Piedmont Historic Homes

Recent Sales

• Sold for $800,000 on December 7, 2023 (originally $1.285 million)
• 4 bedrooms, 4 1/2 bathrooms, 3,992 square feet, 0.29 acre
• Price/square foot: $200
• Built in 1922
• Listed April 19, 2023
• Last sale: $717,000, June 2001
• Neighborhood: Irving Park
• Sales hype: “a piece of Old Irving Park history!”
• Note: The address was listed in the city director in 1925, the first year the street was included. It was the only home on the street. The residents were Victor W. Wheeler and Lena Wheeler. Victor was identified as “with Greensboro Chamber of Commerce and sec Greensboro Builders Exchange.” They sold the house in 1927. He later was a co-founder of Builders Merchandise Company in Charlotte and secretary-treasurer of the Carolina Retail Lumber and Building Materials Dealers.
  • In 1951 Sherwood Hedgpeth (1914-1999) and Margaret Woodson Hedgpeth (1918-1985) bought the house. He sold it 46 years later and moved to Well-Spring retirement community.
  • Sherwood was a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy during World War II aboard the U.S.S. Yorktown. in 1951 he was manager of the planning department of Carter Fabrics Operating Group, a division of J.P. Stevens & Company that produced rayon fabric. He later was vice president of Stevens’ knit fabrics division.

• Sold for $1.6 million on November 24, 2023 (originally $2.131 million)
• 4 bedrooms, 5 1/2 bathrooms, 6,720 square feet, 35.6 acres
• Price/square foot: $238
• Built in 1940
• Listed July 18, 2023
• Last sale: $1.14 million, May 2021
• Note: The 2021 listing showed 6 bedrooms.
  • The property is located on the Yadkin River, 3 miles from Clemmons. Although it has a Clemmons mailing address, it’s in Davidson County.
  • The house was built around a hunting lodge.
  • The property includes a heated salt water pool, pond, a two-bedroom, two-bathroom guesthouse, barn and 900-foot frontage on the river.
  • The original owners were likely either David Johnson Lybrook (1879-1948) and China Miriam Piper Lybrook (1887-1982) or their son and daughter-in-law William Reynolds Lybrook (1912-1981) and Verna Jean Ferrell Lybrook (1926-2006).
  • David’s mother was Mary Josephine Reynolds Lybrook (1844-1888), eldest sibling of R.J. Reynolds and William Neal Reynolds. David attended N.C. State College and Cornell University. In 1910 he became the first farm agent in Forsyth County. He owned several farms, one of them across the Yadkin River from Tanglewood Farm, the estate of William Neal Reynolds and Kate B. Reynolds. David was a cattle and horse breeder. He was active with the local and state Grange.
  • As a child, William often visited Tanglewood, developing a strong relationship with his great-uncle Will. He became an accomplished horseman and maintained a lifelong interest in farming. William was a graduate of Duke University and Duke Law School. He joined R.J. Reynolds Tobacco in 1940 as associate counsel and retired 36 years later as vice president and secretary.
  • As executor of William Neal Reynolds’s will, Lybrook was deeply involved in the development of Tanglewood as a park. “In 1976, he strongly opposed the decision to sell the park to Forsyth County,” The Sentinel reported.
  • William Lybrook’s Tall Tree Farm comprised 285 acres. Jean and their children sold the mansion in 1988.

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• Sold for $440,000 on November 16, 2023 (listed at $439,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 4 1/2 bathrooms, 4,034 square feet, 0.54 acre
• Price/square foot: $109
• Built in 1898
• Listed September 25, 2023
• Last sale: $35,000, September 2000
• Note: “A 2013 addition houses a lovely large family room and a second floor ensuite.”
  • The property includes a gazebo and a fountain, both in the front yard; a two-car garage; and a small storage building.
  • The house is the only residence among 10 structures listed as “cultural resources” in the town’s comprehensive plan (p. 12).
• State Historic Preservation Office: “2-story side gable frame Queen Anne house w/twin front gables & hip roof front porch”
• From Mount Gilead Pride: “Masten Leak Harris (1858-1912) was born in Harrisville (near Pekin). He was married to Annie R. Bruton, with whom he had six children. ‘Miss Annie’ was described as a tall, stately, handsome woman. She loved her church and was a faithful member, teaching a class of boys in Sunday School and enjoying her work in the Missionary Society.
  • “M.L. Harris was connected for many years with the Mount Gilead Store Company [also here], of which L.P. Byrd was president. All of the family were members of the Mount Gilead Methodist Church. Theirs was a home filled with love, music, and laughter.
  • “Daughter Jennie was a graduate of the Southern Conservatory of Music in Durham, and taught piano for many years in Mount Gilead. She was also the church organist for some time.
  • “On September 20, 1912, she was married to Henry Braxton Ingram at the Harris home. It was her parents’ 25th Anniversary. A month later in October of 1912, M.L. Harris died of cancer. He and his wife are buried in the Harris plot at Sharon Cemetery.
  • “This was written about him in the local newspaper, The Mount Gilead Southerner, following his death:
  • “‘He was a man of Christian character. He had many friends in the community as he was a man of unswerving integrity, and always worked for the good of the town and community. He was an earnest advocate of better schools, better churches, and better citizenship. In his death, the town and community is deprived of one of its best and most useful citizens.’
  • “In 1920, the Harris house was sold to James Francis (Jim) Caffey (1887-1960). Mr. Caffey was born on a farm in Stokes County. In the early 1900s, he ‘went west’ to Arkansas and Oklahoma to work in the lumber industry. After a few years, homesick for family and N.C., he returned to work with Nissen Wagon Co. of Winston-Salem.
  • “He was sent to Montgomery County, where hardwood was abundant, to secure lumber for the manufacture of wagons. There, he met and married Susan Virginia Haywood, daughter of Preston Syrus Haywood.
  • “In the 1920’s working for Mount Gilead Cotton Oil Co., he was made Mill Manager. In 1923 he was named Superintendent of the company. He later became the first person help run the operation of United Mills when it was organized. He worked there until 1952, when he was 75 years old.
  • “He died in 1960, and his casket was placed in the front parlor of the house for an old-fashioned, Southern-style wake. Many mourners, both black and white, visited the home to pay their respects to ‘Mr. Jim.'”

• Sold for $1 million on November 13, 2023 (originally $1.595 million)
• 5 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, 6,855 square feet, 0.42 acre
• Price/square foot: $146
• Built in 1918
• Listed April 18, 2023
• Last sale: $549,500, April 2002
• Neighborhood: Fisher Park Historic District (local and NR)
• Note: The property includes a guest house.
• District NR nomination: “Three Fisher Park Historic District dwellings display the two-story columns and porticos synonymous with the Neoclassical Revival … Bank president W.A. Hewitt’s house, built between 1920 and 1925 at 100 Fisher Park Circle, at the edge of the park and North Elm Street, is a large, two-and-a-half-story frame structure with a swan’s neck entry surmounted by a Palladian window, side wings with columned sun porches, and a two-story pedimented portico of attenuated columns.”
  • A two-story, attenuated Doric portico overlooks the park and shades the symmetrical five-bay front facade of this large gable-end structure. A swan’s neck entry at the center of the front facade stands below a Palladian window. The rear facade is marked by a projecting round bay. The side wings have columned sun porches.
  • William A. Hewitt (1873-1939) and Jessie Scott Hewitt (1883-1950) were living in the house by 1915. William was the owner of Greensboro Supply Company, a machinery dealer, and later served as president of the local Morris Plan Bank. In 1920 he was president of the Rotary Club; Fisher Park neighbor Julian Price was vice president.
  • After Jessie’s death in 1950, Dr. Hugh Melvin Hunsucker (1916-1989) bought the house. He divided it into six apartments and an office for his orthodontics practice (he lived in Starmount Forest).
  • After his death in 1989, the house was kicked around from one owner to another three times before the current owner bought it in 2002 and returned it to a single-family residence. The restoration of the house received an award from Preservation Greensboro in 2003.

• Sold for $850,000 on November 13, 2023 (originally $1.25 million, later $1.375 million)
• 7 bedrooms, 5 1/2 bathrooms, 4,062 square feet (per county records), 0.63 acre
• Price/square foot: $209
• Built in 1926
• Listed July 22, 2020
• Last sale: $445,500, April 1992
• Neighborhood: Buena Vista
• Note: Previously for sale by owner for about a year and a half at $1.25 million
  • The original owner appears to have been Miss Delphine Hall Carter (1873-1952), listed as the resident in 1928, the first year the city directory included residents on Buena Vista Road. Delphine for many years was an active member of the Monday Afternoon Book Club and the Women’s Foreign Missionary Society of First Presbyterian Church. She lived in the house until around 1939.
  • She was a niece of the apparently much-loved Major Thomas Jethro Brown (1830 or 1833-1914). He died at Delphine’s home; she was living then on West Fourth Street. A very long obituary in The Western Sentinel identified him as “the pioneering tobacco warehouseman in this city.” A native of Caswell County, he was casting about for a place to establish a business after the war and “with prophetic vision he saw the possibilities of Winston-Salem as a tobacco market, and decided to locate here. At that time this was not a tobacco section, and little or no interest was taken in tobacco culture.” The newspaper speculated that the funeral “was perhaps the largest in the history of the city.” In his eulogy, the pastor of First Presbyterian Church said, “It is not too much to say that no man has ever lived in the community who was more universally beloved.”

• Sold for $675,000 on October 23, 2023 (originally $760,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 4,198 square feet, 0.54 acre
• Price/square foot: $161
• Built in 1926
• Listed March 31, 2023
• Last sale: $188,000, January 1985
• Neighborhood: Kirkwood
• Note: The property includes a guest house with 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.
  • The house has its original slate roof.
  • The address appears in the city directory from 1929, the first year numbered residences on the street were listed. It was a rental property owned by neighborhood developer Kirkwood Inc.
  • The first owners to occupy the house were William Newbold Crawford Jr. (1900-1978) and Dorothy Merrimon Crawford (1905-1985). They bought it in 1933 and lived there until 1946.
  • William was a special agent for the Dixie Fire Insurance Company. He was born in Pasquotank County. The Randolph-Macon 1920 yearbook reported that “Bill” was from Norfolk and had come to the school after working as a reporter for the Baltimore American.
  • Dorothy was one of 11 children (siblings Nellie, Bessie, Augustus, Margaret, Mary, Elizabeth, Branch Jr., William, Gertrude and Maude), all but one of whom survived to adulthood.

• Sold for $515,000 on October 18, 2023 (originally $531,000)
  • Sale price was $16,500 less than the sellers paid 18 months earlier.
• 5 bedrooms, 4 1/2 bathrooms, 4,203 square feet, 0.44 acre
• Price/square foot: $123
• Built in 1939 (per county, but probably a bit later; see note)
• Listed April 21, 2023
• Last sale: $531,500, April 2022
• Neighborhood: Emerywood, Uptown Suburbs Historic District (NR)
• Note: The rare home being sold for less than the previous selling price.
  • The house was sold in 2021 and 2022.
• District NR nomination: “This two-story, side-gabled, Colonial Revival-style house has been significantly altered with the addition of a stone veneer on the first-floor facade and covering the two exterior end chimneys.
  • “The house is three bays wide and double-pile with vinyl siding on the second-floor level and vinyl windows. Two sixteen-light picture windows on the first-floor facade project slightly under flared, hipped copper roofs. The replacement door has a one-piece sidelight and transom and is sheltered by an octagonal porch with a flared copper roof and supported by slender columns.
  • “A one-and-a-half-story, side-gabled wing on the right (west) elevation has two gabled dormers on the front. A one-story, shed-roofed porch on the left (east) elevation is supported by square posts with arched openings and has been enclosed with screens.”
  • The original owners were Robert Kenner Amos (1918-1996) and Melvin Hayes Amos (1924-2016). They bought the house from contractor Roy Shelton in 1943, the first year it was listed in the city directory.
  • Kenner was president of Melrose Hosiery Mills. Melvin was originally from Canton. She lived in High Point for 48 years before moving to their home in Holden Beach. She served as secretary of the Holden Beach Zoning Commission, was a board member of the Holden Beach property owners association and a charter member and first chairwoman of the Holden Beach Chapel Ladies Fellowship. 

• Sold for $1.6 million on October 10, 2023 (listed at $1.5 million)
• 5 bedrooms, 5 1/2 bathrooms, 5,410 square feet, 0.62 acre
• Price/square foot: $296
• Built in 1920
• Listed August 11, 2023
• Last sale: $710,000, March 2009
• Neighborhood: Buena Vista
• Note: The property includes a swimming pool, gazebo and detached garage.
  • The neighborhood’s developer, the Standard Improvement Company, sold the lot in 1919 to homebuilder Thomas Arthur Milton Stevenson (1879-1973). He sold the house in 1922 to public school principal Thomas Hamilton Cash and Rosa E. McKaughan Cash (1883-1956), but they were never listed as living there. By the time they sold the house in 1926, they were living nearby on Carolina Circle in Buena Vista. Thomas then was superintendent of schools, secretary of the board of health and co-proprietor of the Cash & Caudill grocery store on Oak Street.
  • Thomas and Rosa sold the house to Carrie Meeks Dungan (1886-1971), a public school teacher. She was listed as the resident from 1929, when the address was first listed in the city directory, until 1950. She apparently was unmarried and lived alone, suggesting the house may have been far smaller then.
  • In 1950, Carrie sold the house to a fellow teacher, John E. Rackley (dates unknown).
  • Although Buena Vista Road dates back to at least 1919, it didn’t appear in city directories until 1928. The Buena Vista neighborhood first appears in the city directory in 1922, when it was identified as “a suburb s of Bethania Rd. w of city.”

• Sold for $685,000 on September 27, 2023 (originally $765,000)
• 5 bedrooms, 4 1/2 bathrooms, 4,530 square feet, 0.66 acre
• Price/square foot: $151
• 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.

• Sold for $615,000 on September 14, 2023 (listed at $675,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 4,581 square feet, 0.77 acre
• Price/square foot: $134
• Built in 1894
• Listed June 17, 2023
• Last sale: $94,500, June 1991
• Neighborhood: Mount Airy Historic District (NR)
• Note: The listing says the house was “the first in Mount Airy to be built with Granite which was sourced directly from the site.”
• Historic district NR nomination: “The Queen Anne style was popular at the turn of the century, and outstanding examples of the nationally popular style are located throughout the district. The finest of these is the James A. Hadley House at 400 West Pine Street. Hadley was a tobacco industrialist, real estate developer and mayor of Mount Airy. His magnificent house reflected his prominent position in the community.
  • “A large two-story structure, the house displays a wealth of Queen Anne characteristics. It is composed of a rich variety of materials, details and forms. The foundation, first story, and window sills and lintels are of granite, the second story and three-story bell-cast roof central tower are brick, the gables are sheathed in decorative wood shingles, and fancy wood brackets support the eaves.
  • “Many of the windows boast colorful stained glass, while the main entrance features elaborate etched glass designs. Multiple projecting bays are outlined by an elaborate wrap-around porch.
  • “The interior of the house is equally well-detailed with fine woodwork, elaborate plaster ceiling medallions, and original lighting fixtures.”
  • “Magnificent Queen Anne style mansion, built between 1894 and 1900 by James Alfred Hadley [1853-1916], co-owner of the Hadley-Smith Tobacco Factory, real estate developer, and several-term mayor of Mount Airy.
  • “One of the finest Queen Anne style houses in Surry County, its first story is rusticated granite, second story is brick with granite trim, and has a three-story central tower with bell-cast roof and finial.
  • “The house also features wood shingled gables, bracketed eaves, abundant stained glass (four panels were stolen in the early 1980s and replaced by local artisan, Ed Atkins), a broad wrap-around porch with Doric columns and dentilled frieze, segmental and flat arch granite-trimmed windows (most one-over-one and some colorful multi-pane), tall corbelled chimneys, standing seam metal roof, double-leaf carved oak main entrance doors with etched glass, and granite retaining wall marking the large lot.
  • “On the interior are handsome, robust staircases, paneled wainscot, ornate mantels with mirrored overmantels, plaster ceiling medallions, original lighting fixtures, and a pair of marble columns between the foyer and hallway.”
  • Hadley was Mr. Everything in Mount Airy. The 1913 city directory identifies him modestly as a “manufacturer,” but also lists him as vice president of the Bank of Mount Airy and a member of the local Highway Commission, the school board and the Water and Light Commission. The directory no longer listed the Hadley-Smith company, which may have been bought out by R.J. Reynolds, which did have a factory in the city by then.
  • Swannanoa Brower Hadley (1864-1973), James’s wife, continued to live in the house after his death at age 63. She outlived him by a prodigious 57 years, never remarrying and living to the age of 109. She also outlived three of their five children. The house was sold in 1975 by their two surviving daughters, Sallie Hadley Yokley (1891-1980) and Lucy Hadley Cash (1893-1994), both widows themselves by then.
  • The address was listed as 221 Pine Street in the 1913 city directory, the earliest available online.

• Sold for $330,000 on September 8, 2023 (originally $525,000)
  • The buyers live in Raleigh.
• 6 bedrooms, 4 1/2 bathrooms, 4,993 square feet, 0.7 acre
• Price/square foot: $66
• 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 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.

• Sold for $1.195 million on August 31, 2023 (listed at $1.25 million)
• 6 bedrooms, 5 1/2 bathrooms, 6,499 square feet, 0.80 acre
• Price/square foot: $184
• Built circa 1946
• Listed July 15, 2023
• Last sale: $750,000, October 2019
• Note: The owner is an LLC registered in the state of Washington.
  • The house is across the street from the Reynolda Historic District, Reynolda Gardens and Reynolda Village.
  • The house includes a guest suite including a living room with fireplace, kitchenette, bedroom and bathroom.
  • Although country records give the date of the house as 1925, a December 1945 deed from Reynolda Inc. to Agnew Hunter Bahnson Jr. and Katherine King Bahnson includes the full text of covenants on the property, suggesting there was no house there. The city directory, oddly, didn’t provide house numbers for homes on the street until much later, making if difficult to determine when the house was built.
  • Agnew (1915-1964) was president of The Bahnson Company, manufacturers and contractors for industrial air conditioning systems. His father was vice president. Agnew Jr. died in an airplane crash in 1964.
  • Katherine (1921-2007) and her second husband sold the house in 1975. She was born in Leaksville and graduated from Salem College in 1941. A major supporter of the arts, locally and nationally, she served as president of the local Arts and Crafts Association, Arts Council, Junior League, Gallery of Contemporary Art, Symphony Association, the North Carolina State Art Society and the Twin City Garden Club. She was vice-president of the National Repertory Theatre Foundation of New York and served on the boards of Salem College and the Piedmont Festival.
  • For Gov. Terry Sanford, Katherine worked on a feasibility study for the North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem. She also served on the planning and coordination committee for the Stevens Center. She was involved in restoration projects at Salem College, Graylyn Conference Center and Blair House in Washington.
  • Katherine’s second husband, John Miguel de Braganca (1912-1991), was a great-grandson of King Miguel I of Portugal, who ruled from 1828 to 1834. John was born in England and graduated from Harvard. He served as a commander in the U.S. Navy in World War II. He worked as a real estate executive and investment banker.
  • Katherine, having outlived two high-achieving husbands, married a third at age 73. Although he had no connection to this house, it’s worth noting that third husband John Griffith Johnson (1915-2010) was born in Winston-Salem, graduated from UNC law school in 1940 and joined the FBI. During World War II, he headed counter-intelligence for the Manhattan Project.
  • He requested a transfer to Charlotte and later resigned to go into broadcasting. He was a founder of Southern Broadcasting, which established radio station WTOB in Winston-Salem and WGHP-TV in High Point. It eventually owned five TV stations and 15 radio stations before being acquired by a larger company. John was a grandson of John F. Griffith, longtime member of the Winston-Salem school board and namesake of Griffith Elementary School.

• Sold for $2.5 million on August 29, 2023 (listed at $2.75 million)
• 6 bedrooms, 4 1/2 bathrooms, 4,259 square feet, 1.02 acres
• Price/square foot: $587
• Built in 1924
• Listed November 16, 2022
• Last sale: $1.1 million, March 2022
• Neighborhood: Irving Park Historic District (NR)
• District NR nomination: “Prominent Greensboro architect Charles C. Hartmann designed this handsome Colonial Revival dwelling for Lynn B. and Eleanor Williamson. The grounds were planned by Pennsylvania landscape architect Thomas Meehan.
  • “The house is a two-story brick dwelling with a slate-sheathed gable roof and an array of classical details, including pedimented dormers, trigylphs on the cornice frieze, a central entrance with columns and a swan’s neck pediment, and a Palladian window surmounting the entrance. A one-story sun room with balustraded roof deck extends from the west side of the house, while a two-story wing extends from the east side.”
• Note: Charles Hartmann (1889-1977) was 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 Williamson (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.
  • Buddy 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.

848 W. 5th Street, Winston-Salem
The Rosenbacher House

• Sold for $1.1 million on August 21, 2023
• 5 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, 4,968 square feet, 0.50 acre
• Price/square foot: $221
• Built in 1912
• Last sale: $225,000, January 2014
• Neighborhood: West End Historic District (local and NR)
• Note: Now occupied by a health spa and a cafe. It was the site of Michael’s on 5th, a locally prominent restaurant, for more than 20 years beginning in the mid-1980s.
  • The seller was a construction company that restored the house and used it as their office.
• District NR nomination: “[T]he Rosenbacher House is one of the grandest of the Neo-Classical Revival dwellings in Winston-Salem and is one of only several examples of the style in the West End. ”
  • “The large two-story weatherboarded house is dominated by a monumental two-story central portico with Corinthian columns and a full pedimented entablature. Enhancing the Classical design of the facade are one-story curved porches with Ionic columns, turned balustrades, and modillioned cornices which run from the portico to the front corners of the house. At second story height, a modillioned cornice encircles the house beneath the truncated hip roof,
  • “The fenestration of the house is exceptional, with the central entrance boasting double-leaf doors and leaded and beveled glass sidelights and fanlight transom, and the large front and side windows of the first story having beautiful round and segmental-arched leaded glass transoms.
  • “The interior of the house is as exceptional as the exterior. The large front hall is separated from the rear stair hall by a grandiose Ionic arcade, and segmental-arched sliding pocket doors serve as openings between the major rooms. The stair is an ornate Colonial Revival one which rises in a transverse manner.
  • “One of the most impressive rooms in the house is the dining room, characterized by a handsome Colonial Revival paneled mantel and overmantel, a high paneled wainscot topped by a plate rail, a boxed beam ceiling, and what appear to be original wallpaper borders. At the rear of the house is a large double room divided by an Ionic archway.
  • “In 1909 Mrs. Carrie Rosenbacher, widow of Sigmund Rosenbacher, purchased the western half of Mrs. Jennie D. Kerner’s lot, and the following year she and Alladin, Fannie, Otto, and Sandel Rosenbacher were listed at this location in the city directory. The Rosenbachers were associated with Rosenbacher & Brothers, a successful clothing store in Winston. By 1946 only Sandel Rosenbacher was living in the house, but the family retained ownership until 1975.”

• Sold for $1.8 million on August 17, 2023 (originally $2.1 million)
  • Listed for rent two days later at $2,000/month
• 6 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, 8,461 square feet, 2.23 acres
• Price/square foot: $213
• 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.

• Sold for $810,000 on August 14, 2023 (originally $1,050,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 5 1/2 bathrooms, 3,900 square feet
• Price/square foot: $208
• 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.

• Sold for $580,000 on August 14, 2023 (originally $659,900, later as low as $575,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2,918 square feet (per county), 1 acre
• Price/square foot: $199
• 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 its 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.

• Sold for $925,000 on August 11, 2023 (originally $995,000)
• 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 3,973 square feet, 0.29 acre
• Price/square foot: $234
• Built in 1915
• Listed April 14, 2023
• Last sale: $795,000, June 2019
• Neighborhood: West End Historic District (local and NR)
• District NR nomination: “The Ogburn House is an impressive Colonial Revival dwelling which shows some influence from the Craftsman style. The large two-story frame house has a weatherboarded first story, while the second story is sheathed in scalloped siding which appears to be an early use of asbestos. (This siding appears in a 1924 photograph of the house and is also seen on the Thompson-Liipfert House (#337) of the same period at 1220 Glade St.)
  • “Also unusual are the ‘clipped’ front corners of the house. Other features of the exterior include a hipped roof and front dormer, both with widely overhanging eaves, nine-over-one sash windows, a broad front entrance with unusual etched glass sidelights and transom within a Classical surround, and a front porch with heavy paneled posts, a plain balustrade, and a balustraded deck.
  • “On the southeast side of the house is a sun room whose roof is cantilevered to form a porte-cochere — another unusual feature.
  • “The spacious interior has handsome Colonial Revival and Craftsman mantels, a Colonial Revival stair, some original lighting fixtures, and of particular significance, high wainscoting in the hall and dining room with well preserved simulated leather embossed papers.
  • “S.C. Ogburn purchased the property in 1912 and by 1915 he and his wife, Emma K., were listed at this location in the city directory. Ogburn was president of Home Real Estate Loan and Insurance Co. The Ogburns owned and occupied the house until the 1940s, after which it was converted to apartments until being restored as a single family dwelling in the early 1970s.”
  • Sy Ogburn (1879-1948) was active in several other companies, as well, serving as president of the Carolina Beach Corporation, Winston-Salem Title and Abstract Company and his own Ogburn Real Estate Company. He was elected to the Board of Aldermen, was an organizer of the local Goodwill Industries and was a 50-year member of the Knights of Pythias.
  • He was the sixth of 11 children in his family born over a period of 26 years, all but one of whom reached adulthood. His sibling’s names: Robert Lee, Minnie Victoria, Rufus Henry, Ella, George W., Mary, John Francis, Carrie Lillian, Paul Tise and Daisy Parmelia.
  • Emma Kapp Ogburn (1875-1946), like Sy, was a native of Forsyth County. She grew up in Bethania and was a graduate of Salem College, class of 1892. She served as treasurer of the local Women’s Christian Temperance Union for 25 years. She also was one of the first members of the local Sorosis Club, an organization for professional women. In Carolina Beach, Emma organized a Sunday school class and community church, which had grown into five churches by the time of her death in 1946.
  • Her obituary was front-page news in the Twin City Sentinel (“Mrs. Ogburn Dies Suddenly … Nearing her 71st birthday, she had been in her usual health until a few minutes before her death.”).

• Sold for $715,000 on July 12, 2023 (originally listed at $825,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, 4,277 square feet, 1.79 acres
• Price/square foot: $167
• 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.

• Sold for $900,000 on June 26, 2023
• 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 4,262 square feet, 0.58 acre
• Price/square foot: $211
• Built in 1924
• Not listed publicly for sale
• Last sale: $625,000, September 2016
• Neighborhood: Emerywood, Uptown Suburbs Historic District (NR)

District NR nomination: “This two-story, hip-roofed, Renaissance Revival-style house features a painted brick veneer and a green slab-tile roof with wide overhangs with modillions.

“The house is three bays wide and double-pile with replacement double-leaf, French doors with transoms on the first-floor facade and replacement windows. Original paired, ten-light French doors are centered on the facade with an arched fanlight. The door is sheltered by a low, hip-roofed porch on Ionic columns.

“An uncovered brick terrace extends the full width of the facade on each side of the porch. One-story, flat-roofed porches on the right (east) and left (west) elevations are supported by full-height, brick piers at the corners, each flanked by columns. The right porch has been enclosed with screens and the left porch has been enclosed with glass.

“The house has a tall, painted brick chimney on the right and left elevations.

“The earliest known occupant is Hirum M. Armentrout (secretary, Snow Lumber Company) in 1927.”

• Sold for $650,000 on June 14, 2023 (originally $725,000)
• 5 bedrooms, 4 1/2 bathrooms, 4,626 square feet, 0.64 acre
• Price/square foot: $141
• 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.

• Sold for $1.207 million on June 1, 2023 (originally $1.295 million)
• 4 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, 5,722 square feet, 0.72 acre
• Price/square foot: $211
• 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.

• Sold for $1.385 million on May 31, 2023 (listed at $1.395 million)
• 4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, 5,072 square feet, 0.51acre
• Price/square foot: $273
• 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.

• Sold for $1.55 million on May 30, 2023 (listed at $1.399 million)
• 5 bedrooms, 5 full bathrooms, 2 half-bathrooms, 6,808 square feet, 1.09 acres
• Price/square foot: $228
• Built in 1926
• Listed April 20, 2023
• Last sale: $380,000, July 2013
• Listing: The kitchen has two dishwashers, a commercial-grade gas stove, built-in refrigerator, three sinks, “and more.” It also says the kitchen has “leather counter tops.” (Is that a thing? It doesn’t say “leathered granite,” which is a thing.)
  • The property includes a swimming pool, cabana, outdoor fireplace and “numerous” outdoor sitting areas.
  • The basement has a sauna, safe room, bedroom, full bath and exercise room.
  • If the 1926 date is accurate, this is one of the oldest houses in Sedgefield. The community was developed beginning in 1923, when the Southern Real Estate Company bought a 3,660-acre hunting preserve between Greensboro and High Point. Development was slow; by one accounting, only 35 of the community’s 620 homes were built before 1940. About half were built between 1970 and 1999.
  • For this particular property, no early history can be found. No deeds earlier than 1946 can be identified online, and no city directories covered Sedgefield, lying well beyond both Greensboro and High Point for decades. Similarly, Sedgefield lies outside area of interest for the two cities’ libraries and history museums.

• Sold for $730,000 on May 25, 2023 (originally $795,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 4 1/2 bathrooms, 4,061 square feet, 0.66 acre
• Price/square foot: $180
• 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.

• Sold for $1 million on May 23, 2023 (originally $1.25 million)
• 5 bedrooms, 5 1/2 bathrooms, 4,091 square feet, 1.3 acres
• Price/square foot: $244
• 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.”

• Sold for $1.275 million on May 16, 2023 (listed at $1.28 million)
• 5 bedrooms, 4 1/2 bathrooms, 4,831 square feet, 0.37 acre
• Price/square foot: $264
• Built in 1928 (per county, but probably a few years earlier; see note)
• Listed April 10 2023
• Last sale: $1.1 million, October 2006
• Neighborhood: Buena Vista
• Note: The original owners were James Walter Hylton (1867-1941) and Ella Lee Moore Hylton (1873-1933). James was secretary-treasurer of the J.E. Shelton Box and Lumber Company, “manufacturers and dealers in building material, tobacco boxes and cases.” Their grown sons, Walter and William, operated the Hylton Lumber Company.
  • James and Ella were first listed on Westover Avenue (with no house number) in the 1925 city directory and at 438 Westover beginning in 1928, the first year numbered addresses were listed for the street. James’s widow, Sallie Henrietta Martin Hylton (1889-1956), sold the house soon after his 1941 death.

• Sold for $1.2 million on May 9, 2023 (listed at $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.

• Sold for $497,000 on May 8, 2023 (originally $529,000)
• 5 bedrooms, 5 1/2 bathrooms, 4,442 square feet, 0.65 acre
• Price/square foot: $112
• 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.

• Sold for $930,000 on May 2, 2023 (listed at $975,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 3,840 square feet, 0.63 acre
• Price/square foot: $242
• 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.”

• Sold for $1.35 million on April 6, 2023 (listed at $1.3 million)
  • The new owners’ address of record is in Virginia Beach.
• 4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, 4,145 square feet, 0.37 acre
• Price/square foot: $326
• 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.

• Sold for $915,000 on February 6, 2023 (originally $995,000)
• 3 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, 3,961 square feet, 0.61 acre
• Price/square foot: $231
• Built in 1928
• Listed July 14, 2022
• Last sale: $160,000, December 1981
• Neighborhood: Sunset Hills Historic District (NRHP)
• Note: The house is on a hill overlooking Sunset Hills Park.
  • Architect Lorenzo Winslow (1892-1976) designed the house. Among his other local works are the Irving Park Apartments on North Elm Street. He later served for 20 years as architect of the White House, responsible for the complete reconstruction of the interior from 1948-52.
• District NRHP nomination: “The two-and-a-half-story, three-bay, side-gabled, brick and half-timbered Tudor Revival-style house features a projecting, two-story, front gable containing the entrance.
  • “A wood batten door with metal strap hinges and pierced by a small window with diamond-patterned wood muntins is set in a Tudor arched-head brick surround. Narrow windows with stone sills flank the door.
  • “Square posts support a porch that extends along the façade of the south end of the house. It is topped by a wood balustrade enclosing a balcony. French doors replace the original windows and allow access from a second floor bedroom to the balcony. A metal spiral staircase joins the balcony and lower level porch.
  • “Windows throughout are primarily casement and six-over-six and four-over-four. A variety of decorative brick patterns grace the first level.
  • “On the north elevation, two side-gabled wings of differing heights project from the main block. A one-and-a-half-story, side-gabled wing occupies the south gable end.
  • “Two brick chimneys rise from the house, one on the south gable end of the main block and one on the rear roof slope. A wooden Tudor arch crowns a rear recessed entry that is sheathed in weatherboard. A slate roof tops the dwelling.
  • “The interior follows a center hall plan with the stair originating in the rear portion of the passage. Just inside the door, the original tile floor remains.
  • “The interior remains largely unchanged, except for the removal of a wall between two second floor bedrooms.”
  • Hugh Newell Preddy (1886-1952) and Mary Dodson Preddy (1891-1963) bought the house in 1928. Hugh was a clerk for E.A. Pierce & Co., one of the brokerage houses that later were merged into Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith.
  • After the stock market crash, he lost job, and in 1933 the Preddys lost the house to foreclosure. By then, five other family members and a lodger were living with them. The house was bought by the estate of Mary’s grandfather, allowing the family to stay until 1941, when the house was sold.
  • The next owners, Wylanta McKay Buckner (1902-1981) and David Buckner (1894-1956), owned the house until 1981, when the current owners bought it. David Buckner was an actuary and later an executive with Jefferson Standard Life Insurance.

• Sold for $900,000 on January 9, 2023 (originally $875,000)
  • Closing occurred a year and eight months after the property went under contract
  • Bought by a couple whose address is in Thomasville
• 7 bedrooms, 4 1/2 bathrooms, 6,336 square feet, 13.28 acres
• Price/square foot: $142
• Built in 1934
• Listed March 11, 2018
• Last sale: $365,000, December 2004
• Note: The property includes a two-story carriage house.
  • The property was marketed previously as a residence or as a b&b/event venue (although there already is one in Gibsonville).
  • For more about the colorful Kivette family, click here.

7241 Burlington Road, Whitsett, Guilford County
The Joseph Bason Whitsett House
Blog post — The Joseph Bason Whitsett House: A Possibly Endangered 1883 Guilford County Landmark, $1.3 Million

• Sold for $3.89 million on January 6, 2023 (27 acres; the listed price was $1.3 million for 11 acres)
• 5 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, 6,983 square feet, 11.33 acres
• Price/square foot: $557
• Built in 1883
• Listed September 28, 2021
• Last sale: $176,000, October 1987 (11 acres)
• Note: Designated a historic landmark by Guilford County
  • The house is now used for offices by a financial firm.
  • Listing: The property has three buildings, including a 700 square-foot guest house.
  • The house was built by Joseph Bason Whitsett (1835-1917). Joseph was a railroad man, his obituary recalled: “Twenty-five years of his life was [sic] spent in various capacities of railroad work, and he was identified with the first railroad building ever done in this section of the old North Carolina Railroad: afterwards with the Richmond and Danville system, and for a short while with the Southern.” (Greensboro Patriot)
  • In 1863, Joseph married Mary Lusetta Foust (1845-1938), whose family owned grist mills and were major landowners in the area.

• Their son, William Thornton Whitsett (1866-1934), was a renowned educator. In 1888, he founded the Whitsett Institute, a boarding school for boys. He operated it until it was destroyed by a fire in 1918. He served on the Guilford County Board of Education for 21 years and as a trustee of the University of North Carolina for 22 years.
  • William also was a locally prominent literary figure and historian. The Whitsett Institute published a book of his poems, Saber and Song, in 1917 (now available in hardcover, paperback and Kindle).
  • William’s death prompted an especially mournful report in The Burlington Daily Times-News, March 22, 1934:
  • “Dr. William Thornton Whitsett has passed away!
  • “The sun sank behind the horizon of the life of this illustrious citizen of North Carolina at twelve-forty o’clock last night, following a critical illness of ten days with pneumonia. He was 67 years old. His works will echo and re-echi [typo, probably] throughout many years to come.”
  • In addition to the residential listing, the owners have posted a commercial real-estate listing that positions the property for redevelopment, initially referring to the house as “an office building”:
  • “Prime development opportunity along the I-40/I-85 corridor in the fast-growing E. Guilford and W. Alamance market. Two properties consist of an office building on 11 acres and a vacant tract of 67 acres. Highest and best use is mixed use residential consisting of apartments, townhomes and SF lots. … Beautiful Victorian House built in the 1880s is currently used as office.”