Until she closed on her home in Greensboro’s Lindley Park neighborhood, Margaret Winslow had never heard the term “possum-trot house” (one with a breezeway through the center), much less “informal duplex.” What she bought, she says, was a “train wreck” of both — a single-story structure built between 1913 and 1916, with no central air or heating and walls closing off parts of the living area. Of her decision to gut the 1,500-square-foot interior, she says, “I had to arm-wrestle with my contractor” because he thought that digging deep might not be worth it.
It was worth it. Hidden behind layers of cheap wallboard were the original beadboard walls — ceilings, too. Hardwood floors waited to be discovered and refinished. Behind one wall was the original brick fireplace, which has become an architectural focal point. Together with doors and furnishings that Winslow scavenged or inherited, those features landed the house on Preservation Greensboro’s annual tour.
Margaret Winslow’s home features an original wooden sign promoting her great-grandfather’s business.
The heart of the house is the renovated kitchen, whose cabinets and windows are in keeping with the home’s original feel. Also original? A wooden sign from the 1920s, advertising Winslow’s great-grandfather’s Edgecombe County business: E.C. Winslow’s Horses and Mules. Beside the lettering, a cartoon horse laughs silently, all these decades hence. Because when it comes to history, and challenges, and contractors, we all know, like Winslow, that whoever laughs last …
Preservation Greensboro’s Tour of Historic Homes & Gardens will be held on May 21-22. Call (336) 272-5003 or visit preservationgreensboro.org.
From its northernmost point in Corolla to its southern terminus on Cedar Island, this scenic byway — bound between sound and sea — links the islands and communities of the Outer Banks.
For the owner of The Country Biscuit, welcoming diners is the fulfillment of a decades-long dream. And diners’ dreams come true when they try the glazed biscuit doughnut holes.
Black bears are the embodiment of North Carolina’s adventurous spirit, immense and wild.
After nearly a century — or just a couple of years — these seafood restaurants have become coastal icons, the places we know, love, and return to again and again.
