Piedmont Historic Homes

Updated March 23, 2023

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

Recent Sales
2022 Sales
2018-2021 Sales

Featured Listing: The 1903 Shingle-Style Home of a Dentist in Mocksville, $825,000

• $780,000 (originally $825,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, 4,277 square feet, 1.79 acres
• Price/square foot: $182
• Built in 1903
• Listed November 14, 2022
• Last sale: $470,000, February 2007
• Neighborhood: North Main Street Historic District (NRHP)
• Listing: “Large restored party/event barn with plumbing and electric, workshop, potting shed, carriage garage, historic stone outdoor fireplace, stone tea garden.”
• District NRHP nomination: “picturesque frame Shingle Style residence with complex roofline; intersection of front and cross gables has two-story, conically roofed tower with rubble-faced masonry first floor; rubble-faced stone foundations and exterior end chimneys;
  • “wraparound curved porch with rubble masonry piers; semi-octagonal dormer over front porch; shingled gable ends and second floor of tower; clapboarded water table canted over foundation;
  • “mix of one-over-one and nine-over-one sash windows in a variety of sizes; door surround with leaded, bevelled glass sidelights, door with oval glass panel;
  • “rear and side hipped and shed wall dormers; rear hipped porch;
  • “notable Queen Anne/Classical Revival interior;
  • “built for dentist Dr. Robert P. Anderson (1868-1966) from plans provided by Barber and Klutz, Architects, in Knoxville.”
  • The dates on his headstone actually are 1869-1966. His wife, Flora Reed Anderson (1868-1968), was similarly long-lived, dying just a month before her 100th birthday.

Greensboro, High Point and Guilford County

710 Country Club Drive, Greensboro
The J. Spencer Love House I
Blog post — $7.5 million and It’s Yours: The 1937 J. Spencer Love House in Irving Park

• $5.95 million (originally $7.495 million)
• 6 bedrooms, 7 full bathrooms, 3 half-bathrooms, 11,201 square feet, 3.3 acres
• Price/square foot: $531
• Built in 1937
• Listed August 5, 2021
• Last sale: $2.49 million, February 1997
• Neighborhood: Irving Park Historic District
• Listing: “In the late 1990’s the house underwent a total renovation by the present owners. Original features to the house include the Grand Foyer, Formal Living & Dining Rooms, Sunroom, Library, Kitchen, Butler Pantry’s, Morning Room, Six Bedrooms, inclusive of a magnificent primary suite with his & hers dressing rooms, baths.
  • “Lower level with Sauna, hot tub, bedroom, bath, exercise room & mechanical room. Pool House with two kitchens, two living areas & three bedrooms. The Cottage with open kitchen & living area, massive fireplace, two bedrooms, two baths, Carriage House with kitchen, bedroom & bath.
  • “Gazebo, Tennis Court & open air breeze back grounds overlooking beautifully maintained gardens. Picturesque park like grounds face Greensboro Country Club golf course.”
  • District NRHP nomination: “This was the residence of J. Spencer Love, president of Burlington Mills, and his family. The Love House is a palatial Georgian Revival mansion inspired by eighteenth century Virginia houses. It features Flemish bond brickwork, a steep hipped roof with segmental-arched dormers and a modillioned cornice, a five-bay facade with a swan’s neck pedimented entrance, a string course between floors, and brick corner quoins. Large one and two-story wings project from either side of the main block. An expansive landscaped lawn fronts the house and is bordered by a molded brick wall.”
  • James Spencer Love (1896-1962) was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His father, James Lee Love, was a professor of mathematics at Harvard and, more importantly, a native a Gastonia, where his father and brother owned a small mill called the Gastonia Cotton Manufacturing Company. After graduating from Harvard, J. Spencer went to Gastonia and in 1919 bought the company. In 1922 he moved it to Burlington and gave it a new name. “Shortly afterwards, he decided to gamble on a new product, rayon. Throughout his business career, Love continued to be bold, expanding frequently and seeking new products even in the hard times of the 1930s.” (Dictionary of North Carolina Biography) That kind of initiative turned his small mill into the largest textile company in the world, Burlington Industries.
  • Benjamin and Anne Cone bought the house in 1941 from Love’s ex-wife, Elizabeth Love Appleget. Cone (1899-1982) was a son of Ceasar and Jeannette Cone. He served as chairman of Cone Mills, 1957-71; mayor of Greensboro, 1949-51 (Greensboro mayors traditionally served only one term until the 1970s); and chairman of Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital, 1956-65. He and his wife, Anne Coleman Wortham Cone (1915-1999), were major benefactors to the Weatherspoon Art Museum. They owned the house until 1977, when they sold it to Richard Love, a son of J. Spencer Love, and his wife, Bonnie B. Love. They sold the house in 1982.
  • in 1997, the house was bought by the current owner, Bonnie McElveen Hunter, founder and CEO of Greensboro’s Pace Communications, president of the American Red Cross and former ambassador to Finland, and her husband, Bynum Merritt Hunter (1925-2018).

307 Sunset Drive, Greensboro
The Williamson-Weill House

• $2.75 million
• 6 bedroom,s 4 1/2 bathrooms, 4,259 square feet, 1.02 acres
• Price/square foot: $646
• Built in 1924
• Listed November 16, 2022
• Last sale: $1.1 million, March 2022
• Neighborhood: Irving Park
• Note: The Zillow listing reads “Undisclosed Address” at the top, but the description of the house begins, “307 Sunset Drive – One of the most distinctive architectural masterpieces in Old Irving Park …”
  • Designed by Charles Hartmann (1889-1977), one of Greensboro’s most distinguished architects of the period. Among his works are the Jefferson-Standard Building in downtown Greensboro and Julian Price’s Hillside mansion in Fisher Park.
  • The current owners have restored the home. Their previous restorations include Hillside.
  • The original owners were textile executive Lynn Banks Williams (1872-1940) and Eleanor Virginia Farish Williamson (1975-1962). They were first listed at the address in 1925, the year they moved to Greensboro from Burlington. Lynn had been president of E.M. Holt Plaid Mills in Burlington. At the time of his death, he was a director of Burlington Mills and president of Virginia Mills in Swepsonville.
  • After Lynn’s death, daughter Eleanor Williamson Ward (1909-1986) and son-in-law Nathaniel M. Ward (1906-1980) moved from his hometown of Baltimore to live in the house. They sold it in 1973.
  • From 1973 to 2020, the house belonged to C.L. “Buddy” Weill Jr. (1924-2020) and Dorothy Siegmund Weill (1929-2016). Buddy Weill was one of Greensboro’s most prominent businessmen for decades. After serving in the Army in World War II, he became president of his father’s insurance firm, Robbins & Weill, and established Weill Investment Company. He was one of the organizers of Well-Spring Retirement Community, where he was living when he died at age 95, and served on and/or led a remarkable number of the city’s high-profile boards, including the Center for Creative Leadership, Greater Greensboro Realtors Association, Greensboro College, Greensboro County Club, Greensboro Planning and Zoning Commission, Greensboro Symphony, Lineberger Cancer Center at UNC-Chapel Hill, Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital, United Way of Greater Greensboro and the UNC Greensboro Excellence Foundation.

303 Burke Street, Gibsonville, Guilford County
The Burke Manor Inn & Pavilion
listing withdrawn January 2021; relisted March 2021
listing withdrawn November 2021
relisted January 2023

• $2.3 million (originally $2.2 million)
• Listing: 9 guest rooms
  • Guilford County records: 6 bedrooms, 7 1/2 bathrooms, 5,166 square feet
  • 3.3 acres, split by the Guilford-Alamance county line (2.64 acres in Guilford County and 0.67 acres in Alamance)
• Price/square foot: $445
• Built in 1906
• Original listing date not known
• Last sale: $1.1 million, January 2011
• From the website of this North Carolina inn and restaurant for sale: “Caesar Cone, a textile magnate and co-founder of Cone Mills Corporation, built the house on 303 Burke Street in 1906. In 1911, Caesar Cone sold the home to J.W. Burke, where 4 generations of the Burke family resided in the estate. The Brady Family bought Burke Manor in 1999 and restored the home to its original grandeur, as designed by the Cone family. The Brady’s converted the grounds into an inn with the idea of transforming the house into a bed & breakfast. The owners today, Lori and Lil Lacassagne, purchased Burke Manor in 2011.”
  • Broker listing: “a Select Registry® Inn with a AAA 4-Diamond Restaurant and purpose-built wedding and event pavilion”
  • “The manicured grounds and gardens at this North Carolina Inn and restaurant for sale also feature a fenced-in pool area and a Pool Cottage that is currently in use as owner’s quarters, but could be converted to a 10th guest room.”
  • Search-engine optimization note: Four of the first five paragraphs of the listing contain the words “North Carolina Inn and restaurant for sale” or “North Carolina inn for sale”.
  • For some reason, the state Historic Preservation Office lists it as the “Clarence Cone, Sr. House.”

802 & 800 Sunset Drive, Greensboro
The G. Allen Mebane House

• $2 million
• 5 bedrooms, 5 1/2 bathrooms, 5,001 square feet, 0.85 acre
• Price/square foot: $400
• Built in 1929
• Listed October 12, 2022
• Last sale: $325,000, May 1983
• Neighborhood: Irving Park
• Note: The property includes a guest house (228 square feet, 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom) attached to the garage. The house is 802 Sunset; 800 Sunset has no structures on it.
  • Greensboro: An Architectural Record: “Mebane, a cotton broker, moved from West Washington Street in downtown Greensboro to his new home in Irving Park in the late 1920s. Worked in brick, his house features the distinctive asymmetrical and steeply pitched front gable, round-arched recessed entry and false half-timbering common to the Tudor Revival style.”
  • Oddly, the gravestone for George Allen Mebane (1893-1948) reads, “George Allen Mebane III”. From findagrave.com: “Son of Mary Holt and George Allen Mebane. Although his marker reflects a third generation namesake, old newspaper articles and other records only refer to him as junior. It is quite clear in research that his grandfather was Benjamin Franklin Mebane.
  • “While attending Bingham School in Asheville, George won a scholarship to UNC. He became a successful businessman in the Greensboro community.”
  • The house has had only three owners. Allen and his wife, Elizabeth Armstrong Mebane (1901-1971), sold it in 1946 to James Saunders Williamson (1900-1965) and his wife, Elizabeth Wilkinson Williamson (1908-1983). Saunders was an executive with Burlington Mills. After he died, Elizabeth continued to own the house until her death. It was then bought by the current owners.

815 Woodland Drive, Greensboro
The Haywood Duke House
listing removed and relisted six times since May 2011
listing withdrawn August 1, 2022
relisted October 29, 2022

• $1.79 million (originally $1.89 million, later $1.59 million)
• 5 bedrooms, 5 1/2 bathrooms, 5,215 square feet
• Price/square foot: $343
• Built in 1925
• Listed January 8, 2011
• Last sale: $1.7 million, June 2004
• Neighborhood: Irving Park
• Note: Joseph Haywood Duke (1904-1962) was general manager of the King Cotton Hotel. The grand 13-story hotel stood downtown on Market Street at Davie, where the former News & Record building now is, from 1927 to 1971. Duke was a native of Dunn and grew up in Elizabeth City. Before coming to Greensboro in 1937 to run the King Cotton, he managed his mother’s Duke Inn in Elizabeth City and the Carolina Inn in Chapel Hill, among others around the state. He later bought an interest in the King Cotton and owned the Sedgefield Inn.
  • Duke bought the house in 1948. It was sold by his widow, Elizabeth Savage Etheridge Duke (1904-1983), in 1970.
  • The original owners were Robert W. Glenn (1884-1935) and Katherine Hardie Glenn (1887-1982), who were first listed in the city directory on Woodland Drive in 1926. Robert was the branch manager of Ciba Company, which produced dyes. Kate sold the house to the Dukes in 1948.
  • Ciba was part of of the Swiss firm Ciba-Geigy Ltd., one of the largest chemical companies in the world. In 1996, Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz spun off and merged their drug and agriculture businesses to form Novartis. In 2000, Novartis and AstraZeneca spun off their agrichemical businesses and merged them to form Syngenta, whose U.S. business unit is based in Greensboro.
  • “The 2011 Dow Jones Sustainability Index named Syngenta one of the best performing chemical companies worldwide. However, the company has been controversial, mainly due to its main business – selling toxic chemicals and the environmental impact of those chemicals – but also due to its investment in lobbying. In 2012, the company was nominated for the Public Eye Award, which denounces companies with questionable human rights practices.” (Wikipedia)

302 Parkway Street, Greensboro
The James and Gayle Thompson House

• $1.395 million
• 4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, 5,072 square feet, 0.51acre
• Price/square foot: $275
• Built in 1924
• Listed March 22, 2023
• Last sale: $790,000, March 2006
• Neighborhood: Fisher Park Historic District (local and NR)
• Note: The listing includes the words extraordinary, impressive (twice), spectacular, opulent, charming, ingratiating, towering, fabulous and special, along with “innumerable possibilities” and “beautifully maintained.”
• District NR nomination: “Georgian, symmetrical, five-bay, rectangular gable-end main block with classical entry portico and reduced-height side wings.”
  • The original owners were James Franklin Thompson (1874-1954) and Gayle Quackenbush Thompson (1879-1961). James was president of Gate City Life Insurance Company, and Gayle was vice president. They bought the house in 1925 and owned it for 32 years.

500 Woodbrook Drive, High Point
The Guy T. West House

• $1.25 million
• 5 bedrooms, 5 1/2 bathrooms, 4,091 square feet, 1.3 acres
• Price/square foot: $306
• Built in 1939
• Listed March 8, 2023
• Last sale: $230,000, April 1985
• Neighborhood: Emerywood, Uptown Suburbs Historic District
• District NRHP nomination: “This two-story, side-gabled, Colonial Revival-style house is three bays wide and double-pile with one-and-a-half-story wings on the right (south) and left (north) elevations.
  • “The house has a painted brick veneer and an exterior brick chimney in the left gable end. The left wing has weatherboards.
  • “The house has twelve-over-twelve, wood-sash windows on the first story and six-over-six windows on the second story and in gabled dormers on the two side wings. The entrance is sheltered by a small, front-gabled porch supported by fluted columns.
  • “An engaged, shed-roofed porch across the right wing is supported by square posts with an arched entablature.
  • “There is an exterior chimney at the rear of the right wing and a one-story, gabled ell at the rear has vinyl windows and a garage bay on its north elevation.
  • “The earliest known occupant is Guy T. West (G.T. West Veneers) in 1939.”

923 Country Club Drive, High Point
The James and Jesse Millis House
sale pending March 3, 2023

• $1.2 million
• 5 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms, 6,812 square feet, 0.85 acre
• Price/square foot: $176
• Built in 1960
• Listed February 28, 2023
• Last sale: $650,000, September 2021
• Neighborhood: Emerywood
• Note: Currently owned by an LLC based in Las Vegas
  • The lot was vacant for decades after the neighborhood was initially built out. James Henry Millis (1923-2004) and Jesse Ellsworth Evans Millis (1925-2010) bought the property in 1954 and owned it for 58 years.
  • James was a grandson of James Henry Millis (1849-1913), co-founder of Adams-Millis Corporation. The younger James became CEO of the company, then the largest manufacturer of hosiery in the world. He had been a P-47 fighter pilot in World War II before spending his entire career at Adams-Millis. James and Jesse met when they were students at the McCallie School in Chattanooga. Their children sold the house in 2012.

417 Hillcrest Drive, High Point
The Percy and Lillian Idol House

• $795,000
• 4 bedrooms, 4 1/2 bathrooms, 4,061 square feet, 0.66 acre
• Price/square foot: $196
• Built in 1941 (per county, but probably about 10 years later)
• Listed March 3, 2023
• Last sale: $5,500, November 1949
• Neighborhood: Emerywood
• Note: The listing says there’s an elevator that runs from the basement garage to the second floor.
• District NR nomination: “This two-story, side-gabled, Colonial Revival-style house is five bays wide and double-pile with a painted brick veneer, interior brick chimney, and modillion cornice.
  • “It has six-over-six, wood-sash windows and the six-panel door has a paneled surround and is sheltered by a flat-roofed porch supported by grouped, fluted columns.
  • “Full returns on the end gables have a modillion cornice and a single window in the gable. The right (west) two bays have a slightly lower roofline, nine-over-nine windows on the first story, an exterior end brick chimney, and a two-story, shed-roofed, frame section at the rear.
  • “There is a basement-level garage on the left (east) elevation and a one-story, shed-roofed frame porch at the left rear (southeast).”
  • The address first appears in the city directory in 1951 with Percy C. Idol (1910-1997) and Lillian Grandy Idol (1918-1998) as residents. Percy was a salesman for Adams-Millis. The house has been in their family ever since.
  • Percy joined Adams-Millis in 1934 and spent his career there, retiring in 1974. During World War II, he spent four years serving as an intelligence officer in the Coast Guard.
  • Along with hundreds of other “white citizens of High Point,” Percy signed a full-page ad in the High Point Enterprise in October 1963 calling on local business owners to end segregation and promising to continue to patronize business that did so.
  • Their son, David Harrison Idol (1946-2020) inherited the house and owned it until his death. It is now being sold by his heir.

704 Rockford Road, High Point
The Lester and Lillian Hill House

• $725,000
• 5 bedrooms, 4 1/2 bathrooms, 4,626 square feet, 0.64 acre
• Price/square foot: $157
• Built in 1936
• Listed November 17, 2022
• Last sale: $300,000, June 1992
• Neighborhood: Emerywood
• Note: Lester J. Hill and Lillian S. Hill bought the property in 1937. Lester was listed in the city directory as a superintendent. They lost the house to foreclosure in 1942.
  • In 1954 the house was bought by Robert Sherrill Gayle (1925-2009) and Patricia Conrad Gayle (1928-2021). They owned it for 28 years. Bob was production manger for Alderman Photo. His brother, Sidney Alexander Gayle Jr., was president of the company; his widowed mother, Bessie Love Alderman Gayle, was vice president; and Sidney Jr.’s wife, Lorraine Charlotte Haight Gayle, was secretary.

916 Arbordale Avenue, High Point
The Howard and Onita Jobe House

• $725,000 (originally $765,000)
• 5 bedrooms, 4 1/2 bathrooms, 4,530 square feet, 0.66 acre
• Price/square foot: $160
• Built in 1936
• Listed August 10, 2022
• Last sale: $420,000, December 2012
• Neighborhood: Emerywood West
• Note: The fifth bedroom is over the garage.
  • The original owners were Howard D. Jobe (d. 1950) and Onita Albert Jobe (d. 1977). They bought the property in 1937; it was sold by Onita’s heirs in 1977. Howard was vice president of Adams-Millis.

Winston-Salem and Forsyth County

1040 Arbor Road, Winston-Salem

• $1.949 million (originally $2.1 million)
• 6 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, 8,461 square feet, 2.23 acres
• Price/square foot: $230
• Built in 1926
• Listed October 21, 2022
• Last sale: $2.1 million, March 2022
• Neighborhood: Buena Vista
• Note: “Luther Lashmit designed Alex M. and Mamie Gray Galloway’s 1926 residence at 1040 Arbor Road, which features ironwork forged by Philadelphia blacksmith J. Barton Benson.” (Winston-Salem’s Architectural Heritage, Amazon)
  • Designated as a Forsyth County historic landmark, qualifying it for a tax credit of up to 50 percent
  • The main house’s entire slate roof was replaced in 2019.
  • The property includes 1,458-square-foot guesthouse with recently remodeled kitchen and bath, not included in the square footage.
  • The house was built for Alexander Henderson Galloway Jr. (1870-1935) and Mary Eliza “Mamie” Gray Galloway (1876-1944). Alex had a diverse career among Winston-Salem’s leading corporations, including Brown Brothers Tobacco Company, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco and Wachovia Bank. Later he was a partner in the Galloway and Jenkins Insurance Agency before serving as manager of the Carolina and Zinzendorf hotels.
  • Mamie attended Salem Academy and Miss Carey’s School in Baltimore. She and Alex married in 1901. She was a younger sister of Bowman Gray, who became president and chairman of RJR. He also was a benefactor and the original namesake of the medical school at Wake Forest University. Their father, James Alexander Gray, was one of the founders of Wachovia.
  • Alex died in an auto accident on the Greensboro-Winston-Salem highway. Mamie suffered a stroke that night and died nine years later after another stroke.

849 Arbor Road, Winston-Salem
The Mary Lybrook Lasater and John Thomas Barnes Jr. House

• $1.475 million (originally $1.575 million)
• 5 bedrooms, 5 1/2 bathrooms, 5,600 square feet, 0.66 acre
• Price/square foot: $263
• Built in 1926 (per county)
• Listed February 9, 2023
• Last sale: $1.012 million, June 2014
• Neighborhood: Buena Vista
• Note: “Over 1000 square feet on lower level which has some heat provided by radiators, but not incl in total sq ft.”
  • Designed by Harold Macklin, “an English-born architect who became one of the leading members of the profession in Winston-Salem during the 1920s.” (North Carolina Architects & Builders) In addition to his residential work, he often collaborated as the supervising architect for out-of-town firms on such prominent projects as St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Bowman Gray Stadium and the Spruce Street YMCA, which is now on the National Register.
  • The original house on the property was a cottage, built in 1925 or ’26 (accounts differ) for newlyweds who ended up moving in with the bride’s recently widowed mother rather than the cottage.
  • Dramatically expanded for Mary Lybrook Lasater (1902-1967) and John Thomas Barnes Jr. (1902-1976), by her parents, on the occasion of their marriage. The parents also built a mansion next door for one of Mary’s sisters, Virginia Reynolds Lasater, and her husband, George Lee Irvin, Jr. Mary and Virginia were great-nieces of R.J. Reynolds.
  • “The cottage was expanded in 1931 by the addition of a five-bay block, designed so that its asymmetrical front entry porch visually connected the two houses. The new addition had a hipped roof lit by three dormers, double-hung windows, and an elegant side porch.” (Great Houses and Their Stories: Winston-Salem’s “Era of Success,” 1912-1940)
  • Mary and John were still living in the house when Mary died in 1967. John had moved by the time he died nine years later.
  • He still owned the house in 1970 when it hosted the Junior League’s Decorators’ Show House, billed as the first such event in the South. “Yet for all of its spaciousness, the house is notably appealing in its traces of intimacy, such as the bedroom fireplaces, the porches, its treasure of window ‘spots,’ and an upstairs hallway leading to a secluded room,” the event’s brochure said.
  • “A prominent designer recently commented, ‘This is such a fantastic house. This kind of house is just no longer being done.’ The house is truly a decorator’s dream with its labyrinth of rooms and its intriguing nooks and crannies.”

600 Roslyn Road, Winston-Salem
The Frank and Maude Sowers House
Sale pending March 13, 2023

• $1.3 million
• 4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, 4,145 square feet, 0.37 acre
• Price/square foot: $314
• Built in 1936
• Listed March 8, 2023
• Last sale: $980,000, March 2020
• Neighborhood: Buena Vista
• Note: The address first appears in the city directory in 1937 with Frank Ernest Sowers (1900-1953) and Maude Miller Sowers (1900-1977) listed as residents. Frank was a clerk for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco.
  • The house was owned by the Sowers family for 81 years. The Sowers’ daughter, Frances Sowers Vogler (1927-2011), inherited the property after her mother’s death. It was sold by her descendants in 2018.
  • Frances was a graduate of R.J. Reynolds High School and Salem College. She taught piano and guitar before becoming a real estate agent for 25 years and later an insurance adjuster. She achieved the American Contract Bridge League’s designation of Bronze Lifemaster. She was the founder of the Flower Lore Garden Club, president of the Winston Salem Symphony Guild and sustaining member of the Winston Salem Junior League. She was a member of Home Moravian Church.
  • Frances’s husband, Herbert Alexander Vogler Jr. (1925-2008), grew up in Salem. He served in the Army medial corps in World War II. He founded Vogler Adjusters and served as president of the North Carolina Adjusters Association. Herbert played in the Home Moravian Church band for 50 years.

415 Roslyn Road, Winston-Salem
The Gaither-Brown House
listing withdrawn September 26, 2022; relisted March 2, 2023
sale pending March 8, 2023

• $1.249 million (originally $1.295 million)
• 4 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, 5,722 square feet, 0.72 acre
• Price/square foot: $218
• Built in 1928
• Listed May 27, 2022
• Last sale: $50,000 (1/4 interest in property), April 2000
• Neighborhood: Buena Vista
• Note: The property includes a three-car attached garage with an automobile lift and a two-car detached garage.
  • The address first appears in the city directory in 1930 as 415 Shady Lane, the original name of Roslyn Road. Moody S. Gaither (1882-1957) and Mittie Florence Perryman Gaither (1885-1981) bought the property in 1928. Moody was a plumbing and heating contractor and secretary of the Master Plumbers Association. He was also a very active real estate trader. In 1931 he lost the property, along with others, to his creditors.
  • By 1940, Ralph Bradbury Brown (1906-1949) and Ruth Yates Brown (1908-1999) had bought the house, and it has been in their family ever since. Ralph was president of Southern Steel Company. The house is being sold by one of their grandchildren.

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

• $985,000
• 5 bedrooms, 4 1/2 bathrooms, 4,641 square feet, 0.47 acre
• Price/square foot: $212
• Built in 1918
• Listed March 8, 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.
• 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):

2837 Reynolds Drive, Winston-Salem
The Howard and Imogene Bradshaw House
Sale pending March 13, 2023

• $975,000
• 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 3,840 square feet, 0.63 acre
• Price/square foot: $254
• Built in 1937
• Listed February 27, 2023
• Last sale: $35,000, April 1972
• Neighborhood: Buena Vista
• Note: The house is unusual in that it doesn’t face the street. The lot is long and narrow, and the house may face the driveway, although photos with the listing don’t show any side that looks like a typical front elevation.
  • The first known residents were Dr. Howard Holt Bradshaw (1904-1969) and Imogene C. Bradshaw (dates unknown). Howard was the first chairman of the department of surgery at Wake Forest’s Bowman Gray Medical School at Winston-Salem when it opened in 1941. He served as chairman until 1968. He received the American College of Surgeons’ distinguished service award for his “distinguished career as an educator of young surgeons.”

411 S. Main Street, Old Salem, Winston-Salem
The Charles A. Cooper House
listing expired February 2, 2022; relisted February 23, 2022
MLS listing withdrawn February 8, 2023; still listed with Preservation North Carolina

• $950,000 (originally $1,050,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 5 1/2 bathrooms, 3,900 square feet
• Price/square foot: $244
• Built in 2006
• Listed September 20, 2021
• Last sale: $38,000, December 2001 (land only)
• Listing: “Based on old photography, partially excavated foundation, and tons of research and experience, the home has been reconstructed to its original 1840’s appearance by historic home builder Steven Cole.”
  • The house features reclaimed doors and iron work from the 1700’s, full mortise and peg windows made of heartpine wood and wavy glass, imported European bricks to line the fireplaces, and wide board white oak flooring on three of the four levels.
  • County records show the square footage as 2,628, which looks way too small.

419 S. Main Street, Kernersville, Forsyth County
The Stockton-Gibson House
The Gibson House Inn

• $509,000 (originally $529,000)
• 5 bedrooms, 5 1/2 bathrooms, 4,442 square feet, 0.65 acre
• Price/square foot: $115
• Built in 1837
• Listed March 6, 2023
• Last sale: $238,000, February 2019
• Note: The property is next door to Korner’s Folly.
  • The inn’s website says the house was built by Doughty Stockton (1776-1855) and Elizabeth Perkins Stockton (1798-1858). Doughty, too, operated an inn. An obituary in The People’s Press said, “While his long useful and laborious life for the last forty-seven years was devoted to serving the public as a Landlord, with the noblest impulses and with a sensibility alive to the tenderest wishes of the weary traveller, his influence was ever exerted to render them comfortable and happy. He always discharged his duties with a dignity and propriety of conduct, which conciliated the regard and secured for him the love and esteem of all who knew him.”
  • The house apparently stayed in the Stockton family, with great-granddaughter Agnes C. Stockton Gibson (1877-1910) and her husband, Edward Hiram Gibson (1865-1926), taking ownership in the early 20th century. Their son, Edward Hiram Gibson III (1900-1973) sold the house in 1963. He was a history professor at Appalachian State University.
  • The house became an antiques store in the 1960s, then a mission church for Holy Cross Catholic Church from 1969-1982 and then an antiques store again. It became an inn again after the current owners bought it in 2019.

Alamance, Caswell and Rockingham Counties

Any historic mansions now for sale are on the National Register page.

Stokes, Surry, Yadkin and Davie Counties

618 N. Main Street, Mount Airy, Surry County
The William Edward Merritt House
Heart & Soul Bed & Breakfast
listing withdrawn January 2, 2022; relisted June 24, 2022
sale pending August 21, 2022
no longer under contract October 15, 2022

• $899,900 (originally $850,000, later $750,000)
• 6 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, 5,024 square feet (per county), 0.66 acre
• Price/square foot: $179
• Built in 1901
• Listed July 8, 2021
• Last sale: $152,000, April 2014
• Neighborhood: Mount Airy Historic District
• Note: The listing gives the square footage as 4,779.
  • The listing previously said there were 7 bedrooms and 7 1/2 bathrooms.
  • Listing: “The house is selling completely furnished except for personal belongings.” That includes a restored 1939 Cadillac Series 75 limousine (click for photo).
  • The property includes a detached two-car garage with an apartment above.
  • District NRHP nomination: “Large, impressive two-story brick late Victorian style house with granite trim, dominated by a two-and-one-half story polygonal projecting bay and one-story wrap-around porch with spindle frieze.
  • “The virtually unaltered house also features decorative, tall, corbelled and recessed panel interior chimneys, one-over-one windows with granite lintels and sills, granite string course extending around the house above the second story windows, decorative sawn brackets supporting wide overhanging eaves and Colonial Revival interior features.
  • “Built in 1901 by contractor J.A. Tesh for W.E. Merritt, who owned a hardware store and brickyard, and was the founder of the Renfro Textile Company and one of the founders of the Mount Airy Furniture Company.”
  • William Edward “Ed” Merritt (1867-1946) was born in Chatham, Virginia. His wife, Caroline Octavia “Carrie” Kochtitzky Merritt (1868-1960), was a native of Oakland, Missouri. After they came to Mount Airy, Ed’s parents and five of his six siblings also moved to the town.
  • From the Mount Airy News: “As is often the case, this new blood energized and benefited the community, as they established or led several major businesses: Merritt Hardware, Renfro Hosiery, Mount Airy Furniture Company, Merritt Machine Shop, Piedmont Manufacturing Company, and Floyd Pike Electrical, the North Carolina Granite Corp., and others. Several family members have served as town commissioners, the city engineer, the Surry County Draft Board, the county Board of Commissioners, and in the US Navy and Army.”

• $780,000 (originally $825,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, 4,277 square feet, 1.79 acres
• Price/square foot: $182
• Built in 1903
• Listed November 14, 2022
• Last sale: $470,000, February 2007
• Neighborhood: North Main Street Historic District (NRHP)
• Listing: “Large restored party/event barn with plumbing and electric, workshop, potting shed, carriage garage, historic stone outdoor fireplace, stone tea garden.”
• District NRHP nomination: “picturesque frame Shingle Style residence with complex roofline; intersection of front and cross gables has two-story, conically roofed tower with rubble-faced masonry first floor; rubble-faced stone foundations and exterior end chimneys;
  • “wraparound curved porch with rubble masonry piers; semi-octagonal dormer over front porch; shingled gable ends and second floor of tower; clapboarded water table canted over foundation;
  • “mix of one-over-one and nine-over-one sash windows in a variety of sizes; door surround with leaded, bevelled glass sidelights, door with oval glass panel;
  • “rear and side hipped and shed wall dormers; rear hipped porch;
  • “notable Queen Anne/Classical Revival interior;
  • “built for dentist Dr. Robert P. Anderson (1868-1966) from plans provided by Barber and Klutz, Architects, in Knoxville.”
  • The dates on his headstone actually are 1869-1966. His wife, Flora Reed Anderson (1868-1968), was similarly long-lived, dying just a month before her 100th birthday.

• $599,900 (originally $659,900, later as low as $575,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2,918 square feet (per county), 1 acre
• Price/square foot: $206
• Built in 1891
• Listed April 11, 2022
• Last sale: $34,000, November 2016
• Note: The listing says it’s a wedding and event venue, but it’s website appears to be offline (info here).
  • The listing shows 4,492 square feet, a discrepancy of 54 percent.
  • The house has a Mount Airy mailing address, although it’s near the Asbury community in Stokes County, 12 miles northeast of Mount Airy.
  • Listing: “Some of the furnishings are also available for sale.”
  • The property includes a barn and a “pub,” originally the free-standing kitchen.

Davidson, Randolph and Montgomery Counties

6 Curtis Court, Thomasville, Davidson County

• $2 million
• 9 bedrooms, 13 bathrooms, 13,098 square feet, 3.18 acres
• Price/square foot: $153
• Built in 1940
• Listed February 10, 2023
• Last sale: $70,000, February 1981
• Listing: “A complete compound with guest quarters, business center, maintenance garage, professional tennis courts, olympic-size pool, 6000 SF putting green.”
  • The property includes a four-car garage/guest house of 3,900 square feet.
  • The listing says the house was built by “the founders of Thomasville Furniture.” Although Davidson County deeds of the period aren’t available online, it appears that Doak Finch (1898-1967) owned the property at least as far back as the 1940s. Doak was vice president of Thomasville Chair Company (his brother T. Austin Finch was president), president of Davidson Realty and Insurance, and vice president of Thomasville Realty and Trust (his brother George was president of that one).
  • Census records show Doak living on Vance Road, which appears to be an old name for Holly Hill Road, which runs past the property. City directories list him as living at “The Lake House,” no address given. The area was called Lakeview, although there is no lake in the vicinity now. The property now on Curtis Court appears to have been sold by his son and daughter in 1977.

618 Sunset Avenue, Asheboro, Randolph County
The Ingram House

• $495,000 (originally $525,000)
• 6 bedrooms, 4 1/2 bathrooms, 4,993 square feet, 0.7 acre
• Price/square foot: $99
• Built in 1938
• Listed January 17, 2023
• Last sale: $68,900, July 2019

• Note: The listing calls it “one of Asheboro’s most iconic homes,” but it has been cheaply renovated with glaringly inappropriate windows, vinyl siding and cheap replacement flooring over much of the first floor. And it’s closely hemmed in by two brick apartment houses.
  • The listing says it was one of the the first houses in Randolph County with an elevator.
  • The address first appears in the 1941-42 city directory with Henry Lewis Ingram (1896-1943) and DeEtte B. Ingram (1900-1971) listed as residents. Henry was the local distributor for Standard Oil.
  • Not listed in the city directory but doubtless living in the home was their 12-year-old son, John Randolph Ingram (1929-2012). To those who remember North Carolina in the 1970s and ’80s: Yes, that John Ingram.
  • John became a lawyer, served in the Army’s JAG corps and in 1970 got elected to a term in the state House. He was elected state insurance commissioner in 1972 and for 12 years gave the office an unprecedented public profile. He showed an uncompromising and outspoken hostility to the insurance industry (and to the news media). Ingram was continually in the headlines as he rejected one rate increase after another. Thirty-three were appealed to the courts; the industry won 32 times.
  • Ingram seemed like a perpetual motion machine in office, but he also found time to become a perennial contender for higher office, losing every time. He ran for the U.S. Senate in 1978, losing to incumbent Jesse Helms; for governor in 1984, failing to win the Democratic nomination; for the 1986 Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, losing to Terry Sanford; and for the 1990 Senate nomination, losing to Harvey Gantt.
  • Ingram inherited the house from his mother in 1971, and it remained in the Ingram family until 2019, when it appears to have been foreclosed upon.