Greensboro, once considered a bastion of new construction and sprawl, has emerged as North Carolina’s Preservation City. A diversity of preservation projects are currently underway or planned in every quarter of the city, representing more than $200 million of private investment in Greensboro. Seven of the projects, including the largest, leverage state and federal historic preservation…
A concerned citizen notified Preservation Greensboro staff that a demolition permit had been issued on May 3 for the former Christian Advocate Publishing Company Building (now owned by an entity controlled by Greensboro’s Masonic Temple) at 429 W. Friendly Avenue downtown. This discovery set into a motion a frantic rush to avert demolition of the…
“Fisher Park was the first Greensboro suburb planned and developed around a park and one of the earliest park suburbs in North Carolina.” – Marvin Brown, 1991 Captain Basil John Fisher was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1851. Little is known of his life before his military career. He was a member of the 5th…
Hillside sits at the head of the table that is Fisher Park at 301 Fisher Park Circle. Begun in 1928 and completed in the spring of 1929, the sprawling residence evokes a rambling English Tudor manor. The house is among a group of Greensboro houses that express the craftsmanship, design talent, and vast wealth that…
The Minnie Lyon and Frank Leak house at 909 North Elm Street was built in 1913, and was designed by one of Greensboro’s esteemed architects, J.H. Hopkins. It has been vacant and a victim of neglect for the past ten years. It is more memorable to some for the temporary supports that buttress the front…
Standing prominently on its hilltop lot, the Julius R. Pitts House at 114 West Bessemer Avenue is a classic example of Colonial Revival architecture. In March 1927, the Greensboro Daily News reported, “J.R. Pitts will build a $19,000 residence on the northeast corner of Bessemer Avenue and Carolina Street. The house will have nine rooms…
Slated for demolition as recently as 2010, the Sweeney-Penn House at 910 Magnolia Street was completely restored by its current owners. Today, it is an exceptional example of Craftsman architecture, emblematic of the rehabilitation that continues in Fisher Park. Margaret (Madge) and William LeRoy (Roy) Sweeney were natives of Nashville, Tennessee. The couple married in…
The Leak House was built in 1913 according to plans drawn by one of Greensboro’s most esteemed architects, J. H. Hopkins. It has been vacant for the past ten years, and has been the victim of neglect. It has become more memorable for the temporary supports that buttress the front porch, than for its architectural presence.
The Greensboro Passenger Station at 236 East Washington Street was built in 1927 according to plans provided by New York architects Alfred Fellheimer & Steward Wagner. The firm held associations with New York’s Grand Central Terminal and Cincinnati Union Terminal. At the time of construction, Greensboro had outgrown the smaller passenger station on Elm Street. In…
Celebrating its 50th year of service to the community, members and friends of Preservation Greensboro gathered last night at the O.Henry Hotel for its Golden Jubilee. The keynote speaker for the evening was James Perry, president and CEO of the Winston-Salem Urban League. A Greensboro native, Perry played a key role in the Preservation Resource…
The Carrie and Charles Angle House at 919 Spring Garden Street in College Hill was saved from demolition through a partnership between the College Hill Neighborhood Association, the 1772 Foundation, the Covington Foundation, the City of Greensboro, and the Preservation Greensboro Development Fund. The home is an excellent example of an American Foursquare with Colonial…
Francis Marion Pickett saw opportunity in the rapid expansion of the textile industry in the South in the earliest years of the twentieth century. His hometown, High Point, had all of the necessary requirements to start a local mill: plenty of electricity, access to the railroad, and a large pool of available workers. Though the…