Piedmont Historic Homes

927apple

927 Apple Street SW, Winston-Salem
The Charles and Martha Hanes House
Listing withdrawn May 25, 2022; relisted July 27, 2023
Listing withdrawn September 21, 2023; relisted February 21, 2024
Sale pending April 26 to May 14, 2024
Listing withdrawn May 14, 2024; relisted September 3, 2025
Listing withdrawn February 24, 2026

• $310,000 (originally $229,500, later as low as $210,000 and as high as $345,000)
• 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 2,130 square feet, 0.19 acre
• Price/square foot: $146
• Built in 1885
• Listed April 7, 2022
• Last sale: $142,500, February 2021
• Neighborhood: West Salem Historic District (NRHP)
• Note: Vinyl siding, replacement windows
  • Now either apartments or a boarding house (listing isn’t clear).
  • The house was sold in 2000, 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2021. The current out-of-state owner listed it for sale again 14 months after buying it.
  • The house was next-door to the 1-acre-plus Apple Green City Farm (now a large empty lot) and is just around the corner from Carolina University (formerly Piedmont Bible Institute, 1946-2012, and Piedmont International University, 2012-20).
  • Homes on Apple Street first appear in the city directory in 1894, but without house numbers. Charles L. Hanes (1868-1900) was listed on Apple Street that year (no occupation listed). His widow, Martha Alice Binkley Hanes (1865-1948), was listed at 927 Apple in 1902, and she apparently lived there the rest of her life. Her obituary in 1948 showed her address as 927 Apple.
• District NRHP nomination: “I-house. Two story; side gable; single pile; rear ell; one-over-one replacement windows; vinyl siding; hip-roof porch; turned posts; sawn brackets.”

225 E. Monmouth Street, Winston-Salem
Listing withdrawn February 10, 2026

• $150,000 (originally $165,000)
• 3 bedrooms, 1 1/2 bathrooms, 1,144 square feet, 0.11 acre
• Price/square foot: $131
• Built in 1927 (per county, but probably a year earlier; see note)
• Listed February 11, 2025
• Last sale: $123,000, March 2006
• Neighborhood: Sunnyside-Central Terrace Historic District (NR)
• District NR nomination: “Two-story hip-roof Foursquare with hip-roof dormer; vinyl siding; replacement one-over one windows; hip-roof porch with replacement posts and brackets.”
  • The address was first listed in the city directory in 1926 with Robert Ollie Denny (1892-1939) and Minnie Kiger Denny (1897-1987) as residents. Robert was a plant supervisor for N.C. Public Service Company. They were listed at another address in 1934.

418acadia

418 Acadia Avenue, Winston-Salem
The Charles and Emma Crews House
Listing withdrawn February 7, 2026

• $495,000 (originally $550,000)
• 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2,657 square feet, 0.37 acre
• Price/square foot: $186
• Built in 1900
• Listed September 11, 2025
• Last sale: $40,000, April 2019
• Neighborhood: Washington Park Historic District (NR)
• Note: In 2018, the house was donated to Preservation Forsyth, which sold it to the current owners. The house is protected by a preservation easement held by Preservation Forsyth.
• District NR nomination: “Large frame house with projecting semi-octagonal bay and modified turret roof; interior chimneys with corbelling and caps. One-story hipped-roof wrap porch supported by classical columns. 1/1 sash, metal shingle roofs. Asbestos siding [now replaced].
  • “City directories show Crews [Charles Anderson Crews, 1868-1952], a tile manufacturer and farmer, and wife Emma L. [Emma Louisa “Lula” Hall Crews, 1866-1941] here by 1921 … Crews was in the concrete pipe business, had a pipe plant on his land which extended to Freeman Street near W. Sprague, and made concrete pipes for storm sewers.
  • “Behind his house was a large barn which he built out of cement bricks, and big draft horses used to deliver the pipes when city was laying and paving streets.” The business went bankrupt during the Depression. By 1932 he was identified in the city directory as a farmer.
  • “His daughter Florence [Florence Summers Crews Miller, 1901-1998] and her husband Paul Miller lived in the house (they had also lived in #416). The barn burned in the 1940s or 1950s.” Paul Felix Miller (1898-1982) was in the sand and gravel business. One of their daughters donated the house to Preservation Forsyth in 2018.
  • “Interestingly, several architects lived in Washington Park. Hall Crews [Dennis Hall Crews, 1894-1966] grew up at 418 Acadia Avenue, studied architecture at Columbia University and joined a New York firm. He later worked for a while in [Willard] Northup’s firm, was licensed in 1923 and practiced from the house at 418 Acadia for many years.
  • “Crews designed Augsburg Lutheran Church in the West End neighborhood in 1926, and the Modern Chevrolet building in the International style in 1947. He is said to have designed Schlatter Memorial Church, a Gothic Revival style brick building completed at 236 Banner Avenue in 1920; however, this should be confirmed as Crews did not become a registered architect until 1923.”
  • Crews later moved his office to the Reynolds Building, the “Little Empire State Building.” His design for Ardmore Elementary School won an AIA North Carolina Award in 1931. He also designed homes in styles including Mid-Century Modern. Some of his work:

5530 Linch Road, Whisett, Guilford County
Listing withdrawn January 12, 2025; relisted July 15, 2025
Listing withdrawn February 2, 2026

• $2.5 million (originally $2.975 million)
• 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 3,538 square feet, 89.65 acres
• Price/square foot: $707
• 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.

315 N. Spruce Street, Apartment 307, Winston-Salem
Listing withdrawn February 1, 2026

• $229,000 (originally $249,000)
• 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom, 939 square feet
• Price/square foot: $244
• Built in 1924
• Listed June 30, 2025
• Last sale: $137,500, July 2019
• HOA: $317/month

209wbessemer

209 W. Bessemer Avenue, Greensboro
The Edward and Elizabeth Wills House
Listing withdrawn December 1, 2025; relisted December 5, 2025
Sale pending December 17, 2025, to January 21, 2026
Listing withdrawn January 21, 2026

• $795,000 (originally $875,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, 3,412 square feet, 0.30 acre
• Price/square foot: $233
• Built in 1924
• Listed August 29, 2025
• Last sales: $ $679,900, June 2021; $230,000, July 1996
• Neighborhood: Fisher Park Historic District (local and NR)
• Note: The property includes an in-ground pool, an amenity rarely found in historic districts (the 2021 listing said it was a saltwater pool), also a freshwater spa and a koi pond.
  • The listing calls Fisher Park “Greensboro’s oldest neighborhood.” It’s not. College Hill is the city’s oldest neighborhood. It’s always a good idea to deal with real-estate agents who actually know what they’re talking about.
• District NR nomination: “Col Rev foursquare, 1920-25, E.S. Wills, Pres., Wills Book Stationary Co; VP, Gboro Real Estate Bd, Sec/trs, Matheson-Wills Real Estate Co”
  • Edward Swain Wills (1874-1947) and Elizabeth Crawford Wills (1888-1978) were listed at the address in 1924, the first year it appeared in the city directory. They lost the house to foreclosure in 1934 but were able to buy a house in Westerwood just a few months later. When Edward died, they were living at 309 McIver Street, a location that is now part of the Sullivan Science Building at UNC Greensboro.
  • Edward started Wills Book & Stationery downtown in 1904 after working for the Cape Fear & Yadkin Valley Railroad. It survived well into the ’90s, then located at Four Seasons mall. The company also had at least one store out of town for many years, in Raleigh at the North Hills Shopping Center. He operated his real estate business from 1917 to 1943, in partnership with Junius Matheson, former professor of education at the N.C. College for Women, until Matheson’s death in 1929.
  • Edward was a charter member of Grace Methodist Church and served as choir director for 30 years. He was a 27-year member of the local Red Cross board.