preservation walk : elm street south

an evening stroll

with Preservation Greensboro

along my favorite street

in town

lime bikes all over

 i won't remember all the history,

but i'll give it a shot!

currently Natty Greene's...one of the first stops from the train depot back when it was a saloon, of course

was some sort of mercantile store or grocery...
now the lower level sells eye glasses & art

no idea what it was because i was seriously distracted
by all the cheesecakes in the window

the gray & red were/are one building, with the red the more originally-hued of the two

beautiful arches....i think at least the lower part was a drug store long ago.

was a publishing company back when it was originally constructed...& now it's Scuppernong (book store)

originally headquarters for Moses Cone
(the mill owner, along with his brother Cesar)

not on the tour...but so lovely. was a bank building, i believe.

a Brutalist parking garage (brutalist = raw concrete, kinda sorta, in French)

love it / hate it ...got to admire, at least the inset balcony windows.
looks 1960's but, actually, constructed in the '40's!

gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous
Meyers Department Store building
gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous

perennial favorite, the Kress Building

Kress Building, at the very tippy-top

 panning from Kress across to Elm Street Center

seriously, almost every building on Elm Street is just beautiful!

the top of the former drug store where Vick's VapoRub was first crafted
& where O'Henry worked as a very young man

iconic because of the SIT-INs

come take a tour!

 following the Woolworth Lettering

Brutalist office building near Center City Park

not on the tour - but a very lovely theatre that is one street west of Elm Street

you really should go on one of these walks!

~ superb ~

preservation walk : westerwood

it DID say to start at DoubleOaks,

so we all helped ourselves.

the b&b owners went with the flow,

the influx,

of sudden & uninvited guests roaming

through their preparations

for an engagement party

later in the day.

along the walk, next door to DoubleOaks

engagement bouquets at DoubleOaks

 the first of two interesting facts

along the preservation walk:

this is the oldest building in the neighborhood

& the only remaining building from an estate

called The Cedars (turn of the century; see link),

which was almost entirely destroyed by fire

in the late 1950's

(after it had turned from family estate

to a 'children's home')

The Cedars guest house & garage (due to being the first automobile owner in the city)

 we sidewalk-toured Neo-Classical, Craftsman, & Foursquare.

this golden brick one was not on the tour,

but i admired it anyway.

purple fleurs go POP

foursquare garden

 the second interesting fact:

before it was Westerwood (1919),

the land around The Cedars

was called The Highlands, then Oakwood Park.

On the tour, we were told that at least a section

of the current neighborhood was

a community called St. Paul's,

but I can find nothing on-line about this.

Likely named for the AME church

which no longer stands

(but whose location was pointed out),

and home to an African-American community

of craftsmen, tradesmen, & salesmen.

these are the three oldest houses

in the neighborhood (very early 1900's).

the original owner of this house was a plumber

the original owner of this house repaired cash registers

afterwards, we had lunch out at Revolution Mill

at Cugino Forno - YUM!

hubby reports that the peppers were super-hot

there's another walking tour this Wednesday.

meet you at the Green Bean at 7pm!

the first after & the last before

as in...

the FIRST blast after launching our two young men

& the LAST blast before i return to work!

~ so we headed to the mountains ~

numero uno for restaurants in Hickory...

solid but nothing to really write home about.

we were actually in town

for the MUSIC!

just love, love, love all these mill towns finding modern uses

for such beautiful buildings!

Amanda Shires was on tap tonight...

my hubby is frequently the idea-generator for these adventures -

i am the planner, reservation-maker, logistics figure-outer.

so we made it happen

& were center-stage for full effect.

playlist

just so happens,

she is married to Jason Isbell

(he formerly of the drive-by-truckers).

we saw them perform together

on his tour several years ago.

most awesome!

here's the link to check out her music:  http://amandashiresmusic.com/music/

great concert!

we got a bit of our mountain-fix in the next day,

heading up towards Boone,

with a stop at the Moses Cone Memorial Park

along the Blue Ridge Parkway...

we walked up to the grave site, too.

can never take Scotland out of this lass

moonflower / sunflower

 moonflower / sunflower with wind effects & buzzing bees

yay for the milkweed pods!!!

a walk with a photographer is slow-going.

blind shot up

butterflies, butterflies everywhere!

& en masse!

flutterflies buttering...or...

finally spied a Monarch!

back to the homestead for an upstairs self-guided tour!

first floor

second floor

a hat for setting out to find butterflies

in the dressing room

doors hiding doors behind doors

floor grate

third floor (off-limits)

what part of it looks like

there were MANY bathrooms!

each with a different color of accent tile!

toilette selfie

peek-a-boo tub-bathing

perhaps you can guess my favorite?

we made it to Boone for a very late lunch

& discovered we were there on move-in weekend

for AppState! oh, my.

for my PackGuy back in Raleigh

our go-to place for many years

tablerose

there was an entrepreneur on the street corner nearby

selling eclipse glasses for $15 each.

luckily, i bought ours at the Science Museum in Raleigh

for $2 each....

my preferred haul

a grand time was had by all!

now, back to regular programming.