Piedmont Historic Homes

211clayton

211 Clayton Street, Winston-Salem

• Sold for $88,000 on November 7, 2025 (originally $104,000)
  • Foreclosure, sold to an LLC in Winston-Salem
• 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2,140 square feet, 0.23 acre
• Price/square foot: $41
• Built in 1927
• Listed July 28, 2025
• Last sales: $97,000, April 2025 (foreclosure); $72,000, July 2002; $38,000, April 1983
• Note: “Buyer will have No Access, All offers are to be made through the Auction site provided in agent only remarks.”
  • The earliest known owners were Frank D. Elliott and Mercia S. Elliott, who sold the house in 1939. Frank owned many properties in Winston-Salem. He worked in real estate and for consumer-loan companies. There’s no evidence they ever lived in the house.
  • In 1939 the house was bought by Latha Hubert Bennett (1894-1963) and Hessie Mae Kiser Bennett (1897-1978). Latha was a postal clerk. They lived in the house for the rest of their lives. Hessie’s estate sold it in 1983.

94 Bynum Church Road, Bynum, Chatham County
Odell Mills Superintendent’s House

• Sold for $238,690 on November 4, 2025 (originally $350,000)
• 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1,835 square feet, 0.30 acre
• Price/square foot: $130
• Built ca. 1875
• Listed June 19, 2025
• Last sale: $3,500, Febraury 1978
• Neighborhood: Bynum Historic District (NR)
• Note: Bynum is a happening place. Check out the Bynum Front Porch.
  • The house was built by the J.M. Odell Manufacturing Company, a textile mill located next door to the house and overlooking the Haw River. J.M. Odell owned a variety of mills and other businesses in Concord, Durham and Greensboro. He was a founder of the general store in Greensboro that became Odell Hardware, one of the largest in the South. The Bynum mill was built in 1872 and closed in 1983.
• District NR nomination: “I-house with weatherboard exterior, two-over-two wood sash, hipped front porch, turned columns and balustrade, sawn porch-post brackets, molded eaves with gable end returns, trefoil vents in gable ends, and two rear chimneys; later two-room rear ell with pantry and screened porch on the west side; and even later shed room at rear elevation. A neighbor reports that the interior features Eastlake detailing.
  • “County property records date the house to 1900, but its appearance and the report of Eastlake detailing make it likely that the building dates to the establishment of the mill and mill village.
  • “Family of the current owners, who purchased the house from the Chatham County Housing Authority in 1978, report that this functioned as a Superintendent’s House and that it has finer finishes at the interior than other houses in the village. The name ‘Edgar Pace Moore’ is written on a door in the basement, according to the residents. He was a nephew of George Edgar Moore (1874-1970), superintendent of the mill from 1904 to 1955, and a son of Robert J. Moore, who ran a dry goods store (not extant) on Chapel Hill to Pittsboro Road for over forty years.”
  • The house was bought in 1978 by Ollie Walter Wrenn (1941-2024) and Cubie Johnson Wrenn (1935-2008). Cubie worked for Odell Mills and the Chatham County school system. Ollie also worked for the school system. The house is being sold by their heirs.

935carr

935 Carr Street, Greensboro
The Weaver-Painter House
Sale pending October 8, 2025

• Sold for $130,000 on October 30, 2025 (originally $149,900)
• 2 bedrooms, 1 1/2 bathrooms, 1,375 square feet, 0.19 acre
• Price/square foot: $95
• Built in 1903
• Listed September 12, 2025
• Last sale: $23,000, March 1979
• Neighborhood: College Hill Historic District (local and NR)
• Note: The house has been left to deteriorate since its owner died in 2017. It was condemned at one point and may still be; a number of code or zoning violations appear to be outstanding. There’s a tarp over the roof. The backyard has been overrun by bamboo.
• District NR nomination: “Pyramid-roof cottage, Residence, 1900-07”
  • The original owners were Wylie Cromwell Weaver (1846-1906) and Amelia Ann Kirkland Weaver (1847-1914). Wylie was a Confederate veteran who may have served as a teen-aged captain (he was known by that title in later life). He was a carpenter, worked as a police officer and served as the city health officer at one time. He was delivering milk when he was hit by a train and fatally injured (just a few blocks from home, on Walker Avenue at the Atlantic & Yadkin railroad tracks near Wafco Mills). Their daughter Alberta sold the house in 1917.
  • James Wesley Thompson and Nettie Thompson bought the house in 1917. James was a clerk at the time, but by 1922 he had converted the relatively new house next door into a grocery store, originally Thompson’s Grocery but soon College Hill Grocery. Around 1930, the store closed, and James and Nettie lost the house to foreclosure (the store reopened and operated for decades but is now long gone).
  • In 1936 the house was bought by James Watson Painter (1896-1971) and Kathleen “Katrina” Sharer Painter (1901-2005), who owned it for 35 years. James was a professor of English at the Woman’s College; Katrina was an instructor of English.
  • James was born in Bristol, Tennessee and served in World War I. He graduated from Emory & Henry College and the University of Tennessee. He came to the Woman’s College in 1926 and taught there for 36 years.
  • Katrina was born in Shelbyville, Tennessee, and graduated from the University of Tennessee. She taught school in Alabama and Tennessee before coming to Greensboro. She later joined James on the English faculty at the college. She was active in the Daughters of the American Revolution.

119ssunset

119 S. Sunset Drive, Winston-Salem
The Ernest and Katherine Martin House

• Sold for $220,000 on October 29, 2025 (listed at $225,000)
• 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms bathrooms, 2,129 square feet, 0.17 acre
• Price/square foot: $103
• Built circa 1917
• Listed October 10, 2025
• Last sale: $140,000, March 2020
• Neighborhood: West End Historic District (local and NR)
• Note: Something terrible happened upstairs from the living room.
  • County records give a 1925 date for the house.
• District NR nomination: “This simple, neat bungalow is typical of many built in the 1910s and 1920s. It is a one-and-a-half-story frame house with a broad gable roof with overhanging eaves, a front shed dormer, interior end chimneys, paired six-over-one sash windows, and a front porch with square wood posts on brick plinths and a plain balustrade.
  • “In recent years the house was sheathed with aluminum siding, but this has had little adverse effect on its overall integrity. A low stone retaining wall borders the front yard.
  • “E.R. and Katherine Martin purchased the property in 1916, and the Sanborn maps illustrate the house in 1917. From 1918 through the early 1920s the Martins occupied the house, but in 1928 they moved next door. They continued to own this house, however, until selling it to John and Lillian Reich in 1945. For many years thereafter the house was used as rental property.”

561 Carthage Street, Cameron, Moore County
The Phillips House

• Sold for $100,000 on October 21, 2025 (originally $125,000)
• 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1,896 square feet, 0.46 acre
• Price/square foot: $53
• Built 1890s (NR nomination) or 1930 (per county)
• Listed July 14, 2024
• Last sale: $68,000, August 24, 2022
• Neighborhood: Cameron Historic District (local and NR)
• Note: This appears to be yet another restoration attempt being abandoned part-way through.
  • The house has been sold four times since 2019, most recently twice on the same day: $68,000, August 24, 2022; $37,000, August 24, 2022; $37,000, December 2019; and $65,000, August 2019.
• District NR nomination: “This one-and-a-half-story triple A is covered with German siding and has a rear ell. The plain gables have returning eaves. A porch supported by square posts (replacements) carries across the front and one side. Lattice woodwork has been added on· the east end of the porch. Pilasters accentuate the corners of the building. …
  • “No longer a center of commercial activity, Cameron now presents a view of a typical small North Carolina railroad town whose heyday has passed. Yet the quality of the buildings and the surrounding environment attest to the affluence of the Scots descendants who built them and the pride in heritage that has maintained them.”
  • John Atlas Phillips (1886-1949), a farmer and merchant, sold the house to his son John Jr. (1910-1986) in 1944. John Jr. owned it until he died.

806lawsonville

806 Lawsonville Avenue, Reidsville, Rockingham County
The Charles and Mary Saunders House

• Sold for $170,000 on September 22, 2025 (originally $100,000)
  • One of two properties sold, separate prices not recorded.
  • The buyer is an LLC in Arizona.
• 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 2,530 square feet, 0.44 acre
• Built in 1922
• Listed June 20, 2025
• Last sale: $59,000, June 10, 2025
• Note: The house is terribly rundown, but it still has some fine period detail, including original doors and windows.
  • Deeds refer to the property as “the C.L. Saunders home place.” Charles Lawrence Saunders (1887-1960) and Mary Frances Durham Saunders (1898-1986) bought the property in 1921. Charles was an independent tobacco buyer and later worked for a real estate company. Ownership passed to a son, who sold it in 1984.

6154 N.C. Highway 86 Yanceyville, Caswell County

• Sold for $100,000 on September 15, 2025 (originally $112,000)
  • The buyer is an LLC in Wyoming.
• Bedrooms and bathrooms not listed, 2,208 square feet, 6.53 acres
• Price/square foot: $45
• Built in 1941
• Listed January 30, 2025
• Last sale: $50,000, June 2020
• Neighborhood: Located about 6 miles southeast of Yanceyville. The property has a Yanceyville mailing address.
• Note: This one is probably a lost cause: “The existing home and outbuildings hold no value.” The house is still standing, but the listing describes the land as vacant.
  • No heat or air conditioning.
  • The listing says the property includes a half-acre pond. About 1 1/2 acres of the property are cleared.

176 Chrismon Farm Road, Rockingham County

• Sold for $151,000 on September 9, 2025 (originally $199,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 2,598 square feet (per county), 2.27 acres
• Price/square foot: $58
• Built in 1834
• Listed January 14, 2025
• Last sale: $126,000, August 2007
• Neighborhood: Located near the Oregon Hill community, about 6 1/2 miles northwest of Ruffin and about 12 miles east of Eden. The property has a Ruffin mailing address.
• Note: Rockingham County records suggest that members of the Chrismon family owned the property from 1951 to 2001. Charlie Green Chrismon (1908-1975) bought a 38-acre tract that apparently included this property, in 1951 (the deed’s description of the land is vague). He was a conductor for Southern Railway for 30 years.
  • Charlie passed the property on to one of his five sons, Gilbert Quinn “Chris” Chrismon (1931-2006), and daughter-in-law Eva Elizabeth Lawrence Chrismon (1931-1990). Chris was a tobacco farmer. In 1999 Chris gave the property to his daughter, Carol Chrismon Thompson, and son-in-law, Mark A. Thompson, who sold it in 2001.

105 E. 2nd Avenue, Mount Gilead, Montgomery County
Sale pending August 25, 2025

• Sold for $22,000 on September 4, 2025 (originally $49,900)
  • Sold to an LLC in Charlotte
• 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms (per county), 2,734 square feet, 0.67 acre
• Price/square foot: $8
• Built in 1900
• Listed May 5, 2025
• Last sale: $20,000, March 2022
• Note: No heat or air conditioning
  • Online listings show 2 bedrooms and no bathrooms.
  • The lot is unusually long and narrow (county GIS screenshot above).

277spring

277 Spring Street, Mocksville, Davie County

• Sold for $149,000 on August 28, 2025 (originally $150,000)
• 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 2,468 square feet, 0.56 acre
• Price/square foot: $60
• Built in 1918
• Listed April 12, 2025
• Last sale: $135,000, October 2022
• Note: “In need of updates and repairs, it’s the perfect blank canvas opportunity for a renovation project”
  • Joseph Gaston Peebles (1860-1931) bought the house in 1924. He was a notable local political figure, serving as chairman of the county’s Democratic executive committee for more than 12 years.
  • In 1937 Albert Elisha Holder (1894-1970) bought the property from the Peebles estate. Holder lost it to foreclosure in 1966. He worked in a furniture factory.
  • James Luther Seagle (1910-2001) and Johnsie Rudisill Seagle (1910-1976) bought the house in 1966. James was a supervisor at Heritage Furniture. They passed ownership in 1968 to their daughter Shirley Seagle Lowdermilk (1935-2022) and son-in-law William Grady Lowdermilk Sr. (1935-2007). The house was sold by Shirley’s estate in 2022. William worked for Hoechst Celanese Corp. for 32 years.

249nbridge

249 N. Bridge Street, Elkin, Surry County
The Chatham-Shores House

• Sold for $95,000 on August 25, 2025 (originally $149,900)
• 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, 2,998 square feet, 0.36 acre
• Price/square foot: $32
• Built in 1903 (per county)
• Listed September 19, 2024
• Last sale: $10,000, December 1987
• Neighborhood: Gwyn Avenue-Bridge Street Historic District (NR)
• Note: The house originally had a front porch.
  • The district’s National Register nomination dates the house to ca. 1915.
• District NR nomination: “George W. Chatham Sr., a local real estate developer, built this large house where his family lived for several years. Thereafter, it was home for some years to the William Arthur Shores family. Shores was a horse trader, but at the time of his death in 1931, he also owned rental property in Elkin.
  • “The two-story frame house has a low hipped roof with intersecting pedimented gables above three slightly projecting bays — at the north end of the facade and near the rear of each side elevation. Windows have two-over-two sash.
  • “Until the early 1980s, the house retained its wood German siding and one-story, classical facade porch with Tuscan columns, plain balustrade, classical frieze, and gabled entrance bay. Since then the porch has been removed and the house has been wrapped in vinyl siding. Across the front of the lot is a stone retaining wall, and a flight of stone steps leads upward to the front walk.”

• Sold for $225,000 on August 20, 2025 (originally $265,000)
• 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2,510 square feet (per county), 0.32 acre
• Price/square foot: $90
• Built in 1935
• Listed April 9, 2025
• Last sale: $63,000, March 2000
• Listing: “The style might be called ‘Victorian Farmhouse with a touch of Queen Anne’.”
• Note: Old deeds refer to the property as “the Old Gatewood Property.”

• Sold for $85,000 on August 15, 2025 (listed at $99,900)
• 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2,235 square feet, 0.34 acre
• Price/square foot: $38
• Built in 1928
• Listed July 15, 2025
• Last sale: $42,500, October 2000
• Neighborhood: Colonial Drive School Historic District (local)
• Listing: “Needs lots of TLC and some structural repairs.”
  • The earliest known owner of the land was Lockey William Elliott (1830-1917). “Mr. Elliott has for 40 years or more been recognized in this community as a sound business man and practical farmer, being the proprietor and owner of the Elliott block of stores on Main and Randolph streets and owner of land in and around town,” the Greensboro Daily News said at his death.
  • Lockey’s heirs sold this property in 1924 to Frances Marks Stadiem (1898-1998). Frances and her husband, Moses Stadiem (1893-1965), were the original owners of the house. Moses was in the real estate business. He was a veteran of World War I. Frances was vice president of Bernie’s Crafts and Hobbies. They sold the house in 1949.

1225redding

1225 Redding Drive, High Point
1227 Redding Drive, High Point

• Sold for $73,000 each on August 14, 2025 (listed at $95,000 each)
  • Ther buyer is an LLC in Albemarle.
• 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1,160 square feet, 0.17 acre (same for both)
• Price/square foot: $63
• Built in 1918
• Listed December 18, 2024
• Last sale: $66,455, May 2020 (same date and price for both)
• Neighborhood: Pickett Cotton Mill
• Note: Two mill houses built by Pickett Cotton Mill, being sold separately by the same owner. There are no interior photos with either listing.
  • Online listings give the date of both houses as 1818, apparently a typo.
  • “Pickett Cotton Mill was organized in High Point, N.C., in 1910. F.M. Pickett, majority stockholder and long-time High Point tobacco manufacturer, served as secretary-treasurer. … Along with Pickett, investors included J.B. Duke and R.J. Reynolds.” (UNC-CH Wilson Library Special Collections)
  • It was High Point’s first successful textile mill. It closed in 1985. The mill building, across the street in the next block from these houses, is on the National Register of Historic Places.

• Sold for $170,000 on August 13, 2025 (listed at $182,000)
  • The owner’s address of record is in Chino Hills, California.
• 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2,329 square feet (per county), 0.68 acre
• Price/square foot: $73
• Built in 1934
• Listed April 8, 2025
• Last sales: $267,000, April 2025 (foreclosure); $50,500, October 1984
• Neighborhood: Near Pilot School, just off U.S. 29/70/Business 85 on the western edge of Thomasville.
• Note: No interior pictures are included in the online listing.
  • “There are 2 bedrooms up stairs but not included in the square footage due to lower ceilings.”
  • The property was sold in 1939 by W.P. Eddinger and Essie Eddinger (dates unknown for both) to Vann Walter Kanoy (1910-1977) and Geneva Lawson Kanoy (1910-2000). The Kanoys owned the house for 45 years. Vann owned Kanoy Floor Covering. He was a charter member of the Pilot Lions Club. Geneva was a graduate of Catawba College and taught at Pilot Elementary School and Colonial Drive School, where she was named Teacher of the Year. Geneva sold the house in 1984.
  • The house has been owned since 1984 by Joestein Leonard Sr. (1936-2023) and Paula Sue Lunsford Leonard (1952-2006). Joe had a varied career, working as a police officer, banker and in car and home sales. He served on the Thomasville City Council and was CEO of the Thomasville Memorial Day Parade.

1502 Main Street, Ramseur, Randolph County

• Sold for $134,500 on August 13, 2025 (listed at $139,000)
• 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1,001 square feet, 0.31 acre
• Price/square foot: $134
• Built in 1885
• Listed June 2, 2025
• Last sale: $78,000, December 2018

329 Church Street, Reidsville, Rockingham County

• Sold for $40,000 on August 13, 2025 (originally $99,000)
• 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1,082 square feet, 0.15 acre
• Price/square foot: $37
• Built in 1920
• Listed January 16, 2025
• Last sales: $20,000 November 2020; $7,500, January 2018; $10,000, December 2017
• Note: Originally priced 10 times higher than the selling price eight years ago with no apparent improvement in the property. The house has changed ownership 11 times since 1995 (sales and apparently at least two foreclosures).
  • Another curious deed: The deed is dated August 13, but it wasn’t filed until September 23. Zillow doesn’t show the house going under contract until August 21.

200 Salem Street, Thomasville, Davidson County
The Swicegood-Tomlinson House

• Sold for $75,000 on August 6, 2025 (originally $120,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, 2,308 square feet, 0.31 acre
• Price/square foot: $32
• Built in 1917
• Listed September 6, 2024
• Last sale: $4,000, May 2017; $4,750, January 2017; $42,750, March 2003; $74,000, June 1999
• Neighborhood: Salem Street Historic District (local and NR)
• Note: No interior photos are included in the listing.
  • The house is across the street from the grand Heidelberg Evangelical and Reformed Church.
• District NR nomination: “The two-story frame house with asymmetrical massing has a brick foundation, replacement vinyl siding, a hipped roof on the main block, and a slightly projecting, gabled, north front bay. The overhanging eaves of the gable are bracketed, while those of the hipped roof have shaped rafter ends, visible on the rear where the vinyl soffit has peeled away.
  • “Other features include exterior chimneys, two-over-two sash windows, bay windows on the front gabled wing and north side, and a one-story rear ell and shed rooms. The replacement front door is at the center of the three-bay facade, and the wraparound porch has replacement wood posts on brick plinths and a plain balustrade.
  • “Local tradition claims that this was one of several houses in the district built by contractor Schyler Cecil. The Swicegood family was the first known to occupy the house, beginning in 1904. Mrs. Mary Tomlinson, widow of J.M. Tomlinson [1851-1896], moved here with her family shortly before World War I and remained here for several decades. It was probably during their ownership that the porch was altered.”
  • The Swicegood family doesn’t appear in any of the property’s early deeds. A 1905 deed shows the house being sold by P.S. Cecil to W.E. Lambeth and Julia Lambeth. Mary Mock Tomlinson (1860-1945) bought the house in 1917 from A.H. Ragan.

708 E. Sprague Street, Winston-Salem

• Sold for $105,000 on July 30, 2025 (originally $110,000)
• 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1,084 square feet, 0.17 acre
• Price/square foot: $97
• Built in 1922
• Listed May 22, 2025
• Last sale: $21,000, May 2015
• Neighborhood: Waughtown-Belview Historic District (NR)
• Note: Owned by an LLC in Raleigh.
• District NR nomination: “Bungalow. One story; side gable; vinyl siding; six-over-six replacement windows; replacement posts on brick piers; shed-roof porch; knee braces. Appears on 1917 Sanborn Map.”

1811 S. Main Street, Winston-Salem
The Harvey A. Giersch House

• Sold for $350,000 on July 28, 2025 (originally $378,000)
  • Three offers fell through before this one closed.
• 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 3,587 square feet, 0.25 acre
• Price/square foot: $98
• Built in 1910
• Listed April 19, 2025
• Last sale: 1999, price not recorded on deed
• Neighborhood: Washington Park Historic District (NR)
• Note: Former rental property, “this property is just waiting to be brought back to life.”
  • Known as the Hillcrest Tourist Home, 1952 to at least 1963. Irma Roberts Fisher (1892-1976) opened the business after the death of her husband, William Sloan Fisher (1890-1951). She also continued to operate the business he started, Fisher’s Laundry and Dry Cleaners. Irma attended the Women’s College. She was a charter member of the local Soroptimist Club.
• District NR nomination: “Side-gabled frame Colonial Revival style house. three bays wide, two rooms deep with central entrance. Three hipped-roof dormers on front. Central one-bay hipped-roof entrance porch supported by classical columns and flat pilasters beneath a wide frieze. Triple-grouped windows on first floor (16/11 24!1, 16/1); 18/1 on second floor. To the south is a later one-story side wing with large glazed round arch.
  • “Giersch (wife Fannie) was a traveling salesman with Maline Mills who moved here by 1910 from Salem. He was followed by George Hardiston (wife Elizabeth) in 1920, an employee with R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, and by William E. Froelich (wife Helen) who moved here in 1921 from Waughtown Street and was service manager of Carolina Cadillac Company.”

414 E. Morehead Street, Burlington, Alamance County
Episcopal Rectory

• Sold for $175,000 on July 28, 2025 (listed at $209,500)
  • The buyer is an Arkansas LLC.
• 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2,755 square feet, 0.50 acre
• Price/square foot: $64
• Built ca. 1890 (per district NR nomination)
• Listed October 13, 2024
• Last sales: $170,000, May 2023; $125,000, July 2005
• Neighborhood: South Broad-East 5th Streets Historic District (NR)
• Note: Currently divided into two units
  • Tax records show a date of 1950, which appears to be way off.
• District NR nomination: “Well-preserved [as of 2001] 2-story gable-and-wing house of eclectic design, with original siding, an ornate boxed cornice with pendanted brackets, tall 4/4 sash windows with peaked lintels, and an entrance with beveled glass transom and sidelights.
  • “The wraparound front porch [now missing] has slender classical columns that are probably early 20th century replacements. The rear ell has been enlarged in recent years.
  • “The Episcopal Church apparently built this house as the rectory. D.F. Rudd, painter with the City Schools, bought the house in 1919 and lived here until 1937. Kemp D. Blalock was the owner-occupant from then until 1981.”
  • D.F. Rudd was Doctor Franklin Rudd (1880-1950), a janitor and painter with the school system (“Doctor” was his first name). He was married to Mary Elizabeth Rudd (1879-1969).
  • Kemp DeWitt Blalock (1884-1959) was a mechanic with P&S Motor Company, the local Hudson automobile dealership. He and the lyrically named Carrie Exie Oakley Blalock (1893-1967) were married in 1909.

283 Old Christian Chapel Road, New Hill, Chatham County
The Merry Oaks Hotel

• Sold for $400,000 on July 25, 2025 (originally $500,000)
  • Bought by a couple in Apex through an LLC. He appears to be an exec at Cisco; she’s a manager at another high-tech company..
• 7 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 3,272 square feet (per county), 3.50 acres
• Price/square foot: $122
• Built in 1880
• Listed March 3, 2024
• Last sale: $349,000, November 2020
• Neighborhood: Merry Oaks
• Note: The property consists of the Merry Oaks Hotel, the Yates Thomas General Store and post office. The sale of the property in 2020 included the Merry Oaks rail depot, which also isn’t mentioned in this current listing but may still be there.

• Merry Oaks was once a thriving railroad community, but it was left behind by the decline of the railroad and the relocation of U.S. 1 just a bit to the north. The News & Observer told the story in 2020, when the property was last sold (click here if the online link doesn’t work).
• Merry Oaks was once a thriving railroad community, but it was left behind by the decline of the railways and the relocation of U.S. 1 just a bit to the north. Incorporated in 1901, it had a bank and a mill, Chatham County’s first high school and, until 1956, the post office. A 1910 newspaper ad for its high school called it “a healthy location, free from all chills and malaria.” There was considerable rail traffic, thanks to timber companies in the area.

• The hotel was called Edwards Hotel in its early days. It was put up for sale in 1910 but retained the name for at least several years. Owner William Turner “W.T.” Edwards (1848-1918) was a major figure in Merry Oaks. “Mr. Edwards came to Merry Oaks more than 40 years ago to engage in the mercantile business,” the Merry Oaks correspondent wrote in The News & Observer in 1918.
• “Since then he has been actively connected to every movement for the progress and betterment of the town and community, serving for a number of years as post master, mayor and member of the school board. He was one of the leading promoters in the establishment of the county high school here and has been one of its most loyal supporters.”
• The property was bought in 2020 by a couple from Raleigh, who don’t appear to have invested much into it.
• Something to ask about: The property is near the site where electric-car maker VinFast is planning a massive, $4 billion factory (if it doesn’t go bankrupt first). The nearby Merry Oaks Baptist Church is threatened by highway plans related to the project (here and here), as are several homes and businesses. This property doesn’t appear to be among them, but it would be good to hear someone say that. Or better yet, get it in writing from the state DOT or another authoritative source.

2246 Snow Hill Church Road, Stokes County

• Sold for $164,900 on July 24, 2025 (originally $184,900)
• 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 907 square feet, 7.13 acres
• Price/square foot: $182
• Built in 1890
• Listed March 13, 2025
• Last sale: See note below
• Neighborhood: About 3 miles east of Lawsonville and 8.5 miles north of Danbury. The property has a Danbury mailing address.
• Note: The property was part of a much larger tract bought before 1956 by Berry McCoy “Coy” Mabe (1901-1970) and Lelia Sue Hill Mabe (1903-1990). It was sold in four transactions from 1956 to 1990 to their son Mathew (with one “t”) Hill Mabe (1931-2003) and Mary Lee Martin Mabe (1933-2016). The property is being sold by one of their sons.
  • Coy was one of 11 children born between 1876 and 1898, all of whom lived to adulthood (siblings: Ellen, Ida, Virda, Speedwell, Tabitha, Vanderbilt, Ernest, Carl, Charles and Percy).

1900 Peachtree Street, Winston-Salem
The David and Athene Day House

• Sold for $110,000 on July 16, 2025 (originally $149,900)
  • Sold to an LLC in Winston-Salem
• 3 bedrooms, 1 1/2 bathrooms, 1,647 square feet, 0.25 acre
• Price/square foot: $67
• Built in 1947 (per county, but probably a couple years later; see note)
• Listed May 27, 2025
• Last sale: November 1978, price not recorded on deed
• Neighborhood: Waughtown-Belview Historic District (NR)
• Note: The house has had only two owners.
  • The property includes a wired workshop and a detached garage.
• District NR nomination: “Cape Cod. One and a half story; side gable; painted Formstone; gable-roof dormers; gable-roof entry porch; paired, Tuscan columns; six-over-six, double-hung sash; enclosed side porch. Appears on 1951 Sanborn map.”
  • The property doesn’t appear in the city directory until the 1949-50 edition, listed as 1924 Peachtree, its original address. The first owners were David Evans Day Jr. (1920-1983) and Athene Myatt Day (1921-2002). David was a carpenter. They sold the house in 1978 to Willard E. Harris (1941-2009) and Juliet Gilbreath Harris. Juliet is now selling the house.