Update: The house sold for $493,000 on January 29, 2021.
605 N. Church Street is just the kind of place historic districts were created to save, a remarkable example of early 20th-century architecture. The wraparound front porch curving out toward the street, second-story porch above it, leaded-glass windows and cross-gambrell roof all combine for a look that’s as distinctive as it is elegant.
The Dutch Colonial is for sale at $589,900, and even at that price it’s a relative bargain. With 3,735 square feet, the price works out to $158 per square foot. Similarly impressive homes in Fisher Park have been selling for $190 to $250 per square foot.
The house is well restored inside and out with beautiful fireplaces, pocket doors, and a screened-in porch at the back topped by a now-enclosed sleeping porch. The house has four bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms. The deep yards in front and back are nicely landscaped; the backyard has a slate patio and mature plantings that provide privacy.
The date of the house is recorded as 1905 in county property records and as 1910 to 1915 in the Fisher Park nomination to the National Register. The city directory first shows the house, then designated as 451 North Church, in the 1912-13 edition as the home of insurance broker Arthur A. Fisher.
Although the house is often referred to as the Carl I. Carlson House, Benjamin Briggs says it was built by Fisher and his wife, Margaret, with Arnold selling the house to Carlson after Margaret’s death in 1913. Carlson was a chiropractor; his wife, Laurinda Richardson Carlson, was a daughter of Lunsford Richardson. They sold the house in 1926 to A.M. Scales, co-developer of Irving Park and creator of the Town of Hamilton Lakes. Scales owned it for less than a year, perhaps living there while his 11,000 square-foot mansion in Hamilton Lakes was being finished.
Other notable owners have included Dr. Frank K. Harder, city health officer, from 1946-55 and stockbroker W. Gordon Latham and his wife, Allie, from 1955-80.
The house was bought in 1980 by William and Joanne Craft. Like Fisher, Bill was an insurance-agency executive. He also was “Greensboro’s Johnny Appleseed” and the driving force behind the restoration of Green Hill Cemetery (and, thus, the namesake of Greensboro’s Bill Craft Park and Bill Craft Trail). One of their sons, David, and David’s wife, Janet, bought the house in 2004.
605 N. Church Street
The Fisher-Carlson-Latham House
- $589,900
- 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, 3,755 square feet, 0.43 acre
- Price/square foot: $158
- Built in 1905, possibly, or circa 1910-15
- Listed September 18, 2020
- Last sale: $370,000, July 2004
- NRHP district nomination: “C. I. Carlson: topped by large shingled, cross-gambrell roof; multiple bays are recessed beneath the roof, behind a round-columned wraparound porch at the first story.”
Greensboro Historic Homes For Sale 