New Listing: 420 McAdoo Avenue, A 1905 Bungalow Long Owned by One of Southside’s Earliest Families

Posted on by David Arneke

420 McAdoo Avenue
The Margaret Murray Thornton House

  • $295,000
  • 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2,071 square feet
  • Price/square foot: $142
  • Built in 1905
  • Listed March 29, 2021
  • Last sale: $156,600, November 2014 (foreclosure)
  • Neighborhood: Southside
  • Note: Older homes in Southside rarely come up for sale. There have been only two in the past three years.
  • The house sits at the corner of McAdoo and Murray streets. Originally part of the Murray family’s large estate, the property was bought in 1901 by Margaret Murray Thornton (1872-1926) from her mother, four siblings and other relatives. Her father, William Rufus Murray (1836-1893), owned a general merchandise store on Market Street. He was listed as living in what is now Southside on Asheboro Street (Martin Luther King Jr. Drive) as early as 1884.
    • After Margaret’s death, her husband, Charles Dilk Thornton (1872-1947) owned the house until 1943. He was born in Gloucestrshire, England, and worked as a dispatcher for Southern Railway.
    • The Greensboro Redevelopment Commission bought the house in 1997 as part of Southside’s redevelopment.