Greensboro's Treasured Places

Big Dig Begins in Dowtown Greensboro

The Big Dig at Blandwood, part of the city's Bicentennial celebrations, began today.

The project seeks to explore the hidden history of Blandwood, the eighteenth century residence in downtown Greensboro that has housed early settlers, industrialists, and even a North Carolina governor. The dig is funded through the History Committee of the 2008 Greensboro Bicentennial Commission in partnership with Dr. Linda France Stine, Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG).

Early discoveries include brick fragments, a chard of ceramic, and even a button. Objects found at Blandwood will be carefully reviewed and researched, and listed in a report completed at the end of the project. Organizers hope to illuminate understanding of the early history of Blandwood, including eighteenth century history, evidence of enslaved workers, and the working history of the site where John Motley Morehead is thought to have houses a tinsmith.

For more information on the dig, you can visit the Preservation Greensboro website. In the meantime, I will try to keep you updated on any exciting discoveries. The dig will continue through June 22^nd.

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.

The Secrets of Kirkwood

Long before Kirkwood became a neighborhood of tidy post-War housing, the area featured scattered semi-rural farms and estates with notable homes and varied recreation areas.

Development of neighborhoods north of Cornwallis Drive began during the roaring 20s, and fed off the success of Irving Park to the south. One by one, small family farms were developed as subdivisions, including the Kirkpatrick farm in 1928. The Kirkpatrick farm became Kirkwood, featuring patriotic names such as Liberty, Independence, and Colonial given to gridded streets with deep lots. A similar cluster of gridded streets was platted to the southwest - composed of streets with bucolic names such as Lawndale, Fernwood, Dellwood, and Fairfield (image, upper right).

Both neighborhoods had little chance for development before the stock market crash of 1929. For over a decade, streets remained largely undeveloped. Interspersed among the unbuilt lots were notable houses constructed just before the Great Depression began. Among these houses was the home of Lucille and Joseph Holt, located at 2000 Dellwood Drive.

The Holt House (image, right) was built in 1927-28, by Alabama native Joseph Holt and his first wife Lucille. Holt is remembered for his leadership in Home Federal Bank; Lucille is remembered for her petite form and flaming red hair. Both Holts were well connected to Greensboro’s social scene in the late 1920s and 1930s, hosting elaborate parties in a log cabin on the grounds of their home that were followed by dancing into the night.

As Alabama natives, the Holts asked Greensboro architect Harry Simmonds to design a residence evocative of the Gorgas House on the University of Alabama campus in Tuscaloosa (image, right). The original Gorgas House was built in 1828 as a dining hall for students. In the 1840s it was converted into a faculty residence, and after the Civil War it became the home of Josiah Gorgas, a Confederate general and seventh president of the University. The house was designed by architect William Nichols, who also won commissions in the Raleigh area. Greensboro's Holt House replicated the delicate descending stairs, portico, and symmetrical facade of the original Gorgas House.

With its period style, the two-story Holt House is illustrative of growing interest in historic preservation and early American architecture in the 1920s. As the Holt House was being erected, conservation efforts were just beginning to gain momentum in Williamsburg, VA and Charleston, SC. In addition to the recreated Gorgas House design, the Holts acquired architectural elements from throughout the Old South to compliment their project. Wrought iron elements found on the front and rear verandas were purchased from historic homes being destroyed in Baltimore, MD. Doors used in the house were found in Richmond, VA. Historic sites in Alabama supplied the salvaged fountain in the yard and fireplace mantles.

The grounds of the Holt’s home were equally sumptuous, incorporating an entire block of the new subdivision. The Holts preserved the mature oaks and poplars on the property, and beneath the trees they planted extensive azalea gardens. A stream was impounded to create a pond and swimming hole. To the rear of the property, a rustic-style log house was erected for lavish dinner parties and late-night dances.

Happy times ended with the passing of Lucille Holt around 1950. Holt remarried, this time to Emmaline (married nine times, he was number seven!). Joseph Holt passed away in the late 1960s, and Emmaline moved to Florida.

In 1966, the home and grounds were purchased by Laura Dean and Lawton Gresham, who selected Clyde Elrod to orchestrate renovations of the house. As a seasoned building contractor, Elrod knew the significance of the site, and guided the Greshams in preserving the most important attributes of the property. Today, the house looks much as it did when they purchased the property over forty years ago.

With their growing appreciation for historic preservation, the Greshams soon embarked upon a new project for the grounds of the historic Holt Home. Visiting downtown Greensboro in 1976, they became aware of the destruction of the old Major Stedman House on McGee Street for today’s Weaver Center. The grounds of the Stedman House contained a small cottage that dated to 1870. The cottage was said to have been built for Major Stedman’s aged manservant, who was too respected to be turned out upon being awarded his freedom after the Civil War. The cottage had been used as a tea and lunch room in the 1960s by preservationist Helen Miller. The Greshams acquired the Stedman Cottage and saved it from the bulldozers by relocating the Victorian structure to their Dellwood property. There, it was preserved as a guest cottage.

The Holt House and Stedman Cottage remain well-preserved landmarks in today’s Kirkwood neighborhood. Both remain benchmarks in Greensboro’s preservation movement and represent local examples of national trends in conservation. The property is an important reminder that all neighborhoods contain history that is more than skin deep. Our challenge as a city is to understand the significance of these historic sites before they are lost to bulldozers and redevelopment. Kirkwood, it seems, is home to one of Greensboro’s most treasured places.

The Secrets of Fisher Park

Before there was a Center City Park, before there was a Lindley Park, and even before there was an Irving Park, Fisher Park reigned as Greensboro’s premiere civic open space.

It’s true that one of the secrets of Fisher Park is that it is the geographic center of Guilford County. This point featured prominently in 1807, when the county seat was relocated from Martinville (near Guilford Battleground) to the relative wilds of central Guilford County. When surveyors established the center point in 1808, they found it “in the middle of a duck pond in a brush thicket.” Unsuitable for the location of a new town, lawmakers rectified the situation by platting the village of Greensborough a mile south at the intersection of today’s Market and Elm streets.

By the turn of the twentieth century, the area around today’s Fisher Park remained undeveloped. Historian Ethel Stephens Arnett reported the area to be “a famous haunt for birds, squirrels, and ‘possums, which provided great sport for hunters.” One hundred years later, the park remains popular with all three long-term inhabitants.

The story of the creation of Fisher Park is a much celebrated part of Greensboro’s history. The fact that a wealthy British gentleman and gold prospector deeded the heart of his new subdivision – named in his own honor – to the city for perpetual public use is an inspirational lesson in civics. Few, however, know that this gesture of largess came with a few conditions.

Captain Fisher (also an astute businessman) required in the deed that the approximately 14 acre parkland be sold to the city for five dollars in exchange for the city “building a drive-way around the park” (now North Park Drive, South Park Drive, and Fisher Park Circle). The remaining natural space was “to be kept open for the joint benefit for said City of Greensboro … for the purpose of a public park and pleasure ground.” Fisher, who wanted to add value to his subdivision through the transaction, left nothing vague in his expectations on the city’s side of this deal.

In the 100 years since it was created, the park has seen elements come, and go. Few people today remember the shallow round concrete wading pond located just east of North Elm Street. It was a grand affair, roughly 30’ in diameter, and contained a central fountain to the enjoyment of area waders. This element was removed in the mid-twentieth century.

Others remember the “Summer House” a substantial wooden structure with a roof and open on all sides located just west of North Elm Street. The structure was a favorite meeting place for families, neighbors, and especially neighborhood kids. Whether it was round (as remembered by some), or octagonal (as remembered by others) it provided a central focus for the park for decades until it was removed in the mid-twentieth century.

Others recall the wooden bridges (image, right) that crossed the small stream passing through Fisher Park. The rusticated bridges were built of railroad ties with rough-hewn and bark-covered branches forming handrails. These bridges likely did not last long, and were likely replaced during the 1930s by today’s handsome stone arched bridges. Possibly constructed through efforts of the Civilian Conservation Corps as
part of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s initiative to put Americans back to work after the Great Depression, the stone bridges act as a uniting theme for the park and a popular subject for local artists’ canvases (image, right).

Recent efforts in park improvement have centered on honoring the park’s past, including the East Park’s “Genesis Monument” erected by historian Jim McLamroch to recognize the County’s center. Another monument along North Elm Street recognizes the history of the park through a gift from neighborhood resident May Gordon Latham Kellenberger.

Stewardship of the park has gone beyond routine maintenance. Over the past century countless city residents have volunteered their time and energy to the preservation of the public space. Such stewards include, but are not limited to Mr. Craft and Dr. Gerard, who did much of the landscaping in the west park in the seventies and eighties.

The Philadelphia landscape firm Wallace, Roberts, and Todd designed park improvements that worked to solve the longstanding problem of erosion caused by cars parking along the edges of the park. The solution was found in the form of landscaped parking bays lined by concrete curbing and aggregate gutters around the park, funded by a capital improvements bond in the 1980s. The project included decorative lighting and street signs (image, right).

A grant from the National Trust for Historic Places helped fund a reforestation plan for the park in the 1990s. With help from resident landscape architect Chip Callaway, the project focused on the park but included consideration of neighborhood street trees as well. The City of Greensboro contracted with Keely Nursery near McLeansville to supply the trees for the project. These efforts were complimented by the Neighborhood Association, which rebuilt the wisteria arbor in the West Park in 1996.

Recent work includes the addition of “New York City-style” trash receptacles in 2002, the replacement of playground equipment, and constriction of a hand-crafted stone entrance to the park by scout Will Copeland in memory of his grandmother and long-time park advocate Mary Lee Copeland (image, right).

Fisher Park has had a lasting effect on the city’s popular consciousness, resulting in a civic appreciation for open spaces such as the Greensboro Arboretum and the Bog Garden. Momentum continues with plans for a Bicentennial Greenway and Gateway Gardens. These projects define the city in an age of homogenization in which Durham sometimes blends with Charlotte. Clearly Greensboro has a love affair with its system of public parks…and Greensboro’s public parks began with Fisher Park.

Who done it? Reading the Clues of an Old House

The Junior League of Greensboro may have a real treasure on their hands!

Named to Preservation Greensboro’s inaugural Treasured Places Watch List in 2005, the Albright House has kept its history close to its vest. Drive-by estimates of age dated the two-story frame residence with a notable two-story portico overlooking West Friendly Avenue to the third quarter of the nineteenth century (1850-1875). A recent investigation reveals these preliminary estimates might have been conservative.

Carl Myatt, the architect for the project, arranged a recent visit by Mitch Wilds of the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office, along with Junior League president Daniela Helms and myself. The purpose of the meeting was to analyze the physical evidence of the house to determine what was old and what was not; as well as what is worth preserving…and what is not. The evidence discovered suggests the history of this house is more than skin deep.

The small group explored several elements of the house, with special interest in determining the date of construction using key components such as structural members and decorative elements. We found that the house has been well-cared for throughout its history, and that occupants have maintained an interest in embellishing the house with the latest and most popular styles using quality materials throughout its history. This characteristic of the Albright House made identification of materials easier.

Material investigation involves an understanding of building technology as well as the understanding of popular styles. Just as “Motown” has its unique fingerprint of sound, so does architecture.

Style
From the street, passersby notice the low-pitched hipped roof of the Albright House. The façade is symmetrical, with a central portico flanked by six-pane sash over one-pane sash windows. The building was covered by aluminum siding in the 1980s, which has hidden some of its identifying features. Beneath the siding the review team found heart-of-pine siding and wide overhanging eaves. The eaves, in fact, were embellished with heavy exposed rafters – now covered with false-siding (image, right). Considered together, the low-pitched roofline, wide overhanging eaves with rafters, and symmetrical façade are all characteristics of Italianate architecture…likely influenced by Blandwood Mansion’s innovative façade of 1844.

Saw Marks
Lumber dimensioning technology witnessed several key changes throughout the nineteenth century. Early in the period, timber in Guilford County was dimensioned in saw mills using water power. Saw mills relied on a “sash-saw,” a mechanism that left distinctive parallel marks on the wood face. Around 1852, steam-powered circular saws were introduced to Guilford County with the construction of the Fayetteville and Western Plank Road. Easier and more reliable, circular saws quickly became the tool of choice in dimensioning lumber in the region. The structural members used to build the Albright House, ranging from floor joists to roof rafters, reveal the parallel marks of sash saws, an indication that the Albright House could date before 1852.

Nails

Like saw technology, the method of manufacturing nails changed rapidly in the nineteenth century. Earliest nails here in Guilford were hand-forged, but nail-making machinery quickly reduced the time and cost involved in making nails by the 1820s. Instead of being forged over a fire, machinery cut iron using force, resulting in nails with a squared cross-section. After 1880, nails were manufactured from extruded wire, resulting in the rounded cross section familiar to us all today. Predictably, the Albright House features cut nails throughout its frame, with the exception of the roof of the front portico, which contained wire nails. This could indicate the portico is a post-1880 addition.

Chimneys
Before the days of forced air and/or radiator heat, residents of Guilford County relied on wood-burning fireplaces for warmth. Every room of consequence required a heat-source during our cool Carolina winters. However, the Albright House today has only one chimney! The question of the existence of chimneys perplexed the group until we gathered in the basement. There, embedded within the flooring system, was a shadow of an old fireplace hearth. The placement of the hearth indicated the house had side-wall chimneys that vented fireplaces in all four original rooms.

All things considered, the Albright House now appears to have been built between 1845 and 1860. Additional research is needed, especially in terms of the Albright family history and land records. However, the physical clues hidden within the walls of the house indicate that it is among the earliest buildings in the city and holds a special place in the history of Greensboro. Ironically, in terms of age and appearance, the Walker-Scarborough House (image, right) on McGee Street in College Hill stands out as a close representation of how the Albright House once looked. Standing two-stories in height, the clapboard residence with symmetrical façade, wide overhanging eaves supported by exposed rafter tails, and a modest front porch is likely similar to the original appearance of the Albright House.

Further investigation and restoration will bring the Albright House back to better days. Already it is appareent that the original historic windows, the oak floors, the 1920s era trim, double panel doors, and staircase are treasured details in the house. The generosity of the Starmount Company, and the dedication of the Junior League will result in the preservation of part of Greensboro’s antebellum past. The project goes to show that you never know what history will reveal.

18 March 2008: SEE UPDATE HERE

Happiness and "Hello, Bill!"

Christmastime was on the minds of mill workers at Greensboro's Revolution Mills in October of 1920, when the regional Mill News: The Great Southern Weekly for Textile Workers was published. The newspaper was "Devoted to the Textile Industries" with a particular focus on the latest advancements in living standards in mill villages across the region. As tsars and kings in Europe toppled during the World War, owners of mill villages locally wanted to make sure there was contentment in the American South by improving overall living standards. Mills from Alabama to Virginia are included in the newspaper, made available online through the University Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The paper provides insights into mill village life in several other villages in Greensboro such as Proximity and Pomona, but this cheery review of the Revolution Mill Village (today centered around 1200 Revolution Mill Drive) provides insights on their own Christmas traditions.

Revolution Cotton Mills
MANUFACTURERS OF COTTON FLANNELS
GREENSBORO, N. C.

On the northern boundary of the historic city of Greensboro, on the waters of North Buffalo Creek in a beautiful plateau section of North Carolina, is located the plant of Revolution Cotton Mills, the largest of its kind in the South.

In building these large mills, the first thought in the minds of the owners was the health, comfort and happiness of those who had to live near them and spend their time working in them. This industrious city was buildt on a slight elevation so as to furnish perfect drainage and beautiful landscape views in every direction.

The snug and comfortable homes, with cool artesian water and electric lights furnished to everyone, are set well back from the streets, and are surrounded by lovely green lawns and large shade trees. Beautiful flower gardens are in evidence everywhere, causing the village to border upon the unique.

The problem of caring for the physical and mental development of children and others was not forgotten, and to this end schools with spacious rooms and large playgrounds surrounding them, were erected. More than a dozen teachers are employed in these schools. Welfare cottages were built, and kindly disposed workers, together with trained nurses, were put on full-time duty, to care for and teach those who wish to take advantage of the privilege.

The mills are within a mile of the heart of Greensboro, N. C., and are located in a county that has a greater number of miles of hard-surface roads than any other county in the State and they are connected with the city by fifteen minute street railway schedule.

Amusements have been provided for all the folk in the village. Picture shows, bowling alley, public parks and a large recreation building are numbered among these. Living and working conditions have reached the top notch in this contented and home-like village. A walk through this industrial city, comprised of more than five hundred homes, reveals bright, happy children with faces beaming with intelligence, and contented old folks. Vigorous young manhood, as well as the blushing maiden, is in evidence here, and to judge from their appearance, one would think that their work were just play for which they got pay.

One of the biggest fellows in the whole place around Christmas time is Santa Claus, who has a date each year with the children, and has never failed to put in his appearance every time--big, fat and jolly, with his sacks over flowing he always comes. He creeps into every pay envelope and every school desk. There is no home into which he does not find a way to enter. Scrooge and Marley are two characters unknown to the people who live in this modern village. Happiness and "Hello, Bill!" is the password here.

Spooky Spots in Downtown Greensboro

We are an old city full of old places, and old places often feature ghosts. With Halloween on our minds this week, I have been asked to give the inside scoop on some of downtown Greensboro’s spooky spots.

First Presbyterian Burial Ground
One of downtown Greensboro’s eeriest spots is the First Presbyterian Burial Ground behind the Greensboro Historical Museum. The cemetery has a remarkable collection of funerary art that spans a period of American ranging from the utilitarian stones marked by the angel of death to deeply symbolic stones that depict the tragedy of life. In this single cemetery, stones typical of the colonial period, the romantic period, and the twentieth century can be seen within four acres.

Symbolism runs rampant in this cemetery; a virtual smorgasbord of Victorian Era dogma related to death. The autumn issue of Preservation Greensboro’s membership magazine Landmarks (above right) reviews this symbolism, ranging from the depiction of animals (lambs and birds) to hands, books, scrolls, flowers, urns, and even butterflies. Though a cemetery might not be your idea of a great hangout for an afternoon of fun, exploring the sculpture of this burial ground could keep you entertained for hours.

Blandwood Mansion
The former Governor’s home on West Washington Street is another famous haunt. Serving as Preservation Greensboro’s main office, the mansion has its share of unexplained occurrences. No, its nothing horrifying…but there are certainly footsteps in the halls, and occasional missing items such as pens and paperclips that are definitely there one minute, and gone the next…only to reappear moments later. The footsteps are those of a man, and he has yet to be identified. The playful games of hide and seek are often attributed to Letitia, the eldest daughter of John and Ann Eliza Morehead and Lady of the House during the Civil War. Blandwood is a fine old house, and we love our resident ghosts(s)!

Center Pointe
An interesting chapter of Greensboro’s history was unearthed by Greensboro News and Record writer Jim Schlosser, who wrote about Greensboro’s last execution on Halloween in 2005. According the Schlosser, a series of executions were held inside the Guilford County jail, beginning in the 1890s. Schlosser’s research found that Guilford's last jailhouse execution in 1907 was that of a black man, Frank Bohannon. Hangings were public spectacles in those days, and incited morbid curiosity as hundreds of onlookers who would gather outside the jail to be close to the execution. After 1907, executions were held in Raleigh in Central Prison. You can read more about this story here. The county jail was located on the land northwest North Elm Street and West Friendly Avenue, at the present location of Center Pointe condos project.

The Southern Railway Depot
The last spooky spot in downtown Greensboro is featured on a Youtube video posted in July. The premise of the video is that the Depot is cursed by ghosts, shadows, and unexplained events. Especially effective are the personal accounts of experiences with the hauntings, coupled with recordings of a ghostly voice. If you find yourself visiting the depot, don’t worry, the video is fictitious and done in the spirit of fun.

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Other stories are profiled in this week’s issue of 99 Blocks Magazine, including tales of the Carolina Theater and McCoul’s Public House. Ghost stories are important to us all because they blend folklore, literature, culture, architecture, and drama. Stories document our shared community history, and provide depth and dimension to the community we call home. Maybe someone needs to sit down and document all these great ghost stories for the future. Future publication idea?

Take a Colorful Weekend Tour

Are you one of those folks who enjoy taking historic architecture tours of cities you visit, but know little of your own hometown?

If you are, a few seats remain available on the architectural coach tour offered through PGI this weekend. The coach tour will focus on the colorful Victorian architecture of the Gate City, reviewing examples of the style in Southside, College Hill, Aycock, and Fisher Park.

Greensboro grew from a courthouse-market town to a transportation center during the Victorian period, and the city has a fine collection of Victorian architecture to show for it! Tour guide Benjamin Briggs will demonstrate examples of Gothic Revival, Queen Anne, and Romanesque-style buildings in neighborhoods in every quadrant of the city. Examples include:

West Market Methodist Church, 1893
302 West Market Street
Designed by S. W. Foulk, this monumental church is among the best examples of Richardsonian Romanesque architecture in the state.

L. A. Atkins House, c. 1899
400 Gorrell Street
Saved from imminent destruction in 2002, this house is one of only seven residences in the city with a turret.

Alphonso Perkins House, 1900-1905
640 MLK Drive
A handsome home occupied by the Vice President of Leaks-Halladay Company, dealers of carpets, paints, and wallpapers. It is typical of grand-style houses that once lined all of Greensboro's primary thoroughfares.

Lyndon Street Townhouses, 1905
195-201 Lyndon Street
Rendered in pressed brick with marble trim, these four townhouses are unusual for Greensboro, and offered a "big city" housing option for upper-income residents.

Boaz House, 1900
612 Fifth Avenue
One of the first homes built in the Aycock neighborhood, it is typical of Victorian style, with a variety of wall textures, window sizes, and rooflines.

Gatekeepers House, 1888-1889
700 Battleground Avenue
(pictured right) One of only three Gothic Revival structures remaining in Greensboro, this cottage was saved from destruction in 1973. Its gingerbread design is unusually rich for North Carolina.

Reservations are available through 10am on Sunday. Call Judi Kastner at 272-5003 ext 3, or send her an email to reserve your place. Tours cost $25 per seat for Preservation Greensboro members as well as their guests, and $35 for non members.

Greensboro’s Tobacco Heritage, Part 3

To paraphrase a popular proverb, “it takes a village to raise a cigarette”…or a tobacco product. Nineteenth-century Greensboro was certainly one of those villages, with all phases of tobacco manufacturing (growing, brokering, and manufacturing) represented here. Certain phases of development grew in importance in the village, but in the end, consolidation changed the profile of the tobacco industry in Greensboro greatly.

Use of smokeless tobacco, or chewing tobacco, was wildly popular throughout the south in the mid-nineteenth century, and interest in smoked tobacco (cigars, cigarettes, and pipe) grew rapidly after the Civil War. Greensboro found itself in the midst of a territory that favored cultivation of high grade Brightleaf tobacco. Coupled with Greensboro’s excellent rail system that stretched to places such as Chatham, Randolph, Davidson, Forsyth, Stokes, and Rockingham counties, Greensboro became a central market for tobacco leaves. By 1892, thirteen “leaf houses,” such as the Cobb and Scott dealers of Tobacco Heritage, Parts 1 and 2, were located in Greensboro, each buying leaves locally and selling to manufacturers across the United States and even Europe.

As early as 1885, J. L. King and several partners established a plug and twist (forms of chewing tobacco) factory in Greensboro in a collection of brick buildings just north of the southern railway tracks. Unlike leaf buying houses, King and his partners produced a form of chewing tobacco in their steam powered factory. Stemming and clipping of the leaves occurred on the upper floor; the leaf room was on the second, and picking, casing, and storage took place on the first floor. The main four-story building was surrounded by auxiliary buildings and featured an unusual segmental-arched parapet gable. By 1902 the building is no longer marked on city maps, likely destroyed by fire.

The climate for the tobacco industry began to change around 1900. Historian A. L. Brooks promoted the idea that small independent manufacturers in Greensboro were crushed by tobacco “trusts” around the turn of the twentieth century. One such trust, the American Tobacco Company of Durham, was notorious for buying its rivals in order to reduce its competition. In the end, this consolidation of the trade coalesced the industry to Winston and Durham, leaving little remaining in the Gate City until Lorillard Tobacco Company opened a cigarette plant over 50 years later.

The changes at the site of the King factory are the most startling of this series. The image to the right was taken from the same location as the first; on the Southern Railway tracks. The factory was gone by 1902, but the area remained industrial through the 1960s. At that time, sweeping changes associated with urban renewal enabled city government to take an active role in redevelopment by acquiring private land for new roads, bridges, and buildings. The old grade crossing of Ash Street seen in the early image was replaced by an underpass in the 1920s, itself superseded by the Eugene Street overpass in the 1970s. Also in the 1970s, the 15-story Gateway Plaza was erected to provide public housing for elders.

Greensboro’s Tobacco Heritage, Part 2

The 1890s was a time of change for Greensboro, as the sleepy county seat with a smattering of manufacturing facilities grew into a small city laden with industry. Shaded village lanes (such as Elm shaded Elm Street) lined with ample Queen Anne-style residences gave way to hot dusty streets lined with brick tobacco warehouses, small-scale textile mills, and commercial establishments. Industrial expansion, enabled by a growing railroad network, was transforming villages across the state into burgeoning centers of trade and commerce, exemplified by massive industrial complexes on the outskirts of town such as Proximity, Revolution, and Pomona.

Illustrative of this growth and change was the H. W. Cobb and Company, a tobacco leaf dealer and a cross-town competitor of H. L. Scott reviewed in Tobacco Heritage, Part 2. Both Cobb and Scott were mentioned in an 1892 promotional brochure of Greensboro as “energetic, reliable and prosperous dealers.” The impressive brick building (pictured-right, and outlined in pink-below) that housed the business certainly illustrated its success, rising five full floors above the intersection of Greene and Gaston (today Friendly Avenue) streets.

Historian Ethel Stephens Arnett recalled this active period of change in her 1955 publication “Greensboro North Carolina, the County Seat of Guilford” by stating “In the industrial surge of the late nineteenth century, there were 3 factories and 13 plants where leaf was prepared for further manufacturing [in Greensboro], with tobacco coming in from Virginia, Tennessee, and South Carolina. Wagons which brought the raw plant into the Greensboro market covered several blocks; and farmers came from such distances that tobacco warehouses provided stalls for horses overnight while men slept on quilts spread upon floors of the building.”

By 1907, the building was occupied by the American Cigar Company, which was later taken over by the Seidenburg & Company Cigar Factory. R. J. Seidenburg operated factories in Tampa, Greenville SC, and Petersburg VA, and manufactured a well-regarded brand of very mild coronas. By 1925 the building had been destroyed, replaced by a series of storefronts and a five-story furniture store shortly thereafter. The classically inspired furniture building was, in turn, was reclad in the 1980s with a reflective glass curtain, and stands as the Investors Title Insurance Company. The image to the right was taken from the same approximate location as the first image.