The Gate City and the Motor City enjoy some similarities in terms of history and architecture. Today, the Gate City might benefit from a few lessons to learn from Detroit as it reinvents itself using its Twentieth-century industrial heritage. The Motor City is legendary as a manufacturing center. In the 1890s the city was known…
Greensboro’s earliest buildings rarely soared to dizzying heights due to low market demand and frugal financial capital. Traditional building materials such as wood and brick generally limited construction height to three stories, except for an occasional courthouse cupola or church spire. Early images of Greensboro’s skyline show structures peeking around treetops, with rare architectural features…
Ten years ago, the Preservation Greensboro Development Fund found new footing. Since that time, the Fund has been involved in a series of notable projects ranging from relocating bungalows, rescuing fire-damaged houses, and reviving a nineteenth century saloon. In doing so, it has forged creative partnerships with neighborhoods, local governments, private foundations, businesses, individuals, and…
Greensboro’s preservation community gathered on February 7th 2018 to celebrate the past year, and to hear insights on history and architecture by O.Henry Editor Jim Dodson. The group met in a new historical venue – Color Works Meeting Space at Revolution Mill. The meeting was the 52nd Annual Meeting of Preservation Greensboro Incorporated. During a…
Vigilant denizens and fans of Fisher Park have noticed the unthinkable in their neighborhood. An historic Eugene Street cottage was razed and is being replaced with new construction…without any design review through the Historic Preservation Commission. What’s going on here? Fisher Park is thought to be one of the most restrictive communities in the city…
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…