Greensboro grew and prospered in the nineteenth century due to its location at the intersection of two major transportation routes; the north-south road from Virginia to Fayetteville; and the east west railroad that connected Charlotte to the seaport of Morehead City. The Fayetteville Road is known today as Battleground Avenue north of downtown, Elm Street…
Greensboro’s newspapers covered a cross section of topics in the 1920s. Specifically, in November of 1925, coverage featured rumors of politics, an advertisement for the new 14-story Greensboro Bank and Trust office building, and an announcement of an Open House planned for the Sunset Hills neighborhood. However, few topics filled pages more than efforts to…
The Preservation Greensboro Development Fund has sold the Sweeney – Penn House at 910 Magnolia Street in the Fisher Park neighborhood. The house was purchased by Cheryl Pratt and Tracy Pratt, AIA and stands as one of Greensboro’s best examples of Craftsman design. The couple will commence a meticulous restoration of the property that has…
Greensboro is a city endowed with numerous treasured places, yet from time to time, some of these places are threatened with destruction. Redevelopment, facility expansion, inappropriate new development, and even neglect are themes in 2011 that cause concern among citizens who value places that hold unique personality and character. The Treasured Places Watch List was…
The dates and the locations are different, but the scenarios are strikingly similar. In both cases, large wood-frame homes constructed in the earliest years of the twentieth century occupy prominent corner lots at the edge of each city’s premiere streetcar suburb. In both cases, houses are located across the street from each city’s respective First…
City Council reversed the Zoning Commission’s approval to rezone property near the corner of North Elm and Cornwallis Drive to allow for condos, but questions linger over the future of the Commencement House, an historic property of modern design and historic significance. The rezoning request for the property would have cleared the way for two…
Recently, preservationists and neighbors close to the historic Commencement House at 2207 North Elm Street learned that a rezoning request had been filed for four properties along Elm Street and Cornwallis Drive. Real estate developer John Stratton anticipates requesting the property to be rezoned to CD-RS12 and removing all the homes on the properties, including…
Joe Killian reports good news from UNCG related to the historic Quad! The Quad is composed of several building, many of which are among the oldest on the UNCG campus. An aannouncement earlier this year indicated interest in destroying the Quad with replacement by much larger buildings that copied the orginals. Preservationists, including alumni and…
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,…
The future of the Holleman House in Fisher Park does not look promising, but some who rally in support of Greensboro’s historic places remain cautiously optimistic. The 100-year-old house is located at the Greene Street entrance to the Fisher Park Historic District. The house was once part of an intact block-face of equally historic homes…
UNCG’s university quad, our classic American ballpark, Greensboro’s grandest house, and a mid-twentieth-century modern icon represent just a few of the diverse sites named to the Preservation Greensboro’s 2009 Treasured Places Watch List. This list, released this week in Landmarks newsmagazine, profiles the Gate City’s most endangered historic sites. The 2009 List recognizes the diversity of architecture…
The voter’s rejection last month of a bond package to rescue Greensboro’s stadium built as a memorial to World War veterans has sent those dedicated to saving the 80 year old monument scratching their heads. How can the city-owned structure be conserved and reused with little in the way of appropriated funds, especially in a tight economy. More…