The Presbyterian Church of the Covenant building has been sold. The deed was transferred December 30 to the new owner, the Citadel of Praise Church and Campus Ministries. The price was $1.35 million.
The Church of the Covenant congregation won’t be going far. It will move from 501 S. Mendenhall Street to the Holderness Presbyterian House at 409 S. Mendenhall, located on a lot that used to be part of the church’s parking lot.
The Citadel of Praise is a nondenominational Christian church. Over more than 20 years, it has met in a number of locations, most recently the downtown Marriott. “Since 2003, the Citadel of Praise has been a refuge for the lost and a home for believers committed to God’s priorities of faith, family and service,” its website says. “Under the leadership of Rev. Gregory B. Drumwright, the ministry grew into a movement that has ignited revival on college campuses, birthing the Citadel Campus Ministry and drawing hundreds of students to Christ.
Happy holidays to all from the College Hill Neighborhood Association. College Hill residents and friends once again decorated lamp posts on Mendenhall Street for the holidays. Our thanks to Melanie Bassett, Blair Crouse and friend Beverly, Rosemarie DiGiorgio, Indica, Spoma Jovanovic, Clara Kelly, Lyddan Pawlowski, Marianna Phillips, Annette and Lilly Pittman, Lewis Pitts, Hugo Stewart and Samantha Stewart for their enthusiastic work in creating and hanging the decorations. The greenery and berries were provided by Cheryl and Tyler Harp and Dave and Lynn Hemm.
College Hill neighbor Miriam Herin died Tuesday, May 27, 2025, at age 84. Miriam was an award-winning author of three novels. She and her husband, Tom Herin, have lived on Walker Avenue for 18 years. They came to Greensboro from Charlotte when Tom became pastor of College Place United Methodist Church.
Miriam’s first novel, Absolution, won the 2007 Novello Press Literary Award. Publishers Weekly called it an “impressive” debut that “skillfully combines a contemporary courtroom thriller with a subtle look back at the competing passions and pressures of the Vietnam War era.” Her second, A Stone for Bread, won the Legacy Fiction category in the 2020 Eric Hoffer Awards.
Her most recent novel, The Basilisk (2022), received a starred Kirkus Review that praised the novel as “a richly textured medieval tale told with gripping suspense, keen intelligence, and aching emotion.”
Miriam Margaret Macfarlan Herin was born in Miami, Florida. She was a graduate of Emory and Henry College and the University of South Carolina, where she earned her master’s and Ph.D. in English literature. She taught at universities, served as a social worker at a children’s home and worked as an editor at Good Housekeeping magazine and as a free-lance writer. She worked as a volunteer for five years to create and coordinate a youth program that involved 56 young people who were refugees from Southeast Asia. For more about Miriam and her work, go to https://miriamherin.com/ (and previous College Hill blog posts here and here).
In addition to Tom, Miriam is survived by their two adult children, Carol Herin Jordan of Bowling Green, Kentucky, and John Herin of New York City, and two grandchildren.
College Hill will remember Miriam as a valued, outgoing and upbeat neighbor often seen walking with Tom and their dog, Chance. She loved having friends over for parties at their backyard pool. Our condolences to Tom and their family.
UPDATE, June 1, 2025: A memorial service will be held on Saturday, August 2 at 11 a.m. at College Place United Methodist Church, 509 Tate Street. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that memorials be made to Emory and Henry University, Office of Philanthropy and Engagement, P.O. Box 950, Emory, VA 24327 or to the charity of your choice.
Starting this month, meetings of the College Hill Neighborhood Association will be held at Greensboro College in the President’s Hall in the Main Building. The location is expected to have better facilities for conducting hybrid in-person/Zoom meetings.
For decades, the association has met at the Presbyterian Church of the Covenant. We thank the church and especially Clara Kelly for their boundless hospitality and patience over the years. Meeting dates and Zoom information are always available in the right rail of every page on website.
Lewis will speak at Scuppernong Books on Friday March 21, 6 p.m.
The book is published by the University of South Carolina Press.
“Born in 1947 and raised in rural South Carolina, Lewis Pitts grew up oblivious to the civil rights revolution underway across the country. A directionless white college student in 1968, Pitts committed to military service and was destined for Vietnam. Five years later―after a formative period in which he underwent an intellectual and moral awakening, was discharged as a conscientious objector, and graduated from law school―he embarked on an unlikely forty-year career as a crusading social justice attorney.”
The book was written by Jason Langberg, an education justice and civil rights lawyer. He formerly worked for Legal Aid of North Carolina and the Legal Aid Justice Center in Virginia. He lives in Colorado.
Damage at 818 Walker Avenue and a Google StreetView photo from 2022
A fire broke out around 3 a.m. today at 818 Walker Avenue. The house suffered severe damage. Residents Adrienne Everheart and Jeff Wagner were able to escape uninjured, but at least some of their cats didn’t make it out.
“We lost several beloved cats and everything we own,” Adrienne said. “”We were using an outdoor heating pad for two stray cats that sleep on the porch. Apparently, it was faulty and caught fire.”
A Go Fund Me campaign has been launched. By mid-afternoon Thursday, 86 donors had contributed more than $7,000.
[Update: By midnight Thursday, $20,000 had been contributed by 235 donors.]
The fire was contained by Greensboro firefighters, who managed to prevent major damage to the house next door, 816 Walker. Two cars in the driveway of 816 were destroyed, and the electric meter on the house melted in the heat. The lot on the other side of the house is a parking lot for the Presbyterian Church of the Covenant, which is across the street.
The fire is the fourth major house fire in 25 years in College Hill. It’s the first in that time to occur in an owner-occupied home. In May 2020, 923 Carr Street was destroyed by an overnight fire. Next-door neighbors Alexa Barwick and Eric Snavely bought the lot and have created a large garden there.
919 Spring Garden Street was severely damaged by a fire in 2011. The College Hill Neighborhood Association, Preservation Greensboro Development Fund and the City of Greensboro worked together to prevent the home’s demolition. Three years later, it was bought and restored by Richard and Susan Stone.
In 1999, the house at 824 Rankin Place was destroyed by a fire. Next-door neighbors Spoma Jovanovic and Lewis Pitts bought the empty lot and in 2018 built a new home there.
Also about 25 years ago, a New Year’s Day fire damaged an upstairs apartment at 307 S. Mendenhall. The fire was contained to that apartment, which was repaired.
An early-morning account of Thursday’s fire from WFMY:
Our neighbor Hooker Doolittle Van Deusen passed away on March 21, 2024. He lived for many years at 300 Tate Street, initially with his parents, Edwin Van Deusen, a retired Army officer who died in 2016, and Natasha Doolittle Van Deusen, who died in 2013. In recent years he lived there with his brother, Edwin. He was named after his maternal grandfather, Hooker Doolittle, a U.S. Foreign Service officer.
Hooker was 70 years old. He was a sculptor, potter and painter. He received his bachelor of fine arts degree from UNCG in 1978. He received the Chancellor’s Award that year for one of his paintings, which became part of the permanent collection at the Weatherspoon Art Museum. Many College Hill residents will recall seeing him throughout the neighborhood, walking his dog, Hannah.
Stormwater line replacement work will be centered on McGee Street at Cedar Street. McGee will be closed from Fulton Street to Spring Street.
West McGee Street will blocked from Fulton Street to South Spring Street beginning Friday June 14 for almost two months. Part of South Cedar Street at McGee Street will be closed as well. The target date for reopening the streets is Friday August 9.
The city will upgrade storm water lines to 72 inches and relocate water and sewer mains as necessary. The project is intended to prevent or at least reduce the chance of flooding at Wafco Mills, the lower levels of which have been inundated after extremely heavy rains.
The McGee-Cedar intersection is at the bottom of two hills; a creek runs through the location. It was the site of a railroad line that is now being redeveloped as part of the Downtown Greenway. The storm water line replacement isn’t related to the Greenway.
“The city has wanted to do this work for years, but had challenges while the railroad was still active and under the purview of Norfolk Southern,” Dabney Sanders, project manager for the Greenway, told the College Hill Neighborhood Association in an email. “It made sense to do this work while the downtown greenway is under construction.”
The city aims to complete the project before fall classes begin at Weaver Academy and Greensboro College, which are adjacent to the work site.
Our website is a resource for College Hill residents and anyone interested in our neighborhood and historic district. The blog on our home page or our welcome page are places to start.
Garbage and yard waste are collected every Friday. Recycling and bulk trash collections are made every other Friday. Click here for details.
Next CHNA & HPC Meetings
College Hill Neighborhood Association Monday January 26, 2026 Monday February 23, 2026 Monday March 23, 2026 Meetings are held at Greensboro College in the President's Hall, Main Building, and as Zoom teleconferences: Click here to login.
Historic Preservation Commission Wednesday January 28, 2026 Wednesday February 25, 2026 Wednesday March 25, 2026 Meetings are held at 4 p.m. in the Plaza Level Conference Room, Melvin Municipal Building, 300 W. Washington Street.
The Weatherspoon is open. There's music on Tate Street, and we're close to downtown, the Coliseum and most of Greensboro's other arts and entertainment venues.
Check the Calendar and Local Events pages for links to major events, major venues, university event calendars and Greensboro's busy local arts scene.
