Piedmont Historic Homes

Updated May 2, 2024

A bungalow is a one or one-and-a-half story home, typically with a front porch and often, though not always, relatively small and intimate. “Cottage” as an architectural style (rather than as functional description, such as vacation cottage) describes small homes, informal and descended from modest farm houses and other rural dwellings.

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Featured Listing
Greensboro, High Point and Guilford County
Winston-Salem and Forsyth County
Alamance, Caswell and Rockingham Counties
Stokes, Surry, Wilkes, Yadkin and Davie Counties
Davidson, Randolph and Montgomery Counties

Recent Sales

Featured Listing: An 1840 Bungalow in Yanceyville Associated with an Infamous Klan Murder, $399,500

303 Main Street West, Yanceyville, Caswell County (also here)
The S.T. Richmond House, aka the Sallie Martin House
Blog post — Four Houses with Infamous Pasts, Including a Triple Murder
MLS listing withdrawn February 15, 2024
Relisted April 1, 2024

• $350,000 (originally $399,500)
• 3 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 1,164 square feet, 0.46 acre
• Price/square foot: $301
• Built in 1840
• Listed November 3, 2023
• Last sale: $95,000, June 2019
• Neighborhood: Yanceyville Historic District (NR)
• Note: Oddly, the house doesn’t appear to be mentioned in the historic district’s nomination.
  • The listing says the house has “woodwork out of the Thomas Day shop,” a detail not documented in other online sources.
  • From An Inventory of Historic Architecture: Caswell County, North Carolina, Ruth Little-Stokes (1979): “Sallie Martin House. Early 19th century. 1.5-story Federal brick-and stucco house with four exterior end brick chimneys. Considerably altered, but retains eave moldings, 9/9 sash.”
  • Sallie D. Walker Martin (1882-1968) was married to William C. Martin (c. 1866-42) a farmer. She sold the house to her granddaughter Mary Elizabeth Boswell Bradner (1927-2014), in 1952.
  • A 2005 Yanceyville walking guide describes the house as covered in stucco and under restoration. The for-sale listing refers to a 2006-2015 restoration.
  • The guide identifies the house as the home of Dr. Stephen Trib Richmond (1824-1878), a physician and pharmacist. “Dr. Richmond was a Klansman, named by John G. Lea in his posthumously published confession of the murder of Senator John W. Stephens. Today it is popularly known as the Sallie Martin House, a later owner.”
  • From the district’s NR nomination: “The Ku Klux Klan chapter in Caswell County was one of the most active in North Carolina, and the hatred and bitterness of the Reconstruction Period throughout the state was embodied in the murder by members of the Klan of John W. Stephens, a resented politician, in the Caswell County Courthouse on May 20, 1870. Governor William W. Holden immediately imposed martial law on the entire county.” Holden, who had opposed the war and fought the Klan afterward, was soon impeached and removed from office.
  • The Klan’s murder of Sen. Stephens is a particularly infamous incident in the county’s history. Lea’s detailed confession accuses Stephens of multiple cases of arson and of killing his own mother. “Stevens was tried by the Ku Klux Klan and sentenced to death. He had a fair trial before a jury of twelve men,” Lea’s confession said. He identified Richmond as one of a gang of men who attacked Stephens in a room in the county courthouse. They put a rope around his neck before a man named Tom Oliver stabbed him to death.
  • “The knife was thrown at his feet and the rope left around his neck. We all came out, closed the door and locked it on the outside and took the key and threw it into County Line Creek.”

Greensboro, High Point and Guilford County

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300 Woodbine Court, Greensboro
The Bates-Goodwin House

• $645,000 (originally $685,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2,258 square feet, 0.16 acre
• Price/square foot: $286
• Built in 1925
• Listed November 8, 2023
• Last sale: $382,500, March 2016
• Neighborhood: Sunset Hills Historic District
• Note: The property includes a new two-car garage.
• District NR nomination: “The one-and-a-half-story, three-bay, cross-gabled, Craftsman house is brick on the first level and wood-shingled on the second and displays triangular knee braces.
  • “The flat-roofed porch is supported by square posts and graced with a Chippendale balustrade and curved brackets along the soffits. It shelters a multi-light door and extends across half of the façade. An arched-head louvered wood vent pierces a one-story, front-facing gable on the façade, while the principal front gable displays a six-over-six window topped with a fanlight and an upper gable pierce with half-circle vents on each side of a knee brace.
  • “Windows are nine-over-one and framed by soldier-course lintels and header-course sills. A brick chimney rises from the south elevation, forward of the roof ridge, while an interior brick chimney rises from the interior of the north side of the rear ell.
  • “A side-gabled brick projection with knee braces and an arched-head gable vent occupies the rear (east) side of the south elevation.
  • “Jean and Harry Bates bought the property in July 1926 and first appear at this address in the 1928 city directory. His occupation is listed as representative. In April 1928, Jean Bates sold the house to Nellie and Frank Goodwin. Goodwin heirs owned the house until 1988.”

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204 E. Hendrix Street, Greensboro
Sale pending April 1, 2024

• $635,000
• 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, 1,820 square feet, 0.19 acre
• Price/square foot: $349
• Built in 1913 (per county, possibly a bit later; see note)
• Listed March 29, 2024
• Last sale: $365,000, July 2015
• Neighborhood: Fisher Park Historic District (local and NR)
• Note: The house doesn’t appear in the city directory until 1917. It was listed that year with Walter Harry Dickieson (1883-1970) and Ethel Hale Dickieson (1888-1976) identified as the residents. Walter was a traveling salesman. They don’t appear to have owned the house, although the original owner is difficult to identify.
  • By 1927, Pearly Arthur Hayes (1882-1963) and Virginia Townsend Hayes (1890-1973) owned the house and were renting it out. They lived next door at 206 East Hendrix. Pearly was a prominent local businessman and a prolific buyer of Greensboro real estate. He was president of Byrd Laboratories, which produced patent medicines; president of Justice Drugs, a drug wholesaler and manufacturer; and secretary-treasurer of Barbee-Hayes Company, wholesale confectioners. He was still chairman of the board of Justice Drug when he died at age 80.
  • He served as a City Council member and mayor pro tem. He was chairman of the Juvenile Court Commission from 1933-1953. During World War II, he was a member of the local draft board. He served as president of the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce, Greensboro Rotary Club and Community Chest.
  • Pearly was a founder of the N.C. Pharmaceutical Research Association and in 1940 served as president of the National Wholesale Druggists Association.
  • By 1922, Frank Thomas Miller (1884-1960) and Louise Davis Miller (1888-1983) were listed as the tenants. By 1931, they had bought the house, and it stayed in their family until 1983. Frank was a consulting engineer.

701-703-5th

701-703 5th Avenue, Greensboro
The Denny-McMahan House
Sale pending April 16, 2024

• $495,000
• 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, 2,136 square feet, 0.75 acre (two lots)
• Price/square foot: $232
• Built in 1923 (per county, but probably a couple years earlier; see note)
• Listed April 11, 2024
• Last sale: $273,000 total — $18,000 for 701 5th Avenue, February 2015; and $255,000 for 703 5th Avenue, June 2016.
• Neighborhood: Dunleath Historic District (local), Summit Avenue Historic District (NR)
• Note: The property consists of two lots — 701 5th Avenue, on the corner of 5th Avenue and Yanceyville Street, and 703 5th Avenue, which is the lot with the house.
  • The original owner of the house was C.M. York, who bought the property in 1920. By 1921, the first time the address was listed in the city directory, York had sold the house to Kathleen Shirley Evan Denny (1864-1928), and she and her husband, Robert McCheyne Denny (1855-1942) were living at the address. Robert was a clerk with Arctic Ice & Coal Company. They sold the house in 1925 but continued to live in it until 1929.
  • In 1941, Noah McMahan (1894-1969) bought the house. His widow, Ruby Lee Rakestraw McMahan (1904-1980), sold it in 1970. Noah was the superintendent of the Greensboro water filter plant. He was a veteran of World War I.
• District NR nomination: “This eclectic cottage draws from a number of late nineteenth and early twentieth century styles; its round-arched porch recalls the Richardsonian Romanesque and its continuous shingled walls the Shingle style, while its diamond-paned windows and exposed rafter ends harken to the more contemporary Tudor Revival and Craftsman styles.”

3020 W. Sedgefield Drive, Greensboro
The Sidney and Bessie Alderman House
Listing withdrawn April 2024

• $459,900
• 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1,494 square feet, 0.47 acre
• Price/square foot: $308
• Built in 1927
• Listed January 1, 2024
• Last sale: $228,500, September 2016
• Neighborhood: Sedgefield
• Note: For sale by owner
  • The Sedgefield Country Club is across the street.
  • The property includes a swimming pool.
  • The house is one of the oldest in Sedgefield. Development of the community began in 1923.

The original owners were Sidney Love Alderman (1860-1931) and Bessie Carolina Sherrill Alderman (1870-1939). Sidney was a commercial photographer and artist, “prominently identified throughout the greater part of his life with the civic advancement of Greensboro,” the Greensboro Daily News said upon his death. They bought the property in 1925. Although Bessie died in 1939, her estate didn’t sell the house until 1965.

In 1966 the house was bought by Audrey Herzberg McCrory (1925-2006) and Rollin John McCrory (d. 1995). They moved to Sedgefield from Columbus, Ohio. Audrey was born in Milwaukee. She earned a B.S. in nursing from Marquette University and masters and doctoral degrees in human growth and development from UNC Greensboro. She taught sociology at Elon University, High Point University and Guilford Technical Community College. They were the parents of Pat McCrory, former governor of North Carolina. Audrey sold the house in 2004.

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709 Forrest Street, High Point
The Thomas and Viola Moran House
Sale pending March 20, 2024

• $320,000
• 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2,543 square feet, 0.26 acre
• Price/square foot: $126
• Built in 1945 (per county; see note)
• Listed February 16, 2024
• Last sale: $210,000, April 2019
• Neighborhood: Park Place
• Note: The original owners appear to have been Thomas J. Moran (possibly J. Thomas Moran) and Viola Moran (dates unknown for both). They were listed at the address in 1940. Both worked in textile mills. Thomas later sold real estate. They sold the house in 1962.

704 Morehead Avenue, Greensboro
The George and Lula Stewart House
Sale pending March 5-21, 2024
Listing withdrawn March 21, 2024

• $290,000 (originally $300,000)
• 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1,399 square feet, 0.20 acre
• Price/square foot: $207
• Built in 1922
• Listed January 17, 2024
• Last sale: $167,500, December 2019
• Neighborhood: College Hill Historic District (local and NR)
• Note: The property includes a 1-bedroom, 1-bathroom accessory dwelling unit of 919 square feet.
  • The original owners were George Cleveland Stewart (1884-1958) and Lula Ethel Whitaker Stewart (1886-1985). George was a conductor on the Yadkin & Atlantic Railroad and a member of the Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen. Lula sold the house in 1960.

901 W. McGee Street, Greensboro
The Lambert-Whitley House
Sale pending April 14, 2024

• $275,000
• 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 962 square feet, 0.17 acre
• Price/square foot: $287
• Built in 1932
• Listed March 29, 2024
• Last sale: $62,000, December 1989
• Neighborhood: College Hill Historic District (local and NR)
• Note:
• District NR nomination: “The few houses constructed in the district in the 1930s were generally Colonial or Period Revival in style, modestly finished, and clad in brick. Ornament for the brick-veneered, gable-end Diffie L. Lambert House at 901 McGee Street is primarily provided by a full-facade, Doric porch crowned with a broken pediment.”
  • Diffee Hackney Lambert (1901-1993) bought the property in 1929. He was listed at the address in 1933. He was a manager at Odell Hardware. He owned the house until 1941.
  • In 1944, the house was bought by William Vilas Whitley (1904-1971) and Mosey Rae Reele Whitney (1908-1983). William was a driver for Railway Express. Mosey was a typist at Jefferson-Standard Life Insurance. They lived in the house for the rest of their lives. It was sold in 1984 by Mosey’s estate.

518church

518 Church Street, Gibsonville, Guilford County
Sale pending April 30, 2024

• $235,000
• 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1,440 square feet, 0.92 acre
• Price/square foot: $163
• Built in 1927
• Listed April 24, 2024
• Last sale: $114,000, October 2002
• Red flag: No interior pictures are included in the listing.

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2506 Pinecroft Road, Greensboro
Sale pending April 19, 2024

• $225,000 (originally $250,000)
• 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1,886 square feet, 0.37 acre
• Price/square foot: $119
• Built in 1930
• Listed March 23, 2024
• Last sale: $89,000, November 1999
• Neighborhood: Lamrocton
• Note: One of at least four log cabins in the 2500 block of Pinecroft Road. All date from 1928 to 1930.

Winston-Salem and Forsyth County

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749 Summit Street, Winston-Salem (house) and 747 Summit Street (office building)

• $1.1 million
• House: 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 2 half-bathrooms, 1,850 square feet, 0.99 acre
• Office building: 3,670 square feet, 10 parking spaces, Building Class C
• Price/square foot: $199 (5,520 square feet total)
• Built in 1905 (house), 1967 (offices)
• Listed March 19, 2024
• Last sale: $600,000, July 2019
• Neighborhood: West End Historic District (local and NR)
• Note: The house is now being used as an office.
  • Current and former tenants in the office building include Bloom Couples Counseling, Camel City Women’s Wellness, Edwin Bouldin Architect PA, Emergence Body & Spa, McNair Construction, Rising Sun Counseling, Sessions Health, Summit Holistic Healing and Winston Salem Hypnotherapy Services.
• District NR nomination, 749 Summit: “Dunstan-McNair House: “This one-story pebbledash cottage is typical of the smaller-scale houses built in the West End during the early twentieth century. It retains late Victorian massing while introducing Colonial Revival detailing.
  • “Front and side gables intersect the steep pyramidal roof, while the wrap-around porch features Tuscan columns and a plain balustrade.
  • “R.L. Dunstan, superintendent of the cigarette department at R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., and his wife, Maude, were the first residents listed at this location in the city directory (1915). F. E. Vogler owned the property during the early 1920s.”
  • Grover Cleveland McNair (1885-1955) bought the house in 1925. His family owned it until 2019. Grover served as comptroller of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and as secretary of the Winston-Salem Fair.
  • Grover Jr. (1924-1916) was an architect and builder whose construction company is still listed online at 747 Summit. He served as a corporal in the glider corp during World War II. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge and was awarded the Bronze Star. Grover Jr. was a 1949 graduate of N.C. State and worked as an architect before starting his company. “He was involved with running Casstevens Hospital for several years, and later joined Integon Corporation and a group of 50 local doctors in founding Medical Park Hospital,” his obituary said.
• District NR nomination, 747 Summit: “This modern one/two-story office building has a flat roof and a narrow deck along the south side which serves as an exterior walkway. Sliding glass doors are found next to the office entrances. The building is set back from Summit St. with a parking lot (shared with 749 Summit St.) in front.”

• $569,400 (originally $639,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2,350 square feet, 0.31 acre
• Price/square foot: $242
• Built in 1928
• Listed August 11, 2023
• Last sale: $435,000, September 2022
• Neighborhood: West Highlands
• Note: The house was sold in 2020 and 2022.
  • The address appears in the city directory for the first time in 1928 with Robert Rowan Crawford Jr. (1876-1977) and Mary Price Hobson Crawford (1892-1979) listed as residents. Robert was secretary of the Crawford Mill Supply Company. By 1935 they had moved to Buena Vista Road.
  • In 1959, Wayne F. Minish Jr. (1925-2003) bought the house. He owned it for 39 years. At least initially he lived elsewhere and apparently used it as a rental property. The city directory identified him only as a “carrier.”

432 Lockland Avenue, Winston-Salem

• $544,900 (originally $549,900)
• 5 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, 2,867 square feet, 0.21 acre
• Price/square foot: $190
• Built in 1928
• Listed February 23, 2024
• Last sale: $262,000, November 2019
• Neighborhood: Ardmore Historic District (NR)
• Note: Most of the historic character of the interior has been eliminated. For a house this expensive, a buyer should expect better than cheap vinyl siding and replacement windows.
  • Owned by an out-of-state LLC
  • County property classify it as a quadriplex.
• District NR nomination: “Bungalow. Unusual form. One and a half story with attic; side gable; brick and aluminum siding; shed-roof dormer; gable-roof dormer surmounts shed dormer; shingled gable ends; eight-over-eight and six-over-six, double-hung sash; engaged porch; brick piers; architrave and pilasters at entry; stone retaining wall.”
  • The original owners were Daniel Webster Messick (1888-1949) and Bertha Legrand Carpenter Brewer Messick (1890-1972). They were listed at the address in 1929, the first year it was included in the city directory. Webster had a grocery store on East 5th Street. By 1934, they had moved.
  • The house was owned by Thelma Scism Tucker (1907-1995) from 1950 until her death. There’s little information available about her online. In 1940, she was living in Asheboro with her husband, Herman Daniel Tucker. The 1950 census listed her at 432 Lockland with five borders. The city directory in 1951 and subsequent years showed her at the address as Mrs. Thelma S. Tucker, but with no occupation or husband listed. Her obituary said she had a son whose surname was Scism.

1521 Seneca Street, Winston-Salem
Sale pending April 1-17, 2024
Sale pending April 30, 2024

• $420,000
• 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1,822 square feet, 0.15 acre
• Price/square foot: $231
• Built in 1912
• Listed March 15, 2024
• Last sale: $300,000, December 2022
• Neighborhood: Ardmore Historic District (NR)
• District NR nomination: “Dutch Colonial Revival. One and a half story; cross-gambrel; weatherboard and decorative shingles; two-over-two, double-hung sash; hip roof porch; Tuscan columns; porch partially enclosed (may be original).”

258 West End Boulevard, Winston-Salem
The Murphy-Edmunds House

• $399,000
• 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1,465 square feet
• Price/square foot: $272
• Built around 1913 (see note below)
• Listed March 7, 2024
• Last sales: $290,000, October 2020; $154,500, October 2015
• Neighborhood: West End Historic District
• Note: The listing gives the home’s date as 1913. The National Register nomination says circa 1913. County records say 1915.
  • Nation Register district nomination: “This house is virtually identical to 612 N. Broad St. (#81), and the two appear to have been built at the same time. The house is a one-story pebbledash cottage characterized by irregular massing, a central pyramidal roof with intersecting gables which correspond with the various projecting bays and wings, tall interior chimneys, and a wrap-around porch with slender Tuscan columns and a plain balustrade. Typical of the setting of many West End houses, this one is located on a slight hill above the street and has a terraced yard with a handsome cut granite retaining wall and front walk steps.”

703 West Street, Winston-Salem
Listing withdrawn April 7, 2024

• $399,000 (originally $409,000)
• 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2,197 square feet, 0.11 acre
• Price/square foot: $182
• Built in 1915
• Listed February 3, 2024
• Last sale: $200,000 on May 25, 2023
• Neighborhood: West Salem Historic District (NR)
• Note: Flipped house with a huge markup.
• District NRHP nomination: “Craftsman Bungalow. One and a half story; side gable; weatherboard; ten-light, Craftsman-style transom over single-light windows; front-gable dormer; front-gable porch; battered posts on brick piers; wood shingles in gable ends and on dormer; knee braces; exposed rafter tails. 1915 CD: James and Jessie Prater, a plumber.”

2396 Maplewood Avenue, Winston-Salem
Sale pending April 16, 2024

• $359,900 (originally $369,900)
• 3 bedrooms, 1 1/2 bathrooms, 1,460 square feet, 0.25 acre
• Price/square foot: $247
• Built in 1925
• Listed March 14, 2024
• Last sale: $239,000, January 2020
• Neighborhood: Ardmore Historic District (NR)
• District NR nomination: “Period Cottage. Side facing jerkinhead roof; one and a half story; wood shingles; six-over-six, double-hung sash; asymmetrically gabled entry pavilion with recessed door in arched opening; stuccoed, facade chimney.”

329 E. Devonshire Street, Winston-Salem
Sale pending March 6, 2024
No longer under contract March 25, 2024

• $320,000 (originally $324,000, later $319,000)
• 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1,794 square feet, 0.17 acre
• Price/square foot: $178
• Built in 1925
• Listed October 3, 2023
• Last sale: July 9, 2009, price not recorded on deed
• Neighborhood: Sunnyside-Central Terrace Historic District (NR)
• District NR nomination: “One-and-a-half-story side-gable Craftsman house with large, gable-roof, wall dormer; vinyl siding; false beams; six-over-one, double-hung sash and multi-light hexagonal/diamond light sash over single light sash; battered columns on brick piers.”

Alamance, Caswell and Rockingham Counties

301s5th

301 S. 5th Street, Mebane, Alamance County

• $1 million
• 4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, 2,799 square feet (per county; see note), 0.69 acre
• Price/square foot: $357
• Built in 1922
• Listed April 2, 2024
• Last sale: $257,000, August 2008
• Neighborhood: Old South Mebane Historic District (NR)
• Note: The listing gives the square footage as 3,626. County records are often wrong about the size of houses, but a discrepancy of almost 30 percent is unusually large.
  • The property includes a detached four-car garage, divided into two parts. One section is heated and cooled and has an attic with pull-down stairs.
• District NR nomination: “This is a 1½-story Colonial Revival-style house finished in square-butt wood shingles, with a side-gable roof which shields an engaged front porch supported by oversized Doric columns.
  • “A broad shed dormer is centered on the façade and a one-story shingled gabled wing on the north side features 6/6 sash and French doors; windows elsewhere are 1/1 sash.
  • “The first story is finished in stone and an exterior gable-end rock-faced stone chimney is on the north elevation. The foundation is of stone and stone steps access the front porch.”

303 Main Street West, Yanceyville, Caswell County (also here)
The S.T. Richmond House, aka the Sallie Martin House
MLS listing withdrawn February 15, 2024
Relisted April 1, 2024

• $350,000 (originally $399,500)
• 3 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 1,164 square feet, 0.46 acre
• Price/square foot: $301
• Built in 1840
• Listed November 3, 2023
• Last sale: $95,000, June 2019
• Neighborhood: Yanceyville Historic District (NR)
• Note: Oddly, the house doesn’t appear to be mentioned in the historic district’s nomination.
  • The listing says the house has “woodwork out of the Thomas Day shop,” a detail not documented in other online sources.
  • From An Inventory of Historic Architecture: Caswell County, North Carolina, Ruth Little-Stokes (1979): “Sallie Martin House. Early 19th century. 1.5-story Federal brick-and stucco house with four exterior end brick chimneys. Considerably altered, but retains eave moldings, 9/9 sash.”
  • Sallie D. Walker Martin (1882-1968) was married to William C. Martin (c. 1866-42) a farmer. She sold the house to her granddaughter Mary Elizabeth Boswell Bradner (1927-2014), in 1952.
  • A 2005 Yanceyville walking guide describes the house as covered in stucco and under restoration. The for-sale listing refers to a 2006-2015 restoration.
  • The guide identifies the house as the home of Dr. Stephen Trib Richmond (1824-1878), a physician and pharmacist. “Dr. Richmond was a Klansman, named by John G. Lea in his posthumously published confession of the murder of Senator John W. Stephens. Today it is popularly known as the Sallie Martin House, a later owner.”
  • From the district’s NR nomination: “The Ku Klux Klan chapter in Caswell County was one of the most active in North Carolina, and the hatred and bitterness of the Reconstruction Period throughout the state was embodied in the murder by members of the Klan of John W. Stephens, a resented politician, in the Caswell County Courthouse on May 20, 1870. Governor William W. Holden immediately imposed martial law on the entire county.” Holden, who had opposed the war and fought the Klan afterward, was soon impeached and removed from office.
  • The Klan’s murder of Sen. Stephens is a particularly infamous incident in the county’s history. Lea’s detailed confession accuses Stephens of multiple cases of arson and of killing his own mother. “Stevens was tried by the Ku Klux Klan and sentenced to death. He had a fair trial before a jury of twelve men,” Lea’s confession said. He identified Richmond as one of a gang of men who attacked Stephens in a room in the county courthouse. They put a rope around his neck before a man named Tom Oliver stabbed him to death.
  • “The knife was thrown at his feet and the rope left around his neck. We all came out, closed the door and locked it on the outside and took the key and threw it into County Line Creek.”

504s4th

504 S. 4th Street, Mebane, Alamance County
The Snipes-Pender House
Sale pending May 1, 2024

• $325,000
• 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1,637 square feet, 0.26 acre
• Price/square foot: $199
• Built in 1924 (per county but possibly a couple years later; see note)
• Listed April 30, 2024
• Last sale: $65,000, May 1995
• Neighborhood: Old South Mebane Historic District (NR)
• Note: The property includes a one-car garage and a two-car carport.
• District NR nomination: “This is a 1-story gable-front vernacular house of wood construction, clad in vinyl siding, with an interior brick chimney and a hip-roofed front porch supported by battered wood posts which rest on brick piers; the porch is enclosed with a wood balustrade with square balusters. The 3-bay façade has a centered entry and it appears that a gable-roofed addition, slightly shorter than the original house, has been built onto the rear elevation. Windows are flat-topped replacement multi-light sash.”
  • The property was sold in 1926 by the Mebane Land & Development Company to F.M. Snipes (1861-1935) and Eliza Jeanette Smith Snipes (1866-1939). Fred was a nightwatchman at the Mebane Royal Company when he apparently shot himself to death. “There is no known motive for his suicide and it is supposed that he committed the deed in a moment of mental aberration,” The News & Observer reported. The newspaper called him “one of Mebane’s oldest and most respected citizens.”
  • Their heirs sold the house in 1941 to Dewitt Albright Pender (1903-1991) and Dora Mildred Stone Pender (1012-1994). Dewitt was a supervisor at White Furniture Company, where he worked for 35 years. Their descendants are now selling the house.

529 Hillcrest Avenue, Burlington, Alamance County

• $302,000 (originally $344,500)
• 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2,192 square feet, 0.28 acre
• Price/square foot: $138
• Built in 1920
• Listed September 30, 2023
• Last sale: $147,000, September 2016

505atwater

505 Atwater Street, Burlington, Alamance County
The Wingfield-Cox House
Sale pending May 2, 2024

• $290,000
• 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, 1,355 square feet, 0.26 acre
• Price/square foot: $214
• Built in 1928
• Listed April 26, 2024
• Last sale: $212,000, October 2023
• Note: The original owners may have been Charles T. Wingfield (1887-1954) and Susanne Miles Wingfield (1891-1963). Charles was the proprietor of Wingfield’s Barber Shop. After Susanne’s death the house was sold to John Alvin Cox (1914-1990) and Glennice Jones Cox (1922-2006). John worked for Western Electric and was a member of the Telephone Pioneers. Glennice owned the house until her death.

528 S. Hamilton Street, Eden, Rockingham County
Listing withdrawn April 25, 2024

• $259,900 (originally $265,000)
• 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1,980 square feet, 0.18 acre
• Price/square foot: $131
• Built in 1922
• Listed November 3, 2023
• Last sale: $186,000, August 17, 2021
• Neighborhood: Central Leaksville Historic District (NR)
• Note: The current owner has added a bathroom.
• District NR nomination on 526 and 528 S. Hamilton: “These nearly identical houses are intact, carefully detailed examples of the basic one-and-one-half story bungalow. Both houses have shed dormers, exterior sheathing of weatherboards on the first story and shingles on the second, engaged full-facade porches with slender columns on brick piers, and interior chimneys with exposed faces in each gable end.”
  • How it looked when the current owner bought it:

425 Boone Road, Eden, Rockingham County

• A series of online auctions has been under way for months.
  • The starting bid is now $103,000. It has bounced around from $59,000 to $105,000.
• Bedrooms and bathrooms not listed, 2,954 square feet, 0.57 acre
• Built in 1910
• Last sales: $150,500, November 7, 2023 (foreclosure auction, property reverted to the lender); $160,000, July 2021
• Neighborhood: Boone Road Historic District (NR)
• District NR nomination: “This spacious one-and-one-half story house is one of the most elaborate of the several bungalows along Boone Road. It has a complex roofline covered with diamond-shaped asbestos shingles and composed of the main, steeply pitched gable-side roof fronted by a high hip roof from which a hip-roof dormer projects; a hip-roof one-story full-facade front porch is carried by pairs and trios of box posts set on brick piers and connected by decorative staggered balusters.
  • “Exterior sheathing consists of weatherboards on the first story, with wider boards at the base, and split shake shingles covering the front dormer and gable ends. Multi-paned transom and sidelights enframe the main entrance. On the interior, tall ceilings, vertical board wainscot, and neoclassical mantels and overmantels are typical of the period of construction.
  • “Built in the late 1910s by Marshall Field Company, the house is best known for its long-time occupant, Marshall Field executive E.D. Pitcher, who moved to this house after his house in Spray burned in the 1920s. After a few years, the Pitchers moved to the John M. Morehead, II House across the street, but Mr. Pitcher purchased and returned to this house following his wife’s death and remained here for many years.”

Stokes, Surry, Wilkes, Yadkin and Davie Counties

313 W. Main Street, Pilot Mountain, Surry County
Listing withdrawn February 28, 2024; relisted March 1, 2024
Listing withdrawn April 10, 2024

• $475,000 (originally $550,000)
• 5 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, 3,021 square feet, 0.33 acre
• Price/square foot: $157
• Built in 1918
• Listed October 18, 2023
• Last sale: $326,000, June 2021
• Neighborhood: West Main Street Historic District (local)
• Note: The house was bought in 1968 by Pearl Belle Forkner Beasley (1890-1979). She was the widow of John William Beasley (1889-1959), who owned Pilot Mountain and turned it into a tourist attraction. He bought it in 1944 for $14,500. After his death, Pearl took charge of the mountain. In 1968, she sold it to the Pilot Mountain Preservation and Park Committee for $682,500 so it could become the centerpiece of a new state park.
  • Pearl taught school and was secretary-treasurer of her husband’s car dealership. She apparently used the house as a rental property; she lived across the street for 52 years. Pearl’s estate sold the house in 1981.

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• $299,900 (originally $330,000)
• 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2,380 square feet, 0.34 acre
• Price/square foot: $126
• Built in 1917
• Listed February 1, 2024
• Last sale: $200,000, October 2021
• Note: The house has a first-floor in-law suite.
  • The property includes an outbuilding that can be made into an apartment, the listing says.
  • The property is next door to the Benton Hall Community Arts Center, a former elementary school that has been turned into the home of the Wilkes Playmakers. It’s said to be haunted (“This location is wildly active at all hours of the day.”).
  • The state Historic Preservation Office calls this the Claude Gentry House, apparently for Claude Byron Gentry (1886-1967) and Hattie Hawkins Gentry (1894-1969). Claude was an electrician who worked for Horton Telephone Company and Duncan Electric Company.

• $299,000 (originally $310,000)
• 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1,386 square feet, lot size not listed in county records
• Price/square foot: $216
• Built in 1900
• Listed March 15, 2024
• Last sale: $135,000, October 2022
• Neighborhood: Lebanon Hill Historic District (NR)
• Note: Pretty steep price for a house whose historic character on the interior has been renovated away. Probably a flipped house (short-term, out-of-town owners), caveat emptor.
• District NR nomination: “This one-story frame house, built in the early years of the twentieth century, has novelty weatherboard siding and a high-pitched composite-shingled hip roof. A front porch with tapered square posts wraps around the right side.
  • “Other features include a granite foundation, replacement windows, and novelty weatherboard siding [apparently a feature so distinctive it was worth mentioning twice — it’s not clear whether it’s still present]. A granite retaining wall runs along the sidewalk and turns in to follow the driveway.”

6851siloam

6851 Siloam Road, Siloam, Surry County

• $280,000
• 4 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1,884 square feet, 3.36 acres (per county)
• Price/square foot: $149
• Built in 1910
• Listed April 24, 2024
• Last sale: $65,500, November 2000
• Neighborhood: Siloam is in southern Surry County, about 18 miles south of Mount Airy and 30 miles northwest of Winston-Salem.
• Note: The house needs some work, but it has a lot of unpainted woodwork, an increasingly rare quality in older homes.

168 Charles Street, West Elkin, Wilkes County

• $249,900 (originally $259,900)
• 4 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1,453 square feet, 3.7 acres (per county)
• Price/square foot: $172
• Built in 1930
• Listed March 22, 2024
• Last sale: $48,000, January 2015
• Neighborhood: The house has an Elkin mailing address but is across the line in Wilkes County in West Elkin.
• Note: Out-of-town owner with an address listed in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
  • County records show a 1950 date for the house, which looks way off. The listing says 1930, which is more likely.

313 E. King Street, King, Stokes County
Sale pending June 10, 2023
No longer under contract August 4, 2023

• $245,000 (originally $250,000)
• 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1,533 square feet, 1.0 acre
• Price/square foot: $160
• Built in 1934
• Listed May 10, 2023
• Last sale: $85,000, October 2013

Davidson, Randolph, Montgomery, Moore and Richmond Counties

206 E. Allenton Street, Mount Gilead

• $276,900 (originally $289,000)
• 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, 2,532 square feet, 0.77 acre
• Price/square foot: $109
• Built in 1900
• Listed March 22, 2024
• Last sale: $3,000, May 1986

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538 W. Main Street, Hamlet, Richmond County
Listing removed April 15, 2023; relisted June 6, 2023
Listing removed December 31, 2023
Relisted January 31, 2024

• $269,900 (originally $242,500, later $279,900)
• 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2,509 square feet, 0.71 acre
• Price/square foot: $108
• Built in 1930
• Listed November 23, 2021
• Last sale: $245,000, November 22, 2021
• Note: Unusual Craftsman design with porte-cocheres on both sides of the house.
  • The house was put up for sale the day after it was sold.

533 Carthage Street, Cameron, Moore County
The Leighton and Faye McKeithen House

• $265,000 (originally $269,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 3,540 square feet (per county), 1.65 acre
• Price/square foot: $75
• Built in 1923
• Listed April 11, 2019
• Last sale: $25,000, February 1985
• Neighborhood: Cameron Historic District (NR)
• Note: For sale by owner
  • The house has been owned by successive generations of the McKeithen family since it was built.
  • The listing shows 3,980 square feet.
  • The 1985 deed was signed February 4, 1985, but it wasn’t recorded in the register of deeds office until more than a year later, March 10, 1986.
• District NR nomination: “The Leighton McKeithen House (no. 34), which contains elements of both the Bungalow and Colonial Revival styles, is a large, rambling structure with numerous gables. A porch with a wide cornice supported by heavy columns on brick piers also carries across the front. Fanlights decorate the gable ends. …
• “The large, irregularly massed, gable front structure has a porch with a wide cornice which carries around two sides supported on substantial square posts on brick piers. Square balusters compose the porch railing. A porte cochere is located on the east.
• “The projecting pedimented front gable contains a fanlike window. A gable roof dormer located to the east of the front gable has an arched window flanked by two smaller windows. The main entrance is a single door flanked by sidelights. Windows are 1/1.”
• The original owners were Leighton Black McKeithen (1899-1963) and Faye Ritchie McKeithen (1901-1976). Leighton was in the produce business.

200 Harper Street, Star, Montgomery County

• $249,900
• 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2,514 square feet, 1.87 acres
• Price/square foot: $99
• Built in 1920
• Listed March 29, 2024
• Last sale: $140,000, April 2021

302 E. Balfour Avenue, Asheboro, Randolph County

• $228,000 (originally $230,000)
• 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1,084 square feet, 0.62 acre (two lots)
• Price/square foot: $210
• Built in 1936
• Listed March 28, 2024
• Last sales: $195,000, July 2023; $129,500, January 2020
• Note: The property includes a one-car detached garage and an outbuilding.
  • Caveat emptor: Flipped house

• $215,000 (originally $275,000)
• 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1,450 square feet, 0.17 acre
• Price/square foot: $148
• Built in 1920
• Listed October 16, 2023
• Last sale: $30,000, July 2020
• Neighborhood: Rosemary Park, Lexington Residential Historic District (NR)
• Listing: “This home qualifies for a special lender program through First National Bank that allows little or no downpayment and up to $5000 towards closing costs with some restrictions.”
• District NR nomination: “One-story weatherboarded bungalow with a front-gable roof and a gabled front porch and porte cochere with large, square, stuccoed posts; 5/1 sash, brick interior chimney, false beams in gables, exposed rafter ends.
  • “The house appears on the 1929 Sanborn map and was occupied by H. Lee and Mabel Waters in Mr. Waters owned the H. Lee Waters photography studio.” Lee and Mabel bought the house in 1930 and lived in it until at least 1962. It was sold in 2020 by a descendant.
  • Photographs from the remarkably long career of Herbert Lee Waters (1902-1997) are in the Davidson County Historical Museum. “Beginning in 1926, H. Lee Waters captured local community life during a period of unprecedented change … from the Great Depression, through the WWII years, and on to the post-war manufacturing boom. …
  • Waters bought the studio in February 1926 from J. J. Hitchcock, but had been working with the older photographer for at least a year.  One of his first big commercial jobs was to document the construction of High Rock Lake Dam, 1926-1927.
  • “Waters married Mabel Elizabeth Gerald (1908-1974) a few months after buying the studio.  The young couple became partners in all aspects of running the studio, spending long hours at the studio. Before the advent of color printing, Mrs. Waters did all the hand painted tinting of portraits.”
  • H. Lee Waters website
  • H. Lee Waters Photography Gallery (Davidson County Historical Museum)
  • H.Lee Waters Film Collection (Duke University): “Born in Caroleen, North Carolina, in 1902, studio photographer Herbert Lee Waters supplemented his income from 1936 to 1942 by traveling across North Carolina and parts of Virginia, Tennessee, and South Carolina to film the people of small communities. He collaborated with local movie theaters to screen his films, which he called Movies of Local People. It is estimated that Waters produced films across 118 communities, visiting some of them multiple times.”

211 S. Payne Street, Lexington, Davidson County
Sale pending April 14, 2024

• $203,500
• 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1,370 square feet, 0.17 acre
• Price/square foot: $149
• Built in 1933 (per county, but probably earlier; see note)
• Listed March 1, 2024
• Last sales: $59,000, March 2020; $12,500, March 2017
• Neighborhood: Lexington Residential Historic District (NR)
• Note: The house is currently a short-term rental. “Can be sold fully furnished.”
• District NR nomination: “One-story German-sided bungalow with a clipped-front-gable roof and a wraparound porch supported by tapered posts on brick piers spanned by a brick railing; 4/1 sash, brick interior chimney, gabled bay projects from north elevation, exposed rafter ends. The house appears on the 1929 Sanborn map.”

621 Park Circle, Lexington, Davidson County

• $135,000
• 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom, 728 square feet, 0.36 acre
• Price/square foot: $185
• Built in 1913
• Listed July 19, 2023
• Last sale: $75,000 on June 7, 2023
• Neighborhood: Erlanger Mill Village Historic District (NR)
• Note: The house was put up for sale about six weeks after being sold. The price is 80 percent higher than the last sale price.
• District NR nomination: This and some other homes in the neighborhood may have been built from kits manufactured by the Minter Homes Company.
  • “One-story, double-pile, cross-gable-roofed bungalow with a partially-recessed shed-roofed front porch supported by square brick or wood posts (sometimes spanned by a kneewall or railing), paired and single six-over-six sash (some examples have eight-over-eight sash on the façade and six-over-six sash on the other elevations), an interior chimney, a brick foundation, weatherboards or wood shakes, exposed rafter ends, triangular eave brackets or false beams in the gables, and rectangular or diamond-shaped gable vents. Twenty Erlanger Mill houses fall into this category…”