Greensboro's Treasured Places

Architectural Guide of High Point Published

After years of work, High Point has a publication dedicated to the architectural history of the city. In efforts of transparency and full-disclosure, I am its author. I will receive no financial benefit in the sale of the book.

The publication entitled “The Architecture of High Point, North Carolina” hit shelves in High Point last week. Books are available for purchase at the High Point Historical Museum (1859 East Lexington Avenue), the North Carolina Room (3rd Floor) of the High Point Public Library (901 North Main Street), City Hall at the Mall (Oak Hollow Mall, Lower Level), High Point City Hall, 211 South Hamilton Street), the Doll & Miniature Museum (101 West Green Drive), and Barnes and Noble Booksellers at Oak Hollow Mall. The book costs $49.99, and proceeds are returned to the High Point Historic Preservation Commission to invest in city preservation activities such as educational materials and programs.

The 263-page publication includes a comprehensive architectural history of the development of the city, coupled with an inventory of 202 individual sites; a glossary of architectural terms; end notes; works cites; and an index. The book is illustrated with documentary photos of city structures both extant and extinct, early maps, floor plans, and hundreds of contemporary images of historic sites. Twenty four color plates depict historic structures in High Point in which color plays a key factor in their design. The cover design features the newly renovated Briles House at 1103 North Main Street, the home of High Point’s Junior League (image, upper right).

With a lack of a comprehensive survey, High Point has been an unsung hero in North Carolina’s architectural history. The book reveals historic buildings in High Point that few are aware of, such as the impressive and sprawling Three Musketeer’s Estate in Emerywood designed by Winston-Salem architect Luther Lashmit and decorated by New York firm W. & J. Sloane (image, lower right). As I state in the preface:

Reflecting the city’s growth and influence is an architectural inventory epitomizing High Point’s increasing civic pride and cultural sophistication. Since the city’s early settlement, hotels and merchant-houses presented fashionable façades to visitors and discerning shoppers. Later, wealthy industrialists had ambitious houses and churches erected in popular styles that illustrated the growing town’s sense of style. Finally, civic projects such as schools and parks utilized modern designs that spoke to High Point’s progressive spirit and quickening pace. By the middle of the twentieth century, High Point had an impressive collection of architecture representing nearly every popular style since the city was founded, including designs by nationally recognized architects and planners.

I hope the book will make the case for increased awareness and protection of High Point’s remarkable architectural legacy. This legacy is a gift of past citizens, and need not be recklessly squandered by well-meaning developers, promoters, and planners. If cultivated, High Point will find that’s its architectural legacy is a tangible and enjoyable asset that newer communities in our region will never attain. In addition, investment in historic resources is an expenditure that will never be relocated to foreign shores, and serves to strengthen the city’s tax base and quality of life for all citizens.

With this publication, High Point joins 32 municipalities and 38 counties in North Carolina with published architectural surveys. Locally, the Guilford County architectural survey was published in 1970, and Greensboro’s survey was published in 1995. Other cities, such as Charlotte, have not yet published an architectural survey. Way to go High Point and happy 2008 Historic Preservation Month!

May is National Historic Preservation Month

Beginning next week, Preservation Greensboro Incorporated will celebrate the Gate City’s architecture and history through a variety of activities including neighborhood walking tours, free tours of historic Blandwood Mansion, a tour of Green Hill Cemetery and the beginning of the Bicentennial archeological dig on the grounds of Blandwood.

Greensboro will join thousands of individuals around the country in a nationwide celebration of 2008 National Preservation Month in May 2008. Orchestrated by by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Washington, DC, this year's theme of the month-long celebration is “This Place Matters”.

Since the National Trust began celebrating historic preservation in 1971 to spotlight grassroots efforts in America, it has grown into an annual celebration. Preservation Greensboro has been celebrating Historic Preservation Month since the 1980s.

The following is a schedule of activities presented by Preservation Greensboro:

Wednesdays in May, 11am-2pm: FREE Tours of Blandwood Mansion: Tour Preservation Greensboro’s flagship house museum and see the restored main building and the two reconstructed dependencies, the law office and the kitchen of the home of former NC Governor John Motley Morehead.

Sunday, May 11, 2pm: “The Plants and the Planted”, $5. Tour historic Green Hill Cemetery and here about Greensboro’s famous citizens and the rich landscaping that surrounds them. Meet at the southern most gate on Wharton Street. Tour lasts about 1 ½ - 2 hours. Proceeds benefit Greensboro Parks and Recreation Cemetery Division.

Walking Wednesdays, 7pm, FREE Guided Tours of Greensboro’s Historic Neighborhoods:

April 30, Fisher Park: Meet at 7pm on the steps of Temple Emmanuel, North Greene and Florence Streets. Learn about homes designed by the city’s best architects during this tour of former swampland.

May 7, Westerwood: Meet at 7pm at Double Oaks, 204 North Mendenhall Street. Explore Greensboro’s early “back to nature” neighborhood, promoted as a place where residents were “Close to the Heart of Nature and to Greensboro!”

May 14, Downtown Greensboro: Meet at 7pm at the green bean, 341 South Elm Street. Find out why architectural historians consider Greensboro to be the best-preserved “big city” downtown in the state, with a special focus on modernism.

May 21, Historic Aycock: Meet at 7pm on the front steps of Aycock Middle School, 811 Cypress Street. Come learn abut the neighborhood that features a castle among other wide-ranging styles.

May 28, College Hill: Meet at 7pm at Tate Street Coffee House, 334 Tate Street. Learn how Greensboro’s first neighborhood blends quaint architecture with big-city amenities to create an energetic vibe.

May 26 – June 20: Bicentennial Archeological Dig at Blandwood, UNCG Field School. Funded by the History Committee of the Greensboro Bicentennial Commission, an archeological dig will be run as a field school by Dr. Linda Stine, Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro. The work will examine the back quadrant of the Blandwood property, bordered by McGee and Edgeworth Streets. Daily digging will occur Monday-Friday from 8:30am-2:30pm. Two Family Days are scheduled for June 7 and 14, 9am-12pm. Volunteers are invited to come and see how archeologists work. Please contact Dr. Linda Stine, 336-685-5996 for additional information on the dig.

Contact Preservation Greensboro for more information.

A Weekend with the Moreheads

The fantasy of the theater was blended with the reality of history this past weekend at Blandwood Mansion, where five intrepid and talented actors portrayed members of the Morehead’s extended family as part of Greensboro’s Bicentennial Heritage Festival. Over 200 visitors were able to get a glimpse of the lives of the Morehead’s on the days of April 12th and 13th of 1865. This was a weighty period in Greensboro’s past, as the power of the Confederate government was crumbling in the city and citizens anxiously awaited the arrival of Union troops.

In Blandwood’s vignettes, four scenes were portrayed to provide insights on the concerns and apprehensions of the historical characters. Actors Alison Walls and Lori Leigh played Emma Morehead Gray and her best friend Mary, both Edgeworth Female Seminary graduates. The women were concerned over their husband’s safety in battle, the number of wounded soldiers scattered throughout town, and whether the normalcy of pre-War years would return to Greensboro.

Eloise Hassell took on the role of Mrs. Morehead (image, upper right). Pacing about in her bedroom, the lady of the house fretted over her sons’ safety in battle, dwindling food rations, and overall uncertainties related to the future due to War. In his nearby law office, the former governor John Motley Morehead was portrayed by Dale J. Metz. Morehead pondered the wisdom of initiating the Civil War, the financial challenges that faced his beloved state of North Carolina, and the mounting casualties of a hopeless War.

Actor Mary L. Stevens took a contrasting perspective in the kitchen in carrying the role of the Morehead’s enslaved cook Hannah (image, lower right). Historical records indicate that the Morehead’s relied on Hannah for her resourcefulness in keeping the family well-fed, all the time anticipating the arrival of Union soldiers who might bring about change to the oppressive institution of slavery.

We are most grateful to Alison, Lori, Eloise, Dale, and Mary for bringing the Morehead’s to life. Participants enjoyed their heartfelt performances that were based on historical documentation from the period. Their professionalism and dedication to their craft was apparent throughout the long weekend!

History and art, when brought together, make a powerful combination.

Future-Perfect-in-Past-Tense: Reclaiming the Historic Warnersville Neighborhood

Future-Perfect-in-Past-Tense grammatical terms were once the topic of discussion in the classrooms of Warnersville’s J. C. Price Elementary School, but today, the term describes a new direction planned by residents of the historically black neighborhood.

Warnersville’s roots are deeply planted in Greensboro’s soil. Yardley Warner, for whom the settlement was named, was a Quaker missionary from Philadelphia who visited the South in the closing days of the Civil War. Alarmed at the plight of blacks in the region, he sought to enhance opportunities for African Americans freed from slavery and after traveling the American South, he found a home in Greensboro among other Quakers who were sympathetic to his ministry.

In 1867, Warner purchased 35 ½ acres of land on behalf of a Quaker aid organization from Philadelphia, and subdivided the property into one acre lots. Each acre was capable of supporting a large family, and lots were sold to families that could build equity and financial independence through home ownership. Soon, a community of 600 people featured tidy frame houses with garden plots (image, right), a school, a church, and the Union Cemetery on South Elm Street.

The self-sufficient community became a model for similar settlements in the region. Warnersville, in essence, became Greensboro’s first suburban community – predating other subdivisions by 20 years. Warnersville’s school grew to become Bennett College for Women. Residents became community leaders, most notably Harmon Unthank, a freed man employed as a carpenter at a local wagon wheel factory who grew to become Director of the People’s Savings Bank (believed to be North Carolina’s first mutual savings institution).

The community remained strong through the 1920s, when the J. C. Price School was erected and named in honor of Dr. Joseph Charles Price (1854-1893), the son of a slave who served as a minister, lecturer, and founder and president of Livingstone College in Salisbury. However, by the 1950s, the absentee landlords who owned much of the neighborhood had not improved housing to modern standards.

In the meantime, Greensboro instituted the first urban renewal program in the state with the intent of ridding the Gate City of vacant and substandard housing. The Warnersville neighborhood was promptly identified as an area of blight, and in 1965 the city moved to “renew” the neighborhood by rebuilding it to modern standards (map, right). This renewal project, funded by the federal government, was the first of its kind in North Carolina. The reconstruction process was so thorough that only the J. C. Price School and the Union Cemetery survived destruction. In place of the original frame houses and stores were widened avenues, suburban-style ranch houses, and garden apartments and townhomes.

Today, residents of Warnersville struggle with articulating their neighborhood’s deep history with a lack of historic structures. Unlike nearby College Hill and Southside, the neighborhood has only two community landmarks to show for their notable past.

The solution may lie in blending the neighborhood’s past with Greensboro’s future. As the Gate City begins to cultivate its reputation as a creative city with investment in the arts, opportunities exist to define the historic Warnersville using art. Portland, Oregon’s Pearl District has used art to enhance its neighborhood character, exemplified in the colorful totems that cover of the Portland Streetcar poles adjacent to Jameson Square (image, lower right). Warnersville could do the same using its history of artisan residents as a theme to unite the whole.

Neighborhood organizers Angela Harris and James Griffin describe other initiatives to expand awareness of Warnersville history. These include historical narratives that will be placed along the planned Downtown Greenway adjacent to the neighborhood.

Warnersville’s history may be largely destroyed, but spirit and enthusiasm for the neighborhood remain strong. With creative planning, the detriment of losing a community’s history may be countered with opportunity for interpretive expressions of the past. The historic neighborhood is sure to maintain a strong position as a defining neighborhood in the Gate City.

Secrets of the Greensboro Masonic Temple

Masons have had a presence in Greensboro since shortly after the city’s founding, but few know about the history and architecture behind the façade of the fraternal organization’s impressive Temple at 426 West Market Street.

The Masons that call this Temple home have deep roots in our community, having been chartered on March 1, 1821 as the Greensborough Lodge # 76 - roughly indicating its place in the sequence of lodges established in North Carolina. The organization has had notable influence in the community, claiming members such as hotelier Christopher Moring, industrialist Henry Humphreys, attorney and Mayor Cyrus Mendenhall, businessman Julian Price. The organization assisted in laying cornerstones for many landmark properties in Greensboro, including Greensboro College’s main building (August 20, 1843), the 1858 Guilford County Courthouse, the McIver Memorial Building at UNC-G (May 25, 1908), the First Presbyterian Church on (Dec 23, 1890), and the Guilford County Courthouse (May 22, 1918). They also dedicated the cornerstones of the Masonic & Eastern Star Home on Holden Road (Jan 1912), and their own Greensboro Masonic Temple on March 20, 1928.

As a prominent organization in the Gate City, the Masons set high standards for their own lodge. Greensboro architect John B. Crawford was hired to develop several schemes and James Fanning was selected as the project’s General Contractor. The monumental, stone façade is evocative of a Grecian temple, complete with fluted engaged columns topped by curled Ionic capitals, a Greek-key stylobate, a triangular pediment topped by an anthemion (Greek term for “flower”). Upon the entablature is inscribed eis doxan theou "for the glory of God."

Behind the impressive public façade is a highly ceremonial interior laden with symbolism and ritual. Stylized blue flowers on the floor of the entry symbolize Forget-Me-Nots, a flower representative of Masonic oppression in Germany during the Second World War. An antechamber ritually displays the charters of the five local lodges and other organizations that meet in the building.

The main meeting chamber or Lodge is arranged along the lines of a traditional Masonic Hall (see diagram and third image), with the chair for the commanding Worshipful Master placed on the eastern wall three steps above the floor. To the west is the second-in-command Senior Warden, whose chair sits two steps above the floor. On the south wall, backed by three symbolic pilasters, is the third-in-command Junior Warden, who sits just one step above the floor. Other officers have ritual positions throughout the chamber that reflect their duties and hierarchy within the organization.

Above the meeting chamber is the Scottish Rite Room (fourth image), a palatial space flanked by theater-style seats and centered upon an elaborate stage. The polychromatic room takes an Egyptian theme, with sphinxes guarding the stage, and high columns topped by papyrus capitals. The Rite is an appendant body of freemasonry that used the room for theatrical productions that represent themes of history and morality.

The Masons enjoy a rich history that teaches personal responsibility for betterment in the world. In their belief, each man, woman and child can do something to help others and to make things a little better. Their efforts range from financial support of area children's hospitals to individual aid for disadvantaged elders. Masons never solicit membership, so you will never be asked to join. Their motto “To be one, ask one” encourages each individual to follow their own leading to become a member.

Today’s Masons are no longer cloaked in the secrecy that might have been associated with their organization in the past. In fact, if you would like to explore the secrets of the Greensboro Masonic Temple on your own, you may do so during the Bicentennial Heritage Festival on April 12-13. On that day, the Temple will be open to the public. Though other impressive temples have been destroyed, such as the 1918 Egyptian Revival Charlotte Masonic Temple, Greensboro is fortunate to have one of the most impressive Masonic Temples in the state of North Carolina. Great preservation practices in the Gate City allow citizens here to visit places long lost in other North Carolina cities, and that’s something to celebrate during our Bicentennial.