished minus the kitchen table and chairs.”
  • Currently a short term rental.
  • There’s an attached garage, but, oddly, it was built around an outcrop of granite, which doesn’t allow room for a car.
• District NR nomination: “One-story Modernist house of stuccoed concrete block construction with a parapet shed roof. The parapet jetties slightly over the walls below and has a ceramic tile coping.
  • “The main façade is five bays with a central entrance and flanking one-over-one windows (short and wide windows on each side of the entrance and taller and narrower windows at the outer bays). The bay immediately to the right of the entrance projects with a rectangular footprint and has a window on each side.
  • “A set-back wing with a garage-like shed attached to the house by infill extends from the west side. Other features include replacement windows, novelty vinyl siding on the wing, and modern entry awnings.”
  • The house was built for James Roland Carpenter (1908-1975) and Vera Virginia Collins Carpenter (1915-2007), who owned the property from 1948 to 2007. Roland was the manager of Granite City Cleaners and later produce manager at Moseley Super Market. The house was sold after Virginia’s death at age 91.
  • “The site has granite outcrops, one of which is inside the ‘garage’ which would have rendered the space too small to park a car … The 1948 Sanborn map identifies the building as a garage, though that may have been an educated guess on the part of the mapper. The garage was shown with an open-air covered connection to the house. Carpenter also had a backyard grill created by mounting a grill between two granite boulders.”

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• Sold for $525,000 on January 11, 2024 (originally $610,000)
• 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2,148 square feet, 9.27 acres
• Price/square foot: $244
• Built in 1980
• Listed September 8, 2023
• Last sale: $481,000, June 2021
• Note: The house was built by Herbert E. Williams (1941-2020) and Patricia W. Williams. They bought the property in 1979 and owned it until 2021. Herbert was born in Forsyth County. He graduated from Gray High School and Guilford College. He worked for Reynolds American for 30 years.

• Sold for $90,000 on January 10, 2024 (listed at $115,000)
  • The buyer is an LLC in Fort Myers, Florida
• 3 bedrooms, 1 1/2 bathrooms, 1,012 square feet, 0.24 acre
• Price/square foot: $89
• Built in 1965
• Listed December 5, 2023
• Last sale: The house hasn’t been sold since it was built.
• Note: The design of the house probably came from a plan book, according to N.C. Modernist.
  • The address is listed as the location of Special Services of the Piedmont, which provides case management and residential treatment for people with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities. The owner of the house is the director of the organization.