Annual Preservation Awards
Each year, Preservation Greensboro Incorporated honors noteworthy preservation projects throughout greater Greensboro that were completed the following year. The guidelines for the awards include consideration of sensitivity to the historic integrity of the site following the Secretary of Interior’s Guidelines for Historic Rehabilitation. Emphasis is given to exterior restoration projects that exemplify Greensboro's cultural, historical, and architectural heritage.
2005 Preservation Award Recipients
Distinguished as one of only two historically Black colleges for women in the nation, Bennett’s campus was listed on the National Register in 1992 and features Georgian Revival-style buildings designed by notable architects such as Otis Clay Poundstone of Atlanta and Greensboro’s own Edward Loewenstein. In 2004, the college was awarded a prestigious Getty grant to develop a preservation plan to restore its 12 building campus and surrounding oak- and magnolia-studded landscape. This massive project is exemplified by the restoration of the Wilbur F. Steele Hall as a campus art gallery, the Race Administration Building, Pfeiffer Chapel, and Holgate Library. With careful planning, Bennett College is an example for institutions across the country for care of their historic settings.
Threatened with destruction in 2002, Preservation North Carolina devoted countless hours and resources into saving this city landmark that has entertained such luminaries as Eleanor Roosevelt, William F. Buckley, Eudora Welty and Robert Frost. In orchestrating the relocation of the house and its complete restoration, PNC went beyond the call of duty to see the house restored and opened as the as the Jane Harris Armfield and Emily Harris Preyer Admissions and Visitors Center, in honor of the benefactors that made this project happen. Thank you to all 850 donors and PNC for saving this fascinating story in Greensboro’s history.
Rendered in pressed brick with marble trim, the four Lyndon Street townhouses are unusual for Greensboro and North Carolina. Stylistically related to townhouses in Washington and Philadelphia, the townhouses were built around 1905 for upper-income residents. In 2003 the rowhouses were purchased by Debbie and Milton Kern with the idea to remodel them to provide affordable housing for artists. Today, Greensboro’s own brand of historic townhouses stand refurbished in the heart of a growing arts district, and promise to keep an unusual chapter in the city’s history alive.
After remaining empty and forlorn for more than a decade, the city of Greensboro sold the historic Bernard House at 351 Martin Luther King Drive to Southside developer Bob Isner for restoration. The house was restored according to the Secretary of Interior’s Standards as a tax act project, and adaptively reused as a business. Today, the 115 year-old Italianate residence with bracketed eaves and unusual sawn ornament remains as a landmark in the heart of the redeveloped Southside neighborhood.
When owners Denise and Rodney Speight purchased their eye-catching 1927 Mediterranean Revival home in the heart of Irving Park, they had no idea of the detail they would discover, including elaborate mantles, handmade woodwork, and wrought iron rails. Central to the design of the Charles Hartmann-designed Hudson House is an elaborate frontispiece featuring terra cotta tiles that mimic baroque architecture of renaissance Italy. With this careful restoration, another architectural jewel of the roaring twenties has been saved in Greensboro.
Pinedale School was built in rural eastern Guilford County around 1909, and exemplifies simple schoolhouses built statewide after the education reforms initiated by Governor Aycock. In 2003, Daniel Shoffner, embarked on a careful restoration of the schoolhouse retaining the wavy-glass windows, bead-board siding, and open form of the building while adding a discrete wing for bathroom and storage. Today, the Pinedale Schoolhouse stands as a well-preserved reminder of early twentieth-century education in Guilford County.
Being a carpenter didn’t make the job of restoring this 87 year-old the Colonial Revival J. M. Pegram House any easier. Allison and carpenter Matt Butwinski purchased the house that had been a neglected rental propertyleased to groups of college students. By 2004, wisteria vines grew up the rear walls, sneaking into cracked windows, and handsome porch balustrades had degraded and were falling off. Neighbors on Simpson Street are extremely grateful for their efforts which have turned Simpson Street's most disreputable-looking house into a handsome home.
The charming Colonial Revival cottage at 980 Fairmont Street in Westerwood had been chopped up into apartments when Paige and Tim Cox purchased the home. The 1930s-era house features a full-width front porch, side gables, and wall dormers typical of the period that celebrated recent restorations at Williamsburg Virginia. In their work to return the house to single-family use, the couple created a home office and gave the house much needed bathroom and kitchen updates. Today, the home stands as an example of preservation at work in Westerwood, and an inspiration to other future projects!
Celebrated as one of architect Ed Loewenstein’s simplest modern designs, the L-shaped James and Anne Willis House of 1965 was threatened with replacement with a much larger house when Sara and Tom Sears saved it from the bulldozers. The couple took keen interest in Loewenstein’s philosophy of design, and took great care in updating wiring, kitchens, and mechanicals to fit within the clean walls and site lines. Last fall, Sara and Tom opened the house to the Loewenstein Legacy symposium for tours, allowing the public to view details such as slate flooring, walnut paneling, and floor to ceiling windows.
Ever astute businessman, real estate developer and executive Alfred M. Scales had this impressive mansion erected overlooking Lake Hamilton to set a dignified tone for his new subdivision Hamilton Lakes. Scales hired prominent South Carolina architect C. Gadsden Sayre to design a residence featuring a Neoclassical façade topped by a modillion cornice and Colonial Revival dormer windows. In 2004, the Scales Mansion was purchased by Laura and Ron Hahn, who set about repairing deferred maintenance issues. Sanded floors, repaired rotted railings, and refreshed the exterior appearance were completed to standards set by the Guilford Preservation Commission.