Piedmont Historic Homes

Sales, Summer-Fall 2022

• 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.”