Winston-Salem – Piedmont Historic Homes

This Week’s Best: A Major 1912 Mansion in Reidsville and ‘H&G’ to Two B&B’s

August 24, 2025

It was an uncommonly boring week until Thursday. That’s when a listing appeared for Belmont, the most notable of the three houses in the the Robert Payne Richardson Houses Historic District in Reidsville. The Neo-Classical Belmont, 1700 Richardson Drive, is a standout in every way — architecturally significant (“an opulent example of the style, one of the finest in the state”), perched up on a hill overlooking the road, wonderfully maintained, with a range of features from a spectacular ballroom to a beach volleyball court (the mansion is now a wedding venue, after all). If you’re looking for about 9,000 square feet of truly impressive history on almost 10 acres, Belmont is up for $2.4 million, a relatively reasonable $256 per square foot. You could pay a lot more, per square foot, for a lot less (see below).

It was ‘H&G’ for two B&B listings this week.

This Week’s Best: A Literary Connection in Reidsville and a Striking House in Elkin

August 10, 2025

Some intriguing houses and past owners this week.

Who knew the connection between Reidsville and one of Britain’s most important writers and theologians of the 20th century? This 1930 house was the boyhood home of Walter Hooper (1931-2020). “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.” There’s an appropriate Lewis quote painted on a kitchen wall.

Competition to Buy Historic Homes Is Building, Especially in Winston-Salem

April 30, 2025

Sold for $55,000 over asking price
Sold for $20,000 over asking price
Sold for $22,000 over asking price
Sold for $15,000 over asking price
Sold for $31,000 over asking price
Sold for $15,000 over asking price
Sold for $26,000 over asking price
Sold for $9,500 over original asking price
Sold for $11,000 over asking price
Sold for $101,000 over asking price

It may seem like current trends — interest rates, especially — are disadvantaging both homebuyers and sellers these days. There are some interesting trends emerging, though. April has seen an uptick in the number of historic homes for sale. It’s largely seasonal, of course, but the sheer number of homes coming onto the market seems greater than the typical spring upturn.

At the same time, competition among buyers is becoming more common. This month, 14 historic-home sales have closed at prices above asking prices, eight of them in Forsyth County. Compared to recent years, that’s a lot. (There also have been a few closings with conspicuously lower prices than listed. There’s more to say about that next time.) Here are eight of the houses that have sold significantly above their asking prices this month, plus the big winner of the year, which closed at 67 percent over its asking price in January. Click on the links for more information.

The Most Intriguing Historic-Home Sale So Far in 2024 Was Quite Discreet

July 16, 2024

The most impressive historic home sold in the Triad this year may be the 1920’s Tudor Revival mansion in Winston-Salem designed by Charles Barton Keen for Dr. Frederick Moir Hanes and Elizabeth Peck Hanes. It’s definitely the most intriguing. It was a very private sale; the house wasn’t listed publicly. It sold for $1.84 million in April. It hadn’t been for sale since 1972.

Frederick Hanes was one of the most distinguished members of the Hanes family, though he never worked in the family businesses started by his father and uncle. Fred was a highly accomplished physician and teacher and a major figure at Duke in the 1930s and ’40s. He headed the department of medicine at the medical school and was chief physician at Duke Hospital. Betty, a former nurse, was greatly involved with the nursing school. “Betty Hanes was really a great person,” Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans said.

Fred’s influence at Duke extended beyond the med school. The Sarah P. Duke Gardens were his idea.

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.

The 8 Most Interesting Historic Homes Sold in May

June 5, 2024

Farmhouses, mansions, bungalows — May was an interesting month. The most notable historic homes sold in the Triad last month include a grand 1900 house in Sanford (and I know that Sanford is a bit of a stretch, but the house is worth looking at), a strikingly well preserved 1926 farmhouse in Rockingham County and an 1880 church in Pinebluff. A Winston-Salem mansion, a Greensboro Queen Anne and three diverse bungalows round out the best of the month.

An Eye-Catching 1940 Cottage in Winston-Salem’s Ardmore Historic District, $250,000

May 26, 2023

The Long-Robbins House at 626 Knollwood Street in Winston-Salem is an almost-perfect-looking little 1940 cottage. Get rid of that aluminum screen door, and the exterior is about as charming as any you’ll find.

Among listings in the Ardmore Historic District these days, the $250,000 price is a real attention-getter. It reflects the relatively small size, 1,426 square feet. That comes out to $175 per square foot, which puts it in line with other bungalows and cottages for sale in the neighborhood.

Here Are 9 Historic Homes Listed in the Past 10 Days That Are Already Under Contract

February 8, 2023

Update: Eight of the houses had sold by March 30, 2023. The other owner had accepted three offers but all had fallen through by the end of March. Two of the houses were put on sale again at higher prices within three weeks of their closings.

Is something going on? The real estate market slowed to a crawl late last year, but it looks like spring might be quite a bit busier. Nine historic homes listed since January 30 are already under contract. The properties include a stately $950,000 home in Winston-Salem’s Buena Vista neighborhood and a $50,000 restoration project in Thomasville, a 1918 bungalow in Greensboro’s Fisher Park Historic District and a 1972 Mid-Century Modern home at the Bermuda Run Country Club.

Twenty-two homes have been added to the site in the last 10 days, so it’s not like everything out there is being grabbed up in just a few days. But the pace does seem to be picking up, right in the middle of winter. Here, in no particular order, are the nine new listings suddenly spoken for:

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.

Today’s Special: Historic Homes Under $200,000

May 14, 2022

I’m not sure what the cutoff is for “affordable” these days when it comes to buying a home. What I do know is that older homes are becoming more unaffordable every day, like every other sort of home. So it caught my eye when a little group of at least relatively affordable homes popped up this week. They’ll probably sell quickly — one already has, in a single day — but their appearance on the market does confirm that such houses exist.

None of these appear to require major restoration work. They’re all essentially move-in ready, as far as one can judge from the listings. They’re mostly smaller places in smaller towns. For the moment, at least, these look like the best opportunities for buyers looking for affordable historic homes in the Piedmont Triad.

Piedmont Historic Homes

Historic homes for sale in the Piedmont Triad

Tag: Winston-Salem