Bungalow Where Many Businesses Started

The Crutchfield House has served several families – from home to boarding house, and back to a home – over its 100 years of existence.

The house was likely constructed in 1914 by Rebecca (1881-1958) and James Monroe Crutchfield (1884-1945). As a boy, Crutchfield moved from Alamance County to Greensboro with his family. His father was a farmer and real estate investor. He married Rebecca Pearl Trotter in 1913, and the pair purchased the site of their home on Cypress Street in April 1914 for $400. The Crutchfields owned a plumbing, heating, and repair business, as evidenced by an advertisement published in 1917:

The business has been established since the first of January 1917, and Mr. J. M. Crutchfield is the sole proprietor. Although this is a comparatively new company in this special field of industry in Greensboro, yet the concern is steadily forging ahead and has already secured important contracts, one of which is Dr. J. W. Long’s new hospital. Mr. Crutchfield needs no introduction to the people of Greensboro as he was born and reared in this city and is well known in every quarter.”

Just a few years later, the Crutchfields sold their Cypress Street property to Arah and Ralph B. Stuart in 1917. Ralph Stuart was a clerk at the Tuxedo Cigar Store at the time he and Arah moved into the home. Margaret and Samuel Gordon West acquired the property in 1930. The West family was instrumental in founding the lumber wholesale company Pegram – West. R. C. Tilley purchased the house in 1961 and operated the property as a boarding house through a house manager by the name of Miss Charlotte.

The Crutchfield House is an early example of Craftsman architecture, featuring Asian-inspired pagoda-like rooflines, exposed rafter tails, a welcoming front porch, and large windows that admit copious amounts of sunlight. The floor plan includes a living room and dining room separated by battered posts and an unusual back hallway with rooms that may at one time have been rented.  The current large kitchen was created by combining several rooms and the pack porch.