Update: Both COA applications were approved.
The Historic Preservation Commission is scheduled to meet Wednesday, May 31, at 4 p.m. The agenda will include public hearings on two applications for certificates of appropriateness for College Hill properties at 706 Spring Garden Street and 924 Carr Street. The meeting will be held in the Plaza Level Conference Room, Melvin Municipal Building, 300 W. Washington Street.
Arlen Nicolls has been named the College Hill representative on the city’s Historic Preservation Commission. She is a Realtor and has lived in College Hill since 2008. Arlen has long been active in the College Hill Neighborhood Association, having served as a board member and treasurer.
The Historic Preservation Commission is a quasi-judicial board that reviews applications for Certificates of Appropriateness for exterior work in Greensboro’s three local historic districts. All exterior work on historic-district properties must meet the city’s Historic District Program Manual and Design Guidelines. New construction also requires a COA and is subject to the guidelines.
Guilford County’s only documented lynching occurred in 1887 at a location described vaguely at the time as on or near “Mr. Jackson’s farm.” That farm was located in the general area of the Presbyterian Church of the Covenant in College Hill. The Guilford County Community Remembrance Project has researched the lynching and will make a presentation this month to a virtual meeting of the City of Greensboro’s Ad-hoc Committee on African American Disparity.
The meeting will be held Thursday February 23 at 6 p.m. via Zoom:
Meeting ID: 915 1305 6243
Passcode: 793452
Dial by Phone: 301 715 8592
“We are working to bring awareness to the legacy of lynching and racial terror in Guilford County,” project organizer Terry Hammond said in 2020, when a similar presentation was planned at the church. It was canceled when public gatherings were banned because of the pandemic.
“In the only documented lynching in Guilford County, Eugene Hairston, a 17-year-old African-American from Kernersville, was accused of assaulting a white 17-year old woman from Colfax. He was ‘taken into the suburbs of the city, in the neighborhood of Mr. Jackson’s farm and hanged near the little brick school house,’ the Greensboro Morning News reported on August 26, 1887.
“After months of research, the location has been determined to be close to the present day Presbyterian Church of the Covenant and Jackson Street/Walker Avenue.”
Among the news overage of the Remembrance Project are an editorial in the News & Record, Our Opinion: Light unto darkness; and front-page features in the News and Record and Triad City Beat.
The January neighborhood association meeting on Monday will include a discussion of how to better engage College Hill’s many landlords in maintaining and improving the neighborhood. It’s a challenge that has been addressed with little success and varying degrees of enthusiasm and frustration since the association was established more than 40 years ago. But it’s an issue as relevant today as ever. Property ownership in College Hill is still tilted toward rentals and threatens to become even more imbalanced as the neighborhood’s home prices soar beyond the reach of most families but not of many “real estate investors.”
Absentee landlords have made up a large share of College Hill’s property owners since the Depression. Today, the mix is about 53 percent rental properties and 45 percent owner-occupied homes (the other 2 percent are vacant1Oddly, a total of 15 properties, almost 4 percent of the neighborhood’s residential properties, have achieved the ultimate in absentee ownership and are now owned by landlords who have died. The nine houses owned by James Dutton have been listed for sale by his estate. Nothing appears to be happening yet with the six owned by Jeff Towne.).
1001 W. McGee Street, now a whole-house short-term rental
1010 W. McGee Street, also a whole-house short-term rental
Airbnb has listed short-term rentals in College Hill since at least 2014, but there may be more of them now than ever. This week, 919 Carr Street hosted its first Airbnb guests, bringing the total number of short-term rental units in the neighborhood to at least eight.1It’s possible there are other Airbnbs in College Hill. The website doesn’t provide specific addresses until reservations are made. It also show users only the rentals that are available on the dates specified for reservations. I checked dates in several months and found only these listings in College Hill. I didn’t find anyplace in the neighborhood listed with the other major short-term rental site, VRBO.com.
The online rental platform has become so popular, and, presumably, profitable, that two recently sold historic homes were bought specifically to become whole-house Airbnb rentals, 1001 W. McGee Street (“Stunning 4 bd/2 bth filled with every lux comfort!”) and 1010 W. McGee Street (“Grandeur and Beauty College Hill”). Both had been owner-occupied, single-family homes. 1001 W. McGee sold for $430,000 in December 2021; 1010 W. McGee sold for 375,000 in July 2021.
919 Carr Street, the most recent Airbnb listing in College Hill
919 Carr (“Cozy on Carr”), also a whole-house rental, had been a conventional rental property before being listed on Airbnb.
A large home on South Mendenhall Street offers three apartments (“1906 Rustic Comfort,” “1906 Classic Retreat” and “1906 Victorian Refuge“). The owners have a special-use permit to allow the three short-term rentals, which can accommodate a total of 12 guests. The owners themselves live in the house as well.
Other Airbnb rentals in College Hill include part of an owner-occupied, single-family home on Rankin Place (“Spacious Upstairs Suite”) and an apartment in a commercial building on Spring Garden Street (“The Fishbowl”).
The elegant 915 Spring Garden Street sold for $595,000 in November 2022
2022 was a relatively quiet year for real estate in College Hill. Few historic homes went up for sale, continuing the trend of recent years. I counted 12 sales during the year; just three involved owner-occupied homes. Five houses (including a Sears kit house) and four condos were sold as rental properties, mostly to local or in-state buyers.
The sales of 915 Spring Garden Street and 303 S. Mendenhall Street continued the sharp increase in prices of restored owner-occupied houses in the historic district. 915 Spring Garden sold for $595,000; 303 S. Mendenhall, for $645,000. Those prices would have been unimaginable just a couple years ago. Even so, College Hill’s historic homes continue to be relative bargains. On a square-foot basis, those houses sold for $174 and $172, respectively. Well restored historic homes in Fisher Park, Irving Park and Sunset Hills sold consistently for more than $250 per square foot.
Wreath-maker Rosemarie DiGiorgio at work
Neighborhood volunteers have created holiday wreaths and put them up on lampposts up and down South Mendenhall Street. The wreaths were made possible in part by a generous donation of tree trimmings from the Delancy Street Holiday Tree lot.
Lyddan Pawlowski made the bows, Clara Kelly gathered holly, and Miriam and Tom Herin donated the magnolia leaves. The wreaths were created by Rosemarie DiGiorgio, Clara Kelly, Patti Pogodzinski and Samantha Smith. Josh Stewart and Dan Smith helped hang the wreaths.
The Delancey Street tree lot is at 2108 N. Church Street. “If you haven’t yet purchased your Christmas tree, this is the place to do it,” Samantha Smith, CHNA president, says. “They are so kind and helpful there, the trees are fresh, and the money goes to the very important cause of helping those struggling with addiction, homelessness, and other dire needs.
“Please get your tree from Delancey Street Tree Lot if you can so we can thank them for their generosity. They filled the entire back of my Subaru with fresh tree cuttings!”
All College Hill residents are eligible for membership in the Greensboro Municipal Federal Credit Union. This eligibility is extended to members of all neighborhood associations that belong to the Greensboro Neighborhood Congress. All College Hill residents are members of the College Hill Neighborhood Association, which is a member of the GNC.
The credit union has offices at 217 N. Greene Street, 2200 Soabar Street and 2511 Phillips Avenue. Members also can use the offices of the Co-Op Shared Branching network, including 23 in the Greensboro area and 5,000 nationwide.
ATMs are at the Soabar and Philips offices, the Depot and the Greensboro Farmer’s Market. Members also can use more than 30 surcharge-free CashPoints ATMs in Greensboro and hundreds more across the state. CashPoints locations in Greensboro include the State Employees Credit Union office at Tate and Market streets, the Elliott Center at UNCG and Municipal Plaza on South Greene Street downtown.
Figuring out even the most basic aspects of our health-care system is getting more and more complex. With health issues dominating the news like never before, a new page has been added to the website listing community health resources. It’s found under the GSO Guide tab on the navigation bar.
The guide isn’t comprehensive, but it’s a start. Please provide any suggestions you have for additional listings. Here are the initial listings on the page.
Alcoholics Anonymous
Daily and biweekly groups meet at the Presbyterian Church of the Covenant, 501 S. Mendenhall Street, and at St. Mary’s House, 930 Walker Avenue.
NA meetings
Two weekly groups meet at St. Mary’s House, 930 Walker Avenue.
Vaccines, testing and other information
Guilford County Health Department
City of Greensboro
Guilford County Solution to the Opioid Problem
Syringe access, peer-based
NC Survivors Union
Syringe access, peer-based
Family Services of the Piedmont
Helps families address domestic violence, child abuse, mental health and financial stability.
Triad Adult and Pediatric Medicine
Provides primary care and preventive care, including health and mental health/substance abuse services to persons of all ages, regardless of their ability to pay or health insurance status. (Formerly Guilford Child Health Inc. and HealthServe Community Health Clinic)
Women’s Emotional Wellness and Support Group
At the Women’s Resource Center: “A safe & confidential peer-led environment for sharing and support. Topics include coping strategies, self-care, empowerment & tools to help manage life’s daily challenges.”
Guilford County Public Health Department
Preventing disease and promoting health, the first public health department in North Carolina and the second in the nation.
AuthoraCare
Formerly Hospice of Greensboro and Hospice of Alamance-Caswell.
The Kellin Foundation
Community-based organization providing free mental health and substance use treatment services. (Mental Health Greensboro merged with the Kellin Foundation in 2021.)
UNCG Psychology Clinic
Comprehensive psychological evaluations and individual and group therapy for children, families, and adults. Providers are graduate students under the supervision of licensed psychologists and health service providers.
Carolina Abortion Fund
Abortion resource referrals and financial assistance
Planned Parenthood Greensboro Health Center
“Care no matter what”
STD Testing in Greensboro
“You have options for getting STD tests. Learn about convenient local testing for common STDs.”
Triad Health Project
“Triad Health Project promotes sexual health and justice through radical care, love, and equity while working to free our community from HIV, its stigma, and root causes.”
UNCG Speech and Hearing Center
Offers professional services for evaluation and treatment of speech, language and hearing disorders to individuals across the lifespan. Open to the public.
Humane Society of the Piedmont
Provides affordable medical care for animals, including low-cost spay/neuter, vaccines and wellness services.
