Piedmont Historic Homes

The most remarkable houses taken off the market without sales in recent years

Withdrawn Listings 2018-2026

811nelm

811 N. Elm Street, Greensboro
The Carter-McGee House
Listing withdrawn June 3, 2026

• $775,000
• Bedrooms and bathrooms not specified, 6,289 square feet, 0.34 acre
• Price/square foot: $123
• Built in 1916
• Listed May 31, 2026 (“Coming Soon”)
• Last sale: $302,000, October 1987
• Neighborhood: Fisher Park Historic District (local and NR)
• Note: For the past 39 years the house has been used as a group home by the Delancey Street Foundation, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that operates residential self-help programs for former addicts, ex-convicts, homeless persons and others. It has six such homes across the country.
  • “This gracious southern home, in the lovely Fisher Park area of Greensboro, is our smallest facility. With only 30 residents, it is a microcosm of the Delancey Street model. Residents who do best in a small family environment thrive here. Residents are taught culinary arts, accounting, landscaping, construction, craft production, Christmas sales and decorating, moving and trucking as they share the responsibility of running these enterprises. Residents are active in community service and volunteering at local special events.”
  • The listing says the house could be “preserved as a classic private residence or thoughtfully updated for a modern business use.”
  • The foundation’s website says the house initially was “completely renovated by residents.”
• District NR nomination: The Prairie Style “influenced only a few of the district’s houses, but some of its finest … It is particularly evident at the [house] of W.L. Carter, the secretary-treasurer of Gate City Life Insurance Company, at 811 North Elm Street … The horizontality of the style is emphasized at Carter’s ca. 1917 residence through the use of recessed horizontal brick mortar joints at both the brick-veneered front facade and the front retaining wall, wide overhanging eaves, and a narrow raised molding that rings the second story.”
  • Wilbur Lee Carter Sr. (1879-1968) and Marie Estelle Cranford Carter (1893-1987) bought the property in 1915. Wilbur had come to Greensboro in 1902 as an insurance salesman. In 1908, he was an organizer of Gate City Life Insurance Company. During the Depression, he invested in Southern Life Insurance Company and became its president, a position later held by his son Wilbur Lee Carter Jr. They sold the house in 1926.
  • In 1949, the house was bought by Dr. Julian Murrill McGee (1900-1990) and Elizabeth French McGee (1901-2000). They owned it for 33 years. Julian was a physician. He was a member of the Civil Air Patrol and served as an examiner for the Federal Aviation Administration. They sold the house in 1982, and by 1985 it had been turned into a business property.

802 Lawsonville Avenue, Reidsville, Rockingham County
Listing removed December 29, 2025; relisted January 13, 2026
Listing withdrawn June 1, 2026

• $315,000 (originally $349,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2,700 square feet, 0.51 acre
• Price/square foot: $117
• Built in 1910
• Listed August 5, 2025
• Last sale: $55,000, January 2023
• Note: A quote from C.S. Lewis is on a wall in the kitchen: “Eating and reading are two pleasures that combine admirably.”
  • James A. “Jimmy” Walker (1863-1923) bought the property in 1900. He was “a well-known farmer” who served a term in the state Legislature. He sold the house in 1919.
  • In 1922 the house was sold to Archibald Boyd Hooper (1889-1969) and Madge Anderson Kemp Hooper (1906-1995). Archie was a plumber and later a plumbing contractor. The family owned the house for 93 years.
  • Archie and Madge had four children, including Walter McGehee Hooper (1931-2020). Walter was a friend and longtime literary executor to the British writer and theologian C.S. Lewis. Walter studied English and education at the University of North Carolina. After being impressed by a piece about God written by Lewis (“I’d never met anybody who believed that way,” he said), Walter wrote to him, and they became friends. In 1963 he visited Lewis in Oxford.
  • “Severely debilitated by osteoporosis and kidney failure, Lewis offered Hooper a job as his correspondence secretary, and Hooper spent the next few months typing out the letters that Lewis dictated in reply to the enormous volume of mail that he received from readers around the world. After Lewis’s death on November 22 of that year, Hooper made his home in Oxford … doing everything that he could to honour Lewis’s memory. After writing a biography of Lewis with Lewis’s friend and former pupil Roger Lancelyn Green, he spent some five decades collecting and editing Lewis’s juvenilia, poems, short stories, academic papers, journalism, diaries and letters. He also took up the burden of answering letters sent to Lewis by child readers of The Chronicles of Narnia who were unaware that Lewis had died.” (Wikipedia)
  • Hooper became a significant figure in his own right. “All of us who know and love the writings of C.S. Lewis owe a great debt to another figure, highly regarded in the field of Lewis scholarship but less well known to the wider world of readers: Walter Hooper. Over the course of six decades, Hooper served as literary advisor to Lewis’ estate, dedicating his life to editing, preserving, and sharing the work of C.S. Lewis. As just one example, when we pick up a volume such as God in the Dock or Selected Literary Essays—containing some of Lewis’ finest essays—we are benefiting from Walter’s work in tracking down and preserving material written for various newspapers and magazines that could otherwise easily have been lost or languished out of print. He co-authored an important early biography of Lewis. And it is from Walter’s labor of love that we have Lewis’s wisdom, wit, and insight in the Collected Letters (three volumes and nearly four thousand pages).” (Dr. Holly Ordway, Word on Fire)
  • Walter also became ordained as a priest in the Church of England and served as a chaplain at two Oxford colleges. Feeling that the church was becoming too liberal, he converted to Catholicism in 1988. Before his conversion, though, he met Pope John Paul II. “When the pope walked into the room it was as if Aslan himself had arrived,” referring to the Christ figure in Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia series.
  • Walter, his siblings and other descendants of Archie and Madge sold the house in 2015. Walter died in Oxford of COVID-19 in 2020.

605 N. Asheboro Street, Liberty, Randolph County
The Smith-Wylie House
Listing withdrawn April 16, 2026

• $615,000 (originally $650,000)
• 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2,694 square feet (per county), 2.7 acres
• Price/square foot: $228
• Built in 1900
• Listed June 10, 2025
• Last sales: $321,000, August 2021; $50,500, November 2007
• Neighborhood: Liberty Historic District (NR)
• 2021 listing: The house “was restored in 2007, following local historical society guidelines and keeping several original features, including 7 fireplaces, beautiful stained glass windows, and the original ‘pie safe’. Renovated and used as a law office, this home still has much of its original residential integrity.”
• District NR nomination: “The Smith-Wylie house is a very imposing two-story, frame, Queen Anne Style residence built by Charles Phillip Smith and later occupied by his daughter, Margaret Smith Wylie.
  • “It features the irregular massed plan typical of this style. Particularly notable features are a flared, shingle-clad skirting-course separating the first and second stories; an elaborate sawn and pierced bargeboard with drop pendants; cresting and acreterion along the ridge line; and a slate roof. The one-story porch is highlighted with a polygonal, turreted pavilion at its south comer.
  • “It also has turned-and-chamfered porch posts with sawn scroll-brackets supporting a spindle frieze. The siding is weatherboard and windows are one-over- one, double-hung-wood sash. A modern concrete block foundation has been installed as underpinning.”
  • Charles Philip Smith (1856-1929) was a traveling salesman for Lindley Nurseries for 50 years. “Mr. Smith was a prominent citizen and well known throughout the state,” the Greensboro Daily News said. His wife, Mamie Ila Patterson Smith (1875-1968), was 19 years younger than Charles and died 39 years after he did. She never remarried.
  • Margaret Charlotte Smith Wylie (1903-1978) was a school teacher for 42 years. She also taught a Sunday school class for 40 years. She lived in the house until her death at age 74. Her husband, John Harris Wylie (1902-1979), was an inspector for the Randolph County Health Department and a member of the Liberty Town Council.

6curtis

6 Curtis Court, Thomasville, Davidson County
Listing withdrawn January 1, 2026

• $2.499 million (originally $2 million, later $2.775 million)
• 9 bedrooms, 13 bathrooms, 13,098 square feet, 6.42 acres (4 lots)
• Price/square foot: $191
• 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.

7920 E. Washington Street, Mebane, Orange County
The White Family House
Listing withdrawn October 1, 2025; relisted October 2, 2025
Listing withdrawn January 1, 2026

• $2.2 million
• 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 4,951 square feet, 5.64 acres
• Price/square foot: $444
• Built circa 1885 (see note)
• Listed June 19, 2025
• Last sale: $200,000, January 2018
• Neighborhood: Just east of the Alamance-Orange County line.
• Note: Current online sales listings say the house was built “in the 1880s,” which is credible; county records say 1940, which doesn’t seem likely.
  • County records also give the size as 3,725 square feet, which appears too small, and say there are 6 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.
  • The property includes a pond and a huge pavilion with three chandeliers and propane heaters.
  • Listing: “Some White Furniture pieces (from the original White Furniture Factory) are included in the sale.”
  • The listing cites “amazingly spacious rooms with charm and character … with period fixtures, stained glass and built-ins,” but the 54 photos (in the initial listing, at least) show only one interior room, a sunroom. Which, for a $2.2 million, 4,900 square-foot house, is weird.
  • For-sale listings say the house was built by “the storied White Furniture family.” That could mean Stephen Alexander White (1826-1908), patriarch, railroad agent and Mebane postmaster; eldest surviving son David Alexander White (1859-1916), co-founder of White Furniture in 1881; or David’s brother William Edgar “Will” White (1861-1935), company co-founder and president from 1896 until his death. Their brother James Samuel White (1877-1971), youngest of Stephen’s nine children, who also worked for the company, was the last surviving son when he sold the house in 1949.
  • James sold the house to Phonse Bean (1908-1995) and Ola Beatrice Harris Bean (1906-1996). Phonse was director of manufacturing for White Furniture from 1944 to 1983. He and Ola were married for 70 years. They sold the house in 1988.
  • Joseph T. Barnett (1922-2015) and Rita Barnett (1927-2021) bought the house from the Beans and owned it for 30 years. Joseph was born in Mebane. He moved to Palos Verdes Estates, California, in 1958. Originally an engineer, he later became a real-estate broker. He served 12 years on the Palos Verdes Estates City Council, including eight years as mayor. He was a director of the National Association of Realtors. Rita was a graduate of UCLA and an interior designer. Their family trust sold the house in 2018.
  • Those buyers, the current owners, apparently did a massive restoration after buying the house for just $200,000.
  • From the the Encyclopedia of North Carolina: White Furniture started out as a manufacturer of window materials and a construction contractor. By 1896 it was also producing furniture. It provided the original furniture for the Grove Park Inn in Asheville and for U.S. military personnel working on the Panama Canal and around the world. The family sold the business in 1985; the factory closed in 1993.
  • “Eventually the company became known for its elegant mahogany dining room furnishings. The pieces produced by White Furniture featured classical designs with attention given to details, such as the selection of fine, kiln-dried woods. Carefully crafted inlays became the company’s trademark.”

1503davidson

1503 Davidson Road, Davidson County
The Earl and Kitty Congdon House
Listing withdrawn December 18, 2025

• $1.395 million (originally $1.5 million)
• 4 bedrooms, 4 1/2 bathrooms, 4,286 square feet (per county), 3.42 acres
• Price/square foot: $325
• Built in 1980
• Listed September 26, 2025
• Last sale: $650,000, March 2023
• Neighborhood: Just across the Davidson-Guilford county line. The property has a High Point mailing address.
• Note: Designed by Norman Zimmerman (1934-2014). “He loved working by hand, never changing over to CAD, and it is said he could fix anything with duct tape.” (NCModernist)
  • Earl Congdon Jr. (b. 1930) and Kathryn W. “Kitty” Congdon (b. 1932) bought the property in 1977. They sold the house 34 years later. Earl was president of Old Dominion Freight Lines. He had succeeded his mother in 1962. He served as CEO until 2008 and as executive chairman until 2018.
  • Earl’s parents, Earl Sr. (1906-1950) and Lillian Congdon (1909-1993), founded Old Dominion in 1934 with $1,700 that Lil saved from her job with the phone company. Lillian succeeded Earl Sr. as president after his death from a fall at age 43.

303burke

303 Burke Street, Gibsonville, Guilford County (click here for PDF if link is broken)
The Burke Manor Inn & Pavilion
Listing withdrawn January 2021; relisted March 2021
Listing withdrawn November 2021; relisted January 2023
Listing withdrawn August 2025

• $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.”

2511 Pineway Drive, Burlington, Alamance County
The Edgar and Margaret Dameron House
Listing withdrawn May 17, 2025

• $1.325 million (originally $1.485 million)
• 4 bedrooms, 4 full bathrooms, 3 half-bathrooms, 5,290 square feet, 0.97 acre
• Price/square foot: $250
• Built in 1966
• Listed February 21, 2025
• Last sale: $412,000, May 2020
• Neighborhood: Alamance Country Club
• Listing: “The partially finished basement features a wood burning fireplace, charcoal grill, a half bath, and a safe room.”
• Note: The house was built by Edgar Samuel Williamson Dameron Jr. (1920-2009) and Margaret Abbott Dameron (1927-2019), who bought the property in 1962. Edgar served as a combat engineer in North Africa, Italy and Sicily during World War II. He practiced law with his father before serving as district attorney in Alamance County. He also served as a member and as chairman of the Burlington city school board. He taught Sunday school for 63 years at Front Street United Methodist Church and was an accomplished woodworker and kite-maker.
  • Margaret designed the home’s basic floor plan; architect William Roy Wallace drew the working plans. “The architectural style is basically Georgian, having a central main portion with symmetrical wings. The facade is classical revival with Doric fluted columns and an entrance framed by Doric pilasters supported by a broken ogee pediment with a pineapple finial.
  • “The house is built around a central stair hall with a stair arch at the rear and major first floor rooms to the left and right.
  • “The stairway, featuring fluted ballisters and brackets with acanthus scrolls, is similar to that of Gunston Hall, Fairfax, County, Va.” (The Daily Times-News, December 7, 1975, by the longtime “Women’s Editor,” the wonderful Essie Norwood).

709 Forrest Street, High Point
The Thomas and Viola Moran House
Sale pending March 20, 2024, to March 13, 2025
Listing withdrawn March 13, 2025

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

15366 Old Highway 16, Grassy Creek, Ashe County
The Walter Greer House
Listing withdrawn February 16, 2025

• $449,900
• 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 3,532 square feet, 0.96 acre
• Price/square foot: $127
• Built in 1893
• Listed August 15, 2024
• Last sale: 320,000, July 2022
• Neighborhood: Grassy Creek Historic District (NR)
• Note: A house is in a relatively rare rural historic district.
  • The Ashe County GIS website indicates Grassy Creek didn’t suffer damage from Hurricane Helene.
  • County records give a date of 1850.
• District NR nomination: “[T]he Walter Greer House has extensive scroll-sawn and turned ornament on the porches, gables and eaves. The two-story frame house is set on a brick foundation and faces northwest. It is essentially a square plan with projections at the east, west and south corners.
  • “The front porch carries from the west corner projection across the northwest front, wraps the north corner and continues down the northeast side. The porch is supported by pairs of turned posts which are connected by spindle friezes above the brackets. Additional brackets, set between the posts and perpendicular to the spindle friezes support the eaves of the roof, beneath which is a frieze with applied diamond-shaped sawn woodwork. No balustrade remains.
  • “Brackets also positioned above the windows and at the corners of the house are continued under the eaves and carried, with the diamond motif frieze, around the irregular outline. The gable ends are decorated with rows of shaped shingles, rake boards repeating the diamond motif from the frieze, and ornamental spandrels. The rear porch has been enclosed. The window surrounds are of plain unmolded boards with molded cornices projecting above. The entrance bay surround encloses the door with its sidelights and transom which have lost their scroll-sawn ornament. The Eastlake-style front door has a geometric arrangement of applied molding connected by bosses around the stained and etched glass panels …
  • “In the course of the nineteenth century a number of farm communities developed along the north and south forks of the New River, but the most prominent was along Grassy Creek, a tributary of the New River. … The most prominent among the farming families of the valley, the Greer family, came in the second decade of the nineteenth century. During four generations of ownership over the next hundred years, the Greers, who raised pure-bred Shorthorn cattle, became the largest landholders in the area and established six individual farms there. Sharing common boundaries and fences, the families also probably pooled resources and machinery.
  • “The farms have large two-story dwellings with decorated gables, eaves, and porches, each surrounded by a full complement of outbuildings. The Greers introduced dairying on a commercial basis in the early twentieth century and, with others, established a cheese factory in 1915. This operation folded by 1920 and the Greers left soon after removing their dairying operations to Maryland.”

5710 Suttonwood Drive, Sedgefield, Guilford County
The Claude and Nelly Sutton House
Listing withdrawn February 6, 2025

• $2.25 million
• 4 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, 2 half-bathrooms, 6,017 square feet, 3.84 acres
• Price/square foot: $374
• Built in 1939
• Listed August 1, 2024
• Last sale: $600,000, April 2001
• Neighborhood: Sedgefield
• Is this a thing now: “Brazilian marble counters”
• Note: The property includes a saltwater pool, outdoor kitchen, pool house, a whisky/wine room and a five-car garage.
  • Suttonwood Drive is a two-block-long street running into Sedgefield from West Gate City Boulevard to Rockingham Road. This is the first house on the north side of the street after turning off Gate City. At the corner of Gate City and Suttonwood, a McDonald’s backs up to this property (see GIS map above).
  • The original owners were Claude Stanford Sutton (1901-1999) and Nelly Mabel Griffin Sutton (1906-1999). They bought the property in 1939; the street name then was Davidson Road. The property was sold by their estate in 2001. Claude and Nelly died 12 days apart in January and February 1999.
  • Claude founded Sutton Woodworking Machinery. He was a horseman and was active in the Sedgefield Hunt.
  • Nelly was a skilled gardener and carpenter. She bred roses, naming new varieties after her grandchildren. According to her obituary, she said if she had been born 50 years later, she would have chosen to be a carpenter.

5530 Linch Road, Whisett, Guilford County
Listing withdrawn January 12, 2025

• $2.826 million (originally $2.975 million)
• 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 3,538 square feet, 89.65 acres
• Price/square foot: $799
• Built in 1900
• Listed February 13, 2024
• Last sale: $350,000, February 2005
• Neighborhood: Although it has a Whitsett mailing address, it’s well to the southeast, about midway between Forest Oaks and Piedmont Dragway, “the DoorSlammer Capitol of the World.”
• Note: Previously listed without a sale at far lower prices in 2012 ($1.4 million) and 2013 ($1 million).
  • Oddly for such an expensive property with a large, well cared-for house, there are no interior pictures of the house.
  • The property was sold in 1958 by the estate of Emma Phipps Lynch (1879-1955). Emma and her husband, George Haywood Lynch (1879-1952) bought dozens of properties and hundreds of acres of land in eastern Guilford County beginning in 1922. Only Emma’s name was on the vast majority of deeds. It’s unknown whether they lived on the property (digital records show their address as Route 1, Whitsett) and when they bought it.
  • Emma was a school teacher. George was a farmer. They were members of the Asheboro Street Friends Meeting.

308 S. Carolina Avenue, Boonville, Yadkin County
Listing withdrawn January 12, 2025

• $289,900 (originally $344,900)
• 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 3,030 square feet, 1.24 acres
• Price/square foot: $96
• Built in 1895
• Listed July 23, 2024
• Last sales: $42,000, May 1993; February 1904, price not recorded on deed
• Note: The earliest documented owners were Robert Byron Horn (1870-1918) and Pearl Barbour Horn (1871-1934). They sold the house in 1904 to banker Foard Woodruff Day (1868-1939) and Elizabeth Crouch Day (1868-1927). Foard was a graduate of Wake Forest College and taught at Stokes Academy before moving to Boonville. He was president of Boonville Bank and served on the school board. In 1993, a granddaughter sold the house to the current owners.

1347 U.S. 64 East, Mocksville, Davie County
The George and Brook Martin House
Koren Farms
Listing withdrawn November 5, 2024

• $2.2 million
• 7 bedrooms, 6 1/2 bathrooms, 4,816 square feet, 17.36 acres
• Price/square foot: $457
• Built in 1957
• Listed July 19, 2024
• Last sales: $765,000, June 2021; $475,000, August 2006
• Neighborhood: About 2 1/2 miles east of Mocksville
• Note: Koren Farms is an alpaca, pumpkin and Christmas tree farm with a 4,200 square-foot event barn. The barn “is currently leased most weekends into 2025.”
  • The property includes a salt-water pool, fenced pastures, a 3/4-acre pond, a 60×20 animal barn and “numerous” outbuildings.
  • The listing, incredibly, includes no pictures of the alpacas (I had to go onto their Facebook page to get one).
  • Designed by architect William Van Eaton Sprinkle (1906-1965). Eaton was born in Mocksville and graduated from Duke University and the architectural program at Yale. He practiced in Durham and designed a number of buildings for Duke. In the Army during World War II, he designed prefabricated harbors for invasions of Europe.
  • The original owners of the house were George Wilson Martin (1927-2018) and Brook White Martin (1930-2021). They bought the property in 1957 and owned it for 49 years. George was born in Mocksville, graduated from Oak Ridge Military Academy and received his undergraduate and law degrees from Duke University. He opened a law office in Mocksville in 1952 and practiced for more than 50 years. He was an original board member of the Yadkin Valley Economic Development District in 1965. He was posthumously named the 2018 Citizen of the Year by the Mocksville Women’s Club.

225 Cotton Mill Road, Roaring River, Wilkes County
The J.E. and Matilda Greenwood House
Listing withdrawn October 2024

• $629,000 (originally $679,000)
• 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2,048 square feet, 5.6 acres
• Price/square foot: $307
• Built in 1885
• Listed May 4, 2024
• Last sale: $60,000, January 2008
• Neighborhood: Reves-Greenwood Mill Complex, about 10 miles east of North Wilkesboro and 11 miles west of Elkin.
• Note: The Roaring River is across the street from the house.
  • The house was built by James Eugene Greenwood (1879-1922) and Clementine Matilda Sebastian Greenwood (1878-1949). James was a brother of Charles Harris Greenwood (1876-1960), one of the founders of the Reves-Greenwood mill nearby. James was a farmer. In 1913, he went to Winston-Salem and bought a car, a newsworthy event in greater North Wilkesboro:

• $339,000 (originally $379,000)
• 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 2,198 square feet, 1.07 acres
• Price/square foot: $154
• Built in 1888
• Listed November 27, 2023
• Last sale: $180,000, August 29, 2023
• Listing: “The larger white house has received a fresh coat of exterior paint and is ready for your imagination inside.”
  • The listing calls the cabin “completely renovated” (three-month turn-around time on the renovation).
• The original owners were George Henry Clay Shutt Sr. (1862-1935) and Mary Alice Byerly Shutt (1861-1937). The house may have remained in the family until 1984. George was a lifelong resident of Advance and brother of John Edward Belle Shutt, whose National-Register house is just down the road at 2177 S. N.C. Highway 801.
• The Historic Architecture of Davie County, North Carolina: “Well served by the railroad after 1891, Advance flourished. Several small factories producing wood products, including coffins, furniture, grain cradles, and building materials, were operated by the Shutt families for several decades.” George made grain cradles and other wooden products in a shop near his house that may still be standing (it was in 1986, when the book was written). His brothers Jacob and John were prominent local woodworkers as well.
• County records give little information on the log cabin, only that it is 36 feet by 16 feet (576 square feet).

308ecenter

308 E. Center Street, Lexington, Davidson County
The Thomas and Rebecca Eanes House and other properties
Formerly The Bailey House Inn & Village, Lexington Vintage Center, and Oak Grove
Listing withdrawn August 5, 2021; relisted November 23, 2021
Listing withdrawn January 31, 2022
Relisted May 2024
Listing withdrawn September 2024

• $1.175 million (originally $1.2 million)
• Seven buildings, 13,842 square feet on 7.05 acres. The houses are clustered on a 1.28-acre section. A brochure for the property refers to them as “7 residential structures that can be repaired or demolished.” The rest of the property appears to be wooded. The structures:
  1. The Thomas and Rebecca Eanes House, 5,004 square feet (per country records), built by 1916, possibly as early as 1800
  2. 2,620 square feet, 1900 (office)
  3. 1,274 square feet, 1900 (house)
  4. 276 square feet, 1900 (storage)
  5. 1,296 square feet, 1960 (house)
  6. 1,926 square feet, 1925 (duplex)
  7. 1,446 square feet, 1925 (house)
• Price/square foot: $87
• Listed May 19, 2021
• Last sale: $256,500, October 1995
• Note: The property is now being marketed for redevelopment: “Possible division of 7 acre tract, catering to various development needs. There are 7 unregistered historic structures built as residential homes on 1.28-acre parcel on East Center St. excluding left and right block corners. These structures are vacant, in need of extensive repairs and renovations with possible Lexington grant funds for rehabilitation. Main structure facing Center Street of 4,952 SF [5,004 per county] is ideal for corporate office and great value with development of remaining acres.”
  • The listing says the property is on the highest point in Lexington.
  • The Eanes House is in its original location. Also on the site are “a wing of the former Hargrave-Craven house that was removed from the house and remodeled as an office on this site. The … office and six other buildings were moved to the seven acre parcel ca. 1980 as part of a commercial and office development known as the Oak Grove Restoration. In addition to the office, the relocated buildings include the Fredonia School, a Triple A mill house, a mid-twentieth century barn, the nineteenth century Hargrave-Craven house and its detached kitchen, and a log corncrib.” (N.C. Department of Transportation survey, 2000)
  • Thomas Shell Eanes (1874-1971) owned coal and ice companies in Lexington and Thomasville and was founder and president of the Davidson County Creamery Company. He also served as a Lexington city commissioner and as president of the N.C. Ice Association. A grandson sold the property in 1980.
  • County records date the house to 1925, but the Eanes family was listed at the address as early as 1916. A News & Record article in 1990 gave 1880 as the date. The piece detailed the efforts of multiple owners to establish the property as a commercial center as far back as 1980.
  • County property record card: “ALL BUILDINGS DILAPIDATED … VACANT FORMERLY KATHERINES REST & CHEESE SHOP … NOW BAILEY HOUSE INN FOR 93 + RESIDENCE”
  • Click here for a marketing brochure.
  • Facebook page, mostly inactive since 2020.

329wpine

329 W. Pine Street, Mount Airy, Surry County
The Robert Hines House
Listing withdrawn October 1, 2023; relisted October 3, 2023
Listing withdrawn December 4, 2023; relisted December 9, 2023
Sale pending June 21-24, 2024
Listing withdrawn August 31, 2024

• $325,000 (originally $349,000, later $299,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2,859 square feet, lot size not listed in county records
• Price/square foot: $114
• Built in 1900 (per county; see note)
• Listed March 22, 2023
• Last sale: $55,000, November 1986
• Neighborhood: Mount Airy Historic District (local and NR)
• Note: The district NR nomination shows the date of the house as ca. 1890.
  • The owner is listed as living in Blacksburg, Virginia.
• District NR nomination: “Good examples of the Italianate style are scattered throughout the district and include … the Robert Hines House at 329 West Pine Street …
  • “Late 19th century two-story, L-shaped frame house of Italianate style with bracketed eaves, paneled corner posts, paneled window surrounds with bulls-eye corner blocks and wooden awning-like window hood molds.
  • “Believed to have been built for the Robert Hines family.” The Rev. Robert Bentley Hines (1856-1905) suffered a stroke and died while conducting a service in Iredell County. “He was a business man and was not engaged in regular ministerial work, but was a local minister of the Methodist Church and gave much assistance to pastors in protracted meetings,” The Charlotte Observer reported. His widow, Louella Hines (1860-1944), was listed at 180 W. Pine Street in 1914, which is most likely this house.
  • “A later owner, Buck Moore, replaced the original one story porch with a full height monumental portico with oversized paneled posts and intricate sawnwork brackets.” Matthew Dalton “Buck” Moore (1861-1939) was an oil dealer and “a well-known local resident,” his obituary in the Mount Airy News said. He and his wife, Myrtle Virginia Speer Moore (1860-1938), lived in the home until they died.
  • “A handsome wrought iron fence and second story balcony were added by a later owner, Mrs. Llewellyn.”

308ecenter

900 Green Street, Danville, Virginia
The Fox-Hawkins House
Listing withdrawn May 31, 2024

• $325,000
• 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 3,000 square feet, 0.09 acre
• Price/square foot: $108
• Built in 1879
• Listed December 6, 2023
• Last sale: $35,000, November 1995
• Neighborhood: Old West End Historic District (local), Danville Historic District (NR)
• Note: Restored Italianate Victorian house — hidden gutters have been replaced, corbels rebuilt or restored, rebuilt windows.
  • The Old West End website has an extensive history of the house. TL;DR:

1000 W. 5th Street, Winston-Salem
The Taylor-Northup House
Listing withdrawn May 26, 2024

• $995,000 (originally $1.09 million)
• 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 3,200 square feet, 0.18 acre
• Price/square foot: $311
• Built in 1920
• Listed December 1, 2023
• Last sale: $425,000, February 2019
• Neighborhood: West End Historic District (local and NR)
• Note: Four houses built by members of the Taylor family share this block with Grace Park. The houses came under common ownership between 1976 and 1982. This is the only one currently being sold.
  • Mysterious deed reference: The four properties are identified in deeds, all the way up to the most recent, as having been “property of Elizabeth McCaw Taylor.” The four houses were built between 1905 and 1920 by Elizabeth’s father, William B. Taylor, and her three brothers — Archibald, Henry and William Jr. How Elizabeth’s name became attached to the properties is puzzling. She died at age three in 1889.
• District NR nomination: “The Taylor-Northup House is one of three Tudor Revival-influenced houses in a row built in 1916 by the sons of William B. Taylor on property directly behind the elder Taylor’s house at 915 W. Fourth St.
  • “The house is a two-story stuccoed structure with a gable roof, grouped windows, a Craftsman front door, and a projecting center bay whose second story is ‘half-timbered.’
  • “On the southwest side of the house is a small porch with fat stuccoed columns.
  • “Archibald B. Taylor built the house, but unlike his brothers with their houses, he does not appear to have lived in it. In 1945 the property was sold to Anne N. Northup, the widow of prominent local architect Willard C. Northup. She and her family occupied the house and retained ownership until 1973.”
  • Archibald Boggs Taylor (1892-1962) was president of Taylor Brothers Tobacco Company, “one of the last independent tobacco firms to yield in the post-war merger trend,” The Charlotte Observer said in its obituary (“Arch B. Taylor, ‘Mr. Tobacco,’ Dies in Winston”). The company was started by his father, who remained president until he died in 1933 at age 82 (“City Loses Pioneer Citizen,” Twin City Sentinel) and Archibald succeeded him. It was ultimately sold to the American Snuff Company of Memphis. Archibald had served with an Army hospital unit in Europe during World War I, rising to the rank of sergeant.
  • Anne Noble Northup (1884-1981) was born in Anniston, Alabama. She attended the Ringling School of Arts in Sarasota, Florida, and was a painter active in the Associated Artists of Winston-Salem and the N.C. State Arts Society.
  • Also on the property, behind the house, is a small office, built in 1950. District NR nomination: “This small modern studio is a one-story rectangular building with vertical wood siding, a horizontal band of windows, and a flat roof. While it is an interesting modern structure, it does not relate to the architecture of its surroundings. It was designed by Lamar Northup, son of Williard C. Northup, while he was in architecture school at Illinois Institute of Technology, and was originally used as the art studio of his mother, Anne, who lived in the adjacent associated house, 1000 W. Fifth St. The building is now used as an office.”

623wdavis

623 W. Davis Street, Burlington, Alamance County
The Sharpe-Somers House
Listing withdrawn May 25, 2024

• $1 million
• 5 bedrooms, 4 1/2 bathrooms, 4,913 square feet (per county), 1.18 acres
• Price/square foot: $204
• Built in 1902
• Listed April 4, 2024
• Last sale: $37,000, November 1985
• Neighborhood: West Davis-Fountain Place Historic District (local and NR)
• Note: The listing shows 6,145 square feet, a significant discrepancy from county records.
• District NR nomination: “Standing on a large elevated lot at an important corner in the West Davis Street neighborhood, this frame Tudor Revival house is associated with two locally prominent businessmen significant for their roles in Burlington’s late nineteenth and twentieth century development.
  • “Its first owner was Walter E. Sharpe, who, around 1910, transformed the structure from a typical one-and-one-half-story Victorian cottage to a much larger Tudor Revival residence. Sharpe, the developer of the Fountain Place sub-division, was associated with a variety of local business ventures beginning in the early 1890s.
  • “Claude G. Somers, who acquired the house in the early 1930s, was also active in real estate sales and development locally, being one of the principal backers of the Westerwood section in the late 1920s. He also was an organizer of Community Federal Savings and Loan Association.
  • “The house as it stands today is a rambling two-and-one-half-story frame structure clad in weatherboard on the first floor and applied half timbering with stucco on the second.
  • “A gable and clipped-gable roof of slate covers the structure, which features one-over-one double-hung sash windows on the first floor and multi-pane casements, typical of the Tudor Revival, on the second. Brick posts rising from a lozenge-patterned brick balustrade support the one-story wraparound porch, the entrance bay of which is the only section fully roofed.”

602 Hillcrest Drive, High Point
The Junius W. Woollen House
Listing withdrawn April 26, 2024

• $799,999 (originally $829,000)
• 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 3,287 square feet, 0.55 acre
• Price/square foot: $243
• Built in 1928
• Listed October 27, 2023
• Last sale: $418,000, October 2018
• Neighborhood: Emerywood
• Note: The property includes a three-car garage with an in-law suite, connected to the house by a breezeway.
  • The property consists of two lots with two addresses, 600 and 602 Hillcrest. The house is on 602 Hillcrest.
• District NR nomination: “This two-story, hip-roofed, Colonial Revival-style house is three bays wide and double-pile with a brick veneer, interior, corbelled brick chimney, and modillion cornice.
  • “The house has six-over-six, wood-sash windows flanked by four-over-four windows on the first-floor facade and a combination of eight-over-eight and six-over-six, wood-sash windows on the second story. The six-panel door has a classical surround with fluted pilasters and a broken swan’s neck pediment.
  • “A one-story, hip-roofed wing on the left (west) elevation has grouped six-over-six windows, a modillion cornice, and a Chinese Chippendale-style railing at the roofline. A one-story, flat-roofed porch on the right (east) elevation is supported by square columns, has a Chinese Chippendale-style railing at the roofline, and has been enclosed with glass.
  • “There are hip-roofed dormers on the right and left elevations, each with a single nine-light casement windows. A two-story, hip-roofed ell extends from the rear (north).
  • “A one-story, shed-roofed porch at the right rear (northeast) has a metal roof and is supported by square posts; it extends as a covered walkway to the garage.
  • The original owners were Junius W. Woollen (1892-1855) and Ruth Millikan Woollen (1897-1978). They owned the house for 43 years.
  • Junius was production manager and later superintendent for Adams-Millis Corporation. His obituary said he worked for the company for 50 years; he died at age 63.

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

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

4672 Forest Lake Drive, Mebane, Alamance County
Listing withdrawn February 15, 2024

• $3.1 million
• 5 bedrooms, 5 full bathrooms, 2 half-bathrooms, 7,998 square feet (per county), 10.90 acres
• Price/square foot: $388
• Built in 1952
• Listed October 18, 2023
• Last sale: $1.89 million, October 10, 2023; $400,000, September 1998
• Note: The property was listed for sale at $3.1 million eight days after the previous sale closed for $1.89 million.
  • An LLC associated with the owner of this property is one of the listed owners of the adjoining 18-acre lake. The Sotheby’s listing included the lake for a total of 28.9 acres at $3.1 million. The MLS listing didn’t include the lake but also was priced at $3.1 million.
• Listing: “Inside, a grand marble-floored entrance and intricate wall molding set the stage for opulence. A succession of formal rooms ensures a seamless flow throughout the home.”
  • The house apparently was built by Lucius Pender Best Jr. (1910-1998) and Evelyn Cooper Best (1910-1997). They bought the property in 1949 or 1950; it was sold by Lucius’s estate in 1998. He was born in Duplin County, the son of a prominent lawyer. After graduating from Woodberry Forest prep school and UNC-Chapel Hill, he became vice president of the Mebane-Royall Company, which later became Kingsdown, and served in the Army in World War II. Lucius was active in business and politics, serving as chairman of Kingsdown, mayor of Mebane, chairman of the Alamance Board of Commissioners and chairman of the county Democratic Party.

184 E. Maple Avenue, Mocksville, Davie County
The Allison Family House
Listing withdrawn January 8, 2024

• $399,000
• 4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, 3,480 square feet, 1.09 acres
• Price/square foot: $115
• Built in 1911
• Listed July 10, 2023
• Last sale: $229,000, March 2018
• Neighborhood: Maple Grove
• Note: The property includes an in-ground swimming pool.
• Description in The Historic Architecture of Davie County, North Carolina (published in 1986, some details may have changed): “The large and very impressive Neo-Classical Revival style dwelling is notable for its many classical details and the expansive wrap-around porch which carries across three elevations. Completed in 1911, the house was built for Gustave Alphonso Allison (1861-1934), an agent for the Southern Railroad. Allison’s wife Henrie E. (Morris) Allison (1865-1906) had died before the house was built. Mr. Allison lived here until his death. The property passed to his daughter Ossie Claire Allison (1898-1982), who also died here. The house was subsequently sold out of the family.
  • “The symmetrical appearance of the house is focused on the central entrance. Trios of Tuscan porch columns mark the center bay. Behind, the entrance projects from the wall surface. On the second story pent-gabled bay windows form the end bays and frame a center bay Palladian window. Smaller Palladian windows occupy the pent gables. The symmetry is preserved by the porch which stretches from the two-story pent-gabled bay on the east elevation to its counterpart on the west. The house’s wide eaves are detailed with modillion blocks. Pilasters with Scamozzi capitals are located at the corners of the front elevation. A hip-roofed kitchen ell and an enclosed porch span the rear elevation.
  • “The house’s interior is as richly finished as the exterior. Its broad center hall meets a free-standing open-sting stair located just behind a brick fireplace with a corbeled cornice. Sheathed, darkly stained wainscot is located in the hall and dining room; it has been painted in the parlor. A number of Neo-Classical Revival style mantels survive. Behind the house is a small frame servants’ quarters with a connected garage, and to the south, a two-story board-and-batten building of unknown use.”

160 Johnson Dairy Road, Rockwell, Rowan County
Listing withdrawn January 2, 2024

• $675,100
• 3 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms and “several” half bathrooms, 3,687 square feet, 18.07 acres
• Price/square foot: $183
• Built in 1987
• Listed August 13, 2022
• Last sale: $230,000, February 2006 (part of a multi-property sale)
• Note: Yeah, they’re pyramids. And there are two of them.
  • The blue one “features an open floor plan with kitchen, dining and living room with a wood burning fireplace and oven. Two master suites, one downstairs and one upstairs with a balcony overlooking the 6 fenced in pastures. Tons of storage, laundry room, built-ins, skylights, 5 full baths and several half bathrooms throughout both homes.”
  • The red one is unfinished and described as “a huge garage space with multiple rooms for second living quarters.”
  • The property includes a creek; an outbuilding with electricity and water; and banana, apple and fig trees.
  • Click here for more about the pyramids and James Kluttz, their designer and original owner.

849 Arbor Road, Winston-Salem
The Mary Lybrook Lasater and John Thomas Barnes Jr. House
Listing withdrawn July 31, 2023

• $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.”

854 Wellington Road, Winston-Salem
The Benjamin Eloth Pulliam House
Listing withdrawn June 14, 2023

• $875,000 (originally $899,900)
  • The for-sale listing was withdrawn on June 2023 and replaced with a for-rent listing at $3,950/month
• 5 bedrooms, 4 full bathrooms and 2 half-bathrooms, 4,575 square feet, 0.7 acre
• Price/square foot: $191
• Built in 1937
• Listed March 27, 2023
• Last sale: $642,000, June 2019
• Neighborhood: Buena Vista
• Listing: “The original owner was a prominent doctor who had his office in the home. The office space has been converted to an in-law suite w/kitchenette on the main level.”
  • The property was purchased in 1936 by Dr. Benjamin Eloth Pulliam (1903-1990) and Mattie Belle Moser Pulliam (1902-1954). He was a physician. The property was sold in 1997 by his widow, Gladys Davis Pulliam (1911-2003).

817 West End Avenue, Winston-Salem
The Robert and Ida Galloway House
Listing withdrawn May 30, 2023

• $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):

802 & 800 Sunset Drive, Greensboro
The G. Allen Mebane House
Listing withdrawn April 2023 (exact date unknown)

• $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.

• $3 million (originally $2.5 million, later as low as $2.25 million and as high as $3.5 million)
• 5 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, 7,685 square feet, 21 acres
• Price/square foot: $390
• Built in 1951
• Listed September 4, 2019
• Last sale: $880,000, June 2004
• Note: Ragsdale was a mayor of Jamestown (1951-53) and one of seven children of Lucy Coffin Ragsdale, a well-known advocate for public education and namesake of Ragsdale High School in Jamestown.
  • The property includes a swimming pool, pond, guest house, four-car garage, a five-stall horse barn and horse pasture.

3561 Clemmons Road, Clemmons, Forsyth County
listing withdrawn July 10, 2022

• $549,000
• 8 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 4,780 square feet, 0.66 acre
• Price/square foot: $115
• Built in 1902
• Listed March 31, 2022
• Last sale: October 1999, price not recorded on deed
• Note: Originally built as a girls dormitory for a Moravian school. The school was established through the will of Edwin Theodore Clemmons (1826-1896), a grandson of town founder Peter Clemons. It opened in 1901.
  • The house is next door to the Clemmons Moravian Church, the establishment of which was also called for in Clemmons’s will.
  • The Moravian church owned the house until 1999.
  • Although the listing extols the historic quality of the house, it has vinyl siding and replacement windows.
  • The immediate area is a mix of residential and commercial properties; the listing promotes the property for residential or commercial use.

327 S. Main Street, Old Salem, Winston-Salem
The Alanson Welfare House, Lot 43
listing withdrawn October 22, 2021; relisted November 16, 2021
sale pending November 16, 2021 to January 11, 2022
listing withdrawn March 8, 2022

• $550,000 (originally $545,000)
• House is divided into three apartments, 2,160 square feet, 0.37 acre
• Price/square foot: $255
• Built in 1840 (per county or ca. 1860 per NRHP)
• Listed October 12, 2021
• Last sale: $191,000, July 1998
• Note: The apartments all have 1 bathroom. One is a 1-bedroom, one is a 2-bedroom, two-level unit, and one is a 1-bedroom studio. The house was divided around 1950.
  • Lot 43 also was the site of the 1839 Theophilus Vierling Shop, which no longer exists. This site remains undeveloped at the north end of Lot 43 where Vierling built a shoe shop in 1839.
  • District NRHP nomination: “In 1855, Lot 43 was divided and the upper half was sold to Alanson Welfare. Welfare (b.1824) was a gunsmith, watchmaker and locksmith. In 1860, the lane on the north property line was reduced in size by fifteen feet, with 7 ½ feet added to Lot 83 and Lot 43. It is probable that Welfare built his brick house at this time. The ell was added sometime later. …
  • “The Welfare House sits back from the sidewalk several feet and has a picket fence at the sidewalk. It is a two-story, common bond (4:1) brick house with a low-pitch side gable roof (standing seam metal) on a full story brick foundation. There are exterior end brick chimneys with corbelled caps.
  • “The one-room deep center hall plan house is built into the slope of the lot and has a one-story brick ell at the rear. The symmetrical three bay façade has a centered entry bay portico supported by four tall brick piers with a cellar door below at street grade.
  • “The portico is accessed on its north end by two granite steps to a landing and then a turn to a flight of wooden steps. The portico has square paneled posts with turned balustrade and shelters a six panel door with three-light transom.
  • “The low hip porch roof (standing seam metal) supports a projecting frame gabled bay with paired one-over-one sash windows with lunette in gable.
  • “First and second floor window sash has been altered to two-over-two while the cellar retains earlier six-over-six window sash. Windows are hung with single panel shutters. There are no windows on the south elevation and one is on the north first floor.
  • “The common bond (5:1) brick ell is an L-shape with gable roof and open eaves and a central brick chimney. The windows are two-over-two sash.
  • “A late nineteenth-century photograph of the house and shop (as sewing machine and music store) recorded the front porch of the house with turned posts and sawn bracket and balustrade.
  • “Sanborn Maps from the late nineteenth century indicate several outbuildings on the lot: wood house, shed, servants’ room, and the Vierling shop. The Vierling shop had several uses: shoe shop, post office, photo, pressing. The building labeled ‘servants’ adjoined the wood house and sat to the east of and behind the ell and suggests the presence of African American residents.”

• $375,000 (originally $425,000)
• 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2,158 square feet
• Price/square foot: $168
• Built in 1923
• Listed March 27, 2021
• Last sale: $185,000, April 2015
• Note: Condo in Renfro Lofts, a former hosiery plant

1244 W. 4th Street, Winston-Salem
The George F. Jenkins House
listing withdrawn November 29, 2021

• $850,000
• 5 bedrooms, 7 1/2 bathrooms, 5,370 square feet
• Price/square foot: $158
• Built in 1917
• Listed October 22, 2021
• Last sale: $186, May 2007
• Neighborhood: West End Historic District
• Note: Owned by an out-of-state LLC
  • The write-up in the listing mistakenly refers to the house as being 6,300 square feet.
  • The house has a 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom, apartment with a separate entrance.
  • It also has a three-car garage, 700-bottle wine cellar and an oak bar.
  • District NRHP nomination: “This house may be either a ca. 1920s rebuilding or an enlargement of the half-story dwelling shown on the 1917 Sanborn Map. The property was owned by George F. Jenkins [1869-1959], a traveling salesman, and his family from 1916 to 1977. Eva Jenkins [1879-1964], George’s widow, continued to live in the house until at least 1960.
  • “It is a large two-story frame structure with a gable roof, overhanging eaves with nice Craftsman braces, nine-over-one sash windows, and a double tier front porch where the first story has paneled Classical posts and a plain balustrade and the second story has shingled posts and balustrade.
  • “Of particular interest is the lower level rear porch which has paneled posts and plain balustrade like the main porch.
  • “The house was sheathed with asbestos shingles during mid-century, but it still retains many interesting features which contribute to the architectural character of the West End.”

328 Indera Mills Court, Winston-Salem
listing withdrawn October 11, 2021

• $899,000
• 4 bedrooms, 4 1/2 bathrooms, 3,846 square feet
• Price/square foot: $234
• Built in 1910
• Listed September 20, 2021
• Last sale: $725,000, December 2016
• HOA: $507/month
• Note: The Mill at Tar Branch is a 30-unit condo complex in an old mill building. Some of its condos — and this one, specifically — are among the largest and most expensive you’ll find in a historic structure in the region.

132 Becktown Road, Mocksville, Davie County
Boxwood Lodge
Boxwood Lodge NRHP
Blog post — Boxwood Lodge: An Elegant National Register Mansion-Wedding Venue-B&B near Mocksville, $3.45 million
listing withdrawn March 8, 2021

• $3.45 million
• 10 bedrooms, 8 full bathrooms and two half-bathrooms, 9,304 square feet, 48.23 acres
• Price/square foot: $372
• Built in 1934
• Listed January 17, 2019
• Last sale: $782,500, March 2002
• Note: The house was designed by Delano & Aldrich of New York.
  • The property is what remains of a 1,500-acre hunting retreat developed from 1911 to 1931 by William Rabb Craig, a New York cotton and sugar broker who died in 1931. Craig’s widow built the house on the site of a hunting lodge built in the 1910’s.
  • The listing says a $5 million restoration of the house was completed in 2007.
  • The property includes a guest cabin built in 1933, a barn built in the 1910’s and a pond.
  • It is now a bed and breakfast and a wedding/event venue.

3935 Yadkinville Road, Winston-Salem
listing withdrawn February 11, 2021

• $1.1 million
• 5 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms, 5,206 square feet, 4.4 acres
• Price/square foot: $211
• Built in 1930
• Listed March 28, 2020
• Last sale: $500,000, August 1998
• Note: Designed by Northup & O’Brien
  • The property includes a detached three-car garage with guest quarters.

2750 Thornfield Road, Winston-Salem
listing withdrawn February 1, 2021

• $795,000
• 4 bedrooms, 4 1/2 bathrooms, 4,141 square feet, 1.39 acres
• Price/square foot: $192
• Built in 1968
• Listed December 7, 2020
• Last sale: $654,000, April 2018
• Neighborhood: Reynolda Estates
• Note: Designed by Ray Troxell
  • The house includes separate guest quarters and a main-level two-car garage.
  • Japanese themed landscape

1219 W. 4th Street, Winston-Salem
The Hurdle-Williamson-Hairston House
listing withdrawn January 9, 2021

• $515,000 (originally $575,000)
• 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, either 2,311 or 4,100 square feet (see note below)
• Price/square foot: $223 or $126 (see note below)
• Built in 1930
• Listed November 16, 2020
• Last sale: $200,000, October 2018
• Neighborhood: West End Historic District
• Note: County property tax records show the house with 2,311 square feet. The listing shows 4,100. Space estimates often vary, but rarely by this much.
  • The West End NRHP district nomination dates the house to around 1917, but county records show 1930.
  • County records show the house as a duplex; the listing says, “Separate living space in the basement for rental income if desired.”
  • The house is being sold furnished except for the basement.
  • District NRHP nomination: “This two-story brick veneer house of simple Craftsman style influence was originally a handsome dwelling with front and side gables with widely overhanging braced eaves, grouped windows, and a heavy front porch with brick posts and granite and wood trim. Although much of the original form and detail of the house remains visible, so many significant changes have been wrought in recent years that it is difficult to still label it a ‘contributing’ building. Among the changes are a brick-infilled front entrance, stained wood shingle one and two-story additions, a shingled ‘roof’ around the front porch and side shingled room with an iron-balustraded deck, ironwork exterior stairs on the north side, a bay window, and an attached basement level garage. The house was depicted on the 1917 Sanborn Map …”

3650 Southeast School Road, Eastern Guilford County
listing withdrawn January 8, 2020

• $814,500 (originally $835,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms,  3,234 square feet (per county records), 8.48 acres
• Price/square foot: $252
• Built in 1869
• Listed March 3, 2020
• Last sale: $180,000, February 2003
• Note: The house includes the original log cabin and a modern addition.
  • The property includes a guest house, 1-acre pond, grass tennis court with irrigation and a barn with a two-car garage/workshop and office.

2020

533 Summit Street, Winston-Salem
listing expired January 1, 2020
relisted March 27, 2020
listing withdrawn November 16, 2020

• $829,000 (originally listed at $1.199 million)
• 6 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 7,345 square feet, 0.46 acre
• Price/square foot: $113
• Built in 1904
• Listed April 2, 2019
• Last sale: $365,000, December 2012
• Neighborhood: West End
• Listing: Truncated hip slate roof, wraparound porch, leaded and jeweled glass window details, vestibule and entrance with large glass panel double-leaf doors with beveled and glass sidelights and transoms, 10 fireplaces, paneled wainscot, sliding pocket doors.

510 Country Club Drive, Greensboro
The Britt and Jane Armfield House
listing withdrawn September 21, 2020

• $1.7 million
• 5 bedrooms, 4 1/2 bathrooms, 4,640 square feet (per county property records)
• Price/square foot: $366
• Built in 1938
• Listed September 18, 2019
• Last sale: $800,000, July 2002
• Neighborhood: Irving Park
• Note: Britt and Jane Armfield owned the house from 1938 until her death in 2002. It has remained in the family since then.

1857 Virginia Road, Winston-Salem
listing withdrawn March 30, 2020

• $799,900
• 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 3,725 square feet, 0.69 acre
• Price/square foot: $215
• Built in 1940
• Listed March 26, 2020
• Last sale: $535,000, October 2011
• Neighborhood: Buena Vista
• Note: Designed by William Roy Wallace
  • George Black handmade brick, slate roof, copper gutters
  • The house has an elevator.

The Van Hook-Worsham-Stamps House
No address
listing withdrawn (spring 2020, date not recorded)

• $35,000
• 2 bedrooms, 1,425 square feet
• Price/square foot: $24
• Built in 1852; portions of a 1780 structure remain
• Listing: “The Vanhook-Worsham-Stamps house has been completely dismantled, cataloged and stored by a renowned builder in Caswell County, NC.”
  • “… house is a two-pin log home that features a number of Greek Revival characteristics, including street-facing façade and gable, a hip roof with widely overhanging eaves and clapboard siding, while the upper casement windows give rise to a shallow second story.”

2019

3905 Henderson Road, Greensboro
The Will and Diane Howard House
Blog post — A 1955 Mid-Century Masterpiece in Greensboro, $1.099 Million
listing withdrawn December 5, 2019

• $1.099 million (originally listed at $1,195,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2,864 square feet, 0.4 acre
• Price/square foot: $384
• Built in 1955
• Listed July 25, 2019
• Last sale: $225,000, September 2013
• Neighborhood: Hamilton Lakes
• Listing: Designed by Thomas Hayes for his college roommate, Will Howard
  • Listing: The house “has been completely restored to its former glory w/open floor plan, sleek lines, walls of glass, original terrazzo floors, 6 outdoor terraces & 2-story Casita. Completely rebuilt by Gary Jobe, preserving almost everything in the original 1955 plan.”
  • The reconstruction addressed “long-term challenges related to materials, drainage, and sustainability. It retains its original H-shaped plan and honors the scope, scale and materials of the initial design.” (Preservation Greensboro)
  • Architects for the restoration were Martin Felsen and Sarah Dunn of UrbanLab of Chicago; Brent Skelton did the landscape design. (N.C. Modernist)
  • Before being bought and restored by the current owners, the house was included on the N.C. Modernist 2013 Endangered List.

102 N. Main Street, Reidsville, Rockingham County
listing withdrawn July 10, 2019
house demolished August 2019
Blog post — 102 N. Main Street: Time Runs Out for a Decaying Mansion in Downtown Reidsville

• $27,997
• 6 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 3,992 square feet
• Price/square foot: $7
• Built in 1910
• Listed June 19, 2019
• Last sale: $46,000, September 1991
• Note: The house was demolished in August 2019, per a demolition order, issued by the City of Reidsville in August 2018.
  • Listing: “Great fixer upper. Make an offer. All systems to be verified by buyer.”
  • One of the interior photos appears to show pews and a pulpit.

723 S. Main Street, Old Salem, Winston-Salem
The Joshua Boner House
listing expired May 2, 2019

• $599,900
• 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and 3 half-bathrooms, 4,705 square feet
• Price/square foot: $128
• Built in about 1844
• Listed August 2, 2018
• Last sale: 1971, price not available in online records
• Note: The home is now the Salem College President’s House.

2018

900 Rockford Road, High Point
Hillbrook
listing withdrawn December 28, 2018

• $3.75 million
• 6 bedrooms, 7 full and 3 half bathrooms, 9,888 square feet, 5.26 acres
• Price/square foot: $379
• Built in 1930
• Listed Febraury 1, 2018
• Last sale: Online records are unclear.
• Neighborhood: Emerywood
• Note: Designed by Luther Lashmit, architect of Graylyn in Winston-Salem and Adamsleigh in Sedgefield.
  • Listing: “1930’s Norman Tudor built w/quality materials & workmanship found in few homes, Original architectural detailing. Four levels of total renovation — lower level bar, walk in safe, half bath, recreational room w/ firepl & kitchen, top flr. sauna, spa, exercise room & full bath. Supreme location, gated security & auto court. Flagstone terraces overlook magnificent grounds.”
  • The house has been for sale off and on since 2010 at prices as high as $3.95 million.

236 West End Boulevard, Winston-Salem
The Jacquelin Taylor House, 1885
listing expired November 30, 2018

• $375,000
• 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 3,969 square feet
• Price/square foot: $94
• Built in 1885
• Listed June 15, 2018
• Last sale: $212,000, November 2015
• Neighborhood: West End
• Note: Not owner-occupied The house is divided into three apartments.
  • Listing: “… easily converted back to single-family. Recent $100k + of structural and interior renovations & updates. Huge main level apartment, move-in ready.”

4564 S. N.C. Highway 150, Tyro, Davidson County
Tyro Tavern, 1840
Tyro Tavern NRHP
listing expired November 18, 2018

• $250,000
• 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 3,470 square feet, 0.96 acre
• Price/square foot: $72
• Built in 1840
• Listed May 20, 2018
• Last sale: $65,000, November 2001
• From the NRHP nomination, 1983: “This Greek Revival style structure has survived with almost no alterations except the removal of the two-story front porch in the mid-twentieth century.”
  • “… the finest example of Greek Revival domestic architecture in Davidson County. It was apparently built as the residence and tavern of Joseph H. Thompson, son of early nineteenth century innkeeper Frederick Thompson. J. H. amassed a fortune from his Tyro Iron Works, the largest agricultural foundry in the county throughout most of the second half of the nineteenth century. The imposing brick dwelling, which still dominates the crossroads village of Tyro, is the only structure remaining of Thompson’s mercantile and industrial empire.”

1915 Granville Road, Greensboro
listing withdrawn August 9, 2018
house demolished, 2021
Blog post — Classic House of the Week: A 1936 Mini-Mansion in Irving Park

4840 Solomon Lea Road, Leasburg, Caswell County
listing withdrawn May 2018
The Garland-Buford House

• $412,000
• 3,744 square feet, 2.37 acres
• Price/square foot: $110
• Built around 1832
• Note: Interior and exterior woodwork attributed to the renowned Thomas Day.
• The home was used as a hospital during the Civil War.
  • Kitchen has granite counter tops, stainless appliances, custom cabinetry and stone flooring.
  • The property includes a swimming pool, hot tub, porches, decks, a detached pool house/office and wired workshop.
  • The house has been featured in Country Living, Money, and Smithsonian magazines.

2017

104 Meadowbrook Terrace, Greensboro
listing withdrawn June 3, 2017

• $1,765,000
• 4 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, 8,525 square feet
• Price/square foot: $207
• Built in 1940
• Listed October 2015
• Last sale: $792,500, March 2007
• Neighborhood: Irving Park