Beauty Soars Here
F
United Methodist Retirement Community
RANCIS LOVES BEING OUTSIDE with good friends — and if he drives a beautiful shot off the tee, that’s even better. “It’s just fun to get out there and find fellowship on the fairway,” he smiles. Retired and now living at Arbor Acres, Francis has more freedom than ever to do the things he loves most. At Arbor Acres, our residents celebrate the endless variations and possibilities of beauty. What is beautiful to you?
www.arboracres.org 1240 Arbor Road, Winston-Salem, NC 27104 336 -724-7921
Made in Oxford, MS Created with love for God and family. Handcrafted from clay, hand-painted, trimmed in 14k gold and tied with scripture.
GREENSBORO 225 South Elm Street • 336-272-5146 WINSTON-SALEM Stratford Village • 137 South Stratford Road • 336-725-1911 www.schiffmans.com
The French Farmer’s Wife European Antiques ARCHITECTURAL • FARMHOUSE • GARDEN
2018 BARN SHOW DATES: NOVEMBER 8-10 • 9AM-4PM 1 9 8 7 B E E S O N R O A D • K E R N E R S V I L L E • N O RT H C A R O L I N A • 8 0 5 . 2 7 9 . 6 6 2 8
We do It All ... CuStom buIldING ANd remodelING
407 Parkway Avenue, Suite I Greensboro, NC 27401
Gary Jobe 336-272-2772 336-549-1146
Y O U R
S O U R C E
F O R
Furniture Market Samples I N
Get Social with us! Accent Prone @accentprone
T H E
P I E D M O N T
1030-F South Main St. Kernersville NC 27284
336.310.4753 Hours Mon-Fri 10a-7p Sat 10a-5p
www.accentprone.com
T R I A D
Visit our new location
419 Pisgah Church Rd. | Greensboro, NC 27455
336-272-4227 | M-F 10-6 SAT 10-5 | printers-alley.com
The best
gifts come from the heart.
The heart of Crossnore School & Children’s Home is our children. You can share your heart with them during the holiday season or throughout the year by purchasing gifts at Crossnore Weavers shop on our Avery campus or in our online store. There you will find beautiful handwoven wearables, table linens, home decor, and baby items.
CROSSNORE
weavers
Avery Campus Store: 205 Johnson Lane | Crossnore, NC 28616 | (828) 733-4660 Online store: www.crossnore.org/store
Come spend a day
with us
in Greensboro.
Centrally located, Greensboro is the perfect place to relax and be immersed in entertainment. Choose from more than 500 restaurants and shop till your heart’s content. Explore our 90 miles of trails, walk the Downtown Greenway, cheer on the Greensboro Swarm, plan a trip to the Greensboro Science Center or our downtown parks. Visit the Greensboro History Museum and learn about our rich history.
We can’t wait to share Greensboro with you! W W W. G R E E N S B O R O - N C . G O V
Fall 2018
68
15 From the Editor
By Jim Dodson
S TYLEBOOK 16 The Hot List FEATURES
48 The Collector
By Cynthia Adams
Tom Fitzgerald explores context and meaning among the exquisite objects that have filled his Greensboro home over time
56 Solid as Faith
56 31
70
By Ross Howell, Jr
The Fogle Brothers’ enduring architectural imprint on Winston-Salem
62 Making and Shaking
By Amy & Peter Freeman
Cohab Space is fast becoming a hub for High Point’s creatives
68 A Legendary Flower with Many Names
By Noah Salt Photographs by Amy Freeman
By Jason Oliver Nixon & John Loecke
19 Hidden Gems
By Jim Dodson & Nancy Oakley
27 Designer Legacy
By Billy Ingram
31 Prime Resources
By Robin Sutton Anders
35 Season to Taste
By Jane Lear
39 Designer Profile
By Nancy Oakley
45 Almanac
By Ash Alder
LIFE&HOME 70 House for Sale
By Jim Dodson
75 The Language of Home
By Noah Salt
76 Why I Live Where I Live
By Nancy Oakley
80 HomeWords
10 SEASONS •
STYLE
& DESIGN
By Ross Howell, Jr
Cover Photograph by Amy Freeman
Fall 2018
BHHSCarolinas.com/878896
BHHSYSU.com/2188291 3131 Milhaven Lake Drive Winston-Salem 330 Tenney Circle $799,900
Chapel Hill
S U$2,195,000 S A N C A RT E R 336 –785 –5762
THE MCCORMICK TE AM 919 –270 –2937
BHHSYostandLittle.com/896992 BHHSYSU.com/2176095
7110 Lake Worth Henson Drive 42004 Summerfield
Chapel $749,500
Hill
$879,000 JA R E E TO D D TH E M CCORMICK TE AM – 601 –4892 336
919 –270 –2937
BHHSYostandLittle.com/887146
BHHSYSU.com/2187932 6808 Polo Farms Drive Summerfield 6037 Over Hadden Court $789,000
Raleigh
B$1,575,000 ETH BRANNAN 336 –253–4693
TERRI POULSEN 919 –971 –9437 CAROLINE CASTEL AIN 919 –280 –5323
BHHSYostandLittle.com/892854 BHHSYSU.com/2192451
7005 Court Road 1429Mustang Nottingham Summerfield
Raleigh $689,000
$875,000 K E L LY O ’ DAY K AT H–RY –541 336 2011N W E S T
919 – 601 –1331
BHHSYostandLittle.com/897028
BHHSYSU.com/2195109 2200 West Market Street Greensboro 1018 Harvey Street $785,000
Raleigh
M ELISSA GREER $1,295,000 336 –337–5233
SUZ ANNE WHITME YER 919 – 696 –3325 ANNE SCRUGGS 919 –271 – 0295
BHHSCarolinas.com/859601 BHHSYSU.com/2165483 5319 Summer LaneLane 576 Vista DelHill Lago Winston-Salem
Wake Forest $649,900
$635,000 S U S A N C A RT E R J O –H785 N –CO LLINS 336 5762
919 –413 –7461
O U R G L O B A L L I S T I N G E X P O S U R E All Luxury Collection listings are featured on The Wall Street Journal’s WSJ.com, and its partner websites: WSJ.com/Asia and WSJ.com/Europe. All listings priced at $1 million and above are featured on The Wall Street Journal’s MansionGlobal.com. Our Luxury Collection properties also appear on both sides of China’s Great Firewall through Juwai.com, China’s largest international property portal. In addition, our international syndication strategy also includes Financial Times of London. To learn more, please visit us online at BHHSYSULuxury.com. Adams Farm 336 – 854 –1333 • Elm Street 336 –272– 0151 • Friendly CenterHill 919–929–7100 • Durham 919–383–4663 • North 336 –370 – 4000 • Kernersville 336 –996 – 4256 • Winston–Salem 336 –768 –3300 Cary 919–859–3300 • Cameron Village 919–832–8881 • Chapel Hills 919–782–6641 ©2018 BHH Affiliates, LLC. An independently operated subsidiary of HomeServices of America, Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate, and a franchisee of BHH Affiliates, LLC.
® ©2018 BHH Affi liates, HomeServices LLC. An independently operated subsidiary of HomeServices America,service Inc., a marks Berkshire Hathaway affiliate, andInc. a franchisee of BHH Affiliates, LLC. Berkshire Hathaway and the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices symbol areofregistered of HomeServices of America, Equal Housing Opportunity. Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices and the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices symbol are registered service marks of HomeServices of America, Inc.® Equal Housing Opportunity.
Vol. 3 No. 3 336.617.0090 1848 Banking Street Greensboro, NC 27408 www.ohenrymag.com Publisher
David Woronoff Jim Dodson, Editor jim@thepilot.com Andie Rose, Art Director andie@thepilot.com Nancy Oakley, Senior Editor nancy@ohenrymag.com Brad Beard, Graphic Designer Alyssa Rocherolle, Graphic Designer CONTRIBUTORS Cynthia Adams, Ash Alder, Robin Sutton Anders, Harry Blair, Lynn Donovan, Amy Freeman, Peter Freeman, John Gessner, Ross Howell Jr, Billy Ingram, Jane Lear, John Loecke, Jason Oliver Nixon, Noah Salt
with us in the latest beauty and wellness trends. Your look can range from subtle to the dramatic with our array of services such as hair, nails, skincare, and waxing. As the holidays approach, it’s the perfect time to go for an alluring hairstyle, blowout, rich color, keratin treatment, manicure, pedicure, and even a new smile from The Smile Direct Club.* Relax in a warm and luxurious environment as you enjoy a massage, facial, or peel. These incredible experiences are provided by independent salon owners. Each salon is located in a unique and beautiful suite that encompasses the artistic expressions of the stylist. Gift certificates are available. *Not all services are offered at all locations. Please contact the concierge for a complete list.
h ADVERTISING SALES Ginny Trigg, Sales Director 910.693.2481, ginny@thepilot.com
Hattie Aderholdt, 336.601.1188 • hattie@ohenrymag.com Lisa Allen, 336.210.6921 • lisa@ohenrymag.com Amy Grove, 336.456.0827 • amy@ohenrymag.com Lisa Bobbitt, Sales Assistant 336.617.0090, ohenryadvertising@gmail.com
CIRCULATION Darlene Stark, Circulation Director 910.693.2488 Douglas Turner, Finance Director 910.693.2497 SUBSCRIPTIONS 336.617.0090 Caldwell Court 2709 Battleground Ave. Greensboro, NC (336) 617-6260
12 SEASONS •
STYLE
& DESIGN
Oak Hollow Village 1231 Eastchester Dr. High Point, NC (336) 617-6260
St. George Square 603 – 690 St. George Square Ct. Winston-Salem, NC (336) 893-7978
©Copyright 2018. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Seasons Magazine is published by The Pilot LLC Fall 2018
New Homes near Lake Jeanette From the high $200’s - high $300’s 1 & 2 story homes from 2,100 - 3,800 sq ft One Decorated Model Pool & Playground
Hours: Sun & Mon: 1 - 6; Tue - Sat: 11 - 6 802 Sugarberry Ln Greensboro 27455 336.482.0076 sheahomes.com/Greensboro Sales: Shea Group Services, LLC DBA Shea Realty (C21630). Construction: Shea Builders, LLC, 68875. This is not an offer of real estate for sale, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, to residents of any state or province in which registration and other legal requirements have not been fullled. Pricing does not include options, elevation, or lot premiums, effective date of publication and subject to change without notice. All square footages and measurements are approximate and subject to change without notice. Trademarks are property of their respective owners. Equal Housing Opportunity. Home pictured may not be actual home for sale or actual model home, but rather a representation of a similar model or elevation design. Photos depict designer features, optional items and other upgrades that may be available from Seller at additional cost. Furniture not included or available for purchase (even upon the payment of an additional charge).
Navigation is your starting point for a continued path of independence. Navigation by Salemtowne is a membershipbased program that offers a retirement option for remaining in your home that you love.
Navigation by Salemtowne could provide the perfect solution for your future if: You are 62 or older. You are active and independent. You have decided to stay in your home. You are concerned about the future cost of care. You don’t want to be a burden to your family. You want to be in control of your tomorrow. It’s your future—plan for it TODAY! Join us for a FREE seminar to learn how Navigation points to a life of wellness at home. Call 336.714.6848 for details.
336.714.6848 | navigationbysalemtowne.org 14 SEASONS •
STYLE
& DESIGN
Fall 2018
FROM THE EDITOR
Rare and Beautiful Treasures By Jim Dodson
ILLUSTRATION BY HARRY BLAIR
W
hen you are slowly restoring an old house, as my wife and I have been doing for two years as of this autumn, patience is more than a virtue because you never quite finish some projects before there is another — maybe two or three — waiting to get underway. During our first summer, we painted the house inside and out, restored two fireplaces, brought a summer porch back to life, replaced a pair of exterior doors, refinished floors, repaired a bit of wiring and transformed a garage guest apartment into a home office that I call my “tree house.” If that sounds like a lot of work, not to mention money, comparatively speaking it isn’t. Many houses of mid-century vintage require heaps of expensive restoration if not outright reconstruction work before they achieve a level of an owner’s desired livability. Fortunately, in our case, the lovely family that passed the house on to us are not only old friends (I grew up two doors away and their house was my favorite in the neighborhood) but also a clan of able builders who kept the place in good shape. They updated bathrooms and the kitchen to suit the needs of their aging parents, who were able to live out their days in the house they built as young marrieds. Knowing this comforts me, for I often feel the loving presence of Mama Merle and Big Al around this place, in its gently creaking floors and deep silences They are reminders of how much we love the house they built as much as they did — or quite likely will before all is said and done. Though I still occasionally dream about the handsome postand-beam house we built on a forest hill near the coast of Maine — which I was certain was to be my so-called “Dream House,” a place made by my own hands and where I expected to spend out my own remaining days — I realize now that dreams change as we age, or remember, and simply live day-by-day. Houses, I’m convinced, possess their own living personalities and souls shaped by the humans who inhabit them for any appreciable period of time, who love, neglect or even abuse them. The word “inhabit,” after all, comes from the ancient root that translates “to give and receive.” Houses and their gardens, I firmly believe, absorb the energy of the people who loved them and once filled their rooms with life, year after year, season upon season. “By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established,” goes a line I fancy from Proverbs. “Through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures.” You can see this clearly when you drive past a beautiful house that seems to quietly radiate inner peace and happiness. Likewise, every neighborhood has a house or two that seems to cry out for someone, anyone, to simply rescue and love it, a suburban House of Usher where someone’s dream of a home has fallen to tatters. “We all have some Platonic idea of a house,” notes Thomas Moore, the priest psychologist. “Maybe that’s what we mean when we talk about our ‘Dream House’ — an imagined home that is not just projected into the future but also has a past, as if we’re remem-
Fall 2018
bering in a Platonic sense the archetypal home set deep in our hearts the day we were born.” I wasn’t born when Mama Merle and Big Al built their handsome family bungalow, but I knew from a very early age — and now realize — that it featured into my dreams of home across the several decades that I roamed the world before unexpectedly returning home — only to find my favorite house as a kid suddenly up for sale and available, mysteriously unsold in a neighborhood where most properties don’t even reach the public marketplace. When I asked the sweet real estate agent who walked us through the house on a warm autumn day two years ago this month how on Earth such a wonderful house could remain on the market for two or three months without someone snatching it up, she paused, looked at me and smiled. “I can’t tell you why. It’s so beautiful, simple, well-built. Houses have lives of their own. The house didn’t want anyone else. This house wanted you guys.” Her comment gave me a shiver. Beyond the indoor enhancements, over our first summer in the place I removed Mama Merle’s aged and overgrown shrubs, and completely relandscaped the front and side yards, planting 16 trees and building a perennial walkway filled with lavender, Russian sage, phlox and black-eyed Susans, a somewhat Mediterranean-looking garden that more than holds its own against the brutal summer sun – and periods of drought – as this summer has proved. The crape myrtles, river birches, redbuds, Japanese maples and ornamental grasses that soften the visage of the house are all thriving, I’m happy to report, projecting a true sense of the peace contained therein. This past spring I turned my attention to a backyard presided over by ancient white oaks and an understory of buckeyes, Carolina silver bells and a sprawling Japanese dogwood that, together, produce almost a natural cathedral effect. It’s the ideal spot for a Japanese garden of hydrangeas, hostas, turkey-foot figs, various kinds of ferns and Lenten roses that made a fine start this summer but should be a true sanctuary from the heat of the day in the years to come. With the 93 days of one of the hottest summers I can recall finally vanishing down the rabbit hole, it’s nice to see — and feel — autumn rains refreshing my outdoor labors, a sign that I can now move indoors and get back to work on projects still patiently awaiting the return of the staff handyman. Chief among them is a wall of custom-built bookcases I have in mind for a cozy room at the back of the house where Mama Merle loved to sit by the smaller fireplace. The minute I laid eyes on it — or should I say “remembered it” — I knew this room would make a perfect library, overlooking a peaceful garden, a quiet room filled with rare and beautiful treasures. With hope, by Christmas, it will be just that — if I can somehow manage to finish one major project before I happily begin another. h
SEASONS • STYLE & DESIGN 15
THE HOT LIST
Into the Woods
As the temperature dips, cozy up with these lifestyleminded legends of the fall By Jason Oliver Nixon and John Loecke, Madcap Cottage
Faux Sure
Savor a taste of the mountain woodlands upon your back patio — or even indoors! — with the deliciously rustic cement faux bois Woodland Bench from Currey & Company ($1,590). Available through Knight Carr & Company, 703 Hill St., Greensboro, (336) 3704155 or knightcarr.com.
Branch Out
Store your stash in style courtesy of the Awesome Blossom mahogany storage chest with its hand-painted cherry blossom Chinoiserie motifs from Caracole ($4,500). Note the elegant gold leaf and Swarovski crystal embellishments that add further luster. Available through Furnitureland South, 5635 Riverdale Drive, Jamestown, (336) 822-3000 or furniturelandsouth.com.
Knotty and Nice
Bring a slice of English-inspired elegance to your home with the uber-luxe Chez Harrods Cabinet ($20,853) from Christopher Guy — inspired by an antique piece spotted at London’s legendary Harrods department store. The interior features heaps of storage, but we are especially fond of the cabinet’s carved mahogany knot handle. Brilliant! Available through Furnitureland South, 5635 Riverdale Drive, Jamestown, (336) 822-3000 or furniturelandsouth.com.
On the Scent
Take a trip to a rugged, windswept woodland perched beside the sea courtesy of Jo Malone London’s delightfully scented Wood Sage & Sea Salt Cologne ($136). Jomalone.com
Against the Grain
Get lit in style with the stunning Kildare Table Lamp from the David Phoenix Collection for Hickory Chair ($2,046) that pairs cross-quartered walnut wood with brass detailing — all topped off with a square ivory fabric shade. Available through Furnitureland South, 5635 Riverdale Drive, Jamestown, (336) 822-3000 or furniturelandsouth.com.
16 SEASONS •
STYLE
& DESIGN
Bowled Over
Serve up the perfect salad this fall with the organic good looks of the Acaciaware Calabash Bowl ($12.99) from Mast General Store. Mast General Store, 516 N. Trade St., Winston-Salem, (336) 727-2015 or mastgeneralstore.com Fall 2018
STYLEBOOK Walk the Plank
Transform your walls into a wistful woodland wonderland courtesy of the Eastwood embossed vinyl woven wallpaper from Thibaut that comes in various forest-plucked shades ($98 per single roll). Available through Huffman Paint & Wallcoverings, 762 North Main St., High Point, (336) 887-4400 or huffmanpaintandwc.com.
Table Tops
A trip to Replacements to peruse the china always bowls us over — so much selection, so little cabinet space. Our latest must-have tabletop pattern: The Old English Oak Gold pattern by Royal Stafford with embossed ivy and berries flanked by gold trim (from $19.99). Replacements, 1089 Knox Road, McLeansville, (800) 737-5223 or replacements.com.
Bet the Farm
As the traditional dining room morphs into a space that’s less formal and more frequently used, choose a table that can roll with your relaxed lifestyle. Hence, we are simply mad for the Large Solid Country Walnut Topped Dining Table from Jonathan Charles ($3,424) that would look equally good topped with stacks of books as it would topped with turkey dinner at Christmas. Available through Furnitureland South, 5635 Riverdale Drive, Jamestown, (336) 822-3000 or furniturelandsouth.com.
Road Trip: Primland
Pack up the car and escape to Primland, a cosseting, woodsy wonderland resort in Meadows of Dan, Virginia (2000 Busted Rock Road), less than two hours from downtown Winston-Salem. The Lodge at Primland houses the stunning public spaces as well as 26 guest rooms and suites with sweeping views of the surrounding countryside. For guests looking for a more secluded experience, Primland’s sumptuous and inviting chalet-style cottages, tree houses and homes await, including the stunning two-story Pinnacle Cottages. Whether fishing knee-deep in the Dan River, embarking with a hunting party to track wild game, or exploring the region on horseback, a Primland day is only eclipsed by Primland by night. The resort’s altitude and clarity of the night sky, ideal for stargazing, is captured beneath the Observatory Dome, open for guests to enjoy before ducking out to read by firelight in the Great Hall or enjoy a glass of wine in the atmospheric 19th Pub. Additional activities include RTV trail riding, archery, bird watching, mountain biking, sporting clays, nature walks, kayaking and paddle boarding. Bliss! Primland.com.
Fall 2018
SEASONS • STYLE & DESIGN 17
• Mediation and Litigation Services • Board Certified Family Law Specialist • Top 100 Attorney in America, Worth magazine • Legal Elite, Business North Carolina magazine
Redefining Family Law
To learn more, contact Aycock Family Law at 336.271.3200 or www.treyaycocklaw.com
125 South Elm Street | Suite 501 | Greensboro, NC 27401
We Service What We Sell & Offer Personal Attention 2201 Patterson Street, Greensboro, NC (2 Blocks from the Coliseum) Mon. - Fri.: 9:30am - 5:30 pm Sat. 10 am - 2 pm • Closed Sunday
18 SEASONS •
STYLE
& DESIGN
SHOP LOCAL Fall 2018
STYLEBOOK
HIDDEN GEMS
Urban Outfitters
Two antique dealers bring the rustic past to downtown Greensboro and Winston-Salem Photographs by Lynn Donovan
The Farmer’s Wife 339 S. Davie St., Greensboro, (336) 274-7920, farmerswifeantiquesandflowers.com
S
hopkeeper Daniel Garrett can rightfully claim to be both an urban survivor and a retail trendsetter in downtown Greensboro. Over three decades ago he started his eclectic antique shop, called The Farmer’s Wife, on a shoestring budget and chose to hang his shingle “below the tracks” on South Elm Street, an area that was at least a decade away from urban revitalization. Garrett quickly found his niche, however, by selling select antique pieces that fit his eye of “simple and unfussy,” an artistic philosophy shaped by growing up on a 100-acre family farm in Pleasant Garden and earning an art degree from UNCG. “I was always drawn to things that are old and practical but have beautiful lines, a simple elegance and fine workmanship,” he explains. “It can be anything from a farm table and chairs to a piece of vintage farm equipment. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Nicks and scratches just show how useful it was.” As he explains this, Garrett sits on one of four handsome,
Fall 2018
19th-century, fan-back Windsor chairs at a walnut-plank kitchen table that’s soulfully bare of paint or ornamentation. On a facing wall of exposed brick, elegantly framed botanical, architectural and historic prints hang, including pages from a hand-scripted ledger chronicling a pre-Civil War cotton mill. Nearby, calipers, cotton scales and a mobile made of industrial plumb bobs speak of his reverence for the rural past and a good eye for well-made objects of desire — vintage jars, industrial shears, and even a box full of movie-marquee letters that seem to possess a patina of theatrical beauty the way they are displayed. If a visit to the Farmer’s Wife — a name Garrett borrowed from the title of a 1910 women’s magazine — feels a little like stepping back into a vanished America, best to go with the flow. The shop has a retro-rustic charm all its own, something beautiful and unexpected everywhere the eye wanders. Updated primitive antiques, natural curiosities and a museum curator’s sense of art and function — not to mention an outstanding floral service — define the firm’s enduring popularity. And its location for the past 15 years is so appropriate, a formerly run-down brick building on Davie Street just north of the aforementioned railroad tracks in what used to be called “Hamburger Square,” an area now buzzing with commercial galleries, brewpubs, upscale SEASONS • STYLE & DESIGN 19
STYLEBOOK restaurants and vintage boutiques. One by one, the half a dozen antique dealers that used to call South Elm home closed up shop and moved on years ago, giving way to a reversemigration of urban homesteaders. They may have been inspired by Garrett’s stunning restoration of the three-story brick building that began life in the early 19th century as a grocery warehouse. Garrett transformed the street level into his unique antique shop and florist service while creating a gorgeous two-level loft home that hearkens to an time when owners lived above their shops. In a narrow space out back between the building and a remarkably close set of railroad tracks, Garrett created a lush and cozy three-tiered shade garden full of boxwoods and Japanese maples that make it feel more like a serene Buddhist prayer garden than a former alleyway to a once-busy rail yard. “This place is my therapy,” Garrett quips. “It’s where I go when I need an escape.” If he gently rues that he may indeed be “almost the last man standing” in terms of downtown antique dealers, Garrett was clearly in the vanguard of a movement that has brought new life and vitality to old factory and textile buildings across the Triad. “It’s nice to see downtown doing so well again,” he says, recalling his early days doing visual merchandising for Meyer’s Department Store when downtown was home to at least four of them, now all gone. “Whatever role we’ve played in that change is hard to say,” he reflects. “But our customers seem to appreciate the affection we have for a simpler time when beautiful things were made by hand. That’s why we are still here.” We couldn’t agree more — which explains why one of Garrett’s beautiful wooden antique French bread-making boxes captured our fancy, striking us as the ideal birthday gift for a wife who loves to bake in the old-fashioned way. Simply put, it will be bringing us back to the Farmer’s Wife very soon. — Jim Dodson
20 SEASONS •
STYLE
& DESIGN
Repeat Offenders 315 S. Liberty St., Winston-Salem, (336) 893-5777, facebook.com/ repeatoffendersinc/
“W
hen I first opened, I got calls from people who used to think I was an advocate for prisoners and ex-cons,” says Patti Hamlin, owner of the cleverly named Repeat Offenders, which she opened two years ago on Liberty Street in downtown Winston-Salem. Hamlin’s mission, however, is not to save wayward souls from a life of crime, but antique furniture from a life of grime — and neglect, and disrepair. That’s not to say you’ll find rundown pieces for the D.I.Y. set in her bright, elegant showroom facing the children’s museum, Kaleideum Downtown. No, when you walk through the doors of Repeat Offenders — after Hamlin’s two aging dogs, Rocket, a black Lab, and Cracker, a Westie, greet you — you’ll find beautifully constructed, lacquered tables, some with stencils painted over the wood finish, others fully painted, and some, still with just a hint of paint as trim. Or you might see a milk-painted dresser with French phrases in cursive script, a nod to Hamlin’s penchant for French country style. At one end stands a bar made from shiplap; over there, a shelf constructed from a door pediment. A metal basket containing old-fashioned wooden barbells stands in a corner; another wicker basket holds bunches of lavender swathed together in mattress ticking. Colorful napkins and quilts fill the shelves of a handsome cupboard, whimsical planters fashioned from upside-down cheese graters adorn one wall, while bright abstract canvases of Old Salem by local painter Leland Powers grace others. Tea towels, candles, bar accoutrements are all thoughtfully arranged throughout the three rooms.
Fall 2018
f lirty f lorals F O R
F A L L
CROSBY BY MOLLIE BURCH LELE SADOUGHI PARKER SMITH DENIM SAM EDELMAN VINTAGE LOUIS VUITTON
@MONKEESOFTHEVILLAGE //
WWW.MONKEESOFTHEVILLAGE.COM
2 17 Reynolda Village W inston-Salem, NC 27106 p : (336) 722-4600 M -F 10-5:30, Sat 10-5, Sun 1-5
________ 99 Reynolda Village Winston Salem, NC 27103 336-722-8807
________ bellemaisonlinens.com
Fall 2018
SEASONS • STYLE & DESIGN 21
START SHOPPING EARLY THIS
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salsa • waltz • rumba • foxtrot • swing • tango • cha cha hustle • quickstep • mambo • samba • merengue 336.379.9808 Gift Certificates Available 1500 Mill Street, Suite 105 • Greensboro, NC 27408 www.fredastaire.com
22 SEASONS •
STYLE
& DESIGN
Fall 2018
STYLEBOOK buy a house, fix it up and sell it, as a way of supporting her two children. “And she started doing it over and over again.” Before long, Mom was selling real estate and “had property all over”; she remarried and acquired four stepsons. “And in my house, if you got into trouble, you had to do hard labor — and with my big mouth, I was always in trouble,” Hamlin recalls. “I was always doing something.” Painting walls, installing flooring, pulling weeds, building things. “A lot of the creativity and how I look at things came from my mom,” she muses. “She was really good at picking out a really crappy house and turning it into a really pretty house. And same thing with furniture. She had an eye for it. And I learned that from her.” With so many handy brothers and a shop on the California ranch where they lived, Hamlin, a self-professed tomboy, also took to woodworking. “I really liked working with the woodworking tools my stepdad had. So I was always Hamlin, who opened the store two years ago when her husband’s job managing a NASCAR driver took him to Ohio for the better part of each month, curates her wares for several reasons. For one, cluttered antique stores are a pet peeve, says the dealer with the dry wit and the salty tongue: “There’s shit everywhere and they smell like Grandma’s underwear drawer!” She should know, having grown up around antiques. “I redid my first trunk when I was 16,” Hamlin says, explaining that she would accompany her mother on shopping excursions. As an enticement, her mother would encourage her daughter to look for the McCoy ware animal figures she collected. With Hamlin’s father in the Air Force, the family moved to California from New England, where Hamlin recalls watching her mother at antiques auctions “with awe.” When her dad died, Hamlin’s mother used the money she’d inherited to
Creating, Building and Renovating Luxury Homes
Fall 2018
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STYLEBOOK building things. I’ve always enjoyed that,” she says. “I took shop classes in high school and stuff like that.” After college and grad school, Hamlin’s life took a detour, when by happenstance, she was offered a job with a fledgling drag racing outfit some high school friends had launched. Over time, as the company grew, it needed someone to pen press releases. And that’s how Hamlin eventually wound up representing NASCAR teams, owning her own PR agency in Dallas. She gave it all up when she married longtime friend and former crew chief for Dale Earnhardt Kevin Hamlin, whose next job with Bull Racing brought the couple to North Carolina. “When I was traveling with him, I got into antiquing because you can only watch cars go in circles so many times,” says Hamlin. And she would sometimes accompany other NASCAR wives on shopping excursions, which clued her into a particular buying pattern: If they saw something they liked, a table, say, with a flower arrangement, they would buy the entire display. Which explains Hamlin’s other reasons for staging her inventory: to help her customers visualize how to use a piece — by adding a runner, or some candlesticks or a centerpiece. And she knows her customers well. “I get soccer moms for days,” she says, nodding to the museum across the street. “What I found is, a lot of my clientele is thirtysomething working moms, a lot of the people from Baptist Hospital, they just want everything to be done, finished, ready to go.” Meaning, no time to refurbish unloved, D.I.Y. antiques. So, from the woodshop in back of the store Hamlin spends hours at her DeWalt table saw, surrounded by the piney dust that settles on several old pieces, all sourced locally, awaiting a new life — an armoire darkened with age, a dresser charred from a fire — and new, custom ones, such as the farmhouse table that Hamlin built from stock lumber. The Fixer Upper craze, she explains, has driven up the cost of antique wood. “The farmhouse tables that I build, they’re the look that everybody wants — and at a price that everyone can afford,” Hamlin says. She adds that she’s determined not to overprice any item
that she carries. “If I get a good deal on something, I pass it on to my customers.” And like her idol, Martha Stewart, she’ll “do it right.” Make sure all the hinges work properly, line the dresser drawers with paper. “It’s a reflection of me,” she says. Then she might work from her studio in another room in back of the store, perhaps painting colorful motifs on the glass of old, framed windows, or dipdyeing flannel shirts, a hot selling item among teenagers, for fall. She’ll switch out one eye-catching window display for another, maybe replacing the aqua wicker rocker currently causing customers to stop, for a blue dresser. And then, when Rocket and Cracker give her the it’s-time-to-go-home-and-eat-dinner look, Hamlin will close shop until another day. But her work still isn’t done: She’ll stay up, sewing pillows fashioned from antique grain stacks or plan an upcoming class on making wooden-painted quilt blocks. “I enjoy everything I do,” says Hamlin. “I love coming here.” And as another car squeals to a halt outside her inviting window, it appears everyone else does too. — Nancy Oakley h
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Fall 2018
STYLEBOOK
DESIGNER LEGACY
Instant Otto
The universal influence of designer Otto Zenke
M
PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF OTTO ZENKE ESTATE AND SONNY SHERILL
By Billy Ingram
ysterious footsteps in the dark, objects moving inexplicably from room to room, pencils rolling away on their own accord, drained coffeepots, air growing icy cold while someone unseen calls out a name from an empty hallway. If any spirit deserves to be restless and slightly perturbed, it’s Otto Zenke, from whom so much was given . . . and so much taken. In July of this year, a home on East Lake Drive in Thomasville was placed on the market, one proudly identified as an “Otto Zenke design.” Somewhat astonishing considering the world-renowned architectural and interior decorator has been out of the business, by way of being deceased, for almost 35 years. That’s quite a reputation. The Piedmont’s 20th-century style guru, Zenke studied at Pratt Institute and Parsons School of Design in New York before making his way to Greensboro in 1937. His first studio was an upper floor at Morrison-Neese Furniture on Greene Street, an establishment catering to the area’s wealthiest families. Zenke specialized in the late 18th-century Regency and Georgian look with a Hollywood-like grandiosity. His impeccable taste and lavish sense of proportion came to define Southern nobility; so popular with the postwar Jet Set, he struck out on his own in 1950. The late socialite Janie Price Fall 2018
called him somewhat facetiously, “One of the great minds of the 18th century.” His residence and nearby workshops took up almost two entire city blocks of downtown Greensboro, the centerpiece being his 19th-century house at Washington and Eugene Street, a “jewel in the jungle” built by Maj. Joseph Morehead, relative of Gov. John Motley Morehead of nearby Blandwood. Cradled in the shadow of the old courthouse, it was an oasis of refinement and beauty with brick and slate accented patios surrounded by lush green lawns cooling under ancient trees and triangular boxwood plots. Two converted turn-of-the-century dwellings across the street housed his staff that grew to some 30 employees with four designers and a retinue of furniture finishers, upholsterers, draftsmen and drapery stitchers. The firm’s ads in The New Yorker magazine listed studios in Greensboro, London and Palm Beach. Decorator Dean Farris of Winston- Salem remarks, “When I was a boy I used to study the magazine Antiques and was always intrigued by the full-page, black-and-white Otto Zenke ads. They were high style in that they only showed one piece of English furniture (with price) and a big black-and-white diamond floor . . . very dramatic!” Farris also admires Zenke’s efficiency, recalling the designer’s ability to “tell the husband a figure, say SEASONS • STYLE & DESIGN 27
STYLEBOOK $40,000, and do the whole house within that budget! Of course, this was way back in the 1960s or ’70s.” Described as a “private, shy man,” his goal was to create a “smooth” environment, Zenke’s way of expressing how rooms should flow naturally from one into another. He took an architectural approach to interior design: Living rooms were generally situated around Georgian-inspired fireplaces, flanked by built-in bookcases, with sofas and chairs covered tip to toe in brightly colored fabrics, along with walls and windows in more casual rooms accented in dramatic floral wallpapers and matching drapes. Featured in Architectural Digest, House Beautiful, Southern Accents and other prestigious periodicals of that era, his was a somewhat overstuffed look hearking back to the days of Southern plantation houses, but with decidedly modern flourishes. If a desired piece of furniture needed to complete a room couldn’t be acquired, he designed it himself and had it constructed in-house. He preferred clients “who think big, not necessarily from a cost standpoint, but from one who can envision a grand concept.” In a practice made popular in the 1930s, Zenke created richly detailed scale model miniatures of the rooms he imagined for his clients, several of which were painstakingly restored in the 1980s and remain on display at the Greensboro History Museum. When Anne Carlson opened her antiquities shop in a log cabin in Summerfield in the early 1970s, she specialized in the type of luxurious furnishings made famous by Otto Zenke. “It was so successful, we had to have two police officers directing traffic,” she was quoted as saying. “We had people come there at 5 a.m. and form a line.” In the book Adventures with Old Houses, North Carolina native Richard Hampton Jenrette wrote of his experience having Otto Zenke decorate his New York maisonette on East 57th Street. “One day a huge moving van from North Carolina arrived at my door, and by the end of the day, beautifully cut draperies
The Zenke Building and carpets had been installed, chandeliers hung, antique as well as comfortable furniture installed, old leather-bound books placed in the bookcases, dining room porcelain service in place — everything I could possibly need. It was what we later began to call ‘Instant Otto.’” He furnished the interior designs for many of the finest homes and businesses in the Piedmont and beyond, including The Carolina Inn in Chapel Hill, Tanglewood Club near Winston-Salem, Myrtlewood in High Point, the President’s house at UNC-CH, the Barringer Hotel in Charlotte, a farmhouse in Waterloo, Belgium (overlooking the battle site of Napoleon’s legendary defeat) plus a home in County Clare, Ireland.
PepperMoonCatering.com 336.218.8858 28 SEASONS •
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Fall 2018
STYLEBOOK He remained a stubborn adherent to his singular approach even as it was considered by some to be old-fashioned and dated by the 1970s. No matter, his devotees were just as rooted in that sumptuous Southern tradition he represented and loved him for it. Zenke’s empire was systematically obliterated beginning in the mid-1960s, his historic Morehead House taken from him by way of eminent domain and razed, replaced by the insultingly Brutalist architecture of the Governmental Plaza. It was said to have been a devastating blow to this courtly gentleman. He soldiered on, however, designing and constructing a magnificent L-shaped Regency Revival– inspired complex across the street on Eugene in 1966 that served as both home and studio, alongside the other domiciles he utilized for production. Jim Schlosser, in a 2013 profile of Otto Zenke for O.Henry magazine, commented that the 28,000 square feet homestead “looked as if it had been there a hundred years.” The lobby of the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Greensboro, patterned after an English drawing room, was one of Otto Zenke’s last projects before his death in 1984 at the age of 79. A tribute to his life’s work in Connoisseur magazine declared the artist had an ability, “not only to design houses but to do something more: make them.”
Zenke’s maker’s spaces on Eugene Street were long ago bulldozed but today the home he built in 1966 serves as offices for the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department, where late-night workers swear the place is haunted. Not for much longer, I suspect. Plans are afoot to demolish this neglected but still magnificent palace to make way for a parking lot. Zenke’s opulently comfy sensibility reverberates into the present age. Realtor Frank Slate Brooks argues that he remains “very relevant” today. “He had a huge impact on design in the region — and the world — for decades.” Jason Oliver Nixon of the High Point design firm Madcap Cottage, and regular contributor to this magazine, is also a fan. “Otto Zenke,” he says, “was a master of layering and pulling in pieces from different decades together in his rooms. It was formal but there was a sense of fun, there was a spirit of whimsy.” The widespread impact of Otto Zenke’s legacy, his dynastic reflections of lives well-lived both here and abroad, is rare in this day and age, unlikely to be surpassed anytime soon — and certainly not forgotten. h A former Hollywood movie poster artist, Billy Ingram was a key member of what the ad world has dubbed “The New York Yankees of motion picture advertising.”
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STYLEBOOK
PRIME RESOURCES
He’s Got It Covered Why Thomas Seabolt is one of the most sought-after upholsterers in the Triad By Robin Sutton Anders Photographs by Amy Freeman
T
homas Seabolt isn’t one to turn up his nose at a discarded sofa — not at first, anyway. Regarded by many local designers as the Triad’s premier reupholsterer, Seabolt has developed his own tried-and-true sniff test. “If I’m driving down the road and I see a sofa or a chair I like, there are two things I look for,” he says. First, are there coiled springs? Second, is the frame made of hardwood? “If you hit the underside of the chair or sofa with your hand, you can usually feel the springs and it sounds like a drum,” he says. “Those are coiled springs. And if a piece has Fall 2018
a hand-tied spring system, it has to have a hardwood frame to support it.” To fellow furniture-lovers lucky enough to happen upon a coiled-spring, hardwood piece, Seabolt offers an industry pro tip: “I always throw the cushions in my car until I can come back later with a truck to pick it up,” he reveals. “Then it’s yours. Nobody wants a sofa without the cushions!” Antique or modern, plush or simple — regardless of its style, a well-constructed piece of furniture always merits new life, Seabolt believes. “Heirloom pieces are special because of the history behind them, the story of a sofa being in a beloved grandSEASONS • STYLE & DESIGN 31
STYLEBOOK parent’s living room, or even the great grandfather having built the piece,” he says. “But honestly, I like it all. I just like furniture and fabric.” From his Huffman Street headquarters in Greensboro, Seabolt employs six full-time skilled upholsterers and partners with anywhere from 12–15 designers at any given time. About 40 percent of his work is for designers, and the other 60 percent is for the general public. Half science, half intuition, furniture reupholstery is a specialized skill that requires formal training and years of experience. “I am so fortunate to have a staff of craftsmen experienced in the trade,” he allows. Looking around his 4,000-square-foot workspace at the associates hard at work, Seabolt does some quick math. “There’s probably about 75 years’ worth of experience in this room,” he says. “We put a strong emphasis on teamwork. Without everyone here, this would be a much different story.” Seabolt’s story began more than a decade ago. “I was working for a heating-and-air company and mowing yards,” he remembers. “I ended up mowing the lawn of Mike Walker, a gentleman who owned an upholstery shop.” Walker saw promise in the young twentysomething and offered Seabolt a job in his shop. The lure of working in air conditioning, rather than installing it, was too strong to resist. “I loved it from the very beginning,” says Seabolt, who was often reminded of his grandfather. “As a kid, I spent many afternoons watching my grandfather, who was a skilled woodworker despite having had polio in his left hand. I think that seeing him work with his hands — mixed in with my love for furni-
ture — drew me to this type of work. I loved the transformation process. And I knew that I eventually wanted to have my own business.” But first things first. Seabolt signed up for night classes at Guilford Tech Community College. He studied in the evenings and spent his days learning from Walker, honing his reupholstery skills and learning from his mistakes. He watched as Walker mentored his employees. When Seabolt got married in 2008, he decided it was time to take the leap, and he started his own business the day after he and his new wife returned from their honeymoon. “My wife thought I was crazy,” he laughs. “But it’s the American dream to be able to have a vision and to take the chance of succeeding or falling on your face — and getting back up and dusting yourself off and just doing it.” The newly wed Seabolt had zero clients waiting for him when he returned from his honeymoon, but he had one great asset: an empty 600-square-foot in-law suite in his backyard — the perfect launchpad for his new business. Seabolt set to work calling the Triad’s high-profile designers and visiting fabric stores. Lindsay Henderson was one of the first designers Seabolt approached, and she’s still among his regular designer partners. “He does a beautiful job,” she says. “He has an eye for it, and he’s very skilled.” Maybe more important, Henderson adds, Seabolt is an excellent communicator. “If he has a question, he’ll call you in a second as opposed to making his staff guess.” Seabolt doesn’t disagree with Henderson’s assessment of the importance of
“But it’s the American dream to be able to have a vision and to take the chance of succeeding or falling on your face — and getting back up and dusting yourself off and just doing it.”
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STYLE
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Fall 2018
STYLEBOOK client communication. “A client needs to feel confident in the product they’re getting, and that starts with communication on my end. I try to clearly express my understanding of their expectations — where the fabric needs to be applied, what the design goal is,” he says. “I like working with my hands, but my favorite part of the process is interacting with clients.” As Seabolt’s projects from Henderson grew, so did the number of designers and fabric stores who filled his in-law suite with reams of fabric, sofas, chairs and headboards. “For every new project I accepted, I was doing the tear-down, the cutting, the sewing and the reupholstery. I plowed through it with long hours,” he says. Five years in, the birth of his first child nudged Seabolt into a new phase. “I knew I needed more space, and I needed employees.” Once a forsaken piece of furniture is rescued from its fate in a landfill, an extensive restoration process begins. Seabolt and his team start by carefully removing all the old fabric. That fabric offers the first clue to the piece’s unique template. Sometimes it’s worn and isn’t much help, but most of the time the fabric that comes off of an old piece serves as the guide for the cutting the new fabric. Next up, cutting — a task Seabolt performs for every project he accepts. “Cutting is a really important part of the process — and it’s hard to find
people who do this craft,” he says. “If the fabric is not cut perfectly, the sewer is getting something that’s not right. And if the sewer sews it up and sends it over to the upholsterer, the new fabric doesn’t fit and you have to start the process over again. Not only have you wasted fabric, but you’ve wasted a lot of time.” On the cutting table, Seabolt carefully examines a piece’s new fabric. He lines up stripes and “I like working makes sure floral patterns meet in just the right with my hands, spot. Once the new fabric is cut, Seabolt passes but my favorite it off to one of his sewers, who then passes the fabric onto an upholsterer. part of the Reupholstery comprises most of Seabolt’s business, but occasionally a client asks him process is to custom-design and manufacture a brand interacting with new piece of furniture. Seabolt welcomes the challenge. “I like the creating process and the clients.” clean aspect of starting a project with a blank canvas,” he says. Whether it’s a sofa, bed, headboard, ottoman, club chair or window treatment, Seabolt can make it happen with the help of his team. “Each of us in this room have been given talents, and we all understand that. We work long hours to build good relationships and offer great customer service. But we can’t control when the phone rings,” he says. “We know we are blessed.” h Robin Sutton Anders is a Greensboro-based freelancer. She found her favorite living room chair on the side of the road.
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STYLEBOOK
SEASON TO TASTE
Here Today, Gone Tomato
. . . sliced ripe red
Nothing says Southern cooking more than a plate of fried green tomatoes
tomatoes, which, when served
By Jane Lear
T
he tomato is a tropical berry — it originated in South America — and so it requires plenty of long, hot sunny days to reach its best: the deep, richtasting, almost meaty sweetness many of us live for each summer. When September rolls around, though, it’s a different story. It’s not that I’ve gotten bored with all that lush ripeness, but I develop a very definite craving for fried green tomatoes. If you grow your own backyard beefsteaks, unripe tomatoes are available pretty much all summer long, but this is the time of year they start getting really good. In the early autumn, the days are undeniably getting shorter, and thus there are fewer hours of sun. That and cooler temperatures result in green tomatoes with a greater ratio of acid to sugars. And my cast-iron skillet, which tends to live on top of the stove anyway, gets a workout. Fried green tomatoes, after all, are terrific any time of day. In the morning, they are wonderful sprinkled with a little brown sugar while still hot in the skillet, right before you gently lift them onto warmed break-
Fall 2018
alongside crunchy fast plates. If you’re a brunch person, serve them that way, and you’ll bring down the house. At lunchtime, embellishing BLTs with fried green tomatoes may seem like a time-consuming complication, but those sandwiches will be transcendent, and you and yours are worth it. When it comes to the evening meal, fried green tomatoes are typically considered a side dish, and there is nothing wrong with that. But in my experience, they always steal the show, so I tend to build supper around them. I rely on leftover cold roasted chicken or ham to fill in the cracks, for instance. Or I make them the center of a vegetable-based supper in which no one will miss the meat. They play well with corn on the cob or succotash, snap beans or butter beans, ratatouille, grilled zucchini and summer squash with pesto, or grits, rice, or potatoes. Pickled black-eyed peas (aka Texas caviar) are nice in the mix, as are sliced ripe red tomatoes, which, when served alongside crunchy golden fried green tomatoes, add a great contrast in texture and flavor. If you are fortunate enough to have a jar of watermelon
golden fried green tomatoes, add a great contrast in texture and flavor.
SEASONS • STYLE & DESIGN 35
STYLEBOOK rind pickles in the pantry, my Aunt Roxy would suggest that you hop up and get it. I ate many a meal in her cottage on Harbor Island, and early on I learned watermelon and tomatoes have a curious yet genuine affinity for one another. I imagine Aunt Roxy would greet today’s popular fresh tomato and watermelon salads with a satisfied nod of recognition. We always had a difference of opinion, however, over cream gravy, a popular accompaniment for fried green tomatoes. It’s not that I am morally opposed to lily gilding, but I have never seen the point in putting something wet on something you have worked to make crisp and golden. A butter sauce on pan-fried soft-shelled crabs, chili or melted cheese on french fries, a big scoop of vanilla on a flaky double-crusted fruit pie: I don’t care what it is, the result is soggy food, and I don’t like it. When it comes to the actual coating for fried green tomatoes, the most traditional choice is dried bread crumbs. I sometimes use the crisp, flaky Japanese bread crumbs called panko, but like Fannie Flagg, I am happiest with cornmeal. It can be white or yellow, fine-ground or coarse. It doesn’t matter as long as it is sweet-smelling — a sign of freshness. And if you happen to have some okra handy, you may as well fry that up at the same time. Trim the pods, cut them into bite-size nuggets, and coat them like the tomato slices. Although rule one when frying anything is not to crowd the pan (otherwise, the food will steam, not fry), there is always room to work a few pieces of okra into each batch of tomatoes. And whoever you are feeding will think you hung the moon and stars.
Fried Green Tomatoes (Serves 4)
When cutting tomatoes for frying, aim for slices between 1/4 and 1/2 inch thick. If too thin, you won’t get the custardy interior you want. And if the slices are too thick, then the coating will burn before the interior is softened.
About 1 cup of cornmeal Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper 1 large egg, lightly beaten with a fork 4 extremely firm (but not rock-hard) large green tomatoes Vegetable oil or bacon drippings (you can also use a combination of the two) Preheat the oven to low. Season the cornmeal with salt and pepper and spread in a shallow bowl. Have ready the beaten egg in another shallow bowl. Cut the tomatoes into 1/2-inch slices (see above note). Pour enough oil or drippings into a large heavy skillet to measure about 1/8 inch and heat over moderate heat until shimmering. Meanwhile, working in batches, dip one tomato slice at a time into the egg, turning to coat, then dredge it well in the cornmeal. As you coat each slice, put it on a sheet of waxed paper and let it rest for a minute or two. (This is something I remember watching Aunt Roxy do. It must give the cornmeal a chance to absorb some moisture and decide to adhere.) By the time you coat enough slices to fit in the skillet, the fat in the pan should be good and hot. Carefully, so as not to dislodge the coating, slip a batch of tomato slices into the hot fat (do not crowd pan) and fry, turning as necessary, until golden on both sides. Drain the slices on paper towels and transfer them to a baking sheet; tuck them in the oven to stay warm and crisp. Coat and fry the remaining tomato slices in batches, wiping out the skillet with a paper towel and adding more oil or drippings as needed. Be patient and give the fat time to heat up in between batches. You may find yourself eating the first slice or two while alone in the kitchen, but be sweet and share the rest. h Jane Lear was the senior articles editor at Gourmet and features director at Martha Stewart Living.
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Maria’s Magic
Maria Adams Designs maintains classic sensibilities with contemporary flair By Nancy Oakley
A
sk Maria Adams about current design trends, and she’ll break into an infectious laugh, explaining that she isn’t a trendy person. “I’m a traditionalist at heart,” says the Winston-Salem native, whose interior design business, Maria Adams Designs, operates out of Oak Ridge. “In my home and family life, I think family is really important and the traditions of family are really important.” Then she adds with another laugh, “And I’m also simple — I would say, simple-minded.” But like any good designer, Adams stays on top of what’s new, what’s coming back into style, (brass and warmer tones, for example). And she admits to “picking other designers’ brains,” and perusing their blogs and Instagram feeds or websites, such as Houzz. With 15-plus years’ design experience, she has transformed living rooms, dining rooms, bedrooms, entire houses, and earlier this year, the kitchen of Hillside, the Julian Price Designer Showhouse in Greensboro, all under the guiding principle that has become her tagline: “Classic Modern Living.” The “Classic” part of the equation, Adams says, stems from her love of tradition. “I like things that are lasting, timeless,” she explains. Indeed, her designs are harmonious, tending toward an openness and lightness — with just the right proportions of color and imaginative accents. As for “Modern,” she allows that contemporary elements in a design “affect your life, because you have to operate in a certain way, function in a certain way.”
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Something Adams understands firsthand, maintaining a busy home. “I have two boys, three dogs and a husband — and I have a cream-colored sofa,” she offers, explaining that the piece is upholstered in a fabric from Crypton, one of several manufacturers, along with Revolution, that are treating fibers with moisture and stain-resistant substances before they’re even woven. Durable, low-maintenance and compatible with anyone who has children, pets — or a penchant for red wine — Adams recommends them for all upholstered pieces. “That is a trend you’ll continue to see a lot of: high performance fabrics,” she notes. Ditto wallpaper, which is enjoying all kinds of incarnations, from painted papers and metallics to grasscloth. “It is a hot, hot thing to use wallpaper in every room of your house, really: bedrooms, dining rooms, living rooms, ceilings, like we did in the Julian Price house,” Adams says, adding that overhead adornment in general is a trend in and of itself. “People are paying attention to ceilings, and not just wallpapered ceilings.” She says she is beginning to see ceilings painted in special colors, or accented with interesting millwork. It’s all about “bringing attention to that fifth wall.” Working on the Julian Price house kitchen was “a lot of responsibility,” Adams admits. Unlike most of the other designers, who had free reign and whose rooms would be dismantled, her kitchen wasn’t dismantled, so it had to be a reflection of owners Eric and Michael Fuko-Rizzo’s tastes. “I had to take into account SEASONS • STYLE & DESIGN 39
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STYLEBOOK their style, their needs, their wants, as well as what I could bring to the table to make me stand out,” Adams says. By the time she was on board, Marsh Kitchens had also been engaged to build the cabinetry, adding to the composite vision. And of course, it’s a historic property. Given that the room is long and narrow, the layout was pretty much determined before Adams got to work. “The sink needs to be where it is. The range needs to be where it is,” she explains. Since the Fuko-Rizzos had opted for a double refrigerator, there was only one wall that could accommodate its “massive” size. Lighting was another one of Adams’ challenges. Recessed can lights had been installed; otherwise there was the one wall with a row of windows and a billiard light overhead (the room had been used as the billiard room previously). Her solution? Two large, round chandeliers from Currey & Co. “I chose those fixtures for a lot of reasons,” Adams says. “One is the style. Because of the period of this house, I did a little bit of a nod to the Art Deco period. Those fixtures just gave me that Modern look of something that could be reminiscent
of Art Deco.” She’d already decided that she wanted round fixtures and ones that would add a sense of lightness and airiness to the room. The challenge, then, was to find some that fit the space. “They were the perfect scale,” she says. And here she offers a designer’s tip: When hanging lighting over a kitchen island, round fixtures tend to line up better than square ones, especially if they are suspended from a chain — because they spin. As for those mini pendants of late? Well, they might be seeing the end of their popular run. Adams also put her classic sensibilities into play, employing subway tile, a kitchen trend she sees as here to stay. With manufacturers offering them in different sizes besides the standard 4-by-6 inches, and in different materials, such as porcelain, ceramic, marble or Travertine, Adams went with textured, 3-by-16 inch tiles “with an elongated, handmade look.” For the countertops, she chose a material “on the rise” in kitchen design, quartz, from Stilestone, while accommodating a request by the Fuko-Rizzos to incorporate a vintage butcher block into the kitchen island, one they found in the house. She did so by encasing it, rather than abutting it to the island, and still marvels today at the craftsmanship of the piece that was easily 8- or 9-inches thick. Craftsmanship is something Adams prizes, sourcing many of kitchen’s components, as she frequently does in all of her designs, to local artisans.
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STYLEBOOK She is particularly complementary of Window Works studio in Jamestown, responsible for the window treatments. The detail in the ruched Roman shades is meticulous, as Adams points out: “Every one of them is perfectly matched. The pattern is perfect on every single one of those. And that takes a lot of skill set and talent, because that was a silk embroidered fabric.” Her laughter bubbles up again as she continues, “I can pull all the pieces together, and source it, and manage people to do it, but to sew window treatments? I could never do that!” She has similar praise for Thompson Traders, which generously donated the hood — a last-minute addition, as it turns out. Originally the hood was to have been flanked by cabinetry and was to have matched it, but Adams suggested it be “the star of the show.” And what a star! Thompson delivered a stunning piece in burnished nickel, handmade by artisans in Mexico. In addition to these standouts, Adams suggested elongating the room even more, by opening up the pantry, where beautiful dishware, courtesy of Replacements, would shine — atop another artisanal piece, a walnut countertop
with maple inlay by Greensboro custom furniture builder Sam Rouse. The overall effect of the room, with its emphasis on its newfound lightness, is beyond pleasing. And for the house’s two inhabitants, livable. Which brings us to the last component of Adams’s design philosophy of Classic Modern Living. Of these, “Living” is perhaps the most important. Why? “It’s all about how the space makes you feel,” Adams says. A recent project on the Tour of Remodeled Homes, presented by the Greensboro Builders Association, bore out her philosophy. Adams refreshed the entire first floor of a house to rave reviews from the general public. “One of the comments that meant the most to me was when people walked in and said, ‘This is so comfortable!’— and this was a big house,” she emphasizes. “Of course they said, ‘This is beautiful. This is elegant.’ And all that. But their real comments were ‘cozy and comfortable.’ I achieved my goal.” h Info: Maria Adams Designs, (336) 944-1797 or mariaadamsdesigns.com
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STYLEBOOK
Fall Almanac
By Ash Alder Soft thuds of September apples jar the windows of ancient memories. This is how it always goes. Long before the leaves turn golden-orange-scarletpurple, we feel the subtle yet sudden arrival of fall — can smell it in the air. Even our skin has memorized this electric instant. We open the kitchen window. Inside, dahlias in Mason jars and herbs in tidy bundles, hung to dry. Outside, a yellow spider descends from the porch rafter, and a holy swirl of swallows flashes across the whispy-clouded horizon. Yes. Autumn is here. This moment of recognition is embedded in our bones. In the garden, where eggplant and pepper plants continue to gift us with
sizable offerings, feathery muhly grass whispers a simple incantation, and the yellow spider ascends. Back in the kitchen, red and golden spirals fall away with each smooth crank of the apple peeler, and dog-eared pages of the family cookbook mark applesauce, apple dumplings, apple tart and apple crisp. Out comes brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg, and our attention turns inward. Soon the trees will be bare as the cores on the cutting board. Soon the cider will be ready. As autumn breezes filter through the open window, we, too, exhale.
In the garden, autumn is, indeed the crowning glory of the year, bringing us the fruition of months of thought and care and toil. And at no season, safe perhaps in daffodil time, do we get such superb color effects as from August to November. – Rose G. Kingsley, The Autumn Garden, 1905
Sowing Season
In ancient Greece, brides carried bouquets of garlic (aka the stinking rose) in lieu of flowers. In addition to warding off vampires and evil spirits, garlic does wonders for sautéed turnips, beets and mustard greens. Break bulbs into cloves and plant them now until the first hard freeze. Tulip and daffodil bulbs will also color your spring garden brilliant if you plant them now. Allow yourself to dream. Imagine your home nestled in a grove of golden flowers, fringed blooms spilling out of planters, window boxes, busted rain boots. The more bulbs you plant the better — and plant them at random. What else? Plant cool-weather annuals like petunias and foxglove. Cool-season vegetables. Herbs such as dill, sage and fennel. And when the first frost strikes, remember the birds.
The milkweed pods are breaking, And the bits of silken down Float off upon the autumn breeze Across the meadows brown.
Ritual Custom
Halloween falls on Wednesday, October 31 — a third-quarter moon. In the spirit of this hallowed evening, a few treats: Master illusionist Harry Houdini, one of the greatest magicians who ever lived, mysteriously died on Halloween night in 1926. Among his first tricks: picking the lock on his mother’s cupboard to retrieve her fresh-baked apple pies. (If you get your hands on a bushel of Carolina Red Junes, pale-yellow beauties that originated in North Carolina, they don’t store well. But they do taste exceptional baked into a you-know-what.) Weighing in at over 2,600 pounds, the largest pumpkin ever measured was grown by a farmer named Mathias Willemijns, who wheeled the monster from his home in Belgium to the Giant Pumpkin European Championship in Germany autumn-before-last to take top-prize. (Want to grow your own? Save seeds for midsummer planting.) Egyptian farmers swaddled wooden figures with nets to create the first “scarecrows” in recorded history. Only they weren’t scarecrows, per se. They were used to keep quails from the wheat fields along the Nile River. During the pre-Halloween celebration of Samhain, a Gaelic festival that marks the end of harvest season, bonfires were lit to ensure the return of the sun. Druid priests offered bones of cattle to the flames. “Bone fire” became “bonfire.”
– Cecil Cavendish, “The Milkweed” Fall 2018
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Fall 2018
Fall 2018
I cannot endure to waste anything as precious as autumn sunshine by staying in the house. So I spend almost all the daylight hours in the open air.
Fall 2018
– Nathaniel Hawthorne
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The Collector
Tom Fitzgerald explores context and meaning among the exquisite objects that have filled his Greensboro home over time By Cynthia Adams • Photographs by Amy Freeman
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ear a leafy park among houses approaching the century mark, Tom Fitzgerald created a European-inspired home. When he built his house in the 1990s, Fitzgerald made sure that it would totally fit into one of Greensboro’s most traditional and loved neighborhoods, Sunset Hills. The stucco-and-timber-frame design managed a sleight of hand: It was compatible with its neighbors yet oriented to be light-filled, modern and fresh. “Not a big or grand house,” Fitzgerald explains, “but a simple house with a lot of character.” When completed, it was a discreet victory. Earth tones made the house practically disappear into a streetscape that is dominated by old growth trees and genteel homes. The exterior stucco was painted a pale beige, the Tudor-like beams and trim, brown. Today, the property has acquired a deepening, enriched patina, making it difficult to pinpoint in time. Perhaps age has become the property’s best friend. As much as anything, the landscaping has contributed to the sense that the house belongs there. Fitzgerald even spent hours training English ivy to conceal chain link fencing, creating a lush setting for the screened porch at the rear of the house, a shady spot where visitors are welcomed and suppers served. As with many homes in historic New Orleans, Charleston and Savannah, a
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secret garden and inner courtyard enhanced the new beauty with unexpected charms, and provided outdoor spaces removed from public display. It is a house meant for entertaining as much as it is meant to showcase art and collectibles. These were lessons that Fitzgerald had absorbed in many years of world travels, not so much as a student of architecture, but as an anthropologist. He is one who has spent his career observing, lecturing and writing. (Fitzgerald retired from the UNCG faculty in 2003.) Thanks to lifelong relationships with artists, beginning with his sister Lee Hall, Fitzgerald had developed the sensibilities of a social scientist combined with the eye of a collector. Learning to truly see, he explains, is something he has cultivated thanks to many with informed vision. All of which means the current interior reveals that it has been inhabited by resident owners with richly layered pasts. Frank Saunders, Fitzgerald’s longtime partner, who died in early 2014, was one of them. Saunders was also a hobbyist interested in fine furniture, some of which he had made himself. No matter that Fitzgerald’s custom home has a sense of history and proximity. It is very much of the times with an abundance of windows, multiple levels and the generously sized kitchen, baths and closets that his former address, a nearby Dutch Colonial where he lived with Saunders, though admittedly beautiful, was lacking. The professor managed to keep the charm of that old Fall 2018
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Kensington Street home, while doubling down on modern conveniences in the new when it was time for him and Saunders to transition into a new space. He also explains how Saunders anticipated that transition and nudged him to build. “We wanted to go single-level, as Frank was 10 years older and we wanted a house suitable for retirement,” Fitzgerald says, as afternoon light streams through ample front windows, illuminating artwork and collections that speak to his personal life and narrative. Saunders was a retired Guilford County Schools administrator, a psychologist who headed programs for intellectually challenged and gifted students. “He helped many young people,” Fitzgerald says. Saunders also shared Fitzgerald’s passion for travel, and as a hobbyist interested in fine furniture, made several pieces himself. The two chose a house plan and visited an architect in Arizona to make adaptations that included a courtyard and offered more exterior vistas. The interiors were also designed to house their collected treasures to best advantage. They moved custom cabinetry from their Kensington home, as it had been designed specifically to showcase one of their collections: Canton china. It was important that their ultimate house be elegant in its simplicity. They decided to make finishes high-end, the layout precise in order to accommodate their furnishings and lifestyle, and to borrow from the best ideas they had observed in other gracious homes. As Wolfe Homes built their dream house, the professor was on-site every day, picking up and cleaning any debris, and imagining exactly how their art and furnishings would work in the corridors, hallways and spaces. The house’s
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centerpiece, a great room with dramatic two-story windows, was designed with a vaulted ceiling whose soaring effect is accentuated by a sunken floor. At one end is a fireplace with an elegant limestone mantel, redolent of French homes that Fitzgerald knew well from his early years studying abroad in Paris. In addition to its aesthetic value, the house had to serve the two gents well, even into their old age, so they also considered details like cabinet heights for workspaces and baths, grab bars and tweaked layout to maximize functionality. Attention to practicalities paid off. When Saunders became seriously ill in 2007, the house continued to function well as he grew less mobile, just as planned. “He literally passed out while working in the garden,” Fitzgerald says. The diagnosis was multiple myeloma, a form of cancer. Over the next seven years, as the disease gradually took its toll, Saunders was able to remain at home, enjoying the spacious screened porch, courtyard and elevated walkways that made the house easily navigable. The interior spaces, designed in harmonious sync with the pair’s paintings and collections, allowed Saunders to enjoy the beautiful objects the two had amassed over the years. After his partner’s death, there was no question Fitzgerald would remain there too. In time, he met Bill Johnston, whose life revolved around art and design. His family were founders of American Furniture Company, later known as American Drew. In 2000, Johnston retired, leaving the family business and design world to become an artist and potter. (Johnston’s work is currently available at Green Hill Center for North Carolina Art.)
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Johnston, who keeps a nearby art studio and cottage, had extensive art and furniture as well, which he merged with Fitzgerald’s when he moved to Greensboro from West Virginia. Discovery is the fuel for the two collectors’ zeal. They further enriched their knowledge by frequent excursions to museum openings. Tom Fitzgerald laughs that “Bill will come home and say, ‘Let’s go to this exhibition in Asheville!’ And I enjoy this so much.” For Fitzgerald, settled amid the things he loves and now shares with Johnston, collecting had infused many decisions about home. Together, they continue explorations in sculpture, art and pottery with gusto. “I still like to discover new things,” he explains, pointing out Johnston’s furniture, paintings and pottery throughout the house. “Bill has taken me to about 150 galleries. I’m learning now how to see things,” he says. “You go through a museum and remember configurations. But I’m learning how to look at paintings and sculpture and glassware.” Which brings Fitzgerald to the topic of collecting, and what drives particular passions. “Is there a collector’s mentality?” he muses. He grows thoughtful, pausing after pulling out one of his first collected china objects: a simply wrought bowl. Later he decides. “I suspect so. Most of my friends are not collectors and never will be. Those who suffer from this affliction are helpless in its control of them. Collector’s gene, maybe?” Fitzgerald laughs at the notion. Fall 2018
Melding Johnston’s collections with his own, he adds, has enhanced his already keen eye. Through Johnston’s point of view, he is learning to see through the lens of the artist. The artist’s eye is a completely different, important matter, he explains. Artists have long figured into the life of a man who would become known for his study and observation of world cultures, publishing numerous books while a professor at UNCG.
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s a young man, Fitzgerald was deeply influenced by his older cousin, Lee Hall, whom he regarded and still refers to as a sister. Hall was a key figure in his life. “She ran away from home and came to live with the grandparents who adopted my brother and me, so we were delighted to have Lee come.” Fitzgerald not only came of age with Hall, but he became a mascot within her circle when she graduated with a B.F.A. from the Woman’s College in the 1950s, and moved to New York, pursuing studies and abstract painting. Her circle eventually included both Elaine and Willem de Kooning along with other important Modern artists such as Jackson Pollock. She not only became an artist of note but also began writing about Modern artists. “When Lee would drop by her studio, she would ask Elaine [de Kooning] to ‘babysit’ me — I was 14 or 15,” Fitzgerald recalls. “I loved her, but didn’t think of her as special, although she started the Modern art movement. We would go out for Italian meals, but I didn’t think much about it. It was hard for women to SEASONS • STYLE & DESIGN 51
get any recognition . . . women artists were coming along.” In the 1970s, Hall became president of the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design. She also remained a close friend of Elaine de Kooning’s and chronicled her life with Willem de Kooning in Elaine and Bill: Portrait of a Marriage. The book was a blockbuster. Like Hall, Fitzgerald went on to earn a doctorate and became a prolific writer. After earning scholarships and studying at UNC-Chapel Hill, Stanford and the Sorbonne, Fitzgerald became a cultural anthropologist with a fluency in French. He specialized in issues concerning identity, and those studies took him around the globe. At least four of Fitzgerald’s scholarly books on culture and identity remain in print, years past his retirement. But the anthropologist’s prized collections grew from an age-old love of beauty. Even as a young boy growing up in Lexington, N.C., he kept a couple of beautiful objects on his dresser to admire. Travel expanded his awareness of things generally, while at the same time sharpened the focus of his collecting — one of the cardinal rules of the road is to pack light. “The size of object[s] became a paramount consideration: little silvertopped bottles from New Zealand, for example,” Fitzgerald explains. “When I first went to New Zealand, I didn’t have anything to decorate this awful apartment I had, so I went to a junk shop. They had a beautiful cut glass piece with a silver top. That was the beauty in the room . . . the one thing I could enjoy.” He produces a slender silver-capped bottle that likely once held a gent’s toothbrush. The professor could enjoy his finds and, on return, easily
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tucked smaller collectibles into a case. He also collected indigenous artwork as he worked in the Pacific Islands and Canada, which fill shelves in his upstairs study. “Ethnic art reflects my interest in my field subjects (Maoris, Canadian Indians, etc.),” Fitzgerald says, re-emphasizing the practicality of acquiring smaller, more portable items, such as men’s rings. The professor sees no sense in gathering beautiful things to molder in boxes and gather dust. Use them or lose them, he says. “A couple were in Rhode Island where my sister, Lee Hall, taught. They traveled a lot, and had all this money, and they would collect whatever they liked, then they didn’t want to use it. I enjoy using it!” With one exception: the Canton china. Even more than the antique glassware or ethnic art finds, Canton is his opus. And it is, like his other collections, quite personal. A colleague and friend of Hall named Leon Wolcott introduced Fitzgerald to collecting Canton china. The search for Canton was an extension of their long-term friendship. Wolcott, a sociologist at a small college in New Jersey, would buy pieces for his historic home. “It was a beautiful old house. It was the impetus for Canton coming into my life.” So, what is Canton, exactly? For starters, it is blue-and-white tableware, favored by American collectors for two centuries. Rob Feland, among others, has written about Canton “ballast ware,” china that was made expressly for being exported in the holds of ships. Even George Washington favored blue-and-white dinner and tea sets. Canton is named after the port of origin, Canton, China, where it was painted for export to Americans and Europeans. Colors range in intensity from cobalt to a paler gray-
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blue. It bears unique characteristics: Always hand-painted, compositions feature scenes incorporating bridges, tea houses, willow trees, streams and mountains in the background. Human figures are absent. Later versions, hand-painted and produced in England, depict three men on the bridge — which identifies the porcelain as a Willow pattern. Enthusiasm for Canton continued. Later, colorful, rose medallion porcelains also came into favor. Part of its charm, says Fitzgerald, is owed to imperfections and flaws that were an inevitable result of the millions of plates that were all but mass-produced. “Too perfect a piece may well be a fake.” Fitzgerald accompanied Wolcott on antiquing junkets. Always, Wolcott was on the hunt for Canton, and Fitzgerald would observe. After a visit, his friend would leave behind magazine articles on Canton for Fitzgerald’s education. “So, I got really into it but couldn’t afford it,” he shrugs, acknowledging the financial restrictions of a professor’s salary. “Instead, I got into the rice pattern china — Canton is too valuable to use, but I can put rice pattern in the dishwasher. “Leon would come to visit and we would go to Charleston and Savannah, and I would watch him pick things out. I admired him, and I think if you allow yourself to develop taste through your older friends who have taste, you learn. I might have had some incipient taste, but I learned a lot through him.”
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Canton broadened the appeal of other blue-and-white china patterns. Occasionally, Fitzgerald would pick up reproduction Canton or Nanking patterns by Mottahedeh. Mottahedeh reproductions are clearly marked. The first genuine Canton Fitzgerald selected for himself? “It’s a small bowl; it had such simplicity,” he says fondly. “It was affordable, but for me, not the kind of thing I would have normally spent money on — dishes!” Fitzgerald emphasizes the decorative bowl was a splurge. With each trip, he began choosing small pieces of Canton that he considered mementos. He also kept the price point modest. “It was incremental. I didn’t see myself as deliberately collecting — I was just traveling and choosing a piece, which was a souvenir. I wanted it to be something I would enjoy. Then, when Frank had the vision of our building this house, there were nice places to display things.” Slowly, he began to incorporate some colored pieces of china ranging beyond blue-and-white. “I began to collect Japanese Imari, which, later, Bill also had.” As for that first major Canton purchase? Fitzgerald had admired a large fish platter at Caroline Faison Antiques in Greensboro. But when he learned the price, he remembers thinking, “Good Lord!” The frugal professor declined. Soon after, his friend Wolcott died. He bought the platter with money Fall 2018
Wolcott left him, knowing the dedicated Canton collector would approve. Fitzgerald began investing any windfall into his collection; each item became a memento mori. “When another friend died and left me some money, I bought another piece of Canton.” He smiles; he also purchased a good suit. (Even in T-shirt and jeans, he is also a dapper collector.) But Wolcott had made him “collect differently,” Fitzgerald says, saying he “gave me a vision of what I could do. Collecting has a lot to do with our personality and taste.” If forced to choose, a favorite piece is a small Canton jug. Then again, if there were a fire, Fitzgerald would preserve something from his friend and mentor Wolcott. “Maybe,” he considers, “I’d choose one piece from Charleston or Savannah. A covered dish — this, for example, is a gravy bowl, with wonderful markings and handles.”
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itzgerald, in recent years, also began collecting original art, an interest ignited by Hall. Only a few years ago, Hall exhibited at the Jerald Melberg Gallery in Charlotte. She died last year, leaving her works to the Queen City’s small jewel, the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art. “I can’t believe she is gone,” Fitzgerald says gravely. “She was very ambitious. She was excited by life . . . she bought an intensity and interest in life.” Hall’s obituary was prominent in the May 17 edition of The New York Times.
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Her passing turned the collector’s gaze to painting. “I never bought such, as my sister was a good painter and often sent small oil paintings, water colors, etc. But, gradually I wanted to learn more and started acquiring some of my own.” As he combined Johnston’s collection of original art, some of it from the Lexington, Virginia, area, they had to curate their choices, like an art gallery. Over the years, art explorations have given the couple a depth of shared experience. “I see things I respond to,” Fitzgerald says. Personal influences guide and continue to influence him, which is why he dislikes self-conscious, decorated homes, preferring “collected ones.” “When I show people the house, I’m telling them my story,” Fitzgerald says. “You have pictures of your grandmother, and they evoke the story of your life.” He mentions valued items bought in France, or while lecturing in Germany. “It’s a reminder of me.” The professor keeps to his customary early risings, up at 5 a.m. Fitzgerald goes to his study, the place he calls uniquely his. “A room of my own,” he says. Only birdsong interrupts. When the sun rises, light filters through stainedglass windows in the stairway, positioned just so. Here, the professor finds refuge with collections from Canada and New Zealand. He turns on the lights inside each case, illuminating his beloved objets d’art, and finds calm. h Cynthia Adams met Thomas Fitzgerald while at UNCG in graduate school. Through him, she has come to love all things blue and white, and Canton.
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Solid as Faith
The Fogle Brothers’ enduring architectural imprint on Winston-Salem By Ross Howell Jr. • Photographs by Amy Freeman
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inston-Salem’s Washington Park historic district is leafy, lush with big oaks and green lawns behind iron or picket fences. I pull up to the curb on West Cascade Avenue in front of a stucco house with thick columns. The house is Craftsman design, with a hipped roof reminiscent of Prairie style. There’s a wide stucco chimney in front. This is the home that Charles Rudolph Fogle (1891–1982) built for his wife and daughter in 1917. Charles R. was the son of Charles Alexander Fogle, one of the founders of Fogle Brothers, a construction company that — as Heather Fearnboach writes in her authoritative 2015 book, Winston-Salem’s Architectural Heritage — left “an indelible impact on Winston-Salem’s built environment.” I walk through a trellis draped with hanging roses. To the left of the house is a big oak tree and to the right are tall boxwoods. Michael Ryden, who owns the house with his partner, greets me at the front door. He’s a tall, genial man with a sprinkling of gray in his hair. President of the Winston-Salem firm Leonard Ryden Burr Real Estate, a company that specializes in historically significant properties, Ryden’s also a member of Preservation North Carolina, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and serves as chairman of the Forsyth County Historic Resources Commission. Oh. And he’s an enthusiastic supporter of the local arts scene, having served on the boards of various arts organizations. Currently he’s an active member of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts Foundation board. But now Ryden’s eager to show me his pride and joy.
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We step into the large foyer. It’s nearly square, wonderfully balanced and flooded with natural light. “It’s so rare to find an old house with so many of its original features in place,” Ryden says. He should know. Over the years Ryden has restored an 1880s Vernacular farmhouse (with an old neighborhood store on the property), an I-house (so named because its style was so common in Indiana, Illinois and Iowa) built in 1910, and a Craftsman bungalow that was his home for 15 years. Before restoring this home at 29 West Cascade Avenue, Ryden restored another house with the Fogle name attached to it. Constructed in 1908, it’s a Vernacular cottage style home on South Poplar Street in West Salem. And just next door to where we’re standing, there’s another, built around 1920, at 17 West Cascade, which Ryden also owns — still a work in progress, though the exterior is fully restored. “When I bought the Charles Fogle house in 2000, I applied to have it listed in the Historic Register right away, because I wanted it to be protected,” he says. Ryden and I walk to the right, into the living room. He gestures toward the wide, wood-burning fireplace. “Charles Fogle was very proud of this house,” he says. “And especially proud of how well the fireplace drew. He still had the craftsman in him.” When I ask Ryden how he knows this, he explains that after he purchased the property and began renovation, Anna Wray Fogle Cotterill, Charles R.’s daughter, would sometimes visit. “She told us so many interesting things,” Ryden says. For instance, accordSEASONS • STYLE & DESIGN 57
ing to Anna Wray, Charles R. liked to keep all sorts of creatures around the house. He had an aviary with a variety of birds, kept fish in the garden pond in back and a flock of chickens in the basement. Since he had a friend who was a taxidermist, Charles R. had wild animal heads and sometimes whole animals on display in various rooms. “Anna Wray said that all the lumber in the house was timbered near Pilot Mountain,” Ryden says. We move into a cozy room just beyond the living room. There are built-in bookcases and a small fireplace. Though I’ve never set foot here, there’s something about the room that makes me feel immediately at home. Ryden tells me the fireplace tiles are original, as are the big steam radiators and the windows. “We replaced the window flashing, he says. “Double Hung in Greensboro did a lot of work in this house. What’s the point of replacing windows when the originals can be so efficient?” We sit down to chat. I ask Ryden how he became so committed to historic preservation. “I grew up in Morristown, New Jersey,” he answers. “The ‘Crossroads of the American Revolution.’ So I was always interested in history.” Somehow, he goes on, he knew he wanted to live in the South. So he attended Roanoke College in Virginia and after college, knocked around in dinner theater. “I never understood how it happened,” he says, smiling. “Even though I don’t look anything like him, I played Thomas Jefferson in the musical 1776.” “Well, you’re tall,” I venture, and we have a good laugh. He tells me that when he met his partner, who owns land in southwest Virginia, they decided to move to Winston-Salem. “That’s where I started selling real estate,” Ryden says. “And I found I was good at it.” His success, he explains, made it possible for him to pursue his passion for historic preservation.
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Then we continue our tour. He shows me an adjacent bathroom. Remarkably, the floor tile, porcelain fixtures and gleaming, polished-nickel hardware are all original. We head into the large kitchen, where the ceiling was opened up so it reaches all the way to the flat roof above. The kitchen cabinets are original. The hood for the range vents through the original chimney. But being a guy, I find the most interesting feature to be the speaking tube that Ryden has preserved. He demonstrates how to blow into the tube so a whistle can be heard upstairs. Then he speaks through the tube. We walk up the broad stairs in the hall. There’s a fireplace in the master bedroom, and an original tie and shoe rack on the closet door. The woodwork and doors are milled from hardwood without a blemish. Nothing creaks. Nothing moves. The house is solid as faith. Not surprising, when you consider that Charles R. Fogle was descended from a long line of Moravian builders and craftsmen. I had to know more. My curiosity led me a little farther east, to Old Salem’s Moravian Archives, the official repository for the Southern Province of the Moravian Church in America. On a big table in its research room, I’m looking at a leather-bound ledger that sits between Mary Audrey Apple and me.
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y eyes wander from the ledger to the room’s windows. I can see the green expanse of God’s Acre, the Moravian cemetery, just outside. There the faithful — including Charles R. and his father and grandfather — lie buried under simple stones of equal size, regardless of the individual’s status in life. Apple is doing for me something she’s done many times — guiding a search for information about Fogle Brothers, the most significant construction company in 19th-century Winston-Salem. Apple’s research was an important contribution to Heather Fearnbach’s Winston-Salem’s Architectural Heritage. And though her travels have taken her far and wide, she’s a proud Winston-Salem native. These days she volunteers at Fall 2018
the Moravian Archives as a family history docent. And under the direction of archivist Eric Elliott, she’s contributing to the development of a genealogical database of Wachovia Moravian African-Americans, drawing on her background in education, foreign languages, history, and library-and-information science. After a career as a public, college and school librarian, with an emphasis on reference work, Apple returned to her hometown. She transferred her Master Gardener membership in Cobb County, Georgia, to Winston-Salem, which helps explain the work she does in Latino Community Services, mentoring students in the Healing and Teaching Gardens, and her selection as the 2018 honorary chair for the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Garden Club Council’s spring garden tour. She rises from her chair, sliding the big Fogle Brothers ledger closer, so we can look at it together. The red label on its spine reads “1888–90.” “They were good Moravians,” Apple says, carefully opening the ledger. “They kept records of everything.” On the first pages that fall open, inscribed in black ink with a flowing hand, is the client heading “R.J. Reynolds.” This is Richard Joshua Reynolds (1850– 1918), the founder of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. Entries for his building project include pounds of nails, board feet of lumber, quantities of windows, doors and moldings. They include notes about the type of structure, number of men working on it and costs of materials. On another page is the heading “F.H. Fries.” This was “Colonel” Francis Henry Fries (1855–1931), builder of Arista Mills, the first textile mill in North Carolina to have electric lights, and president of Wachovia Loan and Trust, which — when it merged in 1911 with Wachovia National Bank to form Wachovia Bank and Trust — was one of the largest financial institutions in the South. That Fogle Brothers should have been builders for the industrial titans of 19th-century Winston and Salem certainly was not accidental. Some might say it was providential. Moravians are acknowledged as the first Protestants. The leader of the sect, a Bohemian (Czech) priest named Jan Hus, was burned at the stake as a heretic in 1415, more than a century before Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of Wittenberg Castle Church. In 1457 Hus’ followers formed a church in Moravia (Czech Republic). Suffering exile and persecution, the Moravians (Unitas Fratrum, or United Brethren) later established themselves in England. In 1741 they formed their first permanent community in the Colonies — Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. A decade later, they sent surveyors to map a 100,000-acre tract of land they had acquired in western North Carolina. The tract’s first Moravian settlers — 15 individuals who had walked the Fall 2018
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Great Wagon Road from Bethlehem — arrived in November 1753. When the new settlers held their first lovefeast, the Rev. Bernhard Adam Grube (1715– 1808) noted that outside “wolves howled loudly.” As their settlements — Bethabara, Bethania, Salem, Friedberg and Friedlandia — grew, the Moravians remained a hard-working, frugal, diarywriting, record-keeping band of skilled artisans. Their tight-knit community, along with their skills as craftsmen, would serve the Moravians handsomely in the Industrial Revolution. In addition to the 1888–90 Fogle Brothers ledger — and there are many, comprising, with some gaps, the years 1878 to 1942 — Apple has assembled a number of other reference materials for my search. From a section of Heather Fearnbach’s book I learn that into the third generation of Moravian settlers in Salem, Augustus Gottlieb Fogle (1820–1897) was born. Augustus attended the Salem Boys’ School for a short time and apprenticed with Philadelphia-trained cabinetmaker Jacob Friedrich Siewers. In 1838, Siewers took Augustus and other apprentices along with him to Milton, North Carolina, to work with the now-legendary African-American cabinetmaker, Thomas Day. Augustus married Lucinda Elisabeth Schneider, worked as a cabinetmaker, tended to his farm and invested in real estate. It is said that he helped place the steeple on the Home Moravian Church in Salem. He served as steward of Salem Academy, town coroner and justice of the peace, and sheriff of Forsyth County. He even was elected mayor of Winston — serving three terms — but he continued to work as a cabinetmaker until his death in 1897. Augustus Fogle’s legacy as an artisan continued with his two sons. In 1870 Charles Alexander Fogle (1850–1892), on land given him by his parents, established a lumberyard and planing mill on Belews Creek Road with woodworker and friend J. Gottlieb Sides. In 1871 his brother Christian Henry Fogle (1846–1898) bought out Sides’ interest. Christian and Charles then formed a partnership known as Fogle Brothers. According to the Biographical
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Dictionary of North Carolina Architects & Builders, the “demand for buildings in Winston and Salem led the brothers to expand their operations several times, as they enlarged their planing mill, added sash-and-blind machinery, and engaged a large work force of carpenters, bricklayers and laborers.” By the 1880s Fogle Brothers was a major employer for skilled men in the building trades, both white and African-American. And these men built structures of all types — small frame tenements for factory workers, mansions for the wealthy, tobacco factories and warehouses, public buildings, stables, church additions and apartments. Providentially or not, the Fogle Brothers were ideally positioned to capitalize on the Winston and Salem industrial boom (it was not until 1913 that the two towns merged). Sometimes on their own, sometimes with investors, they completed a number of successful speculative real estate ventures. “Trained in the Moravian craft tradition,” the Biographical Dictionary continues, “Charles and Christian Fogle were esteemed by their contemporaries not so much for their skills with hammer and saw as for their well-earned reputation as responsible and perceptive businessmen who not only knew the details of their woodworking trades but were well versed in the principles of investment and finance. Using their influence and connections with local industrialists, they created a virtual monopoly in the building trades for nearly 30 years.” After our time in the Moravian Archives, Apple takes me on a walking tour. We head down South Church Street, passing the Moravian Home Church, a building Fogle Brothers renovated in 1870. “Along here,” Apple says, “there was original Fogle Brothers fencing and lattice work, though it’s all reproduction now. Inside many of these houses are cabinets and bookcases the Fogles built.” As we walk, she points out dormitories and academic buildings on the grounds of Salem College. “Early on, Fogle Brothers maintained and renovated buildings for the college and academy,” Apple says. Fall 2018
She smiles when she tells me Fogle Brothers built doghouses, though none have survived. “Augustus Fogle even built a circus wagon for a parade,” she adds. Farther down Church Street, next door to St. Philips African Moravian Church, which dates from 1861 — Fogle Brothers built a church addition in 1890 — stands a pleasant Moravian house with a big, inviting porch. “That’s a Fogle Brothers house my husband, Jim, and I restored,” Apple says. “It was built in the 1890s.” She tells me they sold the property three years ago. She points at the façade and side of the house. “See the shutters?” she asks. “They’re original. We had to copy and replace some of the windows, though.” The latticework under the porch is typical of Fogle Brothers foundation treatments, she tells me, as is the picket fence. Apple knocks at the front door to make sure we won’t disturb the owners. No one’s home. “They’re wonderful people,” she says. “I’m sorry they’re not here to meet you.” We walk along the side of the house through a side garden to a back terrace. It’s a beautiful space, full of blooming shrubs and flowers. There’s a trellis and a stone path. “I suppose this was our biggest contribution to the house,” Apple says. When she and her husband acquired the property, the backyard of the house fell away sharply into a ravine. The couple had stones trucked in to shore up the ravine and level the space, adding soil for a garden. “Everything I planted,” Apple says, “was appropriate for a garden of the period. “So not everything was a favorite, you know,” she adds. “But it was a plant a Victorian gardener would’ve used.” We go back around to the front of the house. There, Apple introduces me to a gardening term that is new to me: “hell strip.” It’s the patch of earth between the curb and sidewalk in front of a house. “See all the flowers? To draw pollinators,” she says. “Because of heat and drought, it’s a good idea to plant natives.” We go over a block and walk up South Main Street. We pass houses and shops built by Fogle Brothers. Apple points out the train depot, and a nearby building that now houses public offices. Originally it was Salem’s courthouse. She nods. “Both built by Fogle Brothers.” We turn the corner, stop to take a look at a new Salem College dormitory, then turn toward God’s Acre. To our right stands a row of brick Victorian townhouses with mansard roofs. “Fogle Flats,” Apple says. “Built in 1896. It’s a residence hall for the college now.” As it turns out, Fogle Flats was the temporary residence of Charles R. and his wife, Lucille Wommack, and his daughter, Anna Wray, while they were waiting for Fogle Brothers to complete the house in Washington Park overlooking what was rapidly becoming the modern city of Winston-Salem. Though it was both of its time and as noted, out of time, the house, when Michael Ryden bought it, was beginning to show its age. After touring me through several bedrooms, Charles R.’s reading room and the bedroom that was Anna Wray’s, Ryden opens the door to an enormous bathroom, again with original tile and fixtures. Its renovation was just completed last year. “It’s a process, you know,” Ryden says. “We didn’t have air-conditioning the first year we lived in the house.” We step out onto the flat roof above the kitchen. Once used to dry laundry, the roof now features decking, comfortable chairs and plants in containers. Through the treetops is a magnificent prospect of downtown Winston-Salem. “This is a great place to get away from it all,” Ryden muses. We head all the way downstairs into the basement. Although Ryden had a geothermal system installed, the original steam boiler still is operational. There’s a huge laundry room with a big overhead Fall 2018
steam radiator. Beyond the steam boiler are an old coal room, a bathroom and a bedroom where an older tenant had lived until recently. There are rooms and nooks everywhere, and for much of the floor, the original brick. “Some of the doors down here had screens at the bottom,” Ryden says. “We were scratching our heads about that, until Anna Wray told us her father kept his chickens down here at night, then let them out in the morning.” We have another good laugh. Then we walk out a basement door into a garden lined with big boxwoods. “Those are original,” Ryden says. There’s a path with big stone pavers, a pea gravel drive, and just beyond, Charles R.’s original fishpond. “We added the fountain,” Ryden adds. With the plash of the water, it’s quiet here, an oasis. Ryden points out the unusual red-orange color of the brick and mortar of the foundation wall on this side of the house. “And the stucco?” he asks. “We had some repairs done, but it’s original, and it’s never been painted, as far as we know.” I realize I’ve taken up a big chunk of Ryden’s time, but as we head back inside and upstairs, he stops in the foyer to point out the details of the beautiful light fixture at the center of the ceiling. While it’s not original, he tells me, it’s a common design of the period, but not easy to secure these days. Ryden tells me he’d known about this house on Cascade for a long time. A friend had rented there for years, so when he’d come for a visit, he’d have the chance to look around, to get to know the place. And it grew on him. Then he made a decision. “The owner lived in California,” Ryden says. “And one day I phoned him out of the blue, and said, ‘I’d like to buy your house. Would you sell it?’ And the owner said, ‘Yes.’” “When we were speaking earlier I said it was rare to find a house like this,” Ryden continues, as we shake hands. “But I think actually, the house found me.” Some might say it was providential. h Ross Howell Jr. lives with his wife, Mary Leigh, and dogs, Sam and Lucy, in a 1920s Craftsman bungalow on what some might call the “artsy” side of Fisher Park, Greensboro. SEASONS • STYLE & DESIGN 61
HUNT & GATHER
Making and Shaking
Cohab Space is fast becoming a hub for High Point’s creatives By Amy and Peter Freeman
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ne day, as we were out wandering in High Point, we dropped in on our friend Sandy Howell at her new outfit, called Cohab Space. “If you don’t pay attention, you may miss something,” she told us. A fresh approach to showing furniture and more, Cohab Space is part showroom, part maker’s space. It also serves as an arts-and-crafts studio, plus a garden and impromptu gathering spot. We think that the mixed-use concept will offer a variety of opportunities for wholesale and retail shopping — or simply a great place for hanging out. The brainchild of John Muldoon, plus Sandy and the crew at Club Cu, Blaxand and Noorside, Cohab has been an idea in the making for some time. We grew close to the project as Peter’s architectural firm, Freeman Kennett, had the opportunity to conceive an early version of the concept slated for the High Point Enterprise Building, which, ultimately, would be razed to make room for the city’s new baseball stadium. However, the industrial West End neighborhood, and particularly the massive structure at 1547 West English Road, proved the perfect backdrop for reimagining how to introduce furniture and accessories to the public. Look for reclaimed wood furniture, cast concrete top tables, exotic objects, architectural screens, pottery, lighting, textiles, rugs and jewelry displayed fetchingly in Cohab’s cavernous rooms. In addition to the plethora of curiosities, there are plans for ceramic, glass and wood studios sprinkled among shared spaces already occupied by a local photographer and on-site organic caterer. A concept for a boutique hostel is also under consideration — which shows just how far the creative crew may go to shake things up. All this talk of shaking things up inspired us to cap off the perfect afternoon of home-grown exploration. And just like that! We found ourselves bellied up at the bar in nearby Blue Water Grille for a dirty martini. h
Amy and Peter Freeman include among their pastimes mindless wandering. Amy, a photographer, and Peter, an architect, are perpetually in search of new gigs, fresh digs and fun swigs. Cohab Space (cohab.com) is open on a daily basis and offers discounts to designers and the general public.
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Cohab Space is part showroom, part maker’s space. It also serves as an arts-and-crafts studio, plus a garden and impromptu gathering spot.
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Look for reclaimed wood furniture, cast concrete top tables, exotic objects, architectural screens, pottery, lighting, textiles, rugs and jewelry displayed fetchingly in Cohab’s cavernous rooms. 66 SEASONS •
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A Legendary Flower By Noah Salt
with Many Names
Photographs by Amy Freeman ycoris Radiata is nice surprise in the autumn. Sometimes called the Hurricane or Red Lily — also the red Magic or Resurrection flower — this hardy perennial owns a treasured place in many Triad gardeners of our acquaintance. A member of the amaryllis family, the plant originally hails from China and Japan, where it grows wild and is sometimes used by rice farmers to surround their paddies because the flowers, if consumed, are deadly poisonous, prized for keeping away mice and other pests. Long associated with death and memory, they herald the “death” of the growing season and reportedly are used in Buddhist ceremonies to honor the arrival of fall and memory of their ancestors. A Chinese legend holds that these flowers — which seem to grow best
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near rivers and in cemeteries — guide departed souls to their next reincarnation. In the case of the Hurricane Lily, which has its glowing moment as your summer garden gives up the ghost and the Atlantic hurricane season winds down, death may have its compensations. Typically blooming around the time of the autumnal equinox and a heavy burst of rain – hence two of its additional nicknames — these beautiful lilies add a bold burst of color to a fading landscape with their vibrant scarlet blooms fading to pink as the weeks pass, sometimes enduring until the first frost. Another legend holds that if they are found growing along a path where you meet someone — you may never see them again. At least until Resurrection Day. h
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LIFE&HOME HOUSE FOR SALE
Fresh Take on a Dream House A Mediterranean-style villa graces Sedgefield’s 18th hole By Jim Dodson • Photographs by Amy Freeman
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any years ago, Greensboro builder Jim Wolfe made a fateful career decision. “I’d just finished business school at Carolina,” he remembers, “and had always assumed that I would go on to law school because my father is a federal judge. The more I thought about it, however, the more I realized that I wanted to do something different with my life — and with my hands.” He smiles. “I wanted to build houses. That was a dream of mine.” He didn’t, however, rush things. “I actually began my building career by cleaning house gutters. But then I built a garage for my grandfather. The bug bit hard after that.” Next up was a Cottage Place house in Greensboro, where Wolfe and wife, Alice, lived for a year and a day before selling it and embarking on a larger project. “That’s how it really started, one house at a time, a little more experienced and ambitious each time out.” Three decades and more than 300 projects later, the Wolfe Homes portfolio contains several of the most admired houses of the Triad, including the first true “green” house in Greensboro, which may explain why Wolfe was undaunted by the idea of purchasing a 1.5-acre plot on Wayne Road beside the 18th fairway at Sedgefield Country Club and setting out to build perhaps his most innovative house to date — a fresh take on a classic Mediterranean villa. As he explains on a late summer afternoon, standing on the spacious lanai of
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his newly finished 4,200-square-foot house, where bigwigs from the Wyndham Championship would soon host tournament VIPs, building a spec house is always risky business, especially one bearing a price tag of $1.5 million. “The rule of thumb is that you lessen the risk considerably by building on water of a beautiful golf course,” he says. “So we had that going for us from day one. Also, from the beginning, just a year or so ago, we knew this was going to be something special — the kind of project we thought of as building someone’s dream house.” Indeed, as one steps through the front door, the house seems to flow with an inviting openness that propels the eye through a beautiful atrium entry featuring 14-foot ceilings and contemporary stepped moldings to the 600-squarefoot lanai room. It functions as the architectural heart of the house, an allseason gathering spot outfitted with motorized drop-down screens and folding glass doors, plus large format porcelain flooring tiles, an oversized Minka-Aire ceiling fan, enclosed fireplace and the de rigueur hooded gas grill and built-in cooking area. Just beyond lies a large terrace with a gentle step-down. The design is a Jim Wolfe original. “I spent hours studying hundreds of house plans online,” he says, “and eventually took the elements I liked and incorporated them into my own design — one we think emphasizes the ease and convenience of a very active lifestyle that brings the outdoors inside in various ways.” Everyone’s life, he adds, is hectic these days. “We’re all so busy working or rushing from one place to another. We wanted something fresh and unfussy, with a flow that’s designed to help you slow down and relax.” To do that, he Fall 2018
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eliminated small rooms and clutter in favor of larger rooms with high ceilings and simple furnishings — features that “encourage you to exhale and relax when you get home.” For all its clean contemporary lines and engaging airiness, with ceilings that range from 12 to 15 feet in height, the warm palette of colors and distressed wide-plank hickory flooring and traditional hardwood touches throughout — especially in the cozier library/study — convey a feeling of intimacy that belies the house’s impressive footprint. Even the spacious bedrooms, which feature oversized windows equipped with automated blackout shades for privacy, possess a feel of intimacy, offering views of the course and surrounding landscape at the fingertips. Because the Wolfe company was one of the first builders in the area to create a “smart house,” their new age Mediterranean villa comes fully equipped with state-of-the-art electronics and digital capabilities. The deluxe master bedroom suite includes a spacious walkin, his-and-her closets, an elegant soaking tub and a massive “walk around” shower with discreet floor lighting that illuminates the room upon entry. “That was a fun touch we added,” notes the builder. “Everyone seems to love it.” A dedicated cook/host, meanwhile, will love the spacious open kitchen with a gourmet Wolf range, industrial-sized refrigerator and freezer, coffee bar and quartz countertops — all of which fuse seamlessly with a large indoor living room that faces the golf course. A 200-bottle, temperature-controlled wine cellar and large walk-in pantry with a built-in desk and “Costcosized” storage cabinets complete the kitchen ensemble. The two-car garage boasts an epoxy floor that’s easy to keep clean. With everything on one level, including four bedrooms and four-and-a-half baths, the ease and simplicity of Jim Wolfe’s dream house, he notes, “makes it ideal for active empty-nesters or maybe older folks who’ve moved to North Carolina and want a great place to entertain or simply love golf and a beautiful view of the course.” The house has already garnered one early admirer. “Jim and Michele [Prather, Wolfe’s design assistant] have a terrific eye for small details that make a house feel warm and personal,” says Stephanie James of Allen and James, the Greensborobased interior designers that furnished the house for a series of showings that began last month for the 2018 Wyndham Championship. These included a special fundraiser for MakeA-Wish Central and Western North Carolina, the foundation that’s helped more than 4,000 critically ill children across 51 N.C. counties, from Burlington west, fulfill their wishes. Jim Wolfe and his wife, Alice, who are enthusiastic supporters of Make-A-Wish, were scheduled to host several public viewings to benefit the charity into the early fall. “Suffice it to say, we’ve put a lot of ourselves into this house,” says Wolfe. “Someday soon the perfect owner is going to walk through the door and realize that this is their dream house.” h The Wayne Road property is listed with Tyler Redhead & McAlister at $1.5 million. For further information or to schedule a walk-through, contact: Katie Redhead, (336) 430-0219 or Katie.Redhead@trmhomes.com or Wolfe Homes (336) 2992969 or info@wolfehomes.com
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Elk Ridge
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at Caleb’s Creek by D.R. Horton
For Info Contact Greer-Louis, Inc. 2102 N. Elm Street Suite M Greensboro, NC 27408 336-378-1778
Visit our model home scheduled to open this fall! What are you going Lot now underway. to sales do today? Come explore the Triad’s largest mixed-use development, featuring quality-built homes, miles of natural beauty, a community filled with high-end amenities, and proximity to all the region has to offer.
GREENWAY AND TRAILS Think outside the gym with 11 miles of planned trails right outside your door. Far more than a suburban sidewalk, the Greenway and trails at Caleb’s Creek circle the lakes and meander through the woods—giving you access to the best of the Triad’s natural world. Whether you’re looking for a nature hike with the kids, a long solo bike ride, or an early morning group training run, the Greenway and trails at Caleb’s Creek have it all. LAKES It is human nature to be drawn to the water. Whether you’re seeking creative inspiration, serenity from the hustlebustle of daily life, or invigorating physical activity, the Lakes at Caleb’s Creek provide the perfect location. Enjoy a picnic at the water’s edge, take a canoe or kayak into a quiet inlet, or walk along the shore, all practically in your own back yard. Many residences will also feature water views.
• This Active Adult targeted community is NOW OPEN • Featuring 1 level, detached homes from the mid 200’s Go walking in the4 woods? fishingoffer in the lake? a barbeque 2-3 baths, • Choose from plansGothat 2-5 Have bedrooms, with your neighbors? Caleb’s Creek’s 927 acres offer everything expandable square footage upstairs, rear porch and you’re looking for in a planned community: miles ofcovered greenway and trails, natural freshwater lakes, a Residents’ Club, a Village Center, double garage and homes to fit every lifestyle. Most importantly, Caleb’s Creek • Low maintenance exteriors of either brick, stone or vinyl. offers the kind of community you can build a life around. • Lawn maintenance So, what areincluded you going to do today? • Square footage (without the 2nd floor expansion) ranges from approximately 1,588-1,888 sf.
NOVEMBER 17-18
RESIDENTS’ CLUB AND SWIMMING POOL Greeting residents and visitors alike as they enter the Village Center, the Residents’ Club is the central meeting place for the Caleb’s Creek community. Classes, programs, and community events will all have a place at the Residents’ Club, along with a swimming pool and rooms available to rent for parties and meetings. With expansive lake views from the back patio, the main building serves as a welcome center and a community gathering place. The Residents’ Club will also house the Caleb’s Creek Sales Center, where the Realtors of GreerLouis, Inc. provide on-site centralized sales and real estate assistance. THE VILLAGE CENTER The heart of the Caleb’s Creek community, the Village Center is where everything comes together. With access to trails and lakes, the Residents’ Club and local shops converge to create a buzz of activity.
NOW SELLING!
Benton Convention Center • Winston-Salem, NC HOTEL PACKAGES AND TICKETS: PiedmontCraftsmen.org
Tom Baker 336-847-1870
Artist: David and Veronica Bennett - Metal • Creative design by Vela Agency
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Liza Tice 336-906-2233
Megan Cooke 336-362-1664
Fall 2018 For Info Contact Greer-Louis, Inc. 2102 N. Elm Street Suite M
GREENWAY AND TRAILS Think outside the gym with 11 miles of planned trails right outside your door.
RESIDENTS’ CLUB AND SWIMMING POOL Greeting residents and visitors alike
LIFE&HOME
THE LANGUAGE OF HOME
The Art of Raking Leaves Or, mulch ado about nothing By Noah Salt
A
cross the Triad, as the pageant fire of autumn settles in, the serenity of gently falling leaves is invariably drowned out by the roar of the industrial-sized leaf blowers, as crews and homeowners armed with bazooka-like wind machines mounted on their backs fan out through the neighborhood. For those of us who predate such noisy time-saving devices, the popularity of leaf blowers that artificially do what nature does for free — i.e., blow stuff — seems both a blessing and a curse meant to shorten the time one must spend with the lawn. Back in the “good old days,” whenever they were, raking leaves was a seasonal chore best accomplished with a well-made rake, a decent-sized sheet or tarp, and a couple of dedicated hours of moderate labor that some regarded as “good exercise.” The dedicated leaf-raker doesn’t care a fig about “back-breaking labor associated with traditional leaf-raking and bagging leaves,” as we recently read in a swanky brochure for a deluxe $499 deluxe leaf blower that could probably whisk the shingles off your house or endanger small children if you aren’t careful where you aim it. Sad to confess, this humble yardman was seduced into shelling out good folding money for a moderately priced blower that generally only terrified the dog and knocked wifey’s potted plants off walls until we got the hang of using it. Somehow, we couldn’t shake the feeling that it was like trying to wield an oversized hair drier, producing a racket that made our ears ache. It sits quietly on a shelf in the garage pondering its sins to this day. Besides, with the right attitude and something of a yeoman’s approach to the art of strategically hand-raking one’s lawn, personally removing the thatch and detritus of a long hot summer and building fragrant funeral pyres of leaves at the curb can be a genuine pleasure and the ideal family activity. We know a clan up north that actually holds a traditional lawn-raking party every Thanksgiving afternoon, complete with refreshments and a little touch football fun — topped off by the annual Pilgrim chow-down. “Of course,” notes the patriarch of the clan, “the kids all jump in the leaves and we have to do it all
Fall 2018
over. But that’s part of the fun.” The word “rake” derives from the Old English word “raca” or possibly the early German “rechen,” which translates as “gather up” or “scrape together.” Either way, as an agrarian tool, the simple hand rake is one of the oldest and most useful implements known to man. So when you’re holding that leaf rake from Lowe’s this fall, enjoying the sounds and smells of autumn in its full, unviolated glory, you can take comfort that your Anglo or Teutonic ancestors from the early Middle Ages forward used a nearly identical tool to weed their gardens and “scrape together” their leaves. For those who prefer an even simpler solution to this seasonal chore, a turf grass researcher from the University of Minnesota suggests using your lawnmower to mow leaves as they fall, producing a light mulch that can enhance the soil of the yard with important nutrients. “The leaves,” Sam Bauer told the The Washington Post, “have organic matter in them: you’re adding good organic matter to your soil when you’re not picking them up.” No special equipment is needed, just a good working lawnmower. “If your lawnmower has a side discharge outlet, where a bag or chute usually goes, just close it up,” Bauer says. “What that does is it keeps the leaves in the housing of the mower and they get chopped up much more finely.” He adds that the mulch not only puts more organic material into the soil, making lawns healthier, but also dramatically suppresses weeds come the spring. With leaf rake in hand as the leaves float forth this fall, we may just give Bauer’s approach a try. Or perhaps a combination of the two, traditional raking with a little season-ending, mulchmowing as a finale. In any case, as the ruckus of industrial-sized leaf blowers disturbs the domestic tranquility of the neighborhood, we’ll quietly take up our leaf rake and bring back the quiet old days — if not the Middle Ages. h SEASONS • STYLE & DESIGN 75
LIFE&HOME
WHY I LIVE WHERE I LIVE
This Old House
The lives of others permeate a stately West End dwelling
Circa 1987
By Nancy Oakley • Photographs by Lynn Donovan
E
arly one morning, I was lacing up my shoes for a walk with my friend and landlord, Missie, who waited patiently inside the front door. Her gaze scaled the 12-foot ceiling, turned toward the graceful fireplace, its mantel flanked with two small columns and then to the floor, the individual floorboards bordered by exquisite inlay arranged in a Greek key pattern that continues into the stairwell of the apartment directly above. “This place brings back memories,” she said, no doubt recalling her carefree years when she lived, at various times between college graduation and marriage, in three of the five apartments in this funny old house in Winston-Salem’s West End. It was originally a single-family dwelling built on the lot adjacent to the Kilpatrick Townsend law firm, where the Zinzendorf Hotel had briefly stood before it was destroyed in a fire in 1892. “Investor families, unable to recoup their losses, slowly settled in the area, making, by 1913, West End the most prominent residential area in the newly merged City of Winston-Salem,” says the city’s website. Among them was E.W. O’Hanlon, a local pharmacist and entrepreneur who built the downtown O’Hanlon Building, the city’s second skyscraper and, for a time, its tallest. “He was a big cog in the wheel,” says Fam Brownlee, longtime historian for
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the Forsyth County Public Library, “and very much involved in civic and social life,” not only because he was a bit of an operator, but because he had married Nancy Critz, one of R.J. Reynolds’ nieces. The drugstore on the first floor of his new building (designed, incidentally, by the firm of Northrup O’Brien) was, as Brownlee puts it, “the center of the universe of Winston-Salem.” Everyone, including R.J. Reynolds and P.H. Hanes, would gather at O’Hanlon’s to learn the latest gossip — and “real” news. Like many movers and shakers, E.W. and Nancy Critz O’Hanlon moved to what was then an up-and-coming neighborhood. (The West End’s prosperous residents “wanted to be near R.J. Reynolds,” Brownlee explains, referring to the tobacco tycoon’s address on Fifth Street before he and Katharine Smith Reynolds moved to their new estate, Reynolda, in 1917.) From about 1911 to 1926, the O’Hanlons lived in the house, which is graced by stately, grooved Ionic columns on a front porch that wraps around to one side. The intricate wood inlay extends from my apartment into the larger apartment (No. 1), next door, where Missie’s daughter, Anna, lives. The massive front door, with its glass panels, is sealed shut and serves as an ornate bedroom wall, as it has for previous tenants at least since the late 1950s. But in its heyday, the heavy wooden door opened into a front hall with a grand staircase to the right, now gone; in its place is Fall 2018
PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF MISSIE SUE VAUGHAN AND NANCY MACFARLANE
LIFE&HOME a covered stairwell leading to the other upstairs apartment (No. 2), where my neighbor Peyton Smith will emerge on late mornings on his way to fire up the wood ovens at his downtown restaurant, Mission Pizza. One can fairly imagine Nancy Critz O’Hanlon heeding the buzz of the now-rusted doorbell by the old front door, her heels clattering across the wood parquet to greet visitors. The pocket doors to what was once the dining room, now Anna’s living room, would likely have been closed. Perhaps Nancy O’Hanlon or the house’s subsequent owners, Mary and Charles Joyce, would have entertained their guests in the front parlor, now my bedroom with the pretty floor, the mantel and the funny diagonal portion of the ceiling, an addition that supports the stairs above. On frigid winter mornings, lying beneath the covers, I would hear the quick tread of my former neighbor, Neil, and his dog, heading out for a brisk walk. They are gone now, and the lighter tread of a new neighbor and the house’s latest tenants, Natalie and her dog, fill the early waking hours of each day. Did the Joyces divide this lovely old house into apartments? Or someone else? Was it “Old Mr. Carpenter,” as Missie calls the man who owned it when she first moved here, in the mid-1980s? “He ran a flower shop across from Forsyth Memorial (now Novant Health). That’s where my parents went to sign the papers when they bought it,” she recalls. After Missie had lived in what is now my apartment, No. 3, her parents, the late Dr. Samuel A. Sue (one of the first orthopedists in Greensboro and a founder of Greensboro Orthopaedic), and his wife, Ceil, bought the house. “My mother was into fixing up old houses at the time,” Missie says. Her dad, a graduate of Wake Forest’s medical school, wanted to rent nice quarters for med students and residents. She moved upstairs, to No. 4, and subsequently to the one next to, No. 2, where Peyton now resides. “I never lived downstairs where my daughter is,” she says. “Bob Utley, a Wake Forest professor, lived there forever.” Her friend Sandy Irvin was also a neighbor and the two of them often reminisce about wandering in and out of each other’s abodes, as if it were a college dormitory, or chatting after work with Missie’s mom, as she restored much of the house to its former glory. I had only been inside the place a couple of times: once at a birthday party for Missie’s future husband, Jim Vaughan, and years later, when Missie was out of town, and I showed No. 3 to a prospective tenant, a young gal starting her career, like so many other tenants, including Missie and Sandy. The girl frowned when she saw its shotgun layout: the front room with its inlay and columned mantel; another big room with another mantel and south-facing bay windows overlooking the woodsy backyard next door; and just adjacent, a tiny enclosure for a kitchen with lots of shelves; and a large bathroom, with a claw foot tub and
The Sue family celebrating Independence Day Fall 2018
old radiator with a raised floral design on its surface. Or maybe the tenant who might have been was put off by the small closets, or the shared laundry facilities on the back porch; in any case, we didn’t hear from her again.
N
ot everyone appreciates or tolerates the quirks of living in an old house. “Either you get it or you don’t,” said a recent visitor, who arrived quite literally on my doorstep one morning during that cobwebby time in late summer, when the sun casts its rays at a lower angle across the dry grass, and the crape myrtle blossoms become more sparse. I had been working from one of the big rocking chairs on the wide porch by the old front door, in the shade of the Ionic columns, when a woman of a certain age parked her car on the street out front and made her way up the front walk. “Are you at No. 3?” she asked. “Yes,” I replied, more curious than suspicious, though admittedly a bit guarded, given the amount of foot traffic in the neighborhood. She removed her sunglasses to reveal a pair of expressive brown eyes. “My grandmother moved here in 1958. I’ve just come from St. Paul’s memorial garden,” she continued, referring to the Episcopal church several blocks away on Summit. “The boxwoods . . . My mother passed away in February, today would have been her birthday.” She paused placing her hands on her hips. “I’m Nancy MacFarlane and I assure you, I’m a good guy!” Another Nancy. I couldn’t help but smile. She explained how, as a child growing up in the 1960s and ’70s, she was a frequent visitor to her grandmother’s apartment on weekends — and would it be all right if she had a look around for old times’ sake? “Well, it’s a bit of a mess,” I demurred. The large, aforementioned bathroom and the one above it were both being gutted, owing to some Katherine Violet White structural damage from a fire likely 50 or more Jacobsen years ago. Boxes were stacked in the front room, my furniture was covered with quilts, and there was a trace of concrete dust on the pretty old hardwood floors. Nonetheless, I opened the screen door — a door to the past, as it happens, and a missing chapter after the era of the O’Hanlons and Joyces, and before Missie’s and mine. Oblivious to the mess, Nancy, as she tells me on a subsequent visit, “was seeing only what was in my mind’s eye. I looked down on the floor at that wood pattern,” she says. It had triggered a flood of memories — the Jacobean chest that once stood opposite the door, the small organ to the right of it, the record player and record-of-the-month collection with LPs by the likes of Ed Ames, the daybed, the sofa bed, the embroidered pillowcases. Her grandmother, Katherine Violet White Jacobsen, had moved from Arlington, Virginia, to Winston-Salem after her Norwegian husband, Ole, who served in the White House Secret Police (now the Secret Service) for several administrations, had unexpectedly died from a fall. Katherine wanted to be near her only child, Nancy’s, mother Dorothy, who had married Rodney E. Austin, a vice-president in personnel for the Reynolds Tobacco Company. “She moved down here, and became a huge part of our world,” Nancy says of the woman she knew as Grandma, a quiet soul who loved to watch baseball and wrestling on TV, and who kept a wide correspondence with her siblings in Missouri and Arkansas, even playing chess with them by snail mail. She was typical of the residents of West End, or, “little old lady heaven,” as Brownlee characterizes it. “They were everywhere,” he says of the neighborhood’s gray population who, like Nancy’s grandmother and the next door tenant in Apartment No. 1, a Mrs. Writer, or Reiter perhaps, occupied the gracious SEASONS • STYLE & DESIGN 77
LIFE&HOME old houses. Many of the stately homes had been broken up into apartments or boarding houses, as the West End became less fashionable. The first generation of residents like the O’Hanlons, says Brownlee, had moved on, replaced by “lesser lights,” while newer suburbs — Ardmore, Buena Vista, for example — accommodated the city’s growing population in the years before World War II. By wartime, says Brownlee, “West End was finished.” What had once been posh had become, by the 1950s, “pretty shabby,” he adds. Shabby perhaps, but quaint enough to captivate young Nancy Austin MacFarlane, who relished the Friday nights that she would spend with her grandmother. “It was so different” from her weekly suburban life in Buena Vista, she says. She recalls several trips down First Street hill to the Kroger, where CinCin Burger Bar is today. “We’d hoof it,” she recalls. “My grandmother never drove. We’d walk down and do grocery shopping; (at home) Mom always had Coke; Grandma got RC.” The groceries would be boxed, not bagged; Grandma would call a taxicab and the driver would carry the groceries inside. And on the Saturdays when grocery shopping wasn’t on the agenda, they would walk to Sears Roebuck, now Wells Fargo’s West End call center. When they grew old enough, sometimes Nancy’s siblings would join them. They would usually enter from the garden center that fronted Fourth Street and buy hot dogs, a bag of popcorn (“Sears always smelled like popcorn”) and a soft drink. “We thought it was big bananas to go out there (in the garden center) and eat that hot dog,” Nancy recalls. But the best treat, she says, was buying little glass animal figurines — ducks, roosters — usually in pairs for five or 10 cents. Over time, the Austin siblings amassed an entire glass menagerie, which Grandma kept in a drawer in the great Jacobean chest. “The philosophy was, ‘If you like it now, and you take it home, it’s not as special,’” Nancy explains. After she grew up, married and had children of her own, she saved the animals for them. Nancy conjures other memories: accompanying Grandma to the beauty parlor on Burke Street were local music icon and instructor Sam Moss later opened a guitar store, and having her own locks washed by someone named Miss Apple. Walking to day camp — all by herself — at the old YWCA (now The Glade development of West End across from the law firm, which was then still a vacant lot) and eating tuna fish sandwiches that Grandma had prepared in the narrow kitchen, its shelves stacked with empty Styrofoam boxes from the meals that Nancy’s dad would bring from the K&W. There were, she says, a few families in the West End during her growing up years. She speaks fondly of the Bennings down the street, a large family of boys — and a girl named Sterling who became Nancy’s good friend. The boys were often on bicycles or skateboards, or all of them would play hide-and-seek. “We were happier with less, playing more in those days,” Nancy reflects, recalling another neighborhood tyke named Mark, who fell out of a tree and dismembered his thumb, an incident that left a big impression on her young mind. The Goodwins lived next door; she would talk over the wire backyard fence with the Ramsbotham kids, whose big white house backed up to the service alley behind her grandmother’s. By coincidence — or perhaps not — I tell her my friends the Fains bought the Ramsbotham house and fixed it up several years ago. They lived next to Missie and Jim’s old house, where I rented the servant’s cottage for years, a setup that David Fain dubbed “The Commune,” until we all moved. By another coincidence — or perhaps not — Nancy tells me David Fain was a childhood friend of her younger sister Susan. Wandering through my large living room and looking out of its bay windows, she sees, not my dining room table and chairs, but a captain’s chest and a teacart filled with plants, and antique furniture of tiger maple, the birds that Grandma liked to feed through windows open on winter days to offset the radiator heat. Eyeing the clawfoot tub in the large bathroom, Nancy laughs, “’Soaky! Soaky! Fun for a boy and girl . . .’” she sings, recalling a commercial jingle for bubble bath contained in bottles doubling as bath toys, as they were
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fashioned after cartoon characters. “We had Rocky and Bullwinkle,” she says. She casts a glance at the back door of the bathroom leading to the back hall and laundry room. “That was always the locked door. Partly because my dad would always bring Christmas presents over here to hide them,” Nancy says. Curiously, her grandmother never had a Christmas tree in the apartment, as she spent holidays with the family in the Buena Vista suburbs. But the daily life she lived here was as “magical” to her granddaughter as any Christmas Eve. Gazing up at the Ionic columns on the front porch on her way out, Nancy says she used to trace the massive structures with her eye. “I can’t tell you how much time we spent on the stoop. They called them ‘stoops’ in those days,” she explains. “We wanted stories from the grandparents about the parents, about their growing up years. What’s missing today is the time out in the yard with the grandmothers, shelling peas, snapping beans.” Those simple pleasures of her childhood began to wane in her teenage years, as Friday night visits gave way to parties with her peers. By the late 1970s, even though a few intrepid urban pioneers began investing in it, the West End became a sketchier place. Cheap rents attracted the counterculture element and worse: According to Fam Brownlee, the area around Spring Street between Sixth and West End Boulevard was basically a red light district. The newcomers had a jarring effect on many of the older residents, Nancy says. The basement apartment (now the off-and-on dwelling of Missie’s longtime handyman, Melvin) at Grandma’s was rented to hippies. Nancy and the neighborhood kids were banned from playing in the backyard. “Of course, we’d go back there, anyway,” she confesses. “They hung quilts in the windows and painted the walls black,” Nancy says of the basement’s mysterious inhabitants. Did they inadvertently start the fire that charred the bathroom ceiling? Or was the old coal-burning furnace the culprit? No one knows for sure. Fall 2018
It was at this time that the Austin family began to fear for Grandma’s safety. By the early 1980s, her health began to fail and she was moved to a nursing home in Walkertown, where she lived out her days until she died at the age of 88. Nancy’s mother, Dorothy, lived to the age of 92. She was a veritable horticulturist and Master Gardener, member of the Old Salem Garden Club and lifetime judge of flower shows, prompting Nancy to take arrangements every so often to the memorial garden at St. Paul’s. The boxwoods there, similar to the ones that used to grow, alongside hollies, in front of her grandmother’s at No. 3 inspired her to stop by on that late summer day, she explains. “The house always seemed so well-loved whenever I would drive by over the years,” she says, gently fingering the ivy that Missie has artfully planted in large terra cotta pots on the porch. Well-loved in countless other ways, namely in the repairs and renovations that Missie and her family have undertaken — enclosing the downstairs back porch to accommodate laundry facilities, screening in the one above it, refinishing the splendid wood floors, renovating bathrooms, patching the slate roof. And all so others could love the place as Nancy MacFarlane did when she was a child. In my own short tenure here, the wide porch has served as a tranquil outdoor office in warmer months — and a gathering spot for convivial parties lasting well into the night; the graceful old mantel and meticulously laid floorboards are a welcoming sight when I arrive home, weary from a long day. With autumn approaching, the shady screen from the wooded backyard next door will fade from green to gold, adding a soft glow to the living room in the late afternoons. By winter, I’ll retreat there to scribble away. For how much longer, who knows? Like the others before me, at some point, I’ll leave this lovely, quirky old place, and another tenant will move in. Maybe her name will be . . . Nancy. h
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Fall 2018
SEASONS • STYLE & DESIGN 79
LIFE&HOME HOMEWORDS
Cock of the Walk
Renovating Chanticleer Cottage gives one writer something to crow about By Ross Howell Jr.
“C
hanticleer Cottage” is a euphemism to suggest (but obscure) its true pedigree — a double-wide trailer. However, situated on a gently sloping lot, it has a fine view of Grandfather Mountain — about 300 feet from the 14th green of the Blowing Rock Country Club golf course. Location. Location. Location. My wife, Mary Leigh, and I had been looking for property in Blowing Rock for years, so when the price on this place dropped significantly, she sent me an email. “Don’t give this a lot of thought,” I replied. “Make an offer.” Her offer was accepted. Thus began a process that quickly had me rethinking my “Don’t give this a lot of thought” advice. The place came with a renter, which was fine by us — until in six weeks’ time, we learned she was the renter from hell. Ours was her eighth Watauga County eviction, according to sheriff’s deputies. I’ll spare you the details. After more than a month of scrubbing and sanitizing and hauling away two dump-truck loads of filth and junk, the place was empty and relatively clean, ready for renovation. My father-in-law, Richard Wallace, and I had worked on four projects together before this one. Well, on the first two, I basically held the hammer for Richard, until I finally learned enough to handle some things on my own. I had gutted both the double-wide’s bathrooms before getting Richard involved. His first evening there, we were inspecting a bathroom subfloor. “This doesn’t look so bad,” Richard said, stepping near where the drain for the tub had been — and promptly fell through the floor. Thank God he wasn’t hurt. I think you get the picture. This renovation was a doozy. Richard would drive from his home in Lillington to Greensboro. We’d transfer his tools to our station wagon. Then we’d drive to Blowing Rock. Over a period of seven months, working on long weekends, or three- to four-day stints here and there, we rehabbed the double-wide (aka DW). First we bunked in sleeping bags on air mattresses, until we had the flooring repaired sufficiently for Mary Leigh to buy mattresses and box springs. She insisted we keep the mattresses and box springs in their original plastic because of all the dust and sawdust of the ongoing renovation. You’d be surprised how much noise that plastic can make when you turn inside your sleeping bag at night.
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And another thing. Since we were working during the winter months, we learned they don’t call the town Blowing Rock for nothing. My father-in-law served as a ground crew member in the U.S. Air Force on a Texas base in the era of the Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star jet fighter. On a January morning, after a night with the snow flying and wind howling, I asked him how he’d slept. “Well,” he answered, “I woke up and for a minute I thought I was back in Texas with those fighters taking off.” And the fog! Some nights, driving back after supper at our hangout — aptly named Foggy Rock — we’d creep along at 5 mph, lights on low beam, even though we knew the way. If I flipped the headlamps to high beam, you’d think someone had draped a white sheet over the windshield. Our final DW project was the “observation deck,” which the previous owner had built using the peak of the roof as support on one side. Mary Leigh was concerned about this structure, since our property inspector had said he wasn’t trained to assess its stability. He suggested we bring in a structural engineer. We did. The engineer told me the afternoon he arrived that he’d just that day condemned a property. He looked over the observation deck, then he asked to look in the attic. I set up a stepladder and slid the plywood attic access aside. He climbed the ladder and looked around, his knees at my eye level. “I haven’t seen anything like this,” he muttered. “Is that good news or bad news?” I asked, fearing the worst. “They’ve scabbed 1-inch plywood on both sides of the supports,” he said. “You could park a Jeep up here if you wanted to.” That night I climbed the observation deck and sat on one of its benches, admiring the moon hanging low over Grandfather Mountain. The stars were so close they seemed to rest on my shoulders. Though I was sitting atop the only double-wide I knew of in view of the Blowing Rock Country Club golf course, I felt like a lord of the manor. h Ross Howell Jr. was instructed by his wife to let readers know that three-bedroom, two-bath Chanticleer Cottage — he still hasn’t mounted the rooster weather vane — is available for short-term rental.
Fall 2018
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