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
GREENSBORO 225 South Elm Street • 336-272-5146 and Friendly Center • 336-294-4885 WINSTON-SALEM Stratford Village, 137 South Stratford Road • 336-725-1911 www.schiffmans.com Collection only available at our Elm Street and Winston-Salem locations.
Luxury is in the Eye of the Beholder
Buena Vista
$2,395,000
Buena Vista
$1,599,000 Buena Vista
1121 Arbor Road ID:953121 Brooke Burr 336 779 9211 Stewart Austin 336 837 8924
Buena Vista
$1,775,000 Buena Vista
1020 Kent Mews Court 340 Buckingham Road 336 817 8408 Mary Gettys Hardwick 336 813 3331 Mary URen
$1,250,000
2440 Reynolds Dr ID:962326 2301 Georgia Ave ID:953336 Curtis Leonard 336 779 9212 Molly Haus 336 971 9084 Zach Matthews 336 705 4459
Greenbrier Farm $995,000
3910 White Hawk Ln ID:962622 Eva Johns 336 779 9625
$1,695,000
Lewisville
$885,000
150 Nanzetta Way ID:957003 Kirsten Ririe 336 831 7922
Lewisville
531 Doub Road ID:957288 Mary Preston Yates 336 816 5661
Lewisville
$999,900
The French Coves $995,900
Buena Vista
$849,900
Mount Airy
5021 Hidden Lake ID:961027 Mary Preston Yates 336 816 5661
333 Buckingham Rd ID:961890 Mary Preston Yates 336 816 5661
4010 Carriage Manor Cove ID:955228 Victoria Frye 336 345 0526
$775,000
503 Bing Crosby Blvd ID:949984 Camden Bouchard 336 972 0617
LRBrealestate.com
Buena Vista
$749,500
1825 Georgia Avenue Michael Ryden 336 577 8488 •
Arbors at Meadowlark $699,800
5811 Zinfandel St ID:949333 Arlene Rouse 336 414 1919
$899,000
184 Par Hill Lane ID:939335 Kay H. Lee 336 407 1861 1
Bermuda Run
$1,650,000
C 2A
RES
Winston Salem
$669,000
1765 Gyro Drive ID:961468 Zach Matthews 336 705 4459
201 S Stratford Rd, Suite 200, Winston-Salem, NC 27103
Give your home a fresh new look this spring with new windows!
Style and performance can be yours, year in and year out, with PellaÂŽ windows and doors.
Come see and discover what's waiting at our Winston-Salem or Greensboro Location
Visit your local Pella branch today to explore all the styles,
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690 Jonestown Road
220 Seneca Road
336-265-1591
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Pellanorthcarolina.com
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Gather with your Community at the Resident’s Club! The Resident’s Club is the central meeting place for the Caleb’s Creek community with parties, classes, programs and community events all hosted there. The community swimming pool adjoins the Resident’s Club.
STARTING FROM
WHITE HAWK • • • • • • • • •
LOW $200s
2x6 Exterior Walls with R-19 Insulation (2x4 standard) ecoSelectTM Certification 30 Year Shingles Insulated Garage Doors w/ Opener, 2 remotes & Keypad Professional Landscaping Package includes maintenance free lawn care Cabinets: 36”/42” Staggered Stained Maple Cabinets Mohawk 5” Bourbon Mill Laminate Floors in Foyer, Kitchen, Dining, and Family Room Walk in Ceramic Tile Shower with Glass Door in Master Bath 9’ First Floor Smooth Ceilings with, Coffered or Trey Ceilings (per Plan)
STARTING FROM
OWL’S TRAIL
MID $200s
LAKESIDE
• Transferable 10 Year Warranty through Centricity Warranty Group • 9 Foot Smooth Ceilings on First Floor • Luxury Vinyl Plank (LVP) in Foyer, Extended Foyer, Hallways, Dining Room • 42” Staggered Height (above microwave and refrigerator) Birch Cabinets with Crown Molding and Hardware in Kitchen • Granite Counter Tops in Kitchen • Elongated Toilets in all Baths • Sod Lawn in front yard with Professional Landscape Package • Front Brick wainscot or Option for Stone Veneer
calebscreekliving.com
Tom Baker 336-847-1870 Tom.Baker@ greer-louis.com
Liza Tice 336-906-2233 LizaTice15@ gmail.com Owl’s Trail
STARTING FROM
• • • • • • • • • •
UPPER $200s
2x6 Exterior Walls with R-19 Insulation (2x4 standard) ecoSelectTM Certification 30 Year Shingles Insulated Garage Doors w/ Opener, 2 remotes & Keypad Granite Countertops with 8” Stainless Under Mount Sink Cabinets: 36”/42” Staggered Stained Maple Cabinets With Flat Panel Standard Overlay Doors Mohawk 5” Laminate Floors: Foyer, Kitchen, Dining, Nook (per plan) Walk in Tile Shower with Glass Door Adult Height Vanity(s) in All Baths 9’ First Floor Smooth Ceilings with, Coffered or Trey ceilings per Plan
Linda Weaver 336-207-1387 Linda.Weaver@ greer-louis.com Owl’s Trail
Lori Mashburn 336-707-7177 lori.mashburn@ greer-louis.com White Hawk Lakeside
Mary Metcalfe 336-687-2644 mary.metcalfe@ greer-louis.com White Hawk Lakeside
Come spend a day
with us
in Greensboro.
Centrally located, Greensboro is the perfect place to relax and be immersed in history and 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 and our downtown parks. Visit the Greensboro History Museum and our new Tribute to Women 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
Spring 2020 FEATURES
38 The Comeback Kids
By Jim Dodson
Freeman Kennett Architects and the reawakening of High Point
48 Grace & Grit
By Cynthia Adams
Jane and Richard Green’s newly constructed house of happiness among some of Greensboro’s oldest
56 The Enchanted Garden
By Lynn Donovan
Victoria and Neill Clegg’s haven in the heart of Greensboro’s Westerwood neighborhood
62 Peak Growing Season
38
By Ross Howell Jr.
TimberTop Garden in Blowing Rock takes gardening to the extreme
72 Hunt & Gather
By Nancy Oakley
62
11 From the Editor By Jim Dodson STYLEBOOK 14 The Hot List By Katy Erikson & Leslie Moore 17 Prime Resource By Tracy Bulla 23 Favorite Things By Tracy Bulla 27 The Best of Spring 31 Garden Guru By Cheryl Capaldo Traylor 35 Almanac by Ash Alder LIFE&HOME 76 House for Sale By Nancy Oakley 79 The Language of Home By Noah Salt 80 HomeWords By Phil Koch
72
6 SEASONS •
STYLE
& DESIGN
48
Cover Photograph by Amy Freeman
Spring 2020
BHHSYostandLittle.com/959042
BHHSYostandLittle.com/953525
BHHSYostandLittle.com/955495
7691 Deboe Road Summerfield
1 Clubview Court Greensboro
3303 Kettering Place Greensboro
MELISSA GREER 336-337-5233
MELISSA GREER 336-337-5233 B E T T Y H OWA R D 336-337-7535
K AT H Y H A I N E S 336-339-2000
$3,500,000
$1,750,000
BHHSCarolinas.com/927807
BHHSYostandLittle.com/935866
$1,150,000
BHHSYostandLittle.com/939838
600 Roslyn Road Winston-Salem
17 Granville Oaks Court Greensboro
7020 Toscana Trace Summerfield
L E I G H C O RT E S I S 336-462-0179
K AT H Y H A I N E S 336-339-2000
K AT H Y H A I N E S 336-339-2000
$1,098,000
$779,900
BHHSYostandLittle.com/956555
BHHSYostandLittle.com/959865
$740,000
BHHSYostandLittle.com/959632
605 Monmouth Drive Greensboro
3301 Forsyth Dr Greensboro
4313 Agliano Terrace Summerfield
J I M D OW E L L , J R . 336-207-1906
K AT H Y H A I N E S 336-339-2000
K AT H Y H A I N E S 336-339-2000
$699,000
$669,900
$619,500
Adams Farm • Elm Street • Friendly Center • Kernersville • Winston–Salem A member of the franchise system of BHH Affiliates, LLC.
Fine linens and accessories for the discerning customer. ________ 99 Reynolda Village Winston Salem, NC 27106
336-722-8807
________ ________ ________ ________ bellemaisonlinens.com
8 SEASONS •
STYLE
& DESIGN
Spring 2020
Vol. 5 No. 1
336.617.0090 1848 Banking Street Greensboro, NC 27408 www.ohenrymag.com Publisher
David Woronoff Jim Dodson, Editor jim@thepilot.com Nancy Oakley, Senior Editor nancy@ohenrymag.com Amy Freeman, Style & Design Director Andie Rose, Art Director andie@thepilot.com
INSPIRATION BECOMES REALITY
Lauren M. Coffey, Associate Art Director Alyssa Rocherolle, Graphic Designer CONTRIBUTORS Cynthia Adams, Ash Alder, Harry Blair, Tracy Bulla, Lynn Donovan, Katy Erikson, Amy Freeman, Peter Freeman, John Koob Gessner, Leslie Moore, Noah Salt, Cheryl Capaldo Traylor, Bert VanderVeen
h ADVERTISING SALES Ginny Trigg, Advertising Director 910.693.2481, ginny@thepilot.com Hattie Aderholdt, Advertising Manager 336.601.1188, hattie@ohenrymag.com Amy Grove, 336.456.0827 amy@ohenrymag.com Glenn McVicker, 336.804.0131 glenn@ohenrymag.com Brad Beard, Graphic Designer
THE TRIAD’S LARGEST MARVIN DEALER
CIRCULATION Darlene Stark, Circulation Director 910.693.2488 Steve Anderson, Finance Director 910.693.2497 SUBSCRIPTIONS 336.617.0090 ©Copyright 2020. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Seasons Magazine is published by The Pilot LLC
Spring 2020
Visit our showroom: 400 West Mountain Street Kernersville, NC 27284 336-497-5429 | salemwindowsanddoors.com
SEASONS • STYLE & DESIGN 9
Carriage House Antiques & Home Decor Your Source For Fine Antiques • Lamps & Shades Collectibles • Vintage Treasures Gifts for all occasions
336.373.6200 Photo: Daniel Stoner
2214 Golden Gate Drive Greensboro, NC Monday-Friday 10-5:30 • Saturday • 10-5 Sunday 1-5
Rare, One-of-a-kind Art and Antiques for Every Price Range For over 40 years, we have specialized in estate settlement. Your fine consignments appreciated. Come see us today.
664. S. Stratford Road Winston-Salem
Less than 1 mile from Trader Joe’s!
10 SEASONS •
STYLE
& DESIGN
336.765.5919
www.LastersFineArt.com
Spring 2020
FROM THE EDITOR
The Definition of Home An avid gardener blooms wherever he’s planted By Jim Dodson
ILLUSTRATION BY HARRY BLAIR
N
ot long ago I realized that we are already approaching our fourth spring in the charming midcentury bungalow that my wife and I purchased in October of 2016 – two doors from the house where I grew up in Greensboro, no less. As a kid, the Corry home was my favorite house in the neighborhood. Providence was smiling on us. Amazing how time has flown. Until I look at photographs from the first week we took possession of the house, it’s almost hard to believe the amount of work we’ve managed to do in such a relatively short time. Inside, we pulled up (pink) shag carpet and pulled down a classic lacquered room partition from the Donna Reed era. That opened up the living room, prompting us to polish the nice hardwood floors and ponder what to do about the original hand-cut paneling that was quite fetching but made the room darker than we liked. The solution was to use an elegant linen-colored interior paint that unified the rooms and that invited more light throughout the house. Since I’ve never warmed up to gas fireplaces — too many years feeding a big woodstove in Maine, I suppose — we had the gas fixtures taken out of the house’s two fireplaces and made them fire-burning again, as they were when the house was built in 1950. A good fire, as they say in the North Country, warms you twice. Another casualty of initial updating was the foyer’s exotic wallpaper, a tableau of tropical scenes depicting jungle foliage, plumed creatures and birds of paradise that reminded me of a Carmen Miranda erotic dream. When a designer pal learned that we painted over original wallpaper by legendary Greensboro designer Otto Zenke, she was horrified, pointing out that we could have covered the cost of a bathroom reno job had we cared enough to take the time to steam the wallpaper off the wall. We didn’t. Happily, the fact that our house had “good bones,” in the parlance of shelter rehab programs, meant that the “big stuff” — heating and cooling systems, plumbing and electrical, the roof, and the roomy attic and vast basement, the large capacity generator outside — were all in tip-top shape owing to the house’s original owners and their children. This meant that the vast majority of work was essentially cosmetic in nature — painting, new lighting, and so forth. Not counting the peculiar toilet in the basement, both bathrooms were original and could certainly benefit from a makeover somewhere down the road, but for the time being they were perfectly serviceable, not only because of high quality workmanship but
Spring 2020
also because of a kind of retro chic. We decided we could live with them awhile. The cozy den (where I played a million board games with the Corry boys) underwent a facelift that made it even cozier with the addition of bookshelves and a refinished cabinet topped by a beautiful slab of polished white oak. The three bedrooms simply needed their own fresh coats of paint to spruce them up. Ditto the recently updated kitchen, which featured new directional lighting and granite countertops Just a tad of brighter paint and breakfast-nook shelving made it strikingly fresh and new. A new house always brings surprises. In our case, the nice surprise turned out to be the large screened porch that spans the rear of the house, a rustic space that reminded me of old-fashioned porches you find on mountain lake houses or at summer camps. My initial thought was to remove it entirely and create a fancy terrace or expanded outdoor entertaining area, but my intuitive bride suggested that we simply “live” with the old porch for our first winter. “Just to see how we feel in the spring.” Come spring, Wendy larkishly suggested we move our beloved antique farm table out to the porch and use the space for a dinner party with friends. We painted the brick floor a rich woodland green, strung up some Italian lighting and moved to our added living room in the making several comfortable wicker chairs and a nifty couch we picked up for a song at a local consignment antique store. A painted antique buffet completed the update, and the result were nothing short of transformative. What’s old was suddenly new, surprising us and delighting our dinner guests — turning out to be the most popular and versatile room in the house, as well. Our “porch suppers” now run regularly from spring to late autumn. There’s been at least two dozen such affairs since that first spring dinner. One regular commented to me, “Don’t ever change that porch. It’s like stepping back to my childhood at summer camp.” Wisely, we also held off on changing the small room that lies between the house’s traditional dining room and the porch. Once again, my bride’s innate sense of flow paid dividends. She proposed that we make the narrow dining room a transition space filled with art and the small room — a former patio with its own outdoor fireplace — a library and reading room for my 800 or so crated-up books. SEASONS • STYLE & DESIGN 11
12 SEASONS •
STYLE
& DESIGN
Spring 2020
STYLEBOOK With new directional lighting and a trio of exquisite maple book cases made by a local craftsman in place, I finally have the kind of library I always dreamed about. The larger transformation happened outside. Within days of arrival, I took down an ancient pergola in back that became a simple brick terrace. In that sector of the backyard, I planted several Japanese maples and hydrangeas and constructed new stone pathways leading to the garage. I also started a shade garden full of primroses and ferns — leaving a wildly overgrown section of the backyard I called “the Lost World” for another day, week or month. Instead, I turned my attention to the front and sides the house, essentially digging out a dozen ancient shrubs and a trio of dead or dying trees, leaving only a young pin oak and a graceful old Washington hawthorn standing in the front yard. Possibly because I hail from a long line of small-time Carolina farmers and utterly mad gardeners, landscape gardening is my true outdoor passion. Wherever I’ve been in the world during my 40-plus years as a traveling journalist, I’ve checked out arboretums and private gardens, and even wrote a book about accompanying plant hunters to Africa and spending two full years hanging out with top gardeners in Britain and America. During the two decades we lived in Maine, I cleared several acres of a coastal forest of birch and hemlock, rebuilt the stone walls of what once was an 18th--century farmstead, and created my own English garden and arboretum. My cheeky Scots mother-in-law even gave my newfangled estate a fitting name: “Slightly Off in the Woods.” A downsized house, of course, meant a downsized garden. But I still managed to add 18 flowering trees to the front and sides of the Corry place (whose own nickname, by the way, was “Casa Verde” — the Green House). I also bunkered the place with lush hydrangeas, a variety of ornamental grasses and several kinds of water-frugal sages. Last spring, it all came beautifully to life. Over the following summer, I got to work finishing an ambitious perennial bed on the eastern flank of the sunniest side of the house. This summer, that garden should be nothing less than sensational. This allowed me to finally turn my attention to the Lost World waiting out back. With the help of a young landscaper named Guillermo, we carved out the wilderness and gave me a brand new canvas upon which to create the serene Asian garden I’ve long dreamed about building, though that is still a bit off in the ether. This winter just ending was spent trimming trees and adding to the perennial beds and beginning my annual warfare against Star of Bethlehem. A garden will always keep you young, an equally addicted older friend liked to say, because you can never complete the work. Thomas Jefferson was probably right when he wrote an aging colleague, “Tho’ but I am an old man, I am forever a new gardener.” There’s earthy truth in both expressions because there is always something to do, something blessedly craving your attention. Moreover, every season brings new tasks and fresh ideas that rise like daffodils in spring. The same, methinks, can be said of an old house you’ve come to love and seems to inspire fresh ideas and new possibilities every year, sometimes every season. In my quiet moments, I seriously miss the house and garden I built Slightly Off in the Woods of Maine. But Casa Verde is more than the working definition of “home” now. It’s the place I’m meant to be. h Jim Dodson is the editor of Seasons and its flagship publications, O.Henry, PineStraw and Salt. Spring 2020
8605 Triad Drive Colfax, NC 27235 (336) 996-4918
19730 Virgil H. Goode HWY Rocky Mount, VA 24151 (540) 483-2737 SEASONS • STYLE & DESIGN 13
THE HOT LIST
tMatch.com There is nothing more important to the concept of Hygge than light and warmth. Skip the disposable grill lighters and get lit with these beautiful colored glass cloches ($30 for small; $50 for large) containing safety matches, available through Randy McManus designs. While you’re there, might as well pick up a supply of candles as they always have a large variety in stock. Randy McManus Designs, 1618 Battleground Avenue, No. 1, Greensboro, (336) 691-0051 or randymcmanusdesigns.com.
Hygge Hip
The Danish aesthetic of organic materials, soothing things and coziness of the soul is the perfect way to usher in spring By Katy Erikson and Leslie Moore
tJiggety-Jog.
It’s cozy o’clock somewhere! These On the Fly Joggers ($118) look good enough to wear out of the house, yet feel like your favorite sweats! And so you know, wearing pajamas in public is so over. Lululemon, Thruway Center, 312 South Stratford Road, Winston Salem, (336) 7233002 or lululemon.com.
uToe the Line. Keep the little piggies warm by going whole hygge with Jcrew x chup smartwool socks ($36). They’re super soft and you don’t have to tell your friends they aren’t hand-knit! J.Crew Factory, Thruway Center, 282 South Stratford Road, Winston-Salem, (336) 773-0271 or jcrew.com.
tGet Up and Glow. Spring
uUnder the Big Top. Nothing says “cozy” better than an oversized top and the name of this one says it all: the Hygge Cardi from Anthropologie ($198). Paired with joggers (see above!), or your most comfy skirt, it is a winwin. Anthropologie at the Shops at Friendly Center, 3320 West Friendly Avenue, Greensboro, (336) 834-2633 or anthropologie.com. 14 SEASONS •
STYLE
& DESIGN
is all about rebirth, right? Then shake off the winter blahs for some much needed self-care at a Relais & Châteaux getaway — Westglow Resort & Spa in Blowing Rock. Perched in the Blue Ridge Mountains and centered around a restored Greek Revival mansion — once the summer home of renowned artist and author Elliott Daingerfield — Westglow combines elegance with modern comfort. Inside its calm and cozy environment, hunker down for some serious pampering and emerge feeling renewed. Westglow Resort & Spa, 224 Westglow Circle, Blowing Rock, (800) 562-0807 or www.westglowresortandspa.com. Spring 2020
tAngle of Re-Posy While you are waiting for the Vernal
Equinox to arrive, settle in with the awesomely beautiful imagery in Florists to the Field by Memphis “buy-local” floral designers Greg Campbell and Erick New (Southerly Media, $50). Not only will it inspire you to dust off your garden spade, the book also includes fabulous entertaining ideas for your festive spring flings. Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro, (336) 763-1919 or scuppernongbooks.com.
qHoofin’ and Puffin’ What goes with your slug from a mug? Why Ugg, of course. These Fluff Yeah slides ($100) will also take you through the morning carpool line — to the envy of all the other moms. Ugg.com.
tGreat Neck. Hygge is
all about layers, layers, layers, so bring on the scarves! This Helsinki Striped Scarf ($58) adds a little snap, crackle and pop to your most basic outfit. Anthropologie at the Shops at Friendly Center, 3320 West Friendly Avenue, Greensboro, (336) 834-2633 or anthropologie.com.
pWriter’s Block. With the
juxtaposition of wood and metal, the Archer Writing Desk by Baker is hitting all the right organic notes within its design. Maybe its spare elegance will inspire you to pick up your pen for something other than paying the bills. Available for $4048 through Furnitureland South, 5365 Riverdale Drive, Jamestown, (336) 822-3000 or furniturelandsouth.com.
Spring 2020
pTête-à-Tête Offensive Cashmere and cozy go hand in hand. Or in this case, head in hand. Ramp up your hipster cachet with the Toni unisex cashmere beanie from NakedCashmere ($85). Nakedcashmere.com.
SEASONS • STYLE & DESIGN 15
INTERIOR DESIGN
RE S I D E N T IAL
martamitchell.com
|
COMMERCIA L
336.665.0188
BEAUTY INSIDE & OUT
336-765-8620
BEAUTY NOW. FORSYTH PLASTIC SURGERY | THE VISTA
Drs. Fagg, Schneider, Kingman, Lawson and Branch | www.forsythplasticsurgery.com 2901 Maplewood Avenue | Winston-Salem, North Carolina
16 SEASONS •
STYLE
& DESIGN
336-765-8620 Spring 2020
STYLEBOOK
PRIME RESOURCE
Cat’s New Cradle
Wildcat Territory founder Nancy Reib creates a new life in Thomasville
A By Tracy Bulla
self-described city gal, Nancy Reib pulled up roots in the Big Apple to create a different, more serene life in the Triad five years ago. President of home décor manufacturer Wildcat Territory, Nancy and her husband Ibo Coban, vice president and “chief problem solver,” moved house — and factory — to sunny Thomasville. “We’ve always been committed to manufacturing in America,” says Nancy. But when their landlord decided to double the rent on their Long Island, Queens-based factory, an economically motivated move was imminent. Familiar with the area after coming to the High Point Market for nearly
Spring 2020
25 years, scouting for new sites in North Carolina seemed like a natural fit. Their search took them to Charlotte, Durham and Raleigh where potential factory locations lacked a crucial element — windows (and therefore, no natural light). “It’s important for me to be in a beautiful and inspiring place,” she explains. “And I want my employees to feel proud and comfortable in the workspace.” So, when a friend tipped them off about a building in Thomasville that boasted beautiful windows, high ceilings and hardwood floors, “We were sold.” Another plus: The new location offered over 50,000 square feet of space, compared to their 10,000-square-foot NYC factory. “From a design standpoint, SEASONS • STYLE & DESIGN 17
PHOTO: NANCY RAY PHOTOGRAPHY
T H E B A R N at R E Y N O L D A V I L L A G E
CORPORATE FUNCTIONS | SPECIAL EVENTS | WEDDINGS
WINSTON-SALEM, NORTH CAROLINA 336.758.BARN www.reynoldabarn.com
18 SEASONS •
STYLE
& DESIGN
PHOTO: JAKE AND HEATHER
in The Heart of the Reynolda Historic District
Spring 2020
STYLEBOOK
we’ve been able to do new things that we didn’t have the space or facilities for in New York,” Nancy observes, like upholstery, furniture and more custom work. Despite the “lovely bones” of the building, it required extensive renovations including putting on a new roof, outfitting the factory, redoing three large bathrooms, and installing a break room, a showroom, a design studio and custom woodworking shop. For Nancy, who loves food and cooking, the break room
Spring 2020
was an essential. “We all come together to share food and conversation,” she says. “Before that, all the employees were eating lunch in their cars.” Wildcat Territory received a grant from the city of Thomasville to help with restoration, based on opening up new opportunities to attract employees to Chair City. The company employs local artisan sewers to create its bedding and drapery collections. Currently, it introduces an average of 12 new bedding collections each year as well as new drapery styles and embellishments. In addition, Wildcat offers approximately 50 to 60 collections at all times with coordinating drapery and unlimited custom options, while the Cake Custom bedding and drapery program includes over 150 bedding and 35 drapery profiles. A native Chicagoan, Nancy headed to New York after college and worked in advertising sales. After becoming disenchanted with corporate America, she founded Wildcat Territory “on a lark” in 1997. “I had no experience when we started, but I was passionate about fabric and instinctively drawn to working with it,” she confesses. “My efforts were emotional and instinctive — because I had no formal training, I started creating designs that most people found
SEASONS • STYLE & DESIGN 19
STYLEBOOK completely unexpected.” For example, placing tulle inside the fold of drapery to convey a ballgown effect. “We drew heavily from the world of fashion as we established the vocabulary of what makes Wildcat, Wildcat.” At that time, bedding geared toward women was “all flowers and ruffles,” she continues, “and I couldn’t relate to that. I thought bedding should be sexy, and for me, that meant soft, sensual fabrics, beautiful dressmaker details and clean, simple styling. Our style has evolved over the years, but at our core it remains the same.” Nancy and Ibo (who’s originally from Turkey) also travel the world to exotic locales for design inspiration. Plus, for this urbanite-turned-small-town-girl, she can get her “city fix.” Why the name Wildcat? “I’ve have always been — and still am — wild about cats,” Nancy explains. “And my very first designs were leopard, which I sold at street fairs in the beginning. It really summed up my personality and my approach to things back then,” she adds. “We were really different as we came at the product from a different point of view than had rarely been seen before.” While the transition from the bright lights of the city to a small Southern town has admittedly been difficult, Nancy says she has come to appreciate the beauty of living and working in a quiet and peaceful environment. “I’m very inspired by living down South — by the beautiful country, the sun and by Southern hospitality. There is an eccentricity and relaxed elegance in the South that I really love, and you simply can’t find it anywhere else,” she reflects. “I’ve always been inspired by the exotic locations that I travel to, and now I am merging these inspirations.” Nancy and Ibo have also embraced the local artistic community. “I’ve been coming to High Point Market for years, but I didn’t really feel like a part of the furniture community,” she says. “Now, I do. I’ve met a very creative group of
At the North Carolina Zoo, the world’s largest natural habitat zoo, amazing adventure is closer than you think.
Looking for a family-friendly day trip?
A S H E B O R O 20 SEASONS •
STYLE
& DESIGN
Spring 2020
STYLEBOOK talented artists and craftspeople, and it’s broadened my horizons quite a bit. There’s a lot of creativity here without the New York attitude.” Southern living has also had another unexpected effect: Nancy’s personal transformation into an “outdoor” person. “I love going to both the beach and the mountains and taking walks in nature.” When they are not exploring new destinations on the Carolina coast, treasure-hunting for antiques or visiting farmers’ markets to shop for their next dinner party, Nancy and Ibo can be found walking their new family: an adopted pair of rescue dogs named Lucy and Buster. Nancy, being a cat person, was a little at a loss as to what to do when Lucy showed up in her backyard. So, she invited her into the house for some chicken, which Lucy gratefully accepted and then promptly fell asleep on the floor. “She knew she had found a home,” Nancy recalls, “and she was ours from that moment on.” Homeless Buster showed up later to play with Lucy on occasion. When he fell ill with parvo, they treated him and he became the next addition to the family. “They’ve become the loves of our lives,” Nancy says. “It’s one of the best things that has ever happened to Ibo and me, and we would never have had a dog in the city. Dogs bring so much love and they have changed our family life. So, we are wild about both cats and dogs.” One of their favorite weekend rituals is to take the dogs on long walks around the neighborhood, but, as part of the Wildcat family, Lucy and Buster go to work every day, too. So far, though, there are no plans to include “wilddog” in the company’s name. h www.wildcatterritory.com Tracy Bulla is the former senior style director of Home Accents Today magazine and is now a freelance writer spcializing in all things design-and trend-related
Spring 2020
SEASONS • STYLE & DESIGN 21
WE’VE GOT ALL SEASONS COVERED SUMMER TROPICALS
SPRING FLOWERS
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Spring 2020
STYLEBOOK
FAVORITE THINGS
Traditional and Modern Embracing a dual aesthetic guides product designer Carol Gregg’s sustainable furniture business — and lifestyle By Tracy Bulla
I
n 1997, Carol Gregg — founder, owner and “Chief Hen” of Red Egg —was inspired to create a business importing Asian antiques and vintage designs during a trip to Hong Kong. Eventually, the brand evolved to manufacturing recreations of Asian furniture and accessories with a signature twist: classic Asian designs lacquered in bold, fun colors for timeless, yet modern appeal. In 2004, Gregg relocated Red Egg to North Carolina, where she and her showroom are housed in an historic Victorian in downtown High Point. At this point, she also began shifting manufacturing from Asia locally. With the exception of handcrafted rattan furniture from the Philippines, all of her wood designs are bench-made by local craftspeople. We sat down with the designer at her showroom to chat about trends, inspiration and her passion for vintage design and textiles, among other things. What design trend inspires you? The trend I’m most excited about right now is sustainability in design. Pushing the envelope to make a more beautiful, useful and sustainable product, from material selections and production techniques, to life cycle consideration, is an important challenge for every product designer. Red Egg’s mission is to sustainably craft heirloom pieces that bring you joy. We want you to love our pieces so much that they move with you on your journey. What is your personal style? I like a collected look. I own things I love that I enjoy using and looking at. It’s always a work in progress at home Spring 2020
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Get
336 -765-1360 www.bowenfurniture.com 24 SEASONS •
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Spring 2020
STYLEBOOK though, as I am constantly putting pieces together in new ways to make it feel fresh. Red Egg is known for its beautiful and colorful finishes. What colors are you gravitating towards right now? Soft whites, indigo and natural wood finishes are what I am drawn to at the moment. I love the natural beauty of wood and rattan, and how the unique shapes of our pieces shine through when left natural or finished in white. Indigo is a timeless favorite in my book. What is your favorite design in your current collection? I love our Shanghai Loft Dragon Tattoo Bench in Sepia. I love this sepia-tone piece because it is a quieter version of our colorful Dragon Tattoo Table, but still makes a statement. It’s versatile and can be used as a drinks table or a bench at a dining table. The Dragon Tattoo pattern references a painting on the ceiling of an ancient temple but uses modern technology to apply it directly to the wood on our bench. We’ve heard through the grapevine that you are a consummate hostess. What’s your secret for a successful soiree? I like intimate dinner parties, say eight to 10 people. I like to invite friends who don’t all know each other well. A small group gives everyone a chance to connect. I love having a little theme in mind, choosing a seasonal menu and complementing with cocktails, dessert and music. Speaking of cocktails, what’s your signature tipple? A Negroni — I love the bitter flavor and festive color. Recipe, please! Equal parts Campari, sweet vermouth and Botanist Gin with a dash of orange bitters and a thin orange slice. Can you share any special tips for creating a stylish and convivial tablescape? Fresh greens and votive candles are my go-to for the table.
I have a magnolia tree in the yard that can always use a little pruning and makes for a stunning organic centerpiece. I like a casual look when I set the table. My special glassware is a collection of vintage state glasses. I don’t have every state, but I try to match up the guest with their state if I Spring 2020
can. These glasses always spark a conversation about a road trip. When you’re not cooking for friends, where do you head for a bite to eat in the furniture capital? Blue Water Grille. Their food is consistently delicious and what’s not to like about their Dirty Blue Martini?! Favorite guilty pleasure?
Talenti Sea Salt Caramel Gelato.
Positively decadent!
What’s your idea of a perfect Saturday afternoon? I recently had the pleasure of spending a Saturday afternoon touring artist studios in Chapel Hill and Hillsborough — it was such a treat! I also love spending a rainy Saturday afternoon in my kitchen making soup. What are you bingeing on Nextflix now? The Great British Baking Show. I adore the mix of creative and technical challenges. Plus, it’s always good for lots of laughs. What is your best-ever shopping find? A rustic strand of Chinese turquoise beads found in an antique stall at the Cat Street Market in Hong Kong. It’s rough and heavy and when I wear it, I am transported back to the colors and scents of that experience. When you’re not traveling the globe, where do you shop locally? The Red Collection
and Design Archives in Greensboro. It’s always a treasure hunt! My bedroom lamps are a pair of painted glass 1950s genie lamps from Red Collection, and I scored a gorgeous 1960s orange and fuchsia silk tunic at Design Archives. Favorite country to visit? Japan. I love the extremes of design and culture. The way the Japanese revere traditional craft in places like Kawashima Textile School in Kyoto and at the same time embrace cutting-edge design in fashion and architecture in cities like Tokyo. What destination is on your bucket list? India — it’s all about textiles, textiles and more textiles!
h
www.redegg.com
SEASONS • STYLE & DESIGN 25
Applications are being accepted for the 2020-21 school year
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STYLEBOOK
THE BEST OF SPRING
Flower Power
W
hen you’re the floral designer for the White House, a post that Laura Dowling held from 2009–2015, flowers take on added significance. Think: diplomatic messages or symbols used in arrangements at state dinners. And then of course, there are the Christmas decorations for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, requiring about 55 trees, miles of garlands, dozens of wreaths and an army of volunteers. A recipient of American Horticultural Society’s Great American Gardeners Award and an annual presenter at the Philadelphia Flower Show, Dowling will dish on her experiences and discuss her lush, romantic style of floristry at “ Evolving Styles and Trnds in Floral Designs.” Sponsored by The Greensboro Council of Garden Clubs, the event, held on Saturday, March 28 at Starmount Forest Country Club (1 Sam Snead Drive), will also include discussions from florists Cindy Tole, owner of Botanica Flowers & Gifts and Stacy Curtis of The Farmers Wife. To register by March 10 please call (336) 558-5959 or visit thegreensborocouncilofgardenclubs.com.
Spring 2020
Glass Act
That would be who else? Louis Comfort Tiffany, whose colorful glass creations drew inspiration from flowers and wildlife, and became synonymous with the country estate movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. See how his painter’s eye seamlessly fused nature and decorative arts with revolutionary glassmaking techniques at Tiffany Glass: Painting with Color and Light, on view from March 27 through June 21 at Reynolda House Museum of American Art (2250 Reynolda Road, Winston-Salem). The exhibit includes some of the artist’s iconic windows and panels, lamps, as well as an SEASONS • STYLE & DESIGN 27
STYLEBOOK installation of Katharine Smith Reynolds’ Tiffany vases. But it doesn’t stop there: Its floral themes extend to Reynolda Gardens, where a kaleidoscope of spring blooms will be unfolding in the 4-acre formal garden. Tickets: (888) 663-1149 or reynoldahouse.org.
Obscure Oases
Who doesn’t love the idea of a private paradise, such as the one discovered by the child protagonist of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden? How about a dozen such plots tucked away from the public eye? Discover them all at “Uncovering Beauty a Tour of Secret Gardens,” presented by the Garden Club Council of WinstonSalem and Forsyth County? Whet your appetite on April 24 with a luncheon and talk by Margot Shaw, editor-in-chief and founder of Flower magazine at Forsyth Country Club (3101 Country Club Drive) before you tour hidden delights such as formal English gardens, midcentury gardens and “gardeners’ gardens” on April 25. Tickets: gardenclubcouncil.org.
Divine Digs
For all you inside cats, May brings two opportunities to have a gander at stunning interiors. On May 2, marvel at the ingenuity of architects and craftsmanship of cabinetmakers, among other artisans at Junior League of WinstonSalem’s 15th annual Tour of Fine Spaces. For yet more gracious living, check out Preservation Greensboro’s Annual Tour of Historic Homes on May 16. Tickets: jlws.org; preservationgreensboro.org. h
Quality. Beautiful. Affordable. Exceptional Home Furnishings at the Very Best Price. A Greensboro Tradition since 1978
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210 Stage Coach Trail Greensboro • 336.855.9034 • www.pribafurniture.com
Spring 2020
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Spring 2020
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Beautiful and inviting spaces custom designed for your lifestyle with professional planning and comfortable furnishings for any size home.
Interior Design Showroom and Home Furnishings Come visit us Monday through Friday 9 to 5 or call for an in-home appointment Diane Lackey, IDS • Eric Lackey, IDS 509 Randolph Street, Thomasville • 336-476-3223 www.decoratorsedge.com
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“Serving your heart’s desire”
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
Spring 2020
STYLEBOOK
THE GARDEN GURU
Back to Nature
Sustainable gardening is easier than you might think By Cheryl Capaldo Traylor
O
ver the past few years, “sustainable” has become quite the buzzword. But what does sustainable gardening really mean? Experts generally agree sustainable gardens employ practices that conserve resources like water and soil, reduce the carbon footprint, promote biodiversity and aim to not harm the environment. As Rachel Carson said, “But man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself.” In other words, work with nature instead of against it. But we need beautiful outdoor spaces that lift our spirits. By rethinking the way we use natural resources and attending to problems responsibly, we can have attractive landscapes in harmony with nature.
Start Where You Are
Shifting from conventional to sustainable gardening might seem overwhelming, but it’s OK to just start where you are and think about incremental, not monumental, changes. Choose to focus on a few of the suggestions below and when you get those down, add others.
1. Compost
Here’s an easy one to begin with. Compost kitchen scraps. Not only will you create a byproduct that will enhance your soil, but you will also keep food waste out of landfills. According to a recent Wake County Waste Characterization
Spring 2020
Study, 30 percent of waste sent to landfills is compostable. Food waste in landfills contributes to methane, and methane contributes to global warming.
2. Water Wisely
A 2,000-square-foot ranch home could potentially collect 1,248 gallons of water for every inch of rain, so install rain barrels at downspouts to save runoff. Large garden urns set out in the landscape are also efficient rainwater reservoirs. Water some plants the old-fashioned way with watering cans. A soaker hose is another good choice for flower gardens. If you choose to stay with an automatic system, make sure your sprinklers are placed correctly in the landscape. Better yet, choose drought-tolerant gardening methods like xeriscaping and limit watering altogether.
3. Improve Soil Naturally
Before adding amendments to the garden, consider getting a soil test to determine exactly what’s missing, if anything. Then, with results in hand, you are better equipped to add only what the soil requires. There are numerous organic soil amendments and conditioners available, but you may already have what you need if you have started composting and have added leaves, twigs and plant clippings, leave the leaves when they fall as they are nature’s perfect fertilizer. Leaf cover also helps retain moisture. SEASONS • STYLE & DESIGN 31
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32 SEASONS •
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STYLEBOOK 4. Encourage Pollinators
One out of every three bites of food we eat is available because of the work of pollinators. European honeybees are the primary pollinators in North Carolina, but birds, bats, butterflies, and other insects also do their fair share. Homeowners can welcome pollinators by filling their landscapes with shrubs and flowers, preferably native species, which also require less maintenance and water. John Higdon, owner of City Garden Design in Cary, is noticing a growing trend of mixed-use gardens where ornamentals are planted alongside edibles, such as blueberry and raspberry bushes. “That way you are getting more than just a shrub, you are actually providing food for yourself or the birds,” he says.
5. Reconsider Weeds
Avoid using chemical means; instead opt for weeding by hand or homemade solutions containing vinegar, salt, and dish soap. Mulching also inhibits weed growth. Emulate English cottage gardens by placing plants close together so weeds cannot compete with flowers for sunlight. Some weeds, like the cheery dandelion, have been unfairly maligned. The writer Robert Fulghum surmises, “If dandelions were rare and fragile, people would knock themselves out to pay $14.95 a plant, raise them by hand in greenhouses, and form dandelion societies and all that.”
6. Control Pests Naturally
The first steps in pest control are detecting and identifying the culprit early. Always think control not elimination because, as gardeners know, complete elimination is usually futile. If you have a significant pest problem, treat it by choosing the least toxic method. Remember, indiscriminate spraying of pesticides (including organic and homemade) kills all insects — even the beneficial ones that keep your garden in balance.
7. Consider the Bats and Birds
Instead of treating, encourage beneficial predators like birds or bats that naturally keep the population of unwanted insects in check. Kim Brand, network senior manager for Audubon North Carolina, says birds provide a crucial role in maintaining a healthy ecosystem. Birds eat a variety of insects, from mosquitos to caterpillars, keeping the insect population in balance. One bat can eat upwards of 500 insects every hour. Other beneficial predators include wasps, ladybeetles, frogs, and spiders.
8. Rethink Your Lawn
Shrinking those lush carpets of lawns is becoming more popular. “People want to start using their land for more than just grass,” says Higdon. “They’re getting more bed space, using less fertilizer, and creating less runoff. That’s a good thing for the environment.” And could you stop using chemicals and allow for imperfections — maybe let those dandelions grow? Reduce your carbon footprint by ditching mowers, leaf blowers and other power tools.
9. Stay Informed
Change requires effort, so do your research and keep up-to-date on ways to garden sustainably. Visit local gardens and arboretums for inspiration. Ask reputable landscape companies and garden centers for advice on creating environmentally friendly spaces. Join plant associations, such as North Carolina Native Plant Society (www.ncwildflower.org), and garden clubs to learn how others practice sustainability in their gardens. h
Cheryl Capaldo Traylor is a writer, gardener, reader and hiker. She blogs at Giving Voice to My Astonishment (www.cherylcapaldotraylor.com).
Hunt for Spring at McCalls 111 Reynolda Village Winston-Salem, NC 27106 | (336) 723-9419 Monday - Saturday 10 a.m - 5 p.m. Spring 2020
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Presented by The Garden Club Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County Tickets available for purchase at Hummingbird Design Present your Garden Tour wristband at our store & recieve this lovely Hummingbird coaster FREE. Limit one per customer 3354 Robinhood Road | Sherwood Plaza Shopping Ctr. | Winston Salem, NC
336.765.6545 | WWW.HUMMINGBIRDDESIGNNC.COM
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We specialize in unique, native, and specimen plants. 701 Milner Dr. Greensboro 336-299-1535 guilfordgardencenter.com
Spring 2020
Spring Almanac By Ash Alder
“A
nd here is the serpent again,” wrote the late poet Mary Oliver, “dragging himself out from his nest of darkness . . . looking for the sun.” Three decades after she wrote it, Oliver’s “Spring” slides into consciousness. Oh, how you’ve missed these sunny mornings. As soft light filters through the kitchen window, consider the snake, moving “like oil” over pine needles, tasting the air with its tongue. Spring is here, and as an owl cries out from its distant nest, taste the glorious poetry of the season. Pink blossoms against leafless branches of the saucer magnolia. Pink squirrel babes, blind and wriggling in their drey. Pink rain jacket left hanging on the porch, pocket full of pine straw, bluebird flitting in and out of periphery. Fitting that the spring equinox and World Poetry Day arrive in tandem. As you gently scoop the contents from your jacket pocket — a beautiful tapestry of needles and grasses — you think again of Mary Oliver, and of the delicate treasures she wove with nature and light. Thank you, bluebird, for starting over. Thank you, black snake, winding round the rising grass. Thank you, poet within all of us, for acknowledging the beauty that is always waiting for us, like sunlight after a long, dark winter.
Amethyst Falls
I once heard someone dub wisteria the “evil overlord of the plant kingdom” and, for better or worse, have never been able to shake it. If ever you’ve battled with wisteria in your backyard, perhaps you’ve given it a comparable name. But if you’re still reading this. . . if ever you’ve wished to make friends with this intoxicatingly fragrant vine, consider introducing a native cultivar, amethyst falls. Less aggressive than its exotic Asian relatives known for choking out trees and, yep, swallowing houses, amethyst falls blooms on new growth, making the vines easier to prune back and train. Although the leaves and cascading purple flowers are smaller than the common wisteria you may have given a less-than-kind name, an established amethyst falls plant can climb 15–20 feet per season. Bonus points: It’s drought tolerant and deer resistant.
Happy (Devilish) Easter
Spring is a procession of wonder: Flowering redbud. Rising asparagus. Row after row of tulip and daffodil. Pick-your-own strawberries.
Spring 2020
Wild mushrooms. Spinach, radish, turnip, kale. And, praise all that is deviled and holy, Easter supper. My younger brother has single-handedly cleared a tray of deviled eggs at more than one Easter supper. That’s why I was particularly stunned when he told me that he was adapting a vegan diet. No more deviled eggs? Well, not exactly. But when he told me about Thug Kitchen, a vegan cookbook peppered with language that would make our granny’s jaw drop, I understood. Inside: a recipe for deviled chickpea bites. Although we can’t print that here with its profane, “Thug Kitchen” interjections, check out this equally scrumptious vegan recipe from Whole Foods Market. Tender roasted baby potatoes topped with spicy yolk-free filling. Brother approved. Deviled Potatoes Ingredients: A dozen baby potatoes (about 1 1/4 pounds) 2 tsp. extra-virgin olive oil 1/2 cup vegan mayonnaise 1/3 cup drained silken tofu 1 tbsp. Dijon mustard 1 tsp. sweet paprika 1 tsp. turmeric 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt 1/4 tsp. ground black pepper Method: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Cut each potato in half crosswise. In a large bowl, toss potatoes with oil and place cut-side down on the prepared baking sheet. Roast until tender when pierced with a knife, about 30 minutes. Let cool. Using a melon baller, scoop out center of each potato half. Combine potato flesh, vegan mayonnaise, tofu, mustard, paprika, turmeric, salt and pepper in a food processor and pulse just until smooth. Scoop filling into potato halves. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes (and up to 2 days) before serving. Sprinkle with finely chopped fresh parsley before serving.
Gifts for Mama
Mother’s Day falls on Sunday, May 10. I think of my fourth-grade teacher, who asked us to bring in one of our mother’s high heels. Yes, just one. We spray-painted it gold, lined the inside with floral foam, and proudly stuck a dozen plastic flowers inside. Happy Mother’s Day to all. May you walk in beauty. Here are a few seeds of inspiration for the beloved mother-figure in your life: Daylily bulbs Mexican tarragon for the herb garden Azaleas Ornamental pepper Wax begonia A new pair of shiny gold shoes Ornamental pepper Wax begonia A new pair of shiny gold shoes SEASONS • STYLE & DESIGN 35
reynoldahouse.org/tiffany
Major sponsorship is provided by The David R. Hayworth Foundation The Charles H. Babcock, Jr. Arts and Community Initiative Endowment
Tiffany Studios, New York Peony Library Lamp, ca. 1905 Leaded glass, bronze The Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass, Queens, NY
GREENSBORO:
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LaZboy.com 36 SEASONS •
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Spring “Hello, sun in my face. Hello you who made the morning and spread it over the fields. . . Watch, now, how I start the day in happiness, in kindness.�
Mary Oliver
The Comeback Kids
Freeman Kennett Architects and the reawakening of High Point By Jim Dodson • Photographs by Michael Blevins & Amy Freeman
O
n a quiet afternoon as winter gives way to an early spring, upstairs in a cozy office on High Point’s busy North Main Street, architect Peter Freeman glances at his left foot and laughs. “That will teach me to go away on a vacation.” His left foot and calf are wrapped in a thick cast from recent surgery for a torn Achilles tendon suffered on the cobblestones of Old Madrid during a vacation last October. The leg in question rests on a miniature rolling trolley. The irony, of course, is that Freeman and his partner, John Kennett, aren’t just among the busiest architects in High Point, a city that’s in the midst of a significant economic renaissance they both helped create and are benefiting from; they’re probably among the busiest — and most creative — in the entire South at the moment. “It’s amazing what’s finally happening in High Point,” Freeman is moved to say. “There’s so much energy around the university and the baseball park and a reawakening of the furniture market that has new people coming here every day. We’re just thrilled to be part of that comeback.” Indeed, over the past five or six years, the partners of Freeman Kennett are responsible for designing at least a dozen new buildings that are redefining the profile and skyline of downtown High Point, including the first new buildings raised in the furniture market district since the 1980s. The structures are as strikingly beautiful as they are multifunctional. Not surprisingly, trustees of the American Home Furnishings Hall of Fame, an industry-wide organization founded to preserve the history and contributions of the home furnishings industry, awarded the duo a coveted contract. Chosen over a number of leading design firms, Freeman Kennett’s signature will be reflected throughout the new home of the American Home Furnishings Hall of Fame, a multimedia showplace and museum that is expected to open sometime in April 2021. In many ways, their design success story is a mirror of High Point’s own rise and decline and rebirth over the past few decades, for the two histories dovetail almost perfectly. Peter’s grandfather, William F. Freeman, was a civil and architectural engineer who started his firm on Main Street in 1929. His son, William Freeman, Jr., joined the firm in the 1950s and together they made it a design powerhouse across the region. Among their notable local creations: They did the original designs for Bald Head Island’s development, both Beech and Sugar Mountain resorts, including the Land of Oz theme park and hundreds of colleges, medical buildings, public schools, private residences and corporate offices across the Southeast. At their peak in the 1970s, the firm employed 75 workers and maintained branch offices in Santiago, Chile, the Virgin Islands and Madrid, Spain. They even had offices in the infamous Watergate building in Washington, D.C. “They really went everywhere in those days,” Peter remembers. “As a result, I got to spend my seventh grade living in Spain.”
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John Kennett’s family was a mainstay in High Point’s thriving retail furniture scene, owners of iconic Wood Armfield, having opened its doors in 1939, and Utility Craft. During the peak days of High Point’s retail furniture, according to Charlie Simmons, the de facto ambassador of the Southern furniture industry, High Point’s Main Street was once home to 40 or more retail furniture stores. “As late as the early 1990s,” says John Kennett, “the city was a travel destination for buying furniture. Someone who lived in New York City, for example, could hop a flight to the Triad, stay in a nice hotel for several days while they purchased furniture, then fly home for much less than they could buy the same furniture back home. That’s why High Point was the furniture Mecca of America.” The handwriting on the wall, most industry watchers agree, began when major manufacturers began opening their own retail stores in places other than High Point — offering competitive pricing and swift delivery. Venerable names like Thomasville and Bassett followed this prescription, and other big names followed suit. Then along came the Internet, direct sales and shipping to customers, dispersing the retail flow even as traditional manufacturing moved offshore to Asia and other cheaper locations. By the year 2000, as one North Carolina furniture expert once described it, “High Point looked like a ghost town — the place that used to be Furniture Town USA.” After expanding to the Northern Virginia market (Gallahan Furniture, Fredricksburg) Kennett’s own family closed Wood Armfield’s High Point retail store in 2006. Kennett had joined Freeman in 1998 just as Peter merged his firm with Hayes-Howell, another longtime architectural firm based in Southern Pines. The new partnership specialized in designing buildings for public schools, colleges and universities. In 2005, after a slowdown in state funding for such construction, Freeman and Hayes- Howell amicably parted ways, allowing Freeman to hang a new shingle with partner John Kennett, a natural pairing born and bred in the city of High Point. “It was a bit challenging in the early days,” John recalls, “but Peter and I realized that we simply weren’t having fun anymore.” The pair quickly found new energy and inspiration in the form of local residential work and smaller-scale jobs that came their way as word of mouth spread, including design work for the likes of High Point Friends School and new club houses for Oak Hollow and Jamestown Park golf clubs. “The city was still in a recession but these local projects really connected us with the people of our city in a new way.” They also found new life in restoration of some of the city’s most notable historic homes and estates. Chief among among them was Hillbrook Mansion in Emerywood, a 1931 Luther Lashmit Norman Tudor design that featured hidden doorways to bathrooms and closets. Another showstopper was the Henley Estate, a comprehensive reworking of the Spring 2020
Opposite page: Freeman Kennett’s design for the American Home Furnishings Hall of Fame, scheduled to open spring 2021. Above: The redesigned High Point YMCA building, opening later this year.
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7,000-square-foot Luther Lashmit mansion on Ferndale Avenue. “The restoration work was really fun, challenging and different,” Peter remembers. “It stretched our creativity and really laid the foundation for what we are doing today.” So did their firm’s key involvement a decade ago in something called Ignite High Point, a grassroots organization of business and community leaders that grew out of Peter’s and John’s initiative to create a “Hometown Revival” by reimagining the look and prospects of North Main Street. After raising more than $400,000, in partnership with the High Point’s business community, the Ignite plan identified 13 core projects designed to enhance the human scale of the city and “fill the gaps” left by the departed furniture world. With insights from celebrated architect and city planner Andrés Duany, who was brought in to consult on the ambitious transformation, the foundation was laid for the city’s rebirth. “A lot of great ideas large and small came out of that collaboration,” Peter remembers. “It really led to an awakening across the city and a new human scale for the city at large, in turn rumblings for a new ballpark and the amazing growth of High Point University. The timing couldn’t have been better for everyone involved. That was about the time the furniture market began its own revival.”
Emblematic of the city’s new look is the elegant showroom of designer Christopher Guy, featuring sweeping vertical and floating stairway. It is the first new stand-alone showroom building since the 1980s.
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epending on who’s telling the story, High Point Market’s impressive revival either began when furniture manufacturers who’d fled to Southeast Asia for cheaper production costs discovered traditional American craftsmanship was more dependable and costeffective in the long run, or because many of the industry’s leading and most creative designers began migrating to High Point where they found both an eager and skilled workforce and lower production and workspace costs. In truth, it was probably a combination of these factors plus the city’s historic reputation as the capital of American furniture that sparked the comeback. Emblematic of this growth was the stunning building Freeman Kennett designed in collaboration with Christopher Harrison, founder and head designer for Christopher Guy furniture brand, for the International Market Center – High Point’s first stand-alone new showroom built since the late 1980s. Spring 2020
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The cleverly redesigned Wachovia building on Wrenn Street, with rooftop garden for Made Goods and Ardmore Design.
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The stark white modern design features 30-foot continuous glass windows ascending from endless edge reflecting pools and a showroom area with a 40-foot ceiling and a dramatic “floating” spiral staircase connecting to the main exhibit areas. Upon its opening in 2018, the building became the buzz of the fall Market and quickly symbolized the new urban face of the Market Center. “Christopher [Guy] Harrison — he’s the English owner and designer — really wanted something that looked like Rodeo Drive, elegant, oversized, dramatic and with an inviting flow,” Peter says. “It was as much a statement about his brand as it was a showroom. He was demanding but really fun to work with.” “Clients began to call us,” adds John Kennett, “curious to see what else we could do — having realized that they didn’t have to stay hidden in the IHFC main building or some dated building downtown. They realized, ‘Hey, if we move out, we can make our own statement about our brand and who we are.’” In a nutshell, this is the logic that brought a succession of spectacular showrooms Freeman Kennett’s way, including a bold transformation of the former midcentury Wachovia Bank building off Wrenn Street that features a “glowing” monumental stairway to a rooftop garden for Made Goods and Ardmore Design. Equally dynamic are a pair of modern showroom homes for Art Addiction and a geometrically complex 70,000-square-foot corporate office and dual showroom complex for Markor Art Center, designed to resemble a giant opening Asian fan. One side of the Markor building houses the showroom and administrative offices for Caracole Furniture using a softer, curvilinear motif that company owner and designer Richard Feng describes as a “fine wine.” The opposite side of the structure houses the firm’s ART Furniture showroom, offices and conference space using an avant-garde aesthetic the owner – China’s largest importer of American furniture – refers to as “fine whiskey.” Both spaces cleverly employ indirect natural lighting to give their exhibition spaces the feel of a fine museum. On the roof is a stunning entertainment area that features a spectacular rooftop bar and 40-foot-diameter glass dome, providing views of the entire the Market district. During furniture market, the venue is among the hottest hospitality sites in town. STYLE
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“That project took us to China,” Peter explains, “and working with Richard Feng was quite an experience. He’s a gifted artist who knew what he wanted and was deeply immersed in the process from beginning to end. That kind of collaboration with our clients is central to our working philosophy. It’s their vision we’re out to create.” This same versatility defines the duo’s latest projects, including a bold restoration of the city’s historic YMCA building for an Arkansas furniture firm that will use its original restored basketball court (where Wilt Chamberlain once competed) as its showroom and the building’s basement swimming pool, covered with glass and lighted from beneath, as a dramatic showcase for outdoor furniture line. A new glass atrium entrance is currently under construction. The building’s planned opening is the fall market this year. The Comeback Kids have several other significant projects underway around town, including new designs for Bethany Medical Center and Peters Development complex, not to mention new development around the baseball stadium area where a European food hall is scheduled to soon open. The American Home Furnishings Hall of Fame building, however, projected to open sometime in 2021, holds a spe-
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cial place in hearts of these hometown designers. “It is shaped to look like an old-fashioned furniture factory done in glass, a modern take of the city’s heritage as the home of furniture-making,” John Kennett explains. “A tribute to how all of this began.” The 20,000-square-foot structure will boast a giant “live digital wall” and atrium that tells the story of the furniture industry in America, a museum and large public gallery, meeting and research facilities, and a auditorium for the annual induction of new members of the Hall. “We think it’s really going to be something very special for anyone who lives here or simply comes to High Point,” says Peter Freeman with his infectious hometown grin. “Maybe by then, I’ll even be able to actually walk into it on my own two feet!” h
In the eye-popping Markor Art Center, Caracole Furniture’s showroom is called “fine wine.” It’s partner showroom for Art Furniture goes by “fine whiskey.” The entire structure is designed to resemble an opening fan.
Jim Dodson is the editor of Seasons and its flagships, O.Henry, PineStraw and Salt.
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Grace & Grit
Jane and Richard Green’s newly constructed house of happiness among some of Greensboro’s oldest By Cynthia Adams • Photographs by Amy Freeman
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elcome to the happily realized vision of homeowners Richard and Jane Green, where everything fits perfectly inside a shipshape, 950-square-foot house. The bungalow sits in Greensboro’s oldest historic district, College Hill on a lot that has not only has never had a house upon it but in the view of Mike Cowhig, a veteran senior planner for the City of Greensboro who has long worked with historic neighborhoods, was “largely viewed as unbuildable.” Yet he knew better, and so did neighbor Dan Curry. A bubble machine spews iridescent, trembling bubbles into the air on the Greens’ front lawn. Bubbles take up absolutely no space — which matters when you downsize to nearly a third of your former living area. On an unusually warm day, Jane and Richard Green sit on the front porch as temperatures hover near 93 degrees in what looks like a Frank Capra movie set. They wave to passing students. A profusion of lavender petunias and herbs spills out of pots and planters. Wreaths with “welcome” signs hang on the double front doors. The porch, an outdoor living room, is furnished with rockers, a swing and chairs sporting yellow polka-dotted pillows. A repurposed door made into a table is set with a cheery collection of fresh daisies in a vintage wooden flat of milk bottles. Tin buckets hold yellow flowers. Fanciful iron seating completes the scene. A rustic sign with the word “LOVE” is tacked onto a tree, and a bike with a basket rests against the shade tree. The bungalow is the personification of happy. Jane says she has to look back as she leaves each day, just to be sure it is all real and not a dream —“That it’s still there,” she laughs, straightening her lanky frame. Her Mazda Miata convertible sits at the curb. “Are you always this happy?” I’m compelled to ask, noticing her disposition has yet to wilt.
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“I think I am,” Jane answers smiling. Another laugh bubbles up from deep within her torso. Those burbling bubbles — along with the ones floating from the bubble machine — are evidence of what her husband, Richard, quickly interjects: “The smallest things make her happy.” The smallest reference is Richard’s wordplay on the Greens’ new small home: a radical departure from a rambling house in New Jersey. The Greens moved to the South, leaving behind colder winters and high property taxes, to create a new life near daughter Nicole Naviglia and family. Their son, Tom Green, lives in Wake Forest. “My daughter followed her college sweetheart here. They broke up but she stayed here, and eventually married someone else. We wanted to be a part of her life,” says Jane. A difficult northern winter had finally made up their minds. “Property taxes were $1,500 a month, even if your house was paid off,”
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she notes, explaining it made retirement impossible. “The tax base is better down here.” The Greens did an unAmerican thing, deciding to live within their means and also join their daughter in the Triad. “She said, ‘look for a piece of land,’” says Nicole. “I said, ‘Mom, you’re crazy. It’s the city. There’s no land.’” But as it happened, there was. Jane interjects. “She pops up and says, ‘There’s a lot in College Hill they might sell.’” She pauses. “It was truly a dump of a lot.” It was coming up for bid, but the Greens describe the vacant lot as a “garbage pit.” Dan Curry, who has lived in College Hill for 40 years, became instrumental in the sale. He worked for Greensboro Housing and Community Development Program for almost four decades before retiring. Spring 2020
He wrote in an email, “As a member of the Board of Directors of the College Hill Neighborhood Association (CHNA) I advised the association on how it could find a buyer for a small lot that was donated to them many years ago.” Curry continued: “Most people (including some city staff) thought the lot was too small to be developed, but I knew otherwise and helped CHNA navigate the challenges to getting the approvals needed to allow a house to be built on it.” But the truth was, buying an unsightly lot and shoehorning a new home there was a steep and potentially risky venture, with little assurance of a happy ending. A few attending a neighborhood association meeting expressed their concerns, the Greens recall. Neighbors worried about the bird life being displaced by building on the vacant lot. And about privacy for adjacent homes. Even so, in 2017 the Greens went forward with ideas to build a snug cottage that would just fit. “Richard was OK with the process. But he wasn’t as on board as I was,” says Jane, who was the cheerleader of downsizing. But all Spring 2020
smoothed out after a relentless assessment of what the couple wanted their retirement to be like. They settled on Summerfield builder Gary Silverstein. Building plans were submitted and resubmitted; nonstandard windows on each side had to be approved given the strict exterior architectural guidelines regulating historic neighborhoods. There were hiccups and false starts. The street itself was also undergoing construction. There was nowhere for construction trucks to park, so the builder had to secure permits for parking rights and a dumpster. Then there was the challenge of construction. Silverstein “had a building challenge. On a very tight lot,” says daughter Nicole. She describes her parents appearing before the Board of Exceptions in order to get permissions to build the house within a farther distance from the street. The setback requirements for new homes required 20 feet from the street versus their planned 11 feet. (Newer homes had to be built farther back than existing ones.) The trouble was, the lot was so shallow the Greens couldn’t position the house as designed to the required distance. Directly behind it is a set design studio owned by UNCG. “They had to stop construction,” says Nicole. The Greens rented an apartment and had to sit tight as approvals were sought. “If they hadn’t gotten approval it would have meant they had a lot they couldn’t build on. It was two years from buying the land until moving in.” Jane describes going to hearings, where Cowhig helped guide them through SEASONS • STYLE & DESIGN 51
the process. In some cases, hearings are held before the Historic Preservation Commission and its volunteer commissioners. With the lot prepared and the house framed, there were more challenges. “He had to hand-raise the roof because they couldn’t get a crane in,” Nicole says, praising his calm demeanor and resourcefulness. “Gary made things work.” Her mother agrees. “Gary was so meticulous he labeled everything,” Jane says. “Methodical. He was here all the time. He attended all the meetings even before he even knew he had the job,” she stresses. “They weren’t throwing road blocks. The historic committee wanted it here,” Jane is quick to point out. Approvals meant resubmitting plans for various exceptions to architectural features that are consistent with an historic district. “Even the double lavender doors had to be approved — they didn’t really have double doors in College Hill,” adds Nicole. Their hue was inspired by an artist’s studio painted in a pastel lavender color. “That’s it!” the family agreed. The artist gave them a sample can of paint. “People have really liked it,” Nicole mentions. “It’s cheerful,” adds Jane. Approvals are a requirement of property owners in an historic district — which also means advantages. Historic district’s property resale values are higher and attractive tax advantages apply. Curry says the Greens’ home is an example of what can happen when builders and historic neighborhoods are creative. “This project is unique in how it demonstrates how small lots can become infill home sites in developed neighborhoods. In fact, the same homebuilder is now building a house on another small lot in College Hill,” Curry says, expressing his belief that such projects might take hold in other neighborhoods and benefit other properties across the city. With all hiccups resolved, Silverstein moved on to execute Jane’s vision. The interior was theirs to design freely. It is more youthful and less traditionally driven. The open floor plan is space-efficient, given it is one bedroom, with one-anda-half baths. The builder created a floored attic, lending some buffer for storage. In fact, it allows for a future second floor should the owners choose. Silverstein customized the kitchen shelving system, and made custom sliding barn doors from hand-milled poplar trees he sourced. Jane felt they would be a feature but also functional. “She did it for practicality. It allows space,” explains Nicole, demonstrating
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by sliding back one of the doors that conceals a pantry. They used a mix of vintage and new in building materials. The living room mantel was found in East Greensboro at Architectural Salvage, a program operated by Preservation Greensboro. Jane wanted other touches to create the nouveau rustic look, such as a large farm sink, “big enough for bathing babies,” she says. They added special taps for an architectural flourish. “Certain things I had to have,” she admits. This included a French-style chandelier and industrial lights. Even so, the builder successfully completed the project on budget. “I wasn’t,” she confesses sheepishly. The Green’s cottage was ready for move in October 31, 2018. But the challenges weren’t over when the house was done. The process would demand more of the Greens than adapting a house plan to work on an awkward lot. Now they had to adapt themselves to life in 950 square feet, downsizing from 2,500 square feet. Spring 2020
Jane was an inveterate collector of vintage items and Richard possessed a collection of his own award-winning, black-and-white photos of images shot in New York City, San Francisco and other cities. Theirs wasn’t a Marie Kondo– style simplification. It was more frantic. “Does it fit? Then, no. If we thought too long about things, we would have become oversentimental and kept things,” Nicole says. The Greens didn’t defer decisions and get a storage unit. “Nicole wouldn’t let me do that,” Jane admits. She had to sift through her collections of home décor. Antique sleds. Vintage lanterns. Dozens of buckets. Beautiful, rustic things. But how many vintage sleds does one person need? Nicole helped winnow, having recently downsized herself. This, as the family explains, required patience and a purging which demanded letting go of many beloved collections. Jane and Richard also let go of something else they decidedly did not love: a mortgage. Spring 2020
What they gained is infinite, Jane declares. Her happiness has expanded. Three days after the house was completed, they packed what would go to the cottage and held a garage sale of the surplus. The garage sale netted pennies on the dollar from valuables. (They made $650 from the yard sale, which Jane declares she doesn’t want to think about.) But with the proceeds, the Greens bought a tool shed for garden implements. Final design and décor decisions were next. Having sold many of their furnishings apart from a few family heirlooms, they bought new West Elm sofas for the living room and for a small bedroom/study/den. Certain accessories, including the living room rug, were found online. Local furniture maker, John Oppegaard, created custom kitchen and porch tables to fit the space. “John’s young, in his 20s,” says Jane. “He wrote something so nice under the table — ‘Custom built for Jane & Richard by John Oppegaard 10-24-18.’” In order to confer the impression of age on the pieces, he used square nails SEASONS • STYLE & DESIGN 53
and reconfigured a door from Architectural Salvage as the porch table. Extraneous kitchen items were pared dramatically, says Jane. The result is a neatly ordered kitchen. One antique sled is displayed at the top of her open shelves. “If you do it right, it doesn’t look messy. I have eight dishes. I have more in the cupboard. Had a vintage box with containers for strawberries,” she sighs. “I loved it and couldn’t get rid of it.” In the end, Jane’s greatest resource turned out to be a spirit of adaptability. She so loves chatting with the students who walk past her porch in route to classes at UNCG; enjoys a walkable neighborhood and trekking to area restaurants or for coffee. Proximity to college life meant things are lively, the Greens explain. No isolation. They can age in place. Plus, omnipresent young people often say they want a house just like the Greens’, complete with its lavender doors, profusion of petunias and a bubble machine. Jane adds, “I think a college town appeals to older people as well as younger people.” She sighs happily. “I love the college students! They’ve just been so nice.” She gushes. “I love the neighborhood, the neighbors, the City of Greensboro. And our builder, Gary Silverstein!” Even the same city administrators and standard-bearers who made life just a bit difficult with those pernickety approvals are all forgiven. The Greens took it in stride. “Negativity brings you down,” Jane warns. A giggly confession follows, after repeating that building their cottage was one of the best decisions ever. “Mike Cowhig had said, ‘We want it to look like it always was here,’” say the Greens.
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And so it happened, but requiring grit and grace along the way. Cowhig is delighted. “They had to overcome so many obstacles to make it happen.” He adds, “but they did.” Since the Greens moved in year before last, more than one passerby has assumed the cottage is a renovation given its exterior features. “It was built to blend in,” says Nicole proudly. “Very much in keeping. It looks like a reno.” “Haint blue on the ceiling,” Jane notes. “My daughter bought a gallon over and said, ‘Paint the ceiling blue!’” The porch, the blue ceiling, all made them feel officially Southern. “There are very nice people here,” says Jane stepping onto the porch, and smiling to a pedestrian. The Greens get to live their retirement years as a much warmer adventure; downsizing has amplified their lives in practical ways. “I wanted to live on my Social Security,” says Jane. “We feel relieved here. We can heat the house and not wear a sweatshirt like in our last house.” “Now we don’t have a mortgage,” she sighs. “It’s perfect. And it’s enough for us, Richard and me,” she says. The Greens recently invited the designers in the studio behind their cottage to decorate the fence that separates them. They would like the view from their kitchen to be something creative. “It would be like an open canvas for them,” says Jane. In other words, merrily, merrily merrily . . . life is but a dream for a couple of retirees in a radically smaller home on a difficult lot that nearly everyone (except Dan Curry and Mike Cowhig) wisely agreed couldn’t be built. h Cynthia Adams is a contributing editor to Seasons’ flagship, O.Henry magazine. Spring 2020
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The Enchanted
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Victoria and Neill Clegg’s haven in the heart of Greensboro’s Westerwood neighborhood Story and Photographs by Lynn Donovan
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he gardens of Victoria and Neill Clegg exude mystery and enchantment. The duo responsible for curating and performing, respectively, O.Henry Hotel’s Jazz Series, has surrounded their 1930s English-style cottage in the Westerwood neighborhood of Greensboro with lush havens defined by salvaged stone and brick rubble. The front yard and garden are bordered by more stone in the form of a succulent-studded wall topped with all sorts of low-growing plants. The sentinels of the front garden are four tree hydrangea, their white blooms contrasting sharply with the warm tones of the wall and house. An archway of jasmine beckons entry to the front stoop. Window boxes filled to the brim with white petunias and cascading plants pull the eye upward to the half-timbered gable. Every inch of this luscious garden space is occupied with plantings of all types. Another stone wall, this one original to the house, lines the driveway and leads to a wooden wall punctuated with a set of unusual doors purchased from a local peddler. Swinging open they reveal more enchantment: a backyard garden with an old chicken coop/ garage and garden shed as the main attractions. A stone terrace of Pennsylvania bluestone is planted with dichondra to add softness. A casual seating area anchors one end, and the other way leads straight into the Coop, the star of this garden. The Cleggs have hosted countless small gatherings in this magical place, including weddings and art events. A pergola, accented with iron treasures collected over the years Spring 2020
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by the Cleggs, covers the entryway that is lined with all sorts of hanging plants, chimes, and more treasures. Stone bases made by stonemason Brain Pacheco anchor the pergola and tie this area to the other stone elements throughout the garden. Inside the screened coop is a little slice of comfy heaven. Victoria explains her finds: “The old table and the bench came over from Asia on one of those big containers,” she recalls. She found it after a furniture market a few years ago and within hours she had it strapped to the back of a pickup: “It is a great gathering space to share stories or oftentimes work on a piece of art at home instead of my studio.” The glider, she explains, “was found off the side of a road [as we] headed to Virginia. It sat on the porch of the Clegg beach house for years and then finally came home to roost in the coop.” She goes on to say that all of the wicker has a family connection: It belonged to Neill’s grandmother. “Some repairs and fresh paint breathed new life into everything!” With old leather chairs at the table came that from a local consignment store, Victoria realized her vision of always to seating 10 to 12, without sacrificing scale and more important, hindering those stunning garden views. Overhead hangs a chandelier acquired at a tag sale in the Gate City’s Sunset Hills neighborhood. “All the accessories were just treasures we found as the project progressed,” Victoria recalls. “The moss-covered lamp was a handmade birthday gift from local artist Linda Franks Lowe. There is an old copper pot as you enter the coop that used to be a light fixture at Kepley’s Barn,” she says, referring to
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the popular event space owned by High Point’s barbecue institution that burned down nearly 20 years ago. “The old column that holds the big bluebird palace came from [famed Greensboro designer] Otto Zenke. Artifacts from the local area for sure.” From inside the coop there is a gorgeous view of the garden and the special garden “She Shed.” The tall columns from Preservation Greensboro’s retail outlet, Architectural Salvage, give the shed its unusual height, and another set of old doors from the peddler add character to a functional building. “When we finish planting out the She Shed, it will be magical in ways that delight the senses,” states Victoria. The gardens behind the coop feature another wall of stone accented with ferns and hosta and is a favorite perching spot for the Cleggs’ two dogs, Duchess and Coltrane. The Cleggs are looking forward to watching their garden mature, enjoying sunrise coffee, listening to late afternoon rains on the tin roof, and to hosting
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more soirées, art and music events in the Enchanted Garden and Coop — and creating many enchanted evenings. Lynn Donovan is a contributing photographer to Seasons’ sister publication, O.Henry magazine. h Enchanted gardens nowadays aren’t conjured into existence. Victoria Clegg recommends the following troop of professional gnomes if you’re looking for some of your own enchantment: Lee Rogers (landscape design); Ron Small (Reedy Fork Environmental); Ron Ferguson, gardener and plantsman); Brian Pacheco, stonemason; Cliff Mattson (“master magician” and contractor) Linda Franks Lowe (“best stylist on the planet”); and Neill Clegg, (“King of the Enchanted Cottage, my prince, my hot sax player, the love of my life who always says yes to all my ideas!”). Spring 2020
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Peak Growing Season
TimberTop Garden in Blowing Rock takes gardening to the extreme
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By Ross Howell Jr. • Photographs by Sam Froelich
oogle “extreme gardening” and you’ll get some tantalizing results — how to create an organic garden in the Southwestern desert, for example, or how to grow perennials in the Alaskan wild. Gardening where the environment offers scarcely any organic material and precious little moisture is tough. As is raising flowers where the earth can freeze to a depth of 10 feet in winter, and summer blossoms are a salad bar for moose.
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But if your search algorithm doesn’t yield the garden Monica Perry has created in Blowing Rock it really should. Perry’s magnum opus clings to a five-story section of a precipitous sandstone face of the Johns River Gorge, the site of an old growth forest and the Johns River headwaters, lying some 3,000 feet below the town of Blowing Rock. I’m sitting in the living room at “TimberTop,” Monica and Chip Perry’s home. To my right are big windows looking onto a deck.
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Window boxes mounted along the railing dazzle my eyes with red petunias, gold and magenta cockscomb, sweet potato vine and more. At least a dozen hummingbirds dive and flash among feeders placed among the flowers. Beyond lies the grand, blue expanse of mountains and sky. To my left is a native greenstone fireplace that reaches from floor to ceiling. Above the fireplace mantel is a landscape painting of a mountain stream that flows right toward me. On the wall are more landscapes. Perry comes in and notices my interest in the paintings. She puts me right at ease with a quick smile. “Most of those are North Carolina painters,” she says. As she takes a seat opposite me, her dark hair just brushes her shoulders under a jaunty, Newport straw hat with black bow. Her skin is fair; her eyes the color of the pale blue view out the windows. “See?” she asks. “I didn’t even have time to get the dirt from my fingernails.” She holds out the strong hands of a gardener for me to inspect. I know she’s spent the morning working with a crew of men sprucing up her garden for photographer Sam Froelich and me because when I drove up to the house, I counted no fewer than eight pickups in the driveway and along the road. “Is this the Perry residence?” I asked a man walking by with a leaf blower on his back. He nodded. “Are you the writer?” he asked.
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When I said yes, he motioned toward the front door, and started to unsling the blower. With that, several other men appeared and began packing gear into pickup beds. By the time I was at the door, they’d pretty well cleared out. And now I’m sitting with the architect of it all., who looks fresh and trim as a flower. “Oh, I’m a North Carolina mountain girl through and through,” Perry says. Her mother’s people — Scots-Irish, with a great-grandmother who was Tuscarora — were from Little Switzerland. As a young girl, Perry spent time in Mitchell County. But most of her growing up was done in Catawba County. Later she would study speech language pathology at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, and for 21 years, she worked as a speech therapist at various North Carolina locations. The house was built in 1946 by J.E. “Ed” Broyhill and his wife, Satie. Born in Wilkes County, Broyhill attended Appalachian Training School for Teachers — now Appalachian State University — in Boone. After serving in World War I, he worked in the furniture industry with his older brother Tom, who owned the Lenoir Furniture Corporation. While still working full-time in his brother’s business, Ed founded Lenoir Chair Company in 1926, the same year Tom built Creekside, a grand house in Blowing Rock next to the Glen Burney Trail. In 1929 the brothers joined forces and were able to expand operations during the Depression by purchasing smaller manufacturing businesses in the area. After Tom’s health failed, Ed assumed responsibility for running the companies. Spring 2020
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During World War II, Ed headed the Furniture Industry Advisory Committee of the Office of Price Administration, helping the federal government divide resources between civilian and military needs. Years later, he became a member of the Republican Party National Committee. “Oh, yes,” Perry says. “Richard Nixon came right to this house. We’ve seen the picture.” The first major garden project on the property was initiated while the Broyhills were owners. As the story’s told, Satie Broyhill was concerned that she might not be invited to join the Blowing Rock Garden Club because, well — she didn’t have a garden. TimberTop was connected to the road by a wooden platform used to park cars. The Broyhills had the wooden platform removed. Steel beams were installed, over which a concrete pad some two feet thick was poured. A hole was left in the concrete to accommodate an old hardwood growing between the house and road. Topsoil was hauled in and voilà! Satie had her garden. Intervening owners had left the tree growing through its concrete collar when the Perrys bought the house in 2007. When they decided to improve what was a front yard with a few shrubs, they called in an arborist to examine the old tree’s root system using sonar equipment. Sadly, it was too far gone and had to be removed. The Perrys dedicated a portion of the front yard to a driveway, installing Spring 2020
massive stone pavers 2 feet thick and between 3 and 6 feet in length. Monica found an enormous copper kettle once used to cook apples and had it placed over the hole in the concrete to serve as a planter. We walk by it as we start our garden tour. The kettle is loaded with bright flowers and resonates with the hum of a multitude of happy pollinators flitting about. Along the front of the house there are big earthen planters with an abundance of flowers. There’s a space of green grass where Monica tells me her Boston terriers like to play. “It’s gated and fenced, so it’s safe,” she says. She points out the attractive stone pillars of a fence along the road, joined by beautifully styled metal sections. “When they were rebuilding the road, they wanted to install those galvanized guardrails you see on the highway,” Perry says. She was able to convince the town to let her install (at her own expense) the attractive fence standing there now. We walk onto the road. Perry points out how she also landscaped the mountainside rising nearly vertically opposite the house. “See the ground cover?” she asks, then tells me she had more than 12,000 pachysandra set along the roadside and up the bank. I ask her to repeat the number, because I can’t believe I heard it correctly. In the dappled sunlight by the road are wild geraniums, heartleaf brunnera and native ferns. Perry points out the mossy face of an escarpment above the road. She tells me she had the stone sprayed with three different moss “milkSEASONS • STYLE & DESIGN 67
shakes” until the moss finally took. Farther up the rock face we can see wild ginger and Solomon’s seal, shaded by mountain laurel and native buckeye trees. Now we’re at the place in the road where the story of Monica Perry’s extreme garden begins. On July 4, 2013, the town of Blowing Rock saw plenty of fireworks, and not just the kind you’d expect. Fierce thunderstorms caused flash floods in several areas, including the section of the two-lane road next to TimberTop. The road collapsed, sending earth and boulders tumbling into the Johns River Gorge below. What remained was a gash of barren rock in the mountainside, tangled with tree roots and debris. Monica Perry resolved not only to restore it, but to improve it. She hired stonemason David Mason of nearby Todd to begin rehabilitating the mountain. In just over a year’s time, Mason and his crews brought in some 270 tons of concrete and stone to the site. Yes, I asked Perry to repeat that number, too. We look into the distance. Perry indicates the mountains: Grandfather, Grandmother (“That’s the lower one with the tower,” she says), Hawksbill, Table Rock. She gestures towards a pale blue peak in the distance. “Mount Mitchell,” she says. “That’s 82 miles.” We peer over the edge of the precipice. I’m only able to discern concrete where Perry points it out to me, so cleverly is it formed to simulate original stone. Boulders — some of them cantilevered into the mountain and strengthened with rebar — are placed strategically to support planting areas. Perry tells me about the hidden metal cleats used to secure belaying lines when gardeners are tending some of the more precipitous spaces. I’m flummoxed by the magnitude of what she’s described. “Monica,” I venture, summoning the courage to ask, “was there ever a morning when Chip looked at you over breakfast and asked if you’d completely
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lost your mind?” “No,” she answers matter-of-factly, “because he has his cars.” A Harvard M.B.A., Chip Perry was the first employee of Autotrader.com, and went on to become CEO of the company, which was later sold. He recently retired from another auto-related online company, which he also headed. Chip maintains a private collection of automobiles in Blowing Rock. “He’s convinced he’s the only one who holds the polishing rag just right when he’s working on them,” she concludes. We turn from the gorge and walk the length of the house to its other side, where a natural wood lattice overhangs the entrance to a stone path. As we step through, I can see into the forest way below the house. A stream descends the steep incline, crisscrossing in stages, as does the path before us. Monica points out the lime-green color of the trim on the house. “There was quite a discussion about that,” she says, smiling. “It’s my favorite color, and if you have a shady garden spot you want to brighten up, there’s nothing better for it,” she continues. To settle her point, she directs my attention to a shaded terrace above the path. It’s brightened by lime green creeping jenny. I nod in agreement. She tells me when she started planning a path here there was nothing except a few trees. There were none of the native rhododendrons that cover so many of the steep ravines in this part of the world. “See the maple there?” she asks. She tells me she would crawl — because of the steep incline — to the tree and hang onto it, mapping in her mind’s eye a path down. Now we descend its stone steps to a pleasant stop she calls the Shade Terrace. The terrace features a handsome stone bench built by David Mason and his crew. The bench is overhung by native witch hazel, the shrub’s purchase on the incline a little tenuous. Perry shows me the metal support she had added to
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help the plant withstand winter winds and snows. We pause for a moment. She explains that the whole garden — now comprising five stories — was designed in this way. “I didn’t have a master scheme,” Perry says. “We’d just build a path to somewhere, and then we’d build another.” She points up toward the roadway, maybe two stories above us. “There were two big drainpipes up there,” she says. “They were so ugly.” They were able to figure out a way to do away with the big pipes and install a bed for the creek. They built another path leading deeper into the gorge, and a footbridge over a pool of the creek. “It was just a puddle,” Perry says. So she found a spot farther into the gorge where a coy pond was cantilevered into the side of the mountain. A system was set up to circulate water from the pond back up the incline. We make our way down the path toward the pond, listening to the play of water in the stream. As we near the pond, the surface roils with activity. Perry’s coy are hungry, and they’re making sure she understands. As I approach, they move back into the shade at the edge of the pond, unsure about my presence as an interloper. They’re beautiful fish. Some are bright orange with ink-blue patches, some are orange and white, others are bright gold. There are 20 of them, Perry tells me, and each is named, with monikers like Marilyn, Diamond Jim, Sunshine, Molly Brown, Peepers and Lady Chablis — a platinum-colored fish with pale blue eyes, Perry’s favorite. When I ask about winter temperatures, she explains that there are heating rods at the pond’s bottom to ensure it won’t freeze solid in winter. We’re about to embark on a path Perry calls the Boston Microduct (“Boston” is her maiden name; microduct, wordplay on “viaduct”), which takes us below the house and starts back toward the precipice where the road washed away. I look up toward the house and roadway, five stories above us. Even lower
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in the gorge beneath us is what Perry has named the Wilderness Path. Of necessity these pathways are narrow. Perry steps to the side, so that I can get a better view. My shoulder catches the brim of her hat, sending it spinning. But the gods who rule the winds of Blowing Rock are merciful this day. The hat settles on the stone pathway, and Perry rescues it and has it placed on her head before I’ve even stooped to reach for it. We’re approaching a spot just below an area designated the Sunset Terrace. Here the gorge falls sharply from the pathway, and there is no railing to hold onto. I’m fairly good with heights, but if it’s not vertigo I’m feeling right now, it’s vertigo’s first cousin. I step back from the edge, focusing on the near-at-hand. I count six tiger swallowtail butterflies perched high on a blossom of Joe-Pye weed overhanging the path. Intoxicated with nectar, the butterflies are oblivious to us. A chorus of other pollinators drones in blossoms on other stalks of the Joe-Pye, and a black swallowtail flicks its wings on a blossom at the very top of the plant. We continue on various paths. There are cockscombs in a variety of colors, creeping jenny, black-eyed susans, and other bright flowers scattered in planting areas by bare rock faces, along with azaleas, “Brass Buckle” Japanese holly, “Lion’s Mane” maples, and buckeye trees. We cross Perry Pass, a cliff of native rock jutting from the face of the gorge — where I’m especially grateful for the newly installed metal-and-rope hand railings — to see the Secret Garden, a secluded little terrace with stone benches and a fire pit overhung by native rock. We head back toward the house by way of the Path to Nowhere, which, when first installed, Perry tells me, had no destination. So she had what she calls her “gazebo” built there. It was quite a project. Pilings were jackhammered in, building materials lowered by crane and concrete carried down the gorge by hand. The result is not what I think of when I say “gazebo.” It is one of the most beautiful rooms I’ve ever seen, featuring on one side a breathtaking view of the Johns River Gorge; Spring 2020
on the other a view of the massive, mossy rock face on which the house is built, with native rhododendrons shading a pair of enormous Jack-in-the-pulpits. As we near a back deck of the house, we see two figures making their way down the stone pathway by the stream where we first started our tour. They’re carrying buckets and hand tools. We wave to them, and Perry tells me they are Anne Calta, who is the gardener, and Ryan Visingard, her assistant. “This wouldn’t be possible without them,” Perry says. “They manage the garden day-to-day and when Chip and I are traveling.” As I prepare to take my leave, Perry tells me she’d like to show me a special place. We walk down the long second-level deck of TimberTop. Near the midpoint are two big chaise lounges. “We’d make up one of the chaise lounges for my mother when she visited,” Perry says. “She always slept out here. We lost her two years ago.” She tells me how proud her mother was of what she and Chip had accomplished at the house and garden, how whenever she was coming to visit, she would ask on the phone, “Do you have my bed made yet?” I step to the railing. The view where the chaise lounges sit is dizzying. The rock face plummets away from us. The gorge turns sharply toward the house, ending right below where we stand. I spot a tan speck veering over the dark green canopy of trees in the gorge. It’s hundreds of feet below our feet, a red-tailed hawk, as near as I can make out, hunting just as its ancestors had when this was the land of the Cherokee. Closer by, I admire the contrast of Perry’s bright flowers with the warm-colored
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stone walkways of her garden. Classical Roman religion described an element of landscape called genius loci, a protective “spirit of a place.” As I gaze over the mountains from this vantage, I feel certain such a spirit stands guard here. “I see why your mother loved it,” I say. Somehow that doesn’t seem to be enough to say, but it’s all that comes to me. I ask Perry what she hopes people will remember about her garden. “If they remember anything about me, I’d want them to remember that I was brave enough to create an extreme garden,” Perry answers, “and that I wasn’t daunted by not having ‘the easy yard’ to keep up. “The more gardening I do,” she continues, “the more I like it. Especially the heavy stuff. You can stand back and say, ‘I did that.’” Weeks later, I find my thoughts returning to Perry’s garden. Is she taking a respite from spreading mulch to watch cloud shadows drift over the treetops of the Johns River Gorge? Or feeding her beautiful, gluttonous coy in the pond? Is she weeding flowers on a precipice, a belaying rope tied snugly about her waist? Monica Perry is the person who introduced me to the concept of “extreme gardening.” And I’m grateful. h Ross Howell Jr. is doing research for a new historical novel. If you have a garden topic you’d like to read about, email ross.howell1@gmail.com. (Please note the number “1” in the address.)
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HUNT & GATHER
History, Hipsters and What the Heck? There’s no jaywalking in Jamestown By Nancy Oakley • Photographs by Amy Freeman
“L
et me carry that.” Amy is reaching out her left hand, her right grappling cameras, lenses and a backpack. “You’ve got your hands full,” I say, pausing. “Don’t you trust me with the
light saber?” “Do you know how much that thing costs?” Then I realize I’m holding the cylindrical carrying case containing the precious wand upside down, so the case’s lid, precariously held in place by a single Velcro strip, points toward the ground. “Oops,” I mumble. “One time, I caught Peter waving it on the dance floor at a wedding we were shooting,” she adds, snatching the case as we amble toward the crosswalk of Jamestown’s Main Street while the afternoon begins to fade. Laid up with a ruptured Achilles tendon, the other half of Team Freeman is hardly in any condition to “wander mindlessly,” so as his stand-in, yours truly finds herself exploring “new gigs, fresh digs and fun swigs” in Jamestown. We started our excursion at Triad Marketplace, the latest occupant of the old Shubal Coffin House — or as many refer to it, “the Yellow House.” You can’t miss it, with its bright ochre-colored, board-and-batten siding and wraparound porch. Or its own historical marker explaining that around 1855 Dr. Shubal Coffin had built his house overlooking the new railroad tracks “to enjoy improved access and visibility afforded by train travel.” And perhaps several years hence, to load wounded soldiers straight off the train directly into the medical practice of said doctor with the macabre surname. At least that’s a conjecture of Steven Beck, owner of Triad Marketplace, whose address, 109, is heralded by a sleek wooden sign out front spelling out in skinny black letters: “OneOH9.” It’s a teaser for yet more, singular items inside. The “parsed-out” series of rooms, as Beck describes
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the space, accommodates all manner of locally made wares — jewelry, clothing, home décor, pottery — and in its large, sunny front room downstairs, a showroom for Beck’s line of handmade furniture, Black Dog Wood Creations (so named for Beck’s and wife, Chelsey’s fondness for black Labs), as well as a small café. A landscaper by trade, Beck had long made furniture on the side and approached Triad Marketplace when it was situated in a strip mall off of Greensboro’s Lewiston Road. In time, the store’s previous owner Deanna Privette, a Summerfield artist, expressed her desire to sell the operation. Was Beck interested? “The answer was: ‘I’ll take this on, but basically, I’ve got to move the business closer to home, closer to where I’m from, where I’ve got more ties and connections to get this thing going,’” Beck recalled. He had also noticed how Jamestown was growing and attracting younger folks like him. With Privette coaching him on the ins and outs of retail, Beck reopened the business in the Coffin House last September. Its inventory for locally sourced goods is a must (and Privette helped him curate those, as well). “It’s got to have a local footprint,” he insisted. And that includes the farmhouse-style tables, benches (cut down from local church pews) and consoles that come out of his own sawdust-covered workshop down the road. He confesses to “not having formal training; I just go with what I like, what looks good.” Chelsey’s brainchild? The sleek prints, such as the address number out front, and several like it, bearing witticisms and homespun wisdom, and GPS co-ordinates of heartfelt locations — from customers’ homes to alma maters — all them set inside Steven’s wooden frames. They cover the walls of the large downstairs room that abuts the café, whose simple menu advertises coffee, kombucha, wine, beer, bbq, chicken salad, soup. “The café is sugar-free and gluten-free,” Beck offers, explaining its origins: “Me being a dude, there’s going to be dudes coming in with kids and moms to do some good shopping. And they’re going to be like, ‘There’s nothing here for me; I’m going to be bored to death.’ And I’m like, ‘What better way o incorporate everybody than use food or drink?’” And a flat-screen TV, to boot. It all part and parcel of Jamestown’s “small-town feel,” that attracted Beck and his clientele who also want proximity to the Triad’s larger cities — and another entrepreneur, Bridgid Murphy, owner of Cakes by B’s Blue House Bakery. She and her husband, Bob, had bounced around to various restaurant management jobs in the Arlington, Virginia, area before landing in N.C. Jamestown’s quaintness appealed to them, and they opened the bakery just three years ago. A cozy spot owing to its bead-board interior smelling of coffee and flour, the bakery sells everything from croissant sandwiches to dog treats and attracts a loyal following, mostly students, who quietly pore over laptops. “Everything’s made from scratch,” said Bridgid, who proudly explained that husband, Bob sources the sourdough locally for their bread. “It adapts to where it’s created,” she added. But as you’d expect, the popular items are the sugary Spring 2020
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treats in the display cases. I sampled a thick, chewy shortbread cookie while Amy ordered a coffee and asked which is the best-seller. “Anything with devil’s food,” Bridgid replied, pointing to a large square of chocolate crowned by a white rose made of vanilla buttercream frosting. “Some people share it; others dive right in,” she continue. “That’s why we call it ‘What the Heck?’” Though it’s tough to tear ourselves away from Comfort Food Central as we’ve dubbed it, Amy and I were eager to peruse eye candy of a different sort, which is how we came to arguing at the crosswalk. “Nothing coming,” I say, one foot in the street, oblivious to the orange hand of the traffic sign. “No, wait!” Amy admonishes. “Oh good grief! You’re so rules-y!” I rejoin. “I am!” She admits in a torrent of giggles. “I am a rule-follower.” “And I’m a jaywalk-er, jaywalk-er, watchin’ cars brake for meee,” I sing, in between my own unsuppressed giggles. It’s the kind of silly, easy conversation between colleagues, whose bonds of friendship have been forged during so many adventures, from the sweltering heat of Old Salem in July to the teethchattering cold of a January photo shoot, all amid frantic deadlines. We dutifully wait for the light to change before crossing Main Street. And the wait is well worth it, once we set foot inside the fragrant domain of Susan Stringer, aka The Soap Lady. Where does the eye alight first? On the rows of glycerin soaps, lotions and potions, the colorful sun catchers or lawn ornaments? Stringer guides us toward her most recent wares: delicate soaps shaped like flowers — roses, daisies and succulents. ‘They’re my newest ones,” she says, unwrapping a small cake smelling of clover and aloe. At only $10 each, they’ve become popular bridesmaid gifts, she adds. Stringer goes on to explain how she started making soaps 25 years ago, some sold under private labels at High Point Market. “The shop is for fun,” she laughs, before mentioning her ancestral roots in Charlotte and reminiscing about growing up in the Sedgefield area. “Did you grow up here?” she inquires. Indeed we did, I in Greenboro, Amy in Asheboro. And we all have a good laugh, we three Carolina girls, tossing around our native “y’all’s.” By the time we leave, the sun is sinking and our tummies are rumbling. There are so many options to sate our appetites – Blue Moon Oyster Bar, Simply Thai or Will Ragsdale’s new operation, Black Powder Smokehouse, a barbecue restaurant and catering company in the longtime location of Hughes Oil Company. The restaurant’s name acknowledges Jamestown’s past as
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a manufacturing center for long rifles. We could always grab a bottle from Potent Potables back across the street, and one of the salty, crunchy eats proffered by the red food truck parked out front. One whiff from “Baconessence” as it’s called, makes us both weak in the knees and for a fleeting moment we nearly succumb to temptation. But our hearts win the battle with our senses. “Southern Roots?” Amy asks. “I was hoping you’d suggest it,” I say, recalling the restaurant’s sinful bread pudding I once shared with Seasons editor, Jim Dodson. (Oops! Sorry, to let the cat outta the bag, Jim. Guess Wendy’s onto your dietary transgression now.) The simple interior is inviting, with its large, basketlike chandeliers and the downtown lights twinkling through the large picture window where we settle in. Owner Lisa Hawley, whom many credit with launching Jamestown’s renaissance, approaches with a bright smile and warm greeting. She regales us with tales of moving and a recent beach trip as we order: an iceberg wedge for Amy and a crab cake app for me. But like everything else on Southern Roots’ menu, there’s nothing run-of-the-mill about this crustaceous creation that sits on a fried green tomato on greens and is topped with slaw with cranberries, plus a sprinkle of roasted almonds, all of its flavors fused with Thousand Island dressing. And to wash it down: a refreshing cocktail made with Effen Cucumber Vodka and tonic, garnished with a pretty watermelon radish and slice of cucumber. “Cheers!” I raise my glass. “Cheers,” Amy echoes. “Well done,” I say. “Today was a darn sight easier than others. Remember the doghouse shoot . . . in the thunderstorm?” “That is the most scared I have been driving a car — ever!” Amy exclaims. We lapse into easy laughter again. “Hey look at the moon,” she observes, her photographer’s eye taking over. “I love it when it’s coming through the clouds like that.” I glance up to see the orb gradually brightening in the sky. “It’s almost full,” I note. “Is it the Pink Moon or the Flower moon?” I wonder aloud. It doesn’t matter — Pink or Flower, Harvest or Wolf — its presence blesses a satisfying day and the efforts of two comrades-in-arms, the meticulous rule-follower and the irreverent rule-breaker, each inspired by the simple pleasures of this historic little town, now awakening from its slumber to blossom once again. h Nancy Oakley is the senior editor of Seasons and its flagship, O.Henry. Spring 2020
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LIFE&HOME
HOUSE FOR SALE
Mayor’s Manse
A historic home is a microcosm of Winston-Salem heritage
I
By Nancy Oakley f the walls of 1121 Arbor Road could talk, they’d divulge so much about the golden past of Winston-Salem. To a casual onlooker, the sprawling, two-story structure resembles many of its gracious counterparts in the Twin City’s leafy old Buena Vista neighborhood. But a more thorough examination of the house’s provenance reveals its roots as a stronghold in the city’s political and business and cultural scene. Though it has often been referred to as “the Bowman Gray house,” for indeed, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco President and Chairman Bowman Gray II (son of Bowman Gray and Nathalie Lyons Gray) lived there starting in 1946, but the house’s original owner was George W. Coan, who served as the Twin City’s mayor for several terms, as president of the airport and N.C. Administrator of the WPA during the Great Depression. And of course, if you’re the major politico of a tobacco boomtown, who else would you hire to design your home but Charles Barton Keen? Its brick façade seems rather ordinary compared to Keen’s Craftsmanstyle signature, Reynolda House, and several similar stucco-and-green-tile-roof houses in the area. But like the god Janus, the house has two faces: Its rear exterior, covered in white clap-
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board framing a bluestone terrace overlook a lush 2.3-acre park — part of Reynolda Park — designed by Keen’s sidekick, landscape architect Charles Thomas Warren Sears. (In later years, local horitucultural guru Chip Callaway would spruce up the property.) The house’s interior spanning something like 8,100 square feet is no less grand: a sweeping staircase leading to the front entry, plaster molding adorning the living room, a stately wood-paneled library, six bedrooms, five-and-a-half baths. But that’s not to say the house has not adapted to the times. Its kitchen, perfect for entertaining, has been fully renovated and gas logs heat the library where you retire on chilly afternoons. It has served well its most recent owners, Anne Philips Copenhaver and her late husband, W. Andrew “Andy” a longtime partner and stalwart of Womble Carlyle Sandridge and Rice, now Womble Bond Dickinson. But as spring approaches, the house beckons new occupants who, among the ghosts of the past, will gaze out on that bluestone terrace with its seemingly endless verdant view, and dream of future about to blossom. h Vital Details: 1121 Arbor Road, Winston-Salem
Priced at: $2.3 million Contact: Stewart Austin, Leonard Ryden Burr (336) 837-8924 or stewart.austin@goLRB.com
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50 MILLER STREET • WINSTON-SALEM, NC 27104 • 336.722.1155 • WWW.SALEMKITCHEN.COM
Spring 2020
LIFE&HOME
THE LANGUAGE OF HOME
Mulch Ado Or, a buried life By Noah Salt
E
very year about this time — late winter, early spring — trucks towing flatbeds of pine needles begin to appear like clockwork, roaming the neighborhood in search of customers who wish to bury their trees and flowerbeds with blankets of longleaf pine needles. Keep in mind that there are almost no pine trees in the neighborhood where we live. It’s an urban forest, as it were, full of mature hardwood trees, including many beautiful old oaks, dogwoods, poplars, redbuds and elms. Speaking purely as a gardener who believes in the rule of natural landscaping, it mildly offends my eye to see a beautiful hardwood tree buried beneath a mound so neatly arranged. As evidence of this arboreal travesty, I cite the homeowner who lives around the corner and demands that his lawn crew “fluff” up his seasonal deliveries of fresh pine needles so that his trees and flowerbeds look like they’re tucked into bed at Kensington Palace. A botanist pal informs me foot-thick coverings of pine needles actually rob tree roots of vital water and natural nourishment, especially if new layers are added every season. On the other hand, who am I to tell someone what to put on his shrubs and flower beds? Even so, a nice load of locally made hardwood mulch would go so much further toward naturally beautifying and protecting vulnerable flower beds, trees and shrubs. The benefits of mulch have been known as long as there have been human beings interested in coaxing plants out of the ground. We are talking at least millennia here, Folks, the epic moment Stone Age gardeners discovered that spreading decomposing matter on living plants to be an excellent way of boosting growth and inhibiting weeds. If the discovery of mulch wasn’t quite on par with, say, the invention of the garden cart wheel or harnessing fire, it nevertheless proved to be a revolutionary development that advanced the capacity of early civilizations to feed and sustain life. Archeological discoveries of ancient middens — places where
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early inhabitants dumped everything from animal waste to broken tools — have yielded rich soil and intimate details about the lifestyles of our hunting and gathering forebears. Mulching today is estimated to be a $1 billion dollar annual industry— often referred to as the “Silent Gardener” — using just about every material imaginable to make mulch. The English word “mulch” probably comes from the German word “molsch,” which means “soft and beginning to decay.” The list of useful mulch ingredients includes, but is certainly not limited to, discarded food scraps, chopped up newspapers, grass clippings, seaweed, peanut and pecan shells, peat moss, wood chips, tree bark, autumn leaves, and cardboard. Even carpet scraps and vulcanized rubber recycled from old tires are commonplace in modern mulch piles. The truly eco-dedicated gardener makes his or her own mulch by composting vegetable matter and any of the natural ingredients listed above. In general terms, a properly attended organic composting pile produces mulch that is even more nutrient-rich than the most commercial varieties of mulch available. My own wife recently brought home a barrel-like contraption and announced we were joining the crusade to reduce our carbon footprint and save the planet by composting our table scraps, yard wastes and so forth. A lidded container in the kitchen soon appeared on the kitchen counter to collect said materials, though early one morning I mistook it for the coffee container and tried to make breakfast coffee out of week-old decomposing lettuce. Nah, I’m joking. Actually, making mulch-ado about the tons of waste we produce everyday is probably a good thing for our gardens and the planet. This spring, when I do spread a shredded hardwood mulch around my shrubs and trees, I will use what a leading urban forester calls the 3-foot mulch rule — applying a circle three feet in diameter, 3 inches deep and 3 inches from the trunk. I think my ancient gardening ancestors would agree that’s a pretty good rule. Just don’t ask me to tuck my hardwoods in with pine needles. h SEASONS • STYLE & DESIGN 79
LIFE&HOME HOMEWORDS
Confessions of a Horticulturist
One man’s lifelong passion for growing things By Phil Koch
A
s a young boy, gardening was not last on my mind. It wasn’t even on the list. The first backyard I ever had was concrete. It was four flights down. No trees to be seen anywhere. Central Park was the nearest grassy area to wrestle and play tackle football on. We needed to take the trolley to get there. During World War II, 9-year-old kids in New York City spent much time at school, church, air raid drills and rationing — for the war effort. So it was that neighborhood kids from the tenements in East 56th Street were invited to plant gardens in some of the highest price sections of the City. Alongside the East River Drive near 64th Street was a grass-lined walkway owned by the Rockefeller Foundation. A neighborhood action group arranged for kids like me to have small Victory Gardens. It was a 200-square-feet patch — my first garden. The planting, weeding and tending yielded things such as lettuce and cucumbers to bring home. Beginning the following year, 1945, I spent the next three summers on a small family farm in New England. It was a different life for a kid from the East Side of New York. There were cows to milk, hay to harvest and a real, serious garden that produced food that the family needed to preserve for winter. That experience sowed seeds of vocational interest. In 1954, (now age 19) I enrolled in an agricultural college to major in plant protection technology — a fascinating combination of science and agriculture (insect, disease and weed control.) When I attended school early to try out for the football team, others told me that the major was available in both the schools of agriculture or horticulture. There was a difference in the “learn by doing” curriculum. All agriculture students were required to perform 13 weeks of “Barn Duty” — six weeks tending cows, two slopping hogs, chickens, horses etc. Every horticulture student was required to identify more than 300 plants and shrubs, learning both common and scientific names. The ag option seemed like hard work. I became a horticulture major. One of the courses in horticulture was “Vegetable Growing.”
80 SEASONS •
STYLE
& DESIGN
A classmate and I designed and planted a 30 x 30-foot garden. Of course, we “chemical specialists” weren’t going to pull weeds like our less technically informed classmates. But we made a classic error. Measuring out the weed killer, it seemed like too little. Better add more. We applied the herbicide generously. Then we applied the leftover so as not to waste it. Two weeks later our plot looked like a moonscape. The ground was sterile. No weeds. No veggies. Nothing! The professor wasn’t happy. But he empathized with the lesson learned. As life evolved, my wife and I moved to Greensboro. The joys of home ownership included the urge to garden. Through the years I have grown sweet corn — harvested by raccoons the day before we were to pick it. There were tomatoes — that attracted box turtles who ate only the bottom of the lowest hanging tomatoes they could reach. I’ve grown zucchini — which attracted nobody. Zucchini is the gift that keeps on giving — at the same time your neighbors are trying to give away theirs. Much of home ownership gardening now is maintenance. Keeping the grass mowed and shrubs pruned is a joy, but only when you are young and have the right equipment. There’s the social pressure to look good (or good enough.) My yard was neat but not a showplace. I’ve kept the fact that I was a horticulture major a secret. That only would add pressure. My career in agricultural chemicals marketing was a good cover. Now in my 80s, I pay people to do the landscaping and maintenance work. I handle the flowers. The annual soil-mixing, planting and fertilizing are things I enjoy. Flowers are lovely, colorful, but above all, thirsty. I don’t recall a horticultural class in hose maintenance, leak-fixing while staying dry or how to physically drag a hose all over the yard. The joys of gardening are turning more into memories. It’s hard to garden with a cane in one hand. As I age, I am revealing more of my past life. I am proud to call myself a horticulturist. Everyone knows better than to ask me questions for fear of getting my life history with the advice. h Born in New York City Phil Koch moved to Greensboro in 1975 with his wife, Anne, and four children. He retired from Ciba-Geigy agricultural division in 1994. In 2012, he returned to college and graduated with a degree in history in 2017—- at 82, the oldest ever to graduate from UNCG.
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