Greensboro Historic Homes For Sale

Update: The house sold for $225,000 on April 30, 2021.

There have been quite a few heroes who were born or lived in Greensboro — Levi Coffin in the earliest days; in the 20th century, Rick and Wes Ferrell, the A&T Four and Ron McNair; and more recently, Joey Cheek and Loretta Lynch, to name a few. Among the greatest were George and Bill Preddy, the World War II fighter pilots who grew up in Dunleath. George was a barnstorming pilot-turned-flying ace and totally fit the part with his Clark Gable mustache and brilliant smile. He was the top P-51 Mustang ace of the war, credited with 26.83 enemy air-to-air victories (including two shared victories). Younger brother Bill followed George into the European theatre. He, too, proved himself an outstanding fighter pilot and was honored as one of the liberators of Czechoslovakia.

Today, their family’s home at 605 Park Avenue is a beautifully restored little bungalow. Their father, George, was a Southern Railway conductor. He and his wife, Clara, had the house built in 1920; Clara sold it after his death 52 years later. Last week, It was put up for sale again. The owners accepted an offer in two days. The asking price was $199,900.

Update: After multiple postponements, the house was auctioned in September 2021 and sold for $138,470 on November 16, 2021.

Prince Taylor bought a piece of land in Browns Summit from Ceasar and Jeannette Cone in 1903. It cost $164. The lot was described as “being lot no 1 Block C Ceasar Cone’s subdivision adjacent to the city of Greensboro.”

Prince built his house there in 1913, according to county records, but it may have been earlier (property records that old aren’t always exactly correct). He was a blacksmith, and he kept working until about 10 days before he died in 1953 at age 87. The home stayed in his family until his last surviving daughter sold it in 1987.

The house, at 4606 N.C. Highway 150 East in Browns Summit, has been scheduled to be auctioned twice, in 2020 and 2021. Both auctions were canceled. It was last sold for $115,000 in 2005. It has four bedrooms and one bathroom in 2,224 square feet. The lot is 1.15 acres.

Continue reading “4606 N.C. Highway 150 East: An African American Blacksmith’s 1913 Home to be Auctioned”

Older homes that are stripped of their historic character usually aren’t very interesting. It’s increasingly common for renovators to go the cheap route and drain the character from classic homes — installing vinyl siding, replacing original windows with slickly marketed “maintenance-free” ones, tearing out distinctive moldings, doors and floor plans for homogenized blandness.

From the outside, 803 E. Bragg Street in the Asheboro Community was something else again. And that’s putting it mildly. The house lost its historic character, but, for a while at least, it gained an attention-grabbing new look, one that turned out to be too much for even the owners.

Greensboro’s most expensive neighborhood just experienced a little jolt of activity. A pair of million-dollar-plus historic homes were sold on consecutive days last week. The prices on both were remarkable, even for Irving Park. And the sales were fast: One house hadn’t been listed for sale; the other had been on the market for a single day before the owners accepted a full-price offer.

Those sellers are making it look easy, but in recent years it hasn’t been unusual for Irving Park’s most expensive classic houses to sit for months or years before they sold. If they sold. In the past three years, five houses priced $700,000 to $1.7 million have been withdrawn without sales, and two others have been sold at a loss. During the same time period, 21 others have sold, generally after being on the market a few weeks to as long as five years.

Update: The house sold for $200,100 on October 27, 2020, $10,200 above its asking price. The owners accepted the offer two days after the house was listed for sale.

914 Englewood Street
The Cornelius Blair House

Lindley Park and Sunset Hills get a lot of attention as beautiful, historic neighborhoods, and rightly so, but there’s a largely overlooked neighborhood right next to them that has some beautiful and vastly more affordable historic homes.  The Brice Street neighborhood has been almost overrun by low-end landlords because of its proximity to UNCG, but you can find some fine homes there as well. When they come up for sale, the trick is getting to them before Greensboro’s voracious “real estate investors” do.

Continue reading “New Listing: The Cornelius Blair House, A Sweet Little 1921 Cottage on Englewood Street, $189,900”