New Listing: 1332 W. Friendly Avenue, A Beautiful 1918 Craftsman

Update: The owners accepted an offer four days after putting the house on the market. It sold for $290,000 on December 4, 2020.

The Morton House, 1332 W. Friendly Avenue, is older than Friendly Avenue itself. When the house was built in 1918, there must have been a road, but it’s not clear from the City Directory whether it had a name (Gaston Avenue, which later became the downtown part of Friendly, didn’t extend that far). Later, it was called West Market Place and then Madison Avenue before Friendly took its current form. This week, the house went up for sale at $290,000. It’s a gorgeous Craftsman, very well restored.

It has three bedrooms, one and a half bathrooms and 2,016 square feet ($145/square foot). The doors, breakfast nook and fireplaces all appear to be original. The kitchen and bathrooms are updated. Some may be put off by the location — Friendly is a busy street, and, thanks to its close proximity to UNCG, many of the other homes on the block are student rentals. But the price is pretty good, and the house is beautiful.

The first owners were Fannie and Jackson Morton. Curiously for the time, only her name is on the original deed (and it’s her married name). Jackson’s name first appears on a 1929 deed of trust. He was a bookkeeper, then working for North State Motor Company, the local Chevy dealer (they also sold Paige and Roamer automobiles, “The fastest stock cars in the world, both having established world’s records since January, 1921”). Jackson died in 1947 at age 62. Fannie owned the house until 1988, when she died on her 96th birthday.

Bonus 1920s facts about Greensboro auto dealers: The city’s other car dealers included Gate City Motor Company (selling Chalmers, Studebaker and Cole); McGlamery Auto Company (Ford cars and Fordson tractors), which also had an office in Gibsonville; Mebane Motor Company (Dodge Brothers and Mercer); and Motor Service Company (Haynes, “America’s First Car”; Hupmobile, “The Comfort Car”; and Mack Trucks).

1332 W. Friendly Avenue