College Hill historic-home prices continued to soar in 2022

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.

2022 sales: Owner-occupied homes

• Sold for $595,000 on November 10, 2022 (listed at $595,000)
• 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, 3,429 square feet, 0.26 acre
• Price/square foot: $174
• Built in 1910
• Listed September 15, 2022
• Last sale: $291,000, March 2003
• Neighborhood: College Hill Historic District (local and NRHP)
• Note: The property includes a two-car garage.
  • The historic district’s National Register nomination describes the home’s “pyramidal roof and a wraparound porch of paired columns and heavy balusters.”
  • The house was built by Henry C. Snyder and C. Maude Snyder. They bought the property from J.Y. and Effie R. Joyner in 1910 for $875. The description on the deed put it at the corner of Spring Garden and “a new Street, now known as Joyner Street.” The original address was 981 Spring Garden.
  • The Snyders had previously lived at 813 Spring Garden, an address that now is part of The Province apartments. Snyder was secretary-treasurer of Cook-Lewis Foundry Company.
  • The Snyders sold the house in 1916 for $5,000 to Faucett W. Jackson (1869-1934), a conductor. He and his wife, Cora Virginia Apple Jackson (1875-1938), had eight children, six of whom survived infancy, five daughters and a son. After their parents’ deaths, daughters Mary Lewis Jackson (1899-1983) and Christine Elizabeth Jackson Earley (1915-1990) owned the house until 1980. Mary continued to live there; Elizabeth moved to the Norfolk area.
  • When Mary moved after living there for 64 years, she recalled in a newspaper article that when the family moved to Spring Garden Street, “people initially wondered why they were moving to the country, suggesting that even at that late date College Hill was towards the western edge of town rather than at its center,” the district’s National Register nomination states.
  • From 1989-1995, the house was owned by Dr. Bruce Caldwell, the Joe Rosenthal Excellence Professor of Economics at UNCG. He is now a research professor at Duke University. Bruce’s specialty is the history of economic thought, with a specific interest in Nobel Laureate economist and social theorist F.A. Hayek. Since 2002 he has served as the general editor of The Collected Works of F.A. Hayek. He also serves as the director of Duke’s Center for the History of Political Economy.

303 S. Mendenhall Street, Greensboro
The Effie M. Anderson House
Blog post (2020) — 303 S. Mendenhall Street: A 1914 Harry Barton Classic in College Hill, $449,900

• Sold for $645,000 on May 31, 2022 (originally $575,000, later $699,000)
• 6 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 3,807 square feet
• Price/square foot: $172
• Built in 1914
• Listed October 19, 2021
• Last sale: $449,900, December 2020
• Neighborhood: College Hill Historic District (local and NRHP)
• Note: For sale by owner
  • Designated as a Guilford County historic landmark
  • Designed by Harry Barton. Few architects have been as historically prominent in Greensboro and across the state as Harry Barton. For more than 20 years until his death in 1937, he designed several of the Greensboro’s most notable buildings, including the UNCG Auditorium, the Quad and others on the campus; the Guilford County Courthouse; the Cone Export and Commission Building; First Presbyterian Church and Presbyterian Church of the Covenant; and World War Memorial Stadium.
  • Effie McLean Anderson (1884-1946) was a widow. She bought the house in 1915, about a year after her husband died; they had been married less than four years. She had no children and never remarried. (Effie did have a step-daughter, Fannie Anderson Sutton, but may not have raised her. Fannie’s mother died at age 30 in 1910, when Fannie was four years old. Fannie lived to be 99, dying in 2006 at her home at Well-Spring Retirement Community.)
  • Effie owned the house until February 9, 1946; she died eight days later at the age of 61.
  • Her husband, William Irvin Anderson (1878-1914), died at age 35 while having his appendix taken out. He was the founder and owner of W.I. Anderson Produce at 245 E. Friendly Avenue. His building has been converted to offices but is still identifiable by the words “♦ FRUITS ♦ PRODUCE ♦” over the door facing East Friendly (click on the photo to see it bigger):

• Sold for $300,000 on July 14, 2022 (not publicly listed for sale)
• 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, 2,787 square feet, 0.28 acre
• Price/square foot: $150
• Built in 1915
• Last sale: $258,000, August 2000
• Note: Bought by a “We Buy Houses” wholesaler (“Are You Looking For A Fast As-Is Cash Sale Without The Hassles?”) for well below the prevailing price in the neighborhood. After a fast four months of repairs, the house was listed at 50 percent more than the July price but is still described in the listing as a “fix and flip or rental” property.
  • The previous owners moved to Utah about 15 years ago. I’m not sure whether the house has been rented since then or has just sat empty. In either case, it was seriously deteriorated.
  • Restored in 1994 by Win and Ann Milam, who restored several properties in the historic district as well as Double Oaks mansion in Westerwood.
  • The house first appeared in the city directory in 1917 with Timothy C. Ward and Dora Ward as residents. They bought the property that year and apparently built the house. Timothy was the state manager of the Toledo Safe Company.
  • In 1922 the Wards sold the house to William Brown Little (1874-1943) and Grace Darling Dry Little (1892-1992). William was a district manger for Southern Bell.
  • The house remained in the Little family for 71 years, being sold after Grace’s death at age 100 by their only child, Laura Grace Little Truitt (1924-2018).

2022 sales: Rental houses

628 Joyner Street, Greensboro

• Sold for $175,000 on January 7, 2022 (originally $189,900). The buyer lives in High Point.
• 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1,505 square feet
• Price/square foot: $116
• Built in 1919 (per county, but probably earlier; see note)
• Listed October 19, 2021
• Last sale: $90,000, May 2013
• Neighborhood: College Hill Historic District
• Note: The house was converted into a duplex decades ago.
  • District NRHP nomination: “This intact bungalow features large triangular knee-braces and a weatherboarded first story topped by a shingled shed dormers and shingled gables ends.”
  • The address first appears in the city directory in 1913, listed as vacant. In 1915, the residents were John Pinkney Merrell (1871-1934) and one of his two sons, John Franklin Merrell (1895-1926). Both were traveling salesmen. They lived in the house until about 1918.
  • John Franklin Merrell’s obituary from the Greensboro Daily News, January 1, 1927: “John Franklin Merrell died in Little Rock, Arkansas where he had been undergoing treatment. He was a member of the firm Merrell and Merrell here on East Washington St. He was survived by his parents, wife, and three children.”

903 W. McGee Street, Greensboro
The Walker and Mittie Hunt House

• Sold for $355,000 on April 27, 2022 (listed at $385,000). The buyers have four other rental properties in Greensboro.
• 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2,181 square feet (per county), 0.21 acre
• Price/square foot: $163
• Built in 1928
• Listed March 3, 2022
• Last sale: $221,000, May 2006
• Neighborhood: College Hill Historic District (local and NRHP)
• Note: Greensboro College is across the street.
• District NRHP nomination: “Tudor revival”
  • Walker Henly Hunt (1877-1961) and Mittie Melvin Hunt (1881-1974) bought the property in 1928 and owned it for 41 years. By 1929 they had built the house and were listed in the city directory. He was identified in 1928 as an attendant at the Keeley Institute, the alcoholism treatment center that occupied Blandwood, Gov. Morehead’s home, for 60 years. Later, he was employed as a painter at the Women’s College. After his death, Mittie continued to live in the house until she sold it in 1969.
  • For what it’s worth, Mr. Hunt was listed in the city directory at various times as W.H. Hunt, Walker H. Hunt and William H. Hunt. The 1928 deed has him as Walker Henley Hunt, and his gravestone has Henly W. Hunt.
  • Digression: The Hunts bought the property from Cara-Mia Scarborough (1887-1977) of 911 W. McGee Street, the Walker-Scarborough House. That house was built around 1845; it’s one of only two antebellum houses remaining in College Hill. Samuel William Scarborough (1824-1905) bought the house in 1877. It apparently included the properties from 901 W. McGee to 1007 W. McGee.
  • Cara-Mia had been given 903 West McGee in 1921 by her mother, Julia B. Scarborough (1852-1930). Cara-Mia was the youngest of 10 children of Samuel and his two wives (Julia was the second). Cara-Mia was 40 years younger than her oldest half-sister. Julia was 28 years younger than Samuel and was younger than three of his children. He was 63 when Cara-Mia was born.
  • In 1928 Cara-Mia was living in the Walker-Scarborough House with her widowed mother and brother Henry Karl Scarborough (1885-1933). Cara-Mia sold the house after Henry’s death in 1933, 56 years after her father had bought it.

10 Springdale Court, Greensboro
The Paul and Jessie Stratton House

• Sold for $227,500 on February 28, 2022 (listed at $220,000). The buyer is an LLC in Greensboro.
• 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1,073 square feet, 0.17 acre
• Price/square foot: $212
• Built in 1927 (per county records, but probably earlier; see note)
• Listed February 5, 2022
• Last sale: $135,500, April 2013
• Neighborhood: College Hill Historic District
• Note: The listing says the house is a Sears kit cottage. It might be this one, the Argyle.
  • Paul B. and Jessie Stratton bought the property in 1920. The address was first listed in the city directory in 1922. Paul was a salesman.
  • The Strattons sold the house in October 1927, the first of four sales of the property in 16 months. The last three were all to individual women, none of whom listed husbands on the deeds.
  • Edith Willingham Womble (1890-1980) bought the house in March 1929 and owned it for 15 years. She lived in Winston-Salem and used the house as a rental property. She was married to Bunyan Snipes Womble (1882-1976), an early partner in what is now Womble Bond Dickinson, a Winston-Salem law firm with offices in 19 U.S. cities and seven cities in England and Scotland.
  • From 1950 to 1971, the house was owned by Mary A. Tennent (1890-1971), assistant registrar of the Women’s College.

15 Springdale Court, Greensboro
The Jennings-Horrnaday House

• Sold for $276,000 on April 7, 2022 (originally $245,000). The buyer lives in Utah.
• 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1,399 square feet
• Price/square foot: $197
• Built in 1921
• Listed September 18, 2021
• Last sale: $125,000, March 2010
• Neighborhood: College Hill Historic District
• Note: Rental property
  • Although county records show the date of the house as 1928, the address was listed in the city directory by 1921. It had only two owners in its first 59 years.
  • Jasper James “Jack” Jennings (1894-1973) and his wife, Pearl Bilbro Jennings (1895-1974), bought the property in 1919 and owned it for 25 years. Jack was the traffic manager for Cone Export & Commission Company. By 1942, the Jennings had disappeared from the city directory, and the house was being rented by Leo Bascom Hornaday (1889-1969).
  • A 1944 deed shows the Jennings living in New York City and selling the house to Hornaday. He was a salesman. At his death, the house passed to his wife, Ola James Hornaday (1889-1970). Her heirs sold it in 1980.

220 Tate Street, Greensboro

• Sold for $482,500 on August 2, 2022 (listed at $500,000). The buyer is an LLC in High Point.
• 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 2,628 square feet, 0.16 acre
• Price/square foot: $184
• Built in 1905
• Listed June 21, 2022
• Last sale: $300,000, May 2021
• Neighborhood: College Hill Historic District
• Something you don’t see every day: The seller admits to a zoning violation. “This home is currently being leased as a college rental at $3,125 a month ($625 a bedroom)” Greensboro zoning prohibits renting a singe-family residence to more than four unrelated persons. [Update: Violation reported to the city; zoning enforcement staff couldn’t care less.]
• District NRHP nomination: “Craftsman foursquare, Residence, 1920-25, Oscar F York. Ticket agent, Southern Railway”

2022 sales: Condos

The number of College Hill condos available for sale fell dramatically in 2022. Only two Wafco condos were sold, compared to nine in 2021 and four in 2020. Two condos in the Powhatan Apartments on West Market Street were sold, compared to five in 2021. All were sold to absentee landlords. At Wafco, though, only 10 of the 28 units appear to be rentals; at Powhatan, at least eight of the 12 condos are rentals.

Both Wafco units sold for more than $200 per square foot, a price reached only twice before, both in 2021.

• Powhatan Apartments: 904 W. Market Street, Apartment A3: Sold for $122,000 on February 2, 2022, $125/square foot, listed at $125,000. The buyer is an LLC in Raleigh.
• Powhatan Apartments: 906 W. Market Street, Apartment B1: Sold for $130,500 on April 26, 2022, $129/square foot; listed at $129,000. The buyers live in Gibsonville.
• Wafco Mills: 801 W. McGee Street, Apartment 11: Sold for $208,000 on February 21, 2022, $217/square foot, apparently was listed publicly for sale. The buyers live in Greensboro.
• Wafco Mills: 801 W. McGee Street, Apartment 16: Sold for $122,500 on March 4, 2022, $201/square foot, listed at $137,500. The buyers live in Greensboro.