Alamance County – Piedmont Historic Homes

This Week’s Best: An 1871 Italianate on the National Register, a Notable Architect’s Bungalow and a Relatively Affordable MCM

September 7, 2025

This week’s most notable new listing was built by a member of Alamance County’s Holt family in 1871. Sunny Side, 2834 Bellemont Alamance Road, was originally owned by Lawrence Shackleford Holt (1851-1937), a third-generation member of the pioneering mill owners. they were to 19th-century Alamance County what the Scotts were to 20th-century Alamance, although the Holts produced only one governor (Thomas, 1891-1893) compared to the two Governor Scotts (Kerr, 1949-1953, and his son Bob, 1969-1973).

The house is way down on the south side of the village of Alamance, an Italianate with well preserved Gothic Revival details.

You Can’t Always Get What You Want When Selling a Home, As These Recent Sales Show

May 12, 2025

Sold for $99,900 below initial asking price
Sold for $175,000 below initial asking price
Sold for $100,000 below initial asking price
Sold for $80,000 below initial asking price
Sold for $300,000 below initial asking price
Sold for $202,000 below initial asking price

There can be a lot of reasons why houses, historic and otherwise, sell for far less than their listed prices. Sometimes the sellers (and their agents) are just too optimistic. Sometimes inspections reveal previously unknown problems that would be costly to fix.

Here are seven historic houses that, for one reason or another, have sold recently at conspicuously lower prices than the sellers wanted. They include an 1885 house in Mount Airy, whose sale was especially painful; a 1929 bungalow in a very popular Greensboro neighborhood; a 1915 house in a Greensboro historic district; farm houses in Davidson and Davie counties; a Mid-Century Modern house in Greensboro; and a 1950s mansion in Reidsville. Some of the sellers at least deserve credit for facing reality and reducing their asking prices to get their houses sold in less than a year.

Four Remarkable 19th-Century Homes Listed One After Another

February 15, 2025

February is typically a rather slow month for new listings, and this one is no exception. And yet four outstanding 19th-century homes have popped up in the first two weeks of the month, scattered from one end of the Triad to the other among the region’s smaller communities. It’s a rare profusion of significant properties.

One is on the National Register. One is built into a hillside so snugly rocks form part of the interior walls. One has fallen on hard times (the other three are in great condition). One went under contract just three days after listing. All are well documented, which isn’t surprising, given their prominence.

Click on the address links for more information.

The 11 Most Interesting Homes Sold in July

August 9, 2024

July was a spectacular month for historic-home sales in the Piedmont (this month’s summary is a bit belated — lots going on, houses to visit, furniture to move around the house, four inches of rain yesterday). Two of the Piedmont’s most impressive National Register houses sold — a 1909 mansion in Greensboro and “the most ornate 19th-century mansion in Alamance County.” In Glencoe Mill Village, where few homes at all have come up for sale in recent years, four homes sold very quickly.

Add in a remarkable Mid-Century Modern by Edward Lowenstein in Sedgefield, a pair of 19th-century houses in Alamance and Yadkin counties, a 1935 mansion in Alamance (what a month for Alamance County!), and a 1940 Period Cottage in Wilkesboro, and the month’s sales provide a splendid cross-section of historic homes in the region.

The 7 Most Interesting Historic Homes Sold in June

July 3, 2024

June’s most notable sales include an 1881 Italianate farmhouse, a couple of particularly sweet bungalows, a Mid-Century Modern house designed by one of the state’s first African American architects and a pair of intriguing restoration candidates.

Of particular note among the past owners is James Holt Green, owner of the Glencoe mill and village in the 1930s and one of the state’s great heroes of World War II. Although rejected by the Army, he was determined to join the war effort and finagled a posting with the Office of Strategic Services. He led units behind German lines in Yugoslavia and Slovakia, rescuing downed airmen and wreaking havoc. He didn’t make it back home.

Click on the links below for more information about the houses and their histories.

Mebane on a Million-Dollar Budget

June 18, 2024

*301 S. 5th Street, for sale at $1 million*

Mebane has been discovered. The small Alamance County town has become one of the hottest real-estate markets in the region as the Triangle’s sprawl pushes homebuyers west. A good indication of Mebane’s popularity is the number of million-dollar historic properties for sale. That number is currently three, which may not seem like a lot, but Mebane is still a pretty small place. And not too long ago, it wasn’t a very promising place to sell a million-dollar house.

Here are Mebane’s current million-dollar listings. Two are in the Old South Mebane Historic District; the other is outlying a bit from town and comes with 52 acres. As it happens, all were owned by notable figures in Mebane’s industrial and government history. And if what you’re looking for is a $3 million mansion on 29 acres with marble floors and intricate wall moldings that “set the stage for opulence,” keep going for one more listing that was withdrawn earlier this year after just four months. They shouldn’t have given up so quickly. Opulence is becoming a hot item in Mebane.

A Prominent Millwright’s 1880’s Home in Gibsonville, $400,000

January 12, 2024

Berry Davidson had a remarkable career as a 19th-century millwright and mill owner, and we know all about it because he had the rare impulse to write it all down. Davidson’s house in Gibsonville is for sale for $400,000. It’s an impressive structure with a wrap-around porch and widow’s walk, built in 1881 or 1887 (accounts differ). The house stayed in the Davison family until 1975, when the current owner bought it from Berry’s descendants.

4 Historic Former Neighborhood Stores For Sale as Homes or Outbuildings

January 19, 2023

Some historic neighborhoods and rural communities are fortunate enough to still have buildings that once housed corner grocery stores or other retail businesses. The buildings come up for sale occasionally, and there are now four historic properties for sale in the Triad that feature former stores as homes or outbuildings. For the most part, there are relatively few available details about the structures themselves and the businesses they housed. But there are at least a few facts known about all but one.

2401 Urban Street in Winston-Salem was built to be a neighborhood grocery store with an apartment upstairs. 400 W. Main Street in Reidsville may not have been designed with a residence in mind, but it has provided a location for a business and a home for its owner as far back as 1959. The Robert G. Mitchell Store in Wentworth was built in 1900 and is barely standing, an unsound building with no heat or electricity. At 3405 Maple Avenue in Burlington, the tiny old store behind the house is a mystery.

For Sale: “The Most Ornate 19th Century Mansion in Alamance County,” $2.4 Million

August 25, 2022

Update: The listing was withdrawn without a sale in March 2023.

The Holt family is one of the most prominent in the history of Alamance County and of North Carolina as well. Charles T. Holt was a third-generation member of the textile family, and the mansion he built is quite the monument to the Holts’ stature.

“The Charles T. Holt House, the most ornate nineteenth century mansion in Alamance County, is located in the town of Haw River overlooking the Granite Mills complex, on twenty-five acres of lawn, grazing pasture, and farm land,” the property’s National Register nomination states.

507 N. Main Street, Graham: A 1920 Aladdin House, $285,000

November 9, 2021

What’s particularly wonderful about the Barefoot-Tate House, 507 N. Main Street in Graham, is that it’s a kit house manufactured by the Aladdin Company of Bay City, Michigan, and shipped to Graham to be assembled on site. (They also were referred to as “knock-down” houses; Aladdin used the term “Readi-Cut”).

“Manufactured housing” meant something different 100 years ago compared to today. Aladdin houses were affordable but substantial structures, made to last and designed for a variety of neighborhoods. Aladdin was the first mail-order home company, established in 1906. Its competitors eventually included Sears, Montgomery Ward and, briefly after World War II, the late, lamented Lustron.

The Barefoot-Tate House is the Aladdin “Colonial” model. The original price was about $1,895; the 2021 price is $285,000. It has 4 bedrooms and 2 1/2 bathrooms in 2,915 square feet, just $98 per square foot. The lot is 0.67 acre. Pictures with the listing indicate that it looks to be in great condition. It’s in Graham’s North Main Street Historic District on the National Register.

Piedmont Historic Homes

Historic homes for sale in the Piedmont Triad

Tag: Alamance County