Built as the home for prominent lawyer and businessman Alfred Moore Scales (1870- 1940) and his wife Mary (1892-1960), this two-story, brick Neoclassical Revival residence at 1207 Lakewood Drive is located in the heart of Greensboro’s Hamilton Lakes neighborhood. When the house was built in 1926, Scales was a practicing attorney, mayor of the village of Hamilton Lakes, president of the local Ford Motor Car dealership, and served in various capacities on boards of several insurance and real estate development companies in Greensboro. The house was likely the first built in the town of Hamilton Lakes, which featured curving streets punctuated by Lake Hamilton and Lake Euphemia.
Architect Christopher Gadsden Sayre of Anderson, South Carolina designed the house with two prominent facades. The West façade faces Lakewood Drive and features an impressive two-story portico with a classical entry. The East façade overlooks Lake Hamilton and features a full-width and full-height portico of Corinthian columns topped by a Chippendale balustrade. The Scales house remains as a tangible reminder of Greensboro’s rapid economic growth in the 1920s, and the grand scale of buildings and landscapes afforded during that period.
The home has a remarkably intact set of panels of Zuber & Cie wallpaper. Zuber & Cie is thought to be the last factory in the world to produce woodblock printed wallpapers and furnishing fabrics. Since its founding in 1797 by Jean Zuber, Zuber & Cie has maintained its headquarters at Rixheim, France. Jean Zuber's wallpapers were so respected that King Louis Philippe honored him in 1834 with the Legion of Honor.
Zuber & Cie uses woodblocks engraved during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. The scenic panoramas a variety of themes such as Vue de l'Amérique du Nord, Eldorado, Hindoustan, les Guerres d'Independence, and Isola Bella. The Scales House features Eldorado…which dates from 1848 and was installed in 1926. It depicts scenes from four major continents, Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas.
Zuber wallpaper panoramas can be seen in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House, the Carolina Inn in Chapel Hill, Prestwould Plantation near Clarksville Va, the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia, and governor's mansions in Columbia SC and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Tragically, the family lost the home with the Great Depression. As a pragmatic course of action, they moved into Tar Haven, the home across the lake occupied by Scale’s brother. The loss of the house to creditors in the 1930s might have inspired a turn against Capitalism in the heart of youngest son Junius Irving Scales (1920–2002). In 1935, young Scales began frequenting the Intimate Bookshop in Chapel Hill, an off campus gathering space for intellectuals and bohemians with a clandestine Communist Party printing press in a back room. He was soon hired as a clerk in the store at the age of 16, and started attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill the following year. In 1939 he joined the Communist Party and quit school to become a union organizer in the Southern textile mills. The attack on Pearl Harbor brought an end to his organizing efforts, but he returned to Chapel Hill and completed work on his bachelor's degree after serving in the Army. He became the state Communist Party chairman in 1948, serving openly and publicly, leading to newspaper stories that alarmed his once wealthy Capitalist family.
The FBI periodically monitored him, leading to an arrest in 1954. He was not charged with any overt acts, but was indicted under the provisions of the Smith Act as a member of an organization which advocated violence. Scales lost his final appeal, Scales v. United States, in the United States Supreme Court on a 5-4 decision. He served 15 months of a six-year sentence at Lewisburg Penitentiary in Pennsylvania before President John F. Kennedy commuted his sentence on Christmas Eve, 1962. He became the only Communist Party member to serve in prison on these charges.
The Scales House was recognized in 1988 as a Guilford County Landmark Property.
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The home will be open Saturday May 16 and Sunday May 17 as part of Preservation Greensboro's 5th annual Tour of Historic Homes & Gardens. Tour tickets are now available.
Advanced PGI Member Tickets are $15 each and a member may purchase as many as they would like at that price. Member tickets are available at Blandwood, 447 Washington Street in downtown Greensboro or by phone with a credit card at 336-272-5003 x3.
Advanced General Tickets are $20 each and may be purchased at Blandwood, the Extra Ingredient in Friendly Shopping Center, online at www.preservationgreensboro.org or by phone with a credit card at 336-272-5003 x3.
Group Tickets (minimum of 10 people) are $15 each and may be purchased at Blandwood or by phone with a credit card at 336-272-5003 x3.
Why not upgrade to a Patron Pass? Tickets are $75 each and include: tour ticket for the weekend plus an invitation to the Patron's Gala on Thursday, May 14th 6-8pm in a beautiful private home overlooking Lake Euphemia in the neighborhood. This special event will have live jazz music, hors d'oeuvres, wine, beer and a Silent Auction benefiting Preservation Greensboro. These tickets may be purchased at Blandwood, online or by phone with a credit card at 336-272-5003 x3.
Day-Of Tour Tickets are $25 for all and can be purchased with cash or check at any of the houses on the tour. Credit cards will also be taken at House #1 throughout the weekend.
Among the homes of Hamilton Lakes, the Howard House at 3905 Henderson Road stands as an eye-catching example of Mid-Century Modernism. Built for Diane (1929-2009) and Will (1927-1996) Howard in 1955, the house has been substantially reconstructed in 2014-15 in order to address long-term challenges related to materials, drainage, and sustainability. It retains its original H-shaped plan and honors the scope, scale and materials of the initial design.
Will Howard was a native of Charlotte, where his father established a construction company under his own name, the Paul Howard Construction company. One of three sons, Will and his brother Paul “Pug” Howard operated the Greensboro branch of the company, which specialized in civil construction including road and runway projects across the globe. Will was married to his wife Diane in 1949, and this project was their first new construction. They chose Will’s fraternity brother, Tommy Hayes, to design the home, and selected a heavily wooded site in the Hamilton Lakes neighborhood. The neighborhood’s large wooded lots were perfect for a Mid-Century modern home.
Architect Thomas Thurman “Tommy” Hayes, Jr. Hayes was a graduate of North Carolina State University, where he received a degree in architectural engineering in 1949 and a degree in architecture in 1951. Those formative years at NCSU’s School of Design were under the leadership of the school’s Dean, Henry Kamphoefner, and it quickly earned a reputation as a center for modernist doctrine. Hayes was undoubtedly part of that movement.
After graduating from State, Hayes worked with other established architects including Raleigh’s William Deitrick and Greensboro’s Edward Loewenstein, before initiating his own practice in 1952. One of his earliest commissions was the Hayes Residence.
Hayes designed the Howard home in 1955 and broke from the traditional lines established in Hamilton Lakes a generation earlier that reflected Colonial and European design inspirations. Their home featured a flat roofline and solid wood and brick exterior walls that alternated with voids of glass. Interior spaces were austere; featuring areas of terrazzo and carpet coupled with masonry and textured walls. Unusual details include clerestory windows located between ceiling joists and a copper hood above the fireplace. True to the style, public spaces are logically separated from private as the form of the house is dictated by the function of spaces. Form follows function.
Diane and Will enjoyed their eclectic and unusual home by decorating the interior with unusual features such as Japanese swords and wrought iron coffee tables, and threw parties and events among fashion-savvy residents of Greensboro. Their family story is profiled in the March 2015 O.Henry magazine. The couple moved from the home in 1967.
The house has been acquired by Liz and Mike Felsen. The couple found the original plans for the house and retained Martin Felsen and Sarah Dunn of UrbanLab of Chicago for reconstruction, and consulted with Brent Skelton of Greensboro for the landscape design.
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The home will be open Saturday May 16 and Sunday May 17 as part of Preservation Greensboro's 5th annual Tour of Historic Homes & Gardens. Tour tickets are now available.
Advanced PGI Member Tickets are $15 each and a member may purchase as many as they would like at that price. Member tickets are available at Blandwood, 447 Washington Street in downtown Greensboro or by phone with a credit card at 336-272-5003 x3.
Advanced General Tickets are $20 each and may be purchased at Blandwood, the Extra Ingredient in Friendly Shopping Center, online at www.preservationgreensboro.org or by phone with a credit card at 336-272-5003 x3.
Group Tickets (minimum of 10 people) are $15 each and may be purchased at Blandwood or by phone with a credit card at 336-272-5003 x3.
Why not upgrade to a Patron Pass? Tickets are $75 each and include: tour ticket for the weekend plus an invitation to the Patron's Gala on Thursday, May 14th 6-8pm in a beautiful private home overlooking Lake Euphemia in the neighborhood. This special event will have live jazz music, hors d'oeuvres, wine, beer and a Silent Auction benefiting Preservation Greensboro. These tickets may be purchased at Blandwood, online or by phone with a credit card at 336-272-5003 x3.
Day-Of Tour Tickets are $25 for all and can be purchased with cash or check at any of the houses on the tour. Credit cards will also be taken at House #1 throughout the weekend.
Thanks to North Carolina Modernist Home for research on this property.
Tar Haven is one of the earliest homes in Hamilton Lakes. It was built in 1926 at 3907 Henderson Road for a Rear Admiral in the US Navy.
Rear Admiral Archibald Henderson Scales (1868-1952) was the son of Junius Irving and Euphemia Hamilton Henderson Scales. He was born in Greensboro, the nephew of Governor Alfred Moore Scales and the great-grandson of Chief Justice Leonard Henderson. After receiving a primary education, he received an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy, and graduated in 1887. He was commissioned as an officer two years later.
Scales first saw action at sea in 1895 during the Spanish-American War, for which his service earned him the Sampson Medal. Around 1900 he married Harriet Pierce Graham (1872-1925), and the couple had three daughters before Harriet died at the age of 52.
Scales rose in rank to command the USS Severn and then the USS Columbia, and in 1907, as a lieutenant commander on the USS Missouri. As a captain, he commanded the USS Delaware that saw action in the North Sea as part of the British Grand Fleet during World War I. For this service he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal and was decorated as Commander of the Order of Leopold (Belgium).
After the war, and until February 1919, Scales commanded the Great Lakes Training Station, where he was elevated to the post of superintendent of the Naval Academy. The rank of rear admiral was granted him in June 1921. That year he accepted the command of the Battleship Division Five, and then commanded the Fourth Naval District from Philadelphia beginning in 1923 until his retirement in 1926. He retired to Greensboro and lived at the Hamilton Lakes home he named “Tar Haven”. When his brother A. M. Scales lost his home across the lake due to foreclosure, he and his family lived in Tar Haven for several years. After a long illness, Scales died at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Md., and was buried in the Naval Academy Cemetery in Annapolis.
The Scales House is a good example of Colonial Revival architecture. Constructed around 1926, the three-level brick home features a symmetrical façade mimicking Early American homes of the Chesapeake region. Colonial Revival homes were the dominant domestic style throughout the country during the first half of the twentieth century, especially along the East Coast where history runs deep. Interior appointments are traditional, with a wide central hall graced with a stair and flanked by a deep living room to the right and a dining room to the left. The second and third floors contain five bedrooms and 3 and a half baths. Unusual appointments seen on this house is the false chimney on the left gable end of the home, utilized to achieve balance and symmetry of the façade, demilune windows in the uppermost floor, and the original garage to the rear. The shutters are thought to be very early, if not original!
Nancy and Malcolm Jones acquired the house in 1965, and owned the home for 50 years. It is currently for sale and is not furnished.
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The home will be open Saturday May 16 and Sunday May 17 as part of Preservation Greensboro's 5th annual Tour of Historic Homes & Gardens. Tour tickets are now available.
Advanced PGI Member Tickets are $15 each and a member may purchase as many as they would like at that price. Member tickets are available at Blandwood, 447 Washington Street in downtown Greensboro or by phone with a credit card at 336-272-5003 x3.
Advanced General Tickets are $20 each and may be purchased at Blandwood, the Extra Ingredient in Friendly Shopping Center, online at www.preservationgreensboro.org or by phone with a credit card at 336-272-5003 x3.
Group Tickets (minimum of 10 people) are $15 each and may be purchased at Blandwood or by phone with a credit card at 336-272-5003 x3.
Why not upgrade to a Patron Pass? Tickets are $75 each and include: tour ticket for the weekend plus an invitation to the Patron's Gala on Thursday, May 14th 6-8pm in a beautiful private home overlooking Lake Euphemia in the neighborhood. This special event will have live jazz music, hors d'oeuvres, wine, beer and a Silent Auction benefiting Preservation Greensboro. These tickets may be purchased at Blandwood, online or by phone with a credit card at 336-272-5003 x3.
Day-Of Tour Tickets are $25 for all and can be purchased with cash or check at any of the houses on the tour. Credit cards will also be taken at House #1 throughout the weekend.
Bright sunlight floods the interior of the Louise and Vernon Barrickman House, highlighting a cheery art collection by one of Greensboro’s best known artists. Located on a low bluff overlooking the intersection of Kemp Road West and Erskine Drive West, the Barrickman House was first occupied by Louise (1913-1957) and Vernon (1908-1961) Barrickman. The couple financed their home through Starmount Builders, indicating the home might have been built through that company. Barrickman was an ad salesman with the Greensboro News when he and his wife moved into the home around 1953.
The couple only lived in the house for four years. When Louise passed away in 1958, Vernon sold the house to Lena and Ben Krieger. The Kriegers owned Benlee’s women’s clothing at 936 Summit Avenue. The family operated the store there and in subsequent locations for over 60 years. Ben died in 1969 of a heart attack and Lena remained in the home until 1976.
The Barrickman House is an example of the American Ranch House. The 3,020 square foot house is identified through its one-story form with a low-pitched roof featuring no dormers. It features a wide overhanging roof, an off-center entryway, and a garage attached to the side of home. Large windows, including picture windows, grace the façade.
Ranch style homes first appeared in subdivisions of Southern California in the mid-1930s, and their popularity was boosted by their convenient one-level form which qualified for Federal Housing Administration financing. Plans for Ranch-style homes were shown in leading shelter magazines of the day such as House Beautiful and House and Garden.
Homebuyers quickly embraced the house form that featured an open living room with generous access through a dining area to a convenient kitchen. In turn, the kitchen was located adjacent to the garage for an increasingly car-oriented market. Modest bedrooms were located away from the kitchen, and often shared a full bathroom.
Over the course of the past 60 years, many Ranch-style homes have been modified to suit homeowner’s needs, including expanded families with an increasing appetite for space. The Barrickman House is an excellent example of this popular trend as interior spaces have been expanded. In this example a bright artist’s studio, has also been enclosed to the rear of the house, and a dining area has been expanded to the front of the house.
The Barrickman House features a large private yard with courtyard filled with eclectic art.
Today, the home is owned by Dori and Paul Jalazo. Dori is a well-regarded artist. Her work is in public and private collections throughout the world, including those of Nobel Peace Prize Winner Elie Weisel, actor Henry Winkler, and musician Harry Connick Jr.
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The home will be open Saturday May 16 and Sunday May 17 as part of Preservation Greensboro's 5th annual Tour of Historic Homes & Gardens. Tour tickets are now available.
Advanced PGI Member Tickets are $15 each and a member may purchase as many as they would like at that price. Member tickets are available at Blandwood, 447 Washington Street in downtown Greensboro or by phone with a credit card at 336-272-5003 x3.
Advanced General Tickets are $20 each and may be purchased at Blandwood, the Extra Ingredient in Friendly Shopping Center, online at www.preservationgreensboro.org or by phone with a credit card at 336-272-5003 x3.
Group Tickets (minimum of 10 people) are $15 each and may be purchased at Blandwood or by phone with a credit card at 336-272-5003 x3.
Why not upgrade to a Patron Pass? Tickets are $75 each and include: tour ticket for the weekend plus an invitation to the Patron's Gala on Thursday, May 14th 6-8pm in a beautiful private home overlooking Lake Euphemia in the neighborhood. This special event will have live jazz music, hors d'oeuvres, wine, beer and a Silent Auction benefiting Preservation Greensboro. These tickets may be purchased at Blandwood, online or by phone with a credit card at 336-272-5003 x3.
Day-Of Tour Tickets are $25 for all and can be purchased with cash or check at any of the houses on the tour. Credit cards will also be taken at House #1 throughout the weekend.
To buy tickets online, visit our website.
The Rachel and Harry Barton Residence, located at 104 Kemp Road West in the Hamilton Lakes neighborhood will be included in next month's Tour of Historic Homes & Gardens.
Harry Barton (1876-1937) designed and occupied this eye-catching Mediterranean house with his wife Rachel (1875-1957). Barton was born in Philadelphia and attended Temple College. He completed a degree in architecture at George Washington University where he studied at the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design. After graduation, he practiced in Philadelphia and Washington D.C., in the Office of the Supervising Architect, for the United States Department of Treasury.
In 1912, Barton relocated to Greensboro with his wife where he joined the firm of Frank A. Weston, an architect who had arrived from Denver. There, Barton developed strong civic ties to the city and its citizens, to the extent that he established his own practice with a client base among the city's industrial and financial leaders. Barton was one of the first licensed architects in North Carolina after a professional practice license act became law in 1915.
By 1918 he led the architecture committee for the new neoclassical Guilford County Courthouse on West Market Street. Barton was proficient in a broad selection of styles and building types. He designed classically inspired courthouses and municipal buildings, churches in Gothic and Colonial Revival modes, and numerous educational buildings.
For his own residence constructed in 1927 in the new suburb of Hamilton Lakes, Barton selected an exotic Spanish Colonial theme. The white stucco walls are contrasted against the red Spanish tile roof. A variety of window shapes and sizes are accentuated by Solomonic columns that twist as they rise.
In 1963, the Barton House was acquired by Francis and Edward Zane. Zane was born in Tennessee, and received a law degree from Georgetown University in 1921 followed by a master's in accounting from Pace Institute in Washington, D.C., in 1923. He moved to Greensboro in 1929 to work for Burlington Industries as an accountant. He was promoted to Chairman of the Executive Committee of Burlington Industries and later the company’s Comptroller.
Zane served as Mayor of Hamilton Lakes when it was an independent community. After the town’s merger with Greensboro, he joined the Greensboro City Council in 1957. He held this position during the 1960 sit-ins, and students who participated in the sit-ins remembered Zane as a key figure in getting Woolworth and the Kress stores to agree to integrate. He served as chairman of the mayor's Advisory Committee on Community Relations in 1961, and his high-ranking position with Burlington Industries provided him with a strong leadership position from which he could work with protestors to further integrate the city.
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Advanced PGI Member Tickets are $15 each and a member may purchase as many as they would like at that price. Member tickets are available at Blandwood, 447 Washington Street in downtown Greensboro or by phone with a credit card at 336-272-5003 x3.
Advanced General Tickets are $20 each and may be purchased at Blandwood, the Extra Ingredient in Friendly Shopping Center, online at www.preservationgreensboro.org or by phone with a credit card at 336-272-5003 x3.
Group Tickets (minimum of 10 people) are $15 each and may be purchased at Blandwood or by phone with a credit card at 336-272-5003 x3.
Patron's Tickets are $75 each and include: tour ticket for the weekend plus an invitation to the Patron's Gala on Thursday, May 14th 6-8pm. This special event will have live jazz music, hors d'oeuvres, wine, beer and a Silent Auction benefiting Preservation Greensboro. These tickets may be purchased at Blandwood or by phone with a credit card at 336-272-5003 x3.
Day-Of Tour Tickets are $25 for all and can be purchased with cash or check at any of the houses on the tour. Credit cards will also be taken at House #1 throughout the weekend.
The Mary Taylor Moore Residence at 406 East Lake Drive Period has an interesting history that began in one place and moved to another! It will be open for tours this weekend along with seven other homes.
Mary Taylor Moore, this home’s original owner, was employed at nearby UNCG, and she lived here from 1928 through 1948. Moore was a childhood resident of Mount Airy, but moved to the Gate City around 1904. Interestingly, the house was originally constructed on East Lake Drive where Friendly Avenue intersected two blocks south, but with the reconstruction of Friendly Avenue in 1937, Moore’s home was moved to its current site. Like many homeowners in Westerwood at the time, Moore rented rooms in her house to other single professional women. She worked at Women’s College (today UNCG) for 39 years. An alumna of the school, she is remembered as being the first Registrar for the university. Upon her death in 1948, Women’s College President W. C. Jackson reflected that the school “lost one of its most valuable and faithful officers.”
The design of the 2,332 square foot house represents a period in American architecture in which the charming English Cottage styles of the 1920s were being transitioned and streamlined into more simplified forms. In the example of the Taylor House, the steep gable roofline and triple windows of the English Cottage style were tempered with the clean brick walls, shallow eaves, and a simple frame porch influenced by the simpler Minimal Traditional style.
The next long-term owners were Frances and George Ferguson, who acquired the home in 1949. Frances was born in 1904, a native of Germantown, Tennessee. She was a secretary, a member of the First Presbyterian Church of the Covenant, and held a membership in the Periwinkle Garden Club. She is best remembered in Greensboro for serving as the Regent of the Rachel Caldwell chapter of the DAR. Her husband George was born in Delphus, Ohio in 1903. He was an engineer, and served as a department manager at Sears Roebuck department store when the couple acquired the home. Later, he was employed by Burlington Industries, and held memberships with the Shriners and Masons. The couple has two sons that grew up in the house, Larry and George Jr.
After George’s passing in 1981, Frances sold the home to Jeffrey Young. Kenton Robertson purchased the home in 1997, and he remains in the home today with his wife Kathy Devereux. Much work has been done on the house, including an updated kitchen, and a new staircase that leads to a spectacular master bedroom suite housed under the sloped roofline of the second floor.
The 2014 Tour of Historic Homes and Gardens will feature a total of eight vintage homes in the Westerwood neighborhood. The tour will also include the "Village Fayre", an event that will include food trucks and arts and crafts venues on Saturday, May 17th. Live music will include Larry G. Davis – Acoustic Jazz, Westerwood String Band – Folk, and Joel Landau – Beatles Sing-A-Long.
Tickets are available at each home along the tour. Check our website, and our Facebook page for additional tour information.
The Mabel and Clay Hodgin Residence, located at 907 Fairmont Street in Westerwood, will be included in this weekend's Tour of Historic Homes & Gardens.
Among the earliest homes in this section of Westerwood, the Hodgin House was likely constructed in 1924. The design of the 2,587 square foot house is a variation of Colonial Revival style known as Dutch Colonial. The style is characterized by a full-width shed dormer window atop a gambrel roofline and featuring a shed porch with robust masonry columns, perhaps inspired by Charles Barton Keen’s work at Reynolda House in Winston-Salem.
Mabel and Ezra Clay Hodgin are listed as residing here in the city directory in 1924. “Clay” as he was known, was born in Greensboro in 1893, and began a career as a chiropractor in 1921 with an office with Carl Carlson named Carlson & Hodgin with an office in downtown on Sycamore Street. He was remembered for his leadership in his profession as the President of the North Carolina Chiropractors Association. He was also involved with the community through the Masons, the Optimists Club, and through membership at the West Market Street United Methodist Church. The Hodgins had two children, Clay Jr. and Dorothy. Also listed in the household is 19-year-old Kate Rogers, an African American woman from South Carolina employed as a housekeeper. In 1932 the family moved to Lindley Park (they moved back briefly to Westerwood a few years later), and finally to Irving Park. In time, father and son pooled their resources to form Hodgin & Hodgin Chiropractors located on Church Street.
The next long-term owners were Virginia Vandalsem and John M. Woltz, who acquired the house in 1950. At the time the couple moved in, John and his wife were 54 and 44 years old respectively, and operated Piedmont Office Suppliers on North Greene Street. John was an elder at the First Presbyterian Church. He is also remembered for his involvement with the Boy Scouts, from whom he was recognized with a Silver Beaver Award! They had two sons who were teenagers in the home, John Jr. and Van. John Sr. passed away in 1980 and Virginia followed in 1996. Susan and Jim Stinson have lived in the house since 1994. Among the updates they have performed are an expanded kitchen, family room, and master bedroom suite and removal of aluminum siding. Other details of this home are well-preserved, including intact trim and hardware, the modest bedrooms and bathroom located on the second floor.
The 2014 Tour of Historic Homes and Gardens will feature a total of eight vintage homes in the Westerwood neighborhood. The tour will also include the "Village Fayre", an event that will include food trucks and arts and crafts venues on Saturday, May 17th. Live music will include Larry G. Davis – Acoustic Jazz, Westerwood String Band – Folk, and Joel Landau – Beatles Sing-A-Long.
Tickets are available online through the link below, or at The Extra Ingredient (Friendly Center) and Brown and Gardiner (N. Elm Street). Stay tuned to our website, this blog and our Facebook page for additional tour information.
The charming Kate and Harvey West Cottage, located at 306 Crestland Avenue in Westerwood, will be on the Tour of Historic Homes & Gardens this weekend!
Harvey Alexander West was born in 1898 in Rockfish, Cumberland County as was his wife Mary Kate “Kate” Driver in 1897. The couple married in Rockfish on Christmas day in 1919, and their only daughter Martha “Mart” Cameron West was born in 1923 just before they moved to Greensboro around 1926. In the Gate City, Harvey took various management positions with establishments such as the Jewel Box, Saslow’s Jewelers, and the local A & P Tea Company.
In 1934, by which time Harvey was employed as an administrator with the fire department, he and Kate purchased a lot at 810 Fairmont at the corner of Crestland, where he built a stone house that might have been planned as the garage for a larger home. That house still stands, and its large “garage door” openings can clearly be seen from Crestland Avenue. In 1937, the City of Greensboro prepared to sell a lot it owned through unpaid taxes directly behind the West’s new house at 306 Crestland. The city put the property up for public sale, and the Wests were the winning bid at $450!
On this lot, the couple planned to build their next home. A veteran of World War I, Harvey was well-travelled and developed an eye for architectural detail while in Europe. He was also frugal and thrifty. Around the time of construction, a stone campus building on the campus of North Carolina A&T (perhaps “The Barn”) was turned to rubble, and the demolition of the City Public Library provided Harvey with ample stone and brick to recycle into his home. He asked Greensboro architect Alfred C. Woodroof, AIA to review the materials on hand and recommend a design using the warm sand-colored stone to construct exterior walls, and the recycled bricks for pattered infill between stones and the half timbering in gabled rooflines. Several types of masonry patterns can be seen, including alternating herringbone and basket weave. The skilled mason was likely James W. Brown, a Scotsman with experience building the Duke University’s Memorial Chapel.
The 2,000 square foot home surrounded by charming gardens that still sprout garlic, one of Harvey’s favorites! The Wests are best remembered for founding West-Sloan Music, later Harvey West Music on West Market Street. The house remained in the family a remarkable 55 years until 1993. The property never went on the market, but was sold to family friends Victoria and Neil Clegg. The Cleggs have made changes including conversion of a small room into a library, an expanded open plan kitchen with terra cotta tile and pantry, along with the addition of a full bath. Today, the West Cottage looks much as it did when it was constructed nearly 80 years ago!
The 2014 Tour of Historic Homes and Gardens will feature a total of eight vintage homes in the Westerwood neighborhood. The tour will also include the "Village Fayre", an event that will include food trucks and arts and crafts venues on Saturday, May 17th. Live music will include Larry G. Davis – Acoustic Jazz, Westerwood String Band – Folk, and Joel Landau – Beatles Sing-A-Long.
Tickets are available online through the link below, or at The Extra Ingredient (Friendly Center) and Brown and Gardiner (N. Elm Street). Stay tuned to our website, this blog and our Facebook page for additional tour information.
The Annie and Van. B. Nicholson Residence, located at 415 Woodlawn Avenue in Westerwood, is an excellent example of Colonial Revival Architecture.
One of the earlier homes on the tour, the Nicholson House was likely constructed in 1923, the first year the address is listed in the City Directory. Annie and Van Alston Ballard Nicholson were the first occupants of the home. Annie Hines Nicholson was born in Alamance County in 1888. Van was also born in 1888, a native of Warren County. The pair was married in 1917, and had two children: Joe and Elizabeth. Van held a position as a bookkeeper, working at the Greensboro Daily News at the time the family lived on Woodlawn Avenue. They only resided at 415 Woodlawn for five years before moving to a new home in Irving Park where they lived briefly before moving to Lakeland, Florida.
The Nicholson House is a classic American Colonial Revival-style house, with a symmetrical façade of double six-over-one windows, and a front door flanked by sidelights that is sheltered by a gabled entry porch. In this example, Colonial details are mingled with Craftsmen features, as seen with the delightful scrolled rafter tails along the eaves, and the whimsical eyebrow vents in the roofline! The interior is classic Westerwood – a central entry hall with stairs, a deep Living Room to one side, and a Dining Room on the opposite side.
In 1928, the 2,940 square foot house was purchased by Eleanor Shults for $7,500. Shults was born in Johnstown, New York, in 1891 and came to Greensboro around 1923 where she seemed to have lived a simple life working as an office manager for W. W. Dick Plumbing and Heating contractors and later serving as a Red Cross worker. Like most residents of Westerwood, she rented a room for extra income. In 1953, the house was purchased from the Shults estate by Esther J Teague. Teague moved to Westerwood from College Hill and was employed as an assistant in the office of Dr. Fortune. The home was acquired in 1982 by Robyn and Chris Musselwhite. They began a careful restoration of the home, as it had not been well maintained, including the refinishing of floors, the banisters and fireplace, and the enclosure of the screen porch. Other major alterations included adding space to the kitchen, a fourth bedroom at the top of the stairs, and a new open-plan Family Room. The backyard gardens offer welcome shade on a busy tour!
The 2014 Tour of Historic Homes and Gardens will feature a total of eight vintage homes in the Westerwood neighborhood. The tour will also include the "Village Fayre", an event that will include food trucks and arts and crafts venues on Saturday, May 17th. Live music will include Larry G. Davis – Acoustic Jazz, Westerwood String Band – Folk, and Joel Landau – Beatles Sing-A-Long.
Tickets are available online through the link below, or at The Extra Ingredient (Friendly Center) and Brown and Gardiner (N. Elm Street). Stay tuned to our website, this blog and our Facebook page for additional tour information!
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