Great news appears in the works with a long-time Treasured Places Watch List property: The Pilot Life Insurance Campus in Sedgefield. Kisco Senior Living, a California company, purchased the site last year. Since then, news has been scarce about whether the historic buildings would be a part of the new community. Behind the scenes, however,…
DetailsLast evening, the City of Greensboro Planning Department held a public meeting for input on the proposed downtown design manual. The manual has been a multiple-year effort assembled by a citizen committee composed of developers, civic leaders, city-staff, downtown property owners, and nonprofit professionals. In developing plans, the committee reviewed similar initiatives in cities as far-reaching…
DetailsThe sounds of hammers and saws were commonplace in Greensboro during the 1890s as the Gate City grew from a village to one of North Carolina’s largest cities by the turn-of-the-twentieth century. Aside from population growth, many key institutions that remain icons of the city, including North Carolina A&T, UNCG, and Revolution Mills, were established…
DetailsOnly 311 miles separate Greensboro from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC, but despite the relatively short distance between the two places, Greensboro shares a chapter of history with the history of the White House. The link is found in the career of one of the most influential architects in the history of the White…
DetailsAn architectural style called Brutalism? Just what were they thinking? Without a trained eye, Brutalist buildings are aptly named. Hard concrete walls, minimal windows, harsh lines and a scarcity of decoration are hallmarks of the style. Greensboro has several notable examples of the style, including the Governmental Plaza (image, upper right), arguably the best example of…
DetailsOne of Greensboro’s most interesting historic houses is getting a major makeover. The William Fields House at 447 Arlington Street near Southside was constructed between 1875 and 1879 (image, right). The two-story brick structure was designed in the Gothic Revival style of architecture, an unusual theme in the American South where steep-pitched roofs and narrow…
DetailsWhat’s your North Carolina architectural IQ? Who is your favorite local architect or builder? Chances are, your IQ will skyrocket and your favorite designers will multiply after visiting the new Biographical Dictionary of Architects and Builders in North Carolina website. The effort to record biographies of Tar Heel architects began during the research for the…
DetailsA touchstone to Greensboro’s commercial past now enjoys an extra level of recognition…and protection. Last night, the Meyer’s Department Store building at the corner of South Elm Street and February One Place was designated as a Guilford County Landmark Property by the Greensboro City Council. The owner-requested designation was unanimously approved by council following a…
DetailsHigh Point has quite a few notable textbook examples of residential architecture. The Wilson House at 425 Hillcrest Drive is a rendition of the landmark home known as Tudor Place in the Georgetown section of Washington DC. The Zollicoffer House at 1207 Johnson Street (image, right) studiously follows the design philosophy of Frank Lloyd Wright.…
DetailsThe North State Milling Company at 816 South Elm Street is an excellent example of an early twentieth-century industrial site. The company was founded in 1912 and manufactured plain and self-rising corn meal and flour, hen scratch, bran, and feed for livestock. Grain was brought to the site by truck and by rail where it…
DetailsAny building with the scale, history, and gravitas of the L. Richardson Preyer Federal Building on Market Street has a few stories to tell. With a recent Insider Tour sponsored by Preservation Greensboro, a few interesting secrets long forgotten were revealed about the stature and past of the building. Architectural historians consider the structure to…
DetailsSally Quinn’s heartfelt essay about her foray into historic preservation reminds us of the value of place, history, and authenticity. Her East Hampton, New York home, Grey Gardens, is the setting of a recent HBO film about the life of its previous inhabitants…inspired by a now-cultish classic documentary from 1975. “The first thing the contractor said was, “It…
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