Greensboro's Treasured Places

Will The Pomona Cotton Mill Be Landfill?

The Pomona Mill located at the corner of Spring Garden at Merritt Drive, appears to be headed for destruction.

The history of the mill dates back to 1897, when construction began on the complex for the Hunter Manufacturing and Commission Company. Later, this company was renamed Pomona Cotton Mill. Its simple two- and three-story, brick buildings stood alongside the main railroad tracks to Winston-Salem. Several wings were added to the original structure throughout the 1910s. Its style of architecture was found throughout the American South, and related Greensboro visually to other textile towns across the region.

Changing dynamics in the textile industry caused the mill operations to close in the 1950s. In the 1970s the sprawling complex was adaptively reused as an outlet mall, among the first examples of adaptive reuse of historic buildings in the city of Greensboro. Cotton Mill Square, as the mall was known, contained dozens of stores, including Linens 'n Things, Famous Footwear, Dress Barn, and Burlington Coat Factory.

Pomona Cotton Mill was listed to Preservation Greensboro's Treasured Places Watch List in 2005. In recent years, the building has been neglected by its current owner. The deteriorated condition of the complex illustrates the practice of "Demolition By Neglect", a process in which owners of historic buildings deliberately allow the structure to fall into a poor state of repair, to the point that demolition becomes an accepted remedy. The process is detrimental to the preservation of our environmental resources, the cultural resources associated with the building, Greensboro's efforts to reduce landfill material, neighboring land values, and the city's tax base.

The property had the potential to take a high-profile role as student housing integrated into the newly dedicated bicycle route along Spring Garden Street to the UNCG campus. The site was listed on Preservation Greensboro's Treasured Places Watch List in 2007. Likely eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, redevelopment could be done in a way that would secure federal and state historic preservation tax credits that would amount to 40% of the project's costs. For the city of Greensboro, the loss of this redevelopment opportunity and recuperation of these credits is money left on the table.

Though its history is little appreciated by some, this example of Greensboro's industrial history illustrates an important chapter in how the city grew to become one of the largest cities in North Carolina. Time will tell how this chapter of history will turn out, but it certainly does not look positive.

NOTE 2/20/08: Greensboro might be losing a landmark property, but the site's owner is doing quite well, with sales of $200,000 per truckload.

Is Historic Preservation Greensboro’s Ticket to Success?

Over the past year, the board and staff of Preservation Greensboro have held a number of workshops and focus groups to evaluate the impact of the organization on issues critical to Greensboro, including safe and affordable housing, neighborhood redevelopment, and conservation of our resources. The organization has developed a three-pronged focus towards its mission of saving Greensboro’s historic and architectural treasures that includes education, advocacy, and economic development. In light of this effort, the importance of cultivating our existing Revolving Fund has emerged as an obvious and effective catalyst to effect change in all three areas.

Preservation Greensboro has had a revolving fund since 1988, when it was created as apart of the “Our Heritage, Our Future” Capital Campaign. Revolving Funds are a body of funds in which properties can be acquired – to be resold back to the private sector with restrictive covenants attached. Thanks to efforts of the Fund, the Daniel P. Foust House, the Bumpass-Troy House, and the N. A. Hanner House were all saved from the landfill. With these great successes under our belt, how can we build the Fund to accomplish even more? Can the Fund play a part in growing Greensboro's tax base through securing its neighborhoods to redefine the Gate City's image for the twenty-first century?

Help is on the way! With over 25 years of experience in managing the Providence Preservation Society Revolving Fund, Clark Schoettle, will show Greensboro how we can proceed in terms of building our own active Revolving Fund. The Providence Revolving Fund has built a national reputation of revitalization and neighborhood improvement by purchasing and developing 50 historic properties. In the process, the organization has cultivated home ownership, low-income housing, industrial mill conversions, and housing for artists. These and other successful programs offered in Providence deserve a careful look by the Greensboro preservation community.

Everyone is invited to join us for annual meeting, and to explore ways that Greensboro can learn from Providence to preserve architectural heritage and stimulate community revitalization through advocacy, lending, technical assistance, and revitalization in historic areas.

Hosted at the historic Revolution Mill, the evening will include cocktails at 6pm, followed by dinner catered by Maria’s and a presentation by Schoettle. Tickets are $40 per person, and sponsorship tables of eight are available for $450. Please contact Judi Kaster by email, or by telephone 336-272-5003 for reservations.

What? Preservation Revolution! Preservation Greensboro’s Bold New Vision

Who? Clark Schoettle of the Providence Preservation Society Revolving Fund

When? Tuesday, February 12th, 2008 • 6:00pm

Where? The Event Center at Revolution Mill, 1000 Revolution Mill Drive in Greensboro

Guilford Landmarks in the Making

Two historic properties were approved for consideration for local landmark designation this week by the Guilford County Historic Preservation. Both properties received unanimous support for recognition and protection by county government.

Built in 1900, the W. T. “Tom” Kirkman House is located at 415 West High Street in downtown High Point. The Kirkman House is important as the oldest house in downtown High Point that stands on its original foundation. Around the corner, the Nettie Brown House is just a few years older, but it was relocated when a new showroom threatened its destruction in 2004. The Kirkman House stands as one of the earliest examples of Colonial Revival architecture in High Point.

As the nineteenth century drew to a close, many of High Point’s most prominent citizens returned to the simpler lines of the historic Georgian and Federal styles for architectural inspiration. Popularized by the Centennial Exposition of 1876, Colonial Revival designs were widely embraced in central North Carolina by the turn of the twentieth century. The Colonial Revival brought back to High Point the clean lines, boxy forms, and uncomplicated rooflines that the region enjoyed less than fifty years earlier, and in this sense the style was less a revival and more a continuation of traditional building styles and designs that had never completely disappeared.

The Kirkman House sits prominently above the North Carolina Railroad tracks, and features a wrap-around porch with turned posts, a central gable with a fanlight window, simple trim, and clapboard siding. Many interior details remain preserved, such as a wide central greeting hall, ten-foot high ceilings, oak floors, original wooden doors, wooden baseboards and a decorative spindle frieze above the landing of the main staircase.

Tom Kirkman and his wife Laura Coffin figured prominently in High Point in 1900 when the house was constructed. Kirkman was a leading merchant in the city. Later, in the 1920s, Kirkman organized with other civic leaders to establish High Point College (later University) in the city. Though the Kirkman House was badly deteriorated after years of use as a boarding house, it was restored in 1986 for use as office space. Today the house is owned by Dorothy Gay and Joey Darr who live nearby. Protective easements have been attached to the deed to ensure future stewardship of the property, and the building contributes to the local and National Register district designations recently awarded to the West High Street neighborhood.

The second property inducted to the Guilford County historic property roster stands at 106 Fisher Park Circle near downtown Greensboro. The Douglas-Ravenel House was constructed in 1912; among the earliest houses in the Fisher Park neighborhood. Occupying a high south-facing lot overlooking the wooded park, the Douglas-Ravenel House is one of the best residential examples of Neoclassical Revival architecture in Greensboro.

The imposing, two-story house is constructed of brick, and features a tall Tuscan portico topped by a gridded demilune window. The front entryway is topped by a full entablature and is flanked by sidelights. Louvered shutters, boxwood foundation plantings and mature trees round out the ensemble.

The house was built by R. D. (Bob) Douglas Sr. and his wife Virginia. Douglas was an attorney and trust officer with Greensboro Bank and Trust. The couple and their four children lived in the home until the crash of 1932, when the Greensboro Bank was declared insolvent and was shut down by Bank Examiners. The family moved temporarily to a simple board shack in rural Guilford County, and Bob Douglas returned the family to good fortune through his private practice as an attorney.

From 1932 until 1940, the house was operated briefly as the residence of the president of Greensboro College. The College sold the property to Katharine and Samuel F. Ravenel, who lived in the house until 1970. The house has received a great deal of attention in recent years having been restored by current residents Stephen Dull and William Baites. Their work won a Restoration Award by Preservation Greensboro in 2006.

Both the Kirkman House and the Douglas-Ravenel House portray important periods of Guilford County history, and represent styles popular during their periods of construction. With designation, the properties will be better protected from poorly conceived alterations that might diminish their authenticity and significance. The Landmark program, initiated as part of America’s Bicentennial in 1976, has protected almost 90 properties throughout Guilford County since it was established in 1980.

Winter Landmarks in the Mail

For those who are members of Preservation Greensboro, look for Landmarks in your mailbox. The Winter 2008 issue features a cover page detailing the Gate City;s first skyscraper -- the Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Building in downtown, and includes an edited version of Blair Kamin’s important talk on the importance of architecture to the Gate City. Other highlights include:

• The terminology of an architectural cornice
• the work of volunteers with Architectural Salvage of Greensboro
• Details of our May tour of Biltmore Estate in Asheville
• a synopsis of the Edgeworth Female Seminary (a nineteenth-century Greensboro institution)
• PGI’s annual report for 2007

Thanks to those who contributed to this issue, including Gunnar Froman, Daniel Craft, Anne Stringfield, Ashley Poteat, Blair Kamin, Faye Laverty, Judi Kastner, and our designer extraordinaire Leigh Cladakis. Landmarks is printed quarterly, and can be delivered to your door as a benefit of membership to PGI for as little as $25 annually. Preservation Greensboro is the only city-wide advocate for historic preservation and architecture. We hope you will join us in saving Greensboro’s most treasured places. Future issues will profile the work of our active revolving fund and the upcoming archaeological dig at Blandwood Mansion!

The Davis Code: Investigating Architecture at Blandwood

When constructed in 1844 -1846, A. J. Davis’s charmingly Spartan façade for Blandwood was groundbreaking not only for North Carolina, but for the United States. Researchers long ago established that Blandwood was among the earliest, if not the earliest, residence designed in the Tuscan style (there was no Italy in 1844 – Tuscany was a recognized as an independent state) in America. It’s construction and publication in a popular book entitled A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening by Andrew Jackson Downing initiated a nationwide admiration for things Italian. It influenced American architectural style for decades by introducing features such as prospect towers, wide overhanging eaves, and low-pitched rooflines to the lexicon of Victorian design for the next fifty years.

Less explored are the architectural antecedents that influenced the form of Blandwood’s façade. Building forms and aesthetics spoke to the period’s classically trained minds, and influenced their perceptions and associations of the house. Like the mysteries exemplified in Dan Brown’s 2003 novel “The DaVinci Code,” Davis incorporated unspoken codes and associations into the façade of Governor Morehead’s mansion that evoked ancient ideals of perfection and harmony.

Born in 1803, Davis developed an eye for aesthetics early in life, trading his toys for a set of paints and illustrating views of cities. At the age of twenty, he moved to New York where he honed his drawing and drafting abilities by enrolling in the Antique School, an informal assembly of painters and sculptors. Increasingly, Davis grew interested in classically inspired buildings, demonstrated through a composition entitled “view through a monumental Greek portico” of ca. 1828-1830, and a “Design for an Academy of Arts” of the same period depicting a building based on Greek temple-form plans. His interest was fueled by observing illustrations in popular architectural books and by keeping scrapbooks of prints and drawings of early European architecture. In 1829, Davis was invited to become the partner of established architect and engineer Ithiel Town, and the two immediately won prestigious commissions in and around New York City.

Davis was introduced to North Carolina through Robert Donaldson, a wealthy New Yorker and North Carolina native who was a patron of Town and Davis. Their firm was commissioned to design several buildings in the state, including the North Carolina State Capitol in Raleigh, and additions to the campus of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. In both cases, new and progressive designs inspired from ancient classical architecture were brought to the state for the first time.

Governor John Motley Morehead sought Davis’ suggestions for an addition to his traditional fifty-year-old frame residence “Blandwood” on the outskirts of Greensboro. According to Davis’ detailed diary, the two men rode by Morehead’s impressive carriage to Greensboro on February 3, 1844 where spent three days with the Governor making careful observations of the house, its site, and its potential.

In contrast to many of Davis’ commissions that were often executed by request through mail, Morehead and Davis were able to articulate their expectations and collaborate on ideas for the new wing to Blandwood over the course of their stay. It is likely that both men came to the site with strong ideas, but the mutual respect illustrated by their long friendship encouraged compromise in the final plans for the design of the structure. Though correspondence continued between the two for months, letters on file at Blandwood indicate the content of communication was on details of windows locks, hardware and doorknobs; indicative that the composition of the façade had been finalized (image, right).

The plans Davis developed for Blandwood are based on ancient principles based on three’s, otherwise known as the tripartite theme. The tripartite theme is quite extensive at Blandwood, appearing in form, decoration, and proportion. For example, the main house and flanking dependencies create a tripartite ensemble, linked by arcades of three openings; the three-story, three-sided tower contains three-part windows and is a component of a three-bay composition. Even the chimney caps at Blandwood contain three opening from which smoke could pass. The three main chambers of Davis’ wing and three interior staircases simply add to the intriguing theme.

Davis did not invent the tripartite theme, rather, he likely adopted its logical principles from Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio (1508-1580). Palladio’s designs were widely celebrated by neoclassical architects of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, including Thomas Jefferson, Charles Bulfinch (Boston), and Robert Adam (United Kingdom), who studied a publication Palladio wrote in 1570 entitled Four Books on Architecture. The widely distributed book was translated into the primary European languages and reviewed materials, plans, and elevations of early Roman buildings, including temples, villas, bridges, and palaces, outlining the features of the formal Orders (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Tuscan), as well as proportion, and form. Palladio is remembered for what is known today as the Palladian window, featuring a central arch flanked by two narrow windows, often seen in Colonial Revival and Neoclassical Revival architecture in Greensboro. Palladian architecture often features tripartite themes, including hyphens, bays, and flanker wings as A. J. Davis designed for Blandwood. His designs and observations were valued for their classical reference, proportion and symbolism.

The symbolism of the number three was significant to Renaissance minds, who reveled in logic, science, and humanism. Tripartite themes were used to meld ancient Greco-Roman beliefs with Christianity. Where Greeks had three Fates, three Graces, three Gorgons, and three Furies, Christians had the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost of the Holy Trinity. The theme also carried into science and logic with three ideas of matter –mineral, vegetable, animal, three tenses –past, present, future, and the three divisions of mankind –spirit, soul, and body.

The perfection and harmony of the number three was a widely popular theme surely known by two great minds such as Davis and Morehead. During his three-day stay in Greensboro in 1844, the two men likely discussed and concocted how the new façade for Blandwood would look, and imbued the design of the residence with symbols that spoke of Morehead’s logic and sophistication. Blandwood was to be a showplace for North Carolina, no longer the Rip Van Winkle state but a progressive state with one foot in New York and the other firmly fixed in Europe. The Italianate style of the house, along with proportion, and the symmetry of threes would illustrate to the cultured visitor that North Carolina, Greensboro, and Governor Morehead were enjoying a Renaissance of their own.

Greensboro’s Grandest House: A Manor Befitting a Gentleman

Though the Triad contains the lion’s share of North Carolina’s sprawling estates built by early twentieth-century textile fortunes, few can match the size, quality, and design of Adamsleigh. The vast estate, located
in Greensboro’s Sedgefield neighborhood, consists of a sprawling 15,000 square foot manor house coupled with tennis courts, a caretakers cottage, a pond, two swimming pools and other outbuildings. Today, the manor house and its surrounding gardens are for sale and their future remains in question.

Adamsleigh was built for John Hampton “Hamp” Adams and his wife Elizabeth. Hamp Adams was a native of Adamsville, South Carolina and co-founder of Adams-Millis Corporation, the first company in High Point to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The family occupied a grand Italianate villa on North Main Street
(now occupied by the Adams Inn) before commissioning their Sedgefield House. Plans were drawn up in 1929, and finalized for construction the week of the October 29th “Black Tuesday” stock market crash. Upon completion, the family relocating from High Point to their Sedgefield estate they named “Adamsleigh” in 1931.

Adamsleigh was deigned by Luther Lashmit, a talented architect in the offices of Winston-Salem firm Northup-O’Brien. Lashmit was trained at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Tech and demonstrated skill in designing European-inspired homes for high-income clients. In High Point, he designed a Norman Revival mansion for hosiery baron Willis Slane and a Cotswold Tudor manor for hosiery manufacturer Comer Covington. In Winston-Salem, Lashmit’s best-known work is Graylyn, home of RJR president Bowman Gray. Adamsleigh is the only known work of Lashmit in Greensboro.

For Elizabeth and Hamp Adams, Lashmit chose an eclectic Renaissance-inspired English Tudor style architectural theme. The long L-shaped floor plan is embellished with a covered porte-cochere for arriving guests, a cylindrical stair tower topped by a conical roof, a classically-inspired entry-way to a flagstone terrace and lawn, and a stunning array of hand-forged wrought iron that graces windows, doors and a weathervane. Though the asymmetrical form of the house, wall-dormers, and random-patterned brickwork work to suggest medieval Tudor architecture, the use of rounded arches and classical limestone trim incorporate details commonly associated with the Renaissance period.

Interior appointments are equally eclectic, including intricate plaster-molded ceilings, Renaissance era mantles, and Art Deco suites for Adams’s two daughters that are evocative of a Hollywood movie set. The commodious floor plan includes a grand living room, library, sitting room, office, dining room, a suite of kitchens, guest suites, a master suite with sitting room, and a dormitory wing for a small army of staff. Evidence of 1930s-era technological advancements such as intercom, elevator, drinking fountains, and vacuum system confirm long-time resident Allen Watkin's observation that his father-in-law “expected only the best” at both home and work.

After Hamp Adams died in 1935, his daughter Elizabeth and her husband Allen Watkins called Adamsleigh home for decades. Watkins survived his wife and passed away in 2003. The estate has been little changed since the 1930s, and a majority of decorative treatments, finishes, and fixtures remain from the original
period of construction. The house had little wear and was exceptionally well-built, illustrated by the relative scarcity of water damage and deterioration.

The Adamsleigh estate is available for restoration through Lynn Black of Yost and Little. The restoration of this property may be eligible for income tax credits if designated through the National Register or property tax deferrals if landmarked through the Guilford Historic Preservation Commission. Hopefully one of Greensboro's grandest mansions will see grander days soon.

2007, the Year Greensboro Turned Cool?

Architecture enthusiasts have observed for some time that Greensboro’s progressive design prowess reveals itself in fits and starts. Periodically the avant-garde of North Carolina architecture (exemplified by A. J. Davis’s Blandwood 1844, Walter Gropius’s East Market Street Factory of 1944, and Odell Associates Burlington Industries Headquarters 1972 [destroyed]), some would opine that Greensboro has fallen into a slumber of boring design lately. While the rest of the world is experiencing a resurgence of exciting and dynamic architecture, they taunt, Greensboro has barely maintained the status quo in contemporary design.

However, if you know where to look, progress can be found in corners of the city to illustrate that Greensboro has not truly become Greensboring. The statistics look dim: the city did not win any of this year’s 5 Merit Awards or 5 Honor Awards issued by the American Institute of Architects North Carolina chapter, recognition that instead went to places such as Fayetteville, Charlotte, Elizabeth City, Mount Pleasant (SC), and Atlanta (GA). Raleigh received recognition for four of the ten awards in 2007. In spite of this record, progressive architecture (though often unrecognized professionally) can be found in the Gate City.

Proximity Hotel
This project at 704 Green Valley Road by the Quaintance-Weaver company is Greensboro’s most high-profile representation the global trend towards “green” design in architecture. The hotel’s design is evocative of mid-twentieth century textile mills, however this inspiration has been abstracted beyond “cut-and-paste” historicism to incorporate solar panels along the roofline and utilitarian elements including the main porte-cochere and a courtyard garden. The deeper significance of this project has been its adherence to guidelines of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System. ™ LEED is a standard for the design, construction, and operation of buildings that have a low impact on our natural resources. For example, some of the ways in which energy is conserved through building construction include utilization of solar energy to heat water, the use of large windows to utilize natural light, use of recycled building material, and use of high-efficiency Kohler plumbing fixtures. It is expected that the hotel will become a demonstration site for sustainable practices including tours and outreach programs for students of all ages.

Center City Park
While Center City Park at 200 North Elm Street incorporates themes and details inherent to Greensboro’s ecology and culture, it has also been designed to represent the city as a progressive and open place of diverse citizens. With local guidance through J. Hyatt Hammond Associates, Halvorson Design Partnership, Inc. of Boston was selected as lead park designer. The firm is known worldwide for innovative designs that are “place-making” and unique to their settings. This was accomplished by using native materials such as brick and granite, native trees and shrubs such as white oaks and pines, deigning a watercourse evocative of the Piedmont’s streams, and by incorporating works created by local and national artists in the park’s features. For example, Jim Cooper designed an urn fountain, Judy McKie created “bronze bird” benches, and Fred Johnston contributed works of pottery that represent the Piedmont’s folk pottery tradition. Center City Park is at once an authentic expression of early twenty-first century design that incorporates elements of Greensboro’s unique character and aspirations.

North Carolina A & T State University School of Education
The most notably progressive project in Greensboro in decades, the School of Education is currently rising in the 100 block of North Benbow Road on the eastern side of the A&T campus. Scheduled for occupancy in spring of 2008, the 64,000 square foot building was designed by Freelon Architects of Durham, and has already won recognition from the AIA Charlotte and the AIA North Carolina as a work in progress. The Education Building is organized into two parallel masses flanking a central atrium. The western mass primarily contains faculty offices, while the eastern wing contains classrooms. The classroom mass cantilevers over an adjacent plaza to define a gateway to the campus green. The central atrium is conceptually at the heart of the scheme and serves as the social hub of the building. This energetic building focuses to the future, not to the past, and is appropriately set within the context of a university campus that has long embraced architectural modernism.

New York Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff recently commented on New York’s once-faltering architectural prowess by saying “For decades I’ve been whining about how far New York has slipped behind other world cities in the support of serious architecture. While Abu Dhabi, Shanghai, Beijing and even Paris have been pushing the boundaries, churning out one adventurous building after another, our city was wallowing in a swamp of pseudohistoricism and corporate mediocrity that — to skeptics like me, at least — threatened to transform it into a dull theme park for the superrich.” Today, New York seems to have turned a corner, at least in Ouroussoff’s opinion, with numerous projects announced across the city that will redefine the city’s streetscapes and skyline.

Greensboro seems to be making the same movement towards an architectural reawakening exemplified by projects such as the Proximity Hotel, Center City Park and A&T’s School of Education. Take a quick trip outside of Greensboro, and you can see where we this momentum could lead. New York, Chicago, and Charlotte sport recently constructed wonders that change color, defy gravity, and take forms never before seen. Check out New York’s Time Warner Center
on Columbus Circle at night (image, right) incorporating illuminated LED color-changing panels into its facade. Or, take a look at Aqua, an 83-story condo being constructed in Chicago – its watery façade evocative of ripples on a pond. Even nearby High Point has entered into the world’s dialog on design with the Natuzzi Building on West Commerce Avenue. It’s the only American work of Italian architect Mario Bellini, who gave the building the form of a ship’s bow.

Comments made here recently by Chicago Tribune critic Blair Kamin summed up the state of Greensboro’s architecture succinctly. “If your city’s buildings are third-rate, then the image of your city will be third-rate.” If our city’s image is third rate, how will we compete with Charlotte and Raleigh, let alone Atlanta, New York, and Shanghai? The three projects revealed here certainly boost efforts in reclaiming the Gate City as a creative, dynamic, and progressive place. All three are first-rate buildings worthy of any first-rate city. The challenge is to make sure these projects do not fade into the landscape as part of the “fits-and-starts” that have characterized our city’s architectural past, but that the quality of these projects initiates become a standard of a mature and confident city that expects nothing less than best for itself.

Happy New Year!