For Sale – Page 2 – Piedmont Historic Homes

The Joseph Bason Whitsett House: A Possibly Endangered 1883 Guilford County Landmark, $1.3 Million

October 21, 2021

The town of Whitsett was named for the Whitsett Institute, a school for boys founded by the son of early settler Joseph Whisett. The family homestead has stood in the small eastern Guilford County town since 1883, but it may need some luck to remain standing much longer. The house and its surrounding 11 acres are for sale at $1.3 million. A hopeful sign: The owners have listed it as a residential property, even though it has been used as a financial firm’s office for many years. A less hopeful sign: They’ve also listed it as a commercial property, “11.3 Acres of Improved Commercial Land for Sale”:

“Prime development opportunity along the I-40/I-85 corridor in the fast-growing E. Guilford and W. Alamance market,” the listing reads. “Two properties consist of an office building on 11 acres and a vacant tract of 67 acres. Highest and best use is mixed use residential consisting of apartments, townhomes and SF lots.”

And, oh, by the way, “Beautiful Victorian House built in the 1880s is currently used as office.”

212 Florence Street: A Chance to Save a ca. 1915 Craftsman Bungalow in Greensboro’s Fisher Park Historic District

October 14, 2021

212 Florence Street is a little worse for wear after more than 100 years. Still, its Craftsman features are intact, and now it has a chance for a new lease on life. The Preservation Greensboro Development Fund is seeking a buyer to restore the house to its original use as a single-family residence. It was divided into three apartments decades ago.

It’s a great opportunity for anyone who would love to restore a historic home. And as a contributing structure in the National Register Fisher Park Historic District, it’s eligible for historic-rehabilitation tax credits. The house will be sold subject to a rehabilitation agreement and a preservation easement to ensure the structure and its distinctive features are returned to good condition and converted back to a single-family residence.

The Roy and Rosamund Morgan House in Greensboro: 1940’s Home of a Distinguished Lawyer-FBI Agent-Diplomat, $863,000

October 12, 2021

201 County Club Drive was a relatively late addition to Greensboro’s most affluent neighborhood. The Colonial Revival was built around 1940, and today it retains the stately elegance of its era, which was rapidly drawing to a close. The house was listed for sale this week at $863,000.

The Morgan House has 4 bedrooms and 2 1/2 bathrooms, in 3,058 square feet, which comes out to an impressive $282 per square foot. The lot is 0.46 acre. The interior looks impeccable; the landscaping is gorgeous as well. The house is a fine example of Irving Park at its opulent best, but it isn’t quite as remarkable as its first owner.

Roy Morgan may have had one of the most distinguished careers of anyone in Greensboro in the mid-20th century, but he may be one of the least known among the city’s leading figures of the time. Aside from serving on the City Council, most of his work was far from Greensboro.

New Listing: Northrup & O’Brien’s 1933 Lasater Mill House in Clemmons, $1.99 million

August 9, 2021

The Lasater Mill House is a mansion that was originally an outbuilding for a bigger mansion. It was designed by Northrup & O’Brien for a niece of R.J. Reynolds, Nancy Margaret Lybrook Lasater (1877-1952), and her husband, Robert E. Lasater (1867-1954), an RJR executive. Nancy’s mother, Mary Josephine Reynolds Lybrook (1844-1888), was a sister of RJR; she was the first of 12 children, only seven of whom survived to adulthood.

The house is at the west end of Lasater Lake, where Blanket Creek runs down to the nearby Yadkin River. The exterior and the interior are spectacular. I’d love to know what Northrup and O’Brien would say about how the house has been updated. If those bathrooms wouldn’t blow their minds, nothing would.

$7.5 million and It’s Yours: The 1937 J. Spencer Love House in Irving Park

August 7, 2021

As J. Spencer Love was building Burlington Mills into the largest textile company in the world, he moved to Greensboro and built an 11,000 square-foot house befitting his status as one of 20th century America’s more prominent ground-breaking, union-busting industrialists. The mansion sits at 710 Country Club Drive on 3.3 acres of prime Irving Park property, and it went on the market this week for $7.495 million.

“The Love House is a palatial Georgian Revival mansion inspired by eighteenth century Virginia houses,” the neighborhood’s National Register nomination says. “It features Flemish bond brickwork, a steep hipped roof with segmental-arched dormers and a modillioned cornice, a five-bay facade with a swan’s neck pedimented entrance, a string course between floors, and brick corner quoins. Large one and two-story wings project from either side of the main block. An expansive landscaped lawn fronts the house and is bordered by a molded brick wall.”

Spanish Revival, A Style Not Too Common in the Piedmont, Is Well Represented Among Homes For Sale This Summer

July 21, 2021

There aren’t that many Spanish Revival (or Spanish Eclectic) homes in the Piedmont’s older neighborhoods, but four have popped up on the market this summer, two houses in High Point and two bungalows in Winston-Salem. This style can be found in ones or twos in many older neighborhoods, adding Mediterranean flair to the mix of Tudors and Four Squares, Craftsmans and Colonials.

The homes available this summer aren’t as elaborate as many Spanish Revivals, but they share many features typical to the style — light-colored stucco exteriors, arches over doors and windows, low-pitched tile roofs and (three of them, at least) asymmetric designs. But there’s variety among them. 1503 Wiltshire Street in High Point displays a smooth combination of Spanish Revival and the closely related Craftsman style. 205 Edgedale Drive is strikingly symmetrical, which is odd for Spanish Revival. The two Winston-Salem bungalows, 900 S. Hawthorne Road and 2229 Maplewood Avenue, may be more pure examples of the style, but they look distinctly different.

Spanish Revival was popular from around 1915 to 1930, particularly in Florida, California and the Southwest. By the ’30s it had largely faded away as variety and distinctiveness lost out to conformity and more austere, less labor-intensive styles.

The W.L. Gardner House in Reidsville: An 1890 Home That Needs a Lot of Work, $45,000

July 16, 2021

635 Lindsey Street, Reidsville, Rockingham County
The W.L. Gardner House

$45,000
Number of bedrooms and bathrooms not specified, 2,222 square feet, 0.49 acre
Price/square foot: $20
Built in 1917 (per county), possibly ca. 1890 (NRHP district nomination)
Listed July 2, 2021
Last sale: $60,000, October 2000
Neighborhood: Reidsville Historic District
Listing: “Home needs to be completely redone. This home also includes another property that is accessed through Snead Street.
- “Enter at your own risk, condition of the home is unknown. SOLD AS IS.”

The Birthplace of Gov. Kerr Scott and the Family’s Political Dynasty, $750,000

July 14, 2021

3210 N.C. Highway 119 South, Haw River, Alamance County
The Henderson Scott House II

Sold for $735,000 on August 20, 2021 (originally $899,000)
6 bedrooms, 4 1/2 bathrooms, 4,371 square feet (per county records), 3.42 acres
Price/square foot: $168
Built in 1848
Listed June 10, 2021
Last sale: $450,000, February 2007
Neighborhood: Henderson Scott Farm Historic District
Note: The house is the birthplace of Gov. W. Kerr Scott.

New Listing: A Striking 1923 International-Style Mansion in Burlington, $735,000

April 15, 2021

Update: The house sold for $650,000 on October 28, 2021

The W.T. Cheatham House is as impressive as it is rare, an International-style mansion built in 1923 in Burlington. There are relatively few International houses in the Triad, and this one in the West Davis Street-Fountain Place Historic District is brilliant inside and out.

“Its elegant design, which might best be described as ‘Classical-Mediterranean,’ renders the structure one of the most unusual houses in Burlington,” the historic district’s NRHP nomination states. “Salient features of the house are its flat roofs, stuccoed elevations, and two-story core bracketed by one-story wings with turned balustrades. Tuscan columns support the porch recessed between the wings.”

The William Lindsey House: A Grand 1870 Mansion Built by One of Reidsville’s Early Business Leaders, $434,900

April 6, 2021

“Because of both its historical associations and its architectural distinction, the William Lindsey House is a pivotal building in the Reidsville Historic District.”

— National Register nomination for the Reidsville Historic District

The Lindsey House is as impressive inside as it is from the street. And, being in one of the Triad’s smaller cities, the $434,900 price ($83 per square foot) is probably, say, a third of what it might be in Greensboro or Winston-Salem.

Interestingly, the towering columns out front weren’t an original feature. “Early in the 20th century, a new porch was constructed across this facade, in the Neo-Classical Revival style,” the NRHP nomination says. “It consists of a one-story, full-facade porch supported by corinthian columns which are repeated in monumental fashion in the central projecting two-story pedimented portico.” The original porch was apparently wide enough only to span the entrance.

Piedmont Historic Homes

Historic homes for sale in the Piedmont Triad

Tag: For Sale