Piedmont Historic Homes

191 Howell Drive, Denton, Davidson County

• Sold for $247,000 on December 4, 2025 (originally $284,900)
• 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1,360 round feet, 0.40 acre
• Price/round foot: $182
• Built in 1973
• Listed July 22, 2025
• Last sales: $200,000, September 2022; $136,000, June 2020
• Neighborhood: Nicoma Park
• Listing: The property includes a detached garage with attic storage and an insulated bonus room.
  • The house may have been built by Richard William Smith (1931-2018), who bought the property sometime before 1974. He worked as a brick mason, carpenter and building contractor. With two partners, he developed the neighborhood through South Davidson Developers, beginning in 1971. Later, he went into the carpet and building supply business.
  • Richard was an Army veteran of the Korean War. He also was a pilot and an accomplished woodworker. He built a wooden bicycle and, for High Point University, a replica of the Wright Brothers plane. He and his wife, Peggy Fritts Smith (dates unknown), sold the property in 1974 to Archie Clay Smith Jr. and Judy H. Smith (dates unknown for both; relationship to Richard Smith also unknown).

4800oakcliffe

4800 Oakcliffe Road, Greensboro
Sale pending October 27, 2025

• Sold for $555,000 on December 2, 2025 (listed at $549,900)
• 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, 3,302 square feet, 1.67 acres
• Price/square foot: $168
• Built in 1969
• Listed October 24, 2025
• Last sales: $432,500, January 2023; $291,000, July 2017
• Neighborhood: Forest Oaks
• Note: Located on the seventh hole of the Forest Oaks Country Club golf course.
• NC Modernist: “Designed and built by William Hitt, who was an engineer for Fluor/Daniels, engineers for the Burlington Industries headquarters building on Friendly Avenue, now destroyed. According to his daughter Linda, ‘He built it like a bunker, using all his knowledge from designing nuclear plants.’ … According to past owner Win Johnson, the structure is of commercial grade quality with structural steel and a unique concrete ductwork system.”
  • William (1923-1990) and Ethel Ruth Hitt (1927-2006) bought the property in 1969 and sold it in 1971. William was a veteran of World War II and the Korean War. He was a senior project manager for Fluor, for whom he worked for 28 years.

1241yorkshire

1241 Yorkshire Road, Winston-Salem

• Sold for $775,000 on November 19, 2025 (listed at $670,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2,448 square feet, 0.54 acre
• Price/square foot: $317
• Built in 1969
• Listed October 23, 2025
• Last sale: $329,500, June 2015
• Neighborhood: Old Sherwood Forest
• Note: The house has a salt-water swimming pool, a two-car garage and a new TPO roof.
  • The original owners appear to have been Kenneth H. Wells and Pearl H. Wells, who bought the house in 1970. They sold it in 1972 to Richard Badger Chappell (1932-2004). Richard was a car dealer, founder of Colony Dodge and Volvo of Winston-Salem and president of Honda of Winston-Salem. He and his wife, Linda C. Chappell (dates unknown), sold the house in 1985.

1116 Falling Stream, Sanford, Lee County

• Sold for $400,000 on November 5, 2025 (originally $525,000)
• 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, 2,311 square feet, 0.65 acre
• Price/square foot: $173
• Built in 1975
• Listed July 10, 2025
• Last sale: $455,000, September 2011
• Neighborhood: Carolina Trace
• Note: Designed by Arthur Cogswell
  • Located on Lake Trace
  • Listing: “It needs some work and is priced accordingly”
  • The property includes a detached garage with an unfinished upstairs space.

3256 Robinhood Road, Winston-Salem
The William and Jane Burton House

• Sold for $599,000 on October 23, 2025 (originally $650,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 3,400 square feet (see note), 0.54 acre
• Price/square foot: $176
• Built in 1965
• Listed July 16, 2025
• Last sales: $300,500, July 2019; $265,000, August 2011
• Note: County records show only 2,304 square feet, which looks too small. The listing shows 3,397 square feet; the 2019 listing said 3,456. A 1999 newspaper article said 3,400, All appear more likely than the figure in county records.
  • Designed by Lamar Noble Northup, son of renowned architect Willard Close Northup, for his sister Jane Northup Butler and her husband, William Butler (dates unknown for both). There was a builder named William Butler who built at least three MCM houses in Winston-Salem. Possibly the same guy? Online sources don’t provide proof either way. Jane and William owned the house until 1994.
  • The house was featured in an article on Northup in the Winston-Salem Journal in 1999 (PDFs here and here): “Burton’s house on Robinhood Road is three stories high in the back, with a lot of glass in the back and the balcony off the living room high off the ground. ‘It’s like living in a tree house,’ Burton said. Upkeep of the 3,400-square foot house has been minimal because of the building materials — wood, iron, tile and brick — and the materials, insulation and shade trees keep the house cool.”

3313 Kettering Place, Greensboro
The Albert and Leah Rose House

• Sold for $740,000 on September 3, 2025 (originally $945,000, later $950,000)
• 5 bedrooms, 4 1/2 bathrooms, 4,260 square feet, 0.33 acre
• Price/square foot: $174
• Built in 1972
• Listed December 7, 2023
• Last sale: $249,000, February 1996
• Neighborhood: Hamilton Lakes
• Note: Views of the third and fifth holes of the Starmount Forest Country Club golf course.
  • Listing: Two-and-a-half car garage (not sure what that means exactly) with additional parking for up to eight vehicles.
  • The NC Modernist database shows Mid-Century Modern houses at 3303 Kettering and 3311 Kettering, but doesn’t mention this one.
  • Albert A. Rose and Leah M. Rose (dates unknown for both) bought the property in 1969; the address appeared in the city directory for the first time in 1973. Albert served in the Navy during World War II with the rank of lieutenant commander. He was an accountant and a partner in Rose & Breslow. Leah was born in Guatemala. They sold the house in 1979.

1905 Huntington Road, Greensboro

• Sold for $780,000 on August 18 2025 (listed at $780,000)
  • Weird deed: Online listings show the house went under contract August 18. The deed is dated August 18, but the notary’s signature is dated August 21, and the deed wasn’t filed until August 28.
• 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2,766 square feet, 0.46 acre
• Price/square foot: $282
• Built in 1954
• Listed July 1, 2025
• Last sale: $182,000, August 1990
• Neighborhood: Irving Park
• Note: Architect Robert Norfleet (1907-2007) bought the lot in 1953. He designed and built the house soon after. He and his wife, Martha Polly Thomas Norfleet (d. 2003, age 89), and lived in it for 36 years. They sold the house to the current owner in 1990.
  • Robert graduated from University of North Carolina and Yale University. He served in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during World War II. He later served as a partner in the Greensboro architectural firm McMinn, Norfleet and Wicker. Polly was a bookkeeper and a longtime volunteer with Meals on Wheels.
  • Robert was born in Tarboro, grandson of Robert Norfleet (1816-1871), a farmer and businessman. In 1857 Robert had a prominent home built in Tarboro that remained in the family for 100 years. It may have been built by the enigmatic William Percival, who gave Norfleet as a reference during his brief but high-profile practice in the state in the late 1850s.

• Sold for $995,000 on August 21, 2025 (listed at $1.1 million)
• 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 4,088 square feet, 1.6 acres
• Price/square foot: $243
• Built in 1965
• Listed May 26, 2025
• Last sales: $870,500, January 2025; $835,000, July 2024; $359,000, October 2009
• Neighborhood: Sedgefield
• Note: The last and last remaining of Edward Lowenstein‘s three “Commencement Houses,” homes designed by Lowenstein and his students at the Women’s College (which had become UNCG by the time this one was built).
  • Sold in July 2024 and again, without being listed on MLS, in January 2025. Then quickly flipped — caveat emptor — with a huge markup. Did this house actually need $200,000-plus in renovations, or was it just to fatten up the price? The interior was already in excellent condition (see 2024 photos below). They apparently added a fourth bathroom. At least they didn’t tear it down.
  • The entrance hall has a 17-foot high wall of windows. There are large windows throughout the house, an open staircase and minimal ornamentation. At the back, a second-floor deck provides a view of the Sedgefield Country Club golf course. The house sits well back from the street in a forested landscape. The kitchen is modern but maintains its strikingly 1950s look.
  • Herbert L. Smith Jr. was general manager of Cummins Diesel Carolina. Nancy was with WUNC-TV. “Nancy Downs, hostess for the WUNC-TV show Potpourri, had covered the 1958 Commencement House and had her eyes on being the next Commencement House client,” N.C. Modernist says. The Smiths owned the house until 1986.
  • Located along the 2nd fairway of Sedgefield Country Club’s Donald Ross course.
  • Photos from the 2024 listing. Did this house need $160,000 worth of renovations?