A coffee house may be brewing for Summit Avenue
When a coffee shop wants to be on a street that has seen better days take it as a sign the thoroughfare is on the rebound.
The Greensboro Historic Preservation Commission will review a rezoning request to allow a coffee shop in one of Summit Avenue's best looking old houses. The commission will meet Wednesday at 4 p.m. in the city council chamber.
The two-story house at 623 Summit attracts attention because of its immaculate condition on a street where a few houses aren't so neat.
When the surrounding Charles B. Aycock Neighborhood was approved for listing on the National Register of Historic Places some years ago, the register application identified 623 Summit as an "eclective foursquare" house. That means its architecture is of many types.
The application also said the house was built between 1910-15 by traveling salesman Jesse Keith.
Stefan-Leigh Kuns Geary, a city Department of Housing and Community Development staff member who works with the city's three historic districts, says the actual construction year was 1913, according to tax records.
That was when Summit Avenue was considered the city's gold coast. Big homes belonging to the Cones, Sternbergers and other people prominent with Cone Mills lined both sides of the street.
A street car line ran down the center. It carried baseball fans from downtown to minor league baseball games played from 1902 to 1929 at Cone Athletic Park, past the Summit and Bessemer Avenue intersection.
Summit began to go shabby in the 1960s. Since the early 1980s, after the neighborhood became a local historic district, the street has showed slow signs of improvement. Two once grand houses across from the 623 house are being restored to their former beauty for residential use.
The city and neighborhood are working on a master plan that could bring beauty, charm and busineses, homes and apartments to Summit.
After years of residential use, the 623 Summit House was purchased by businessman Stanley Montgomery, who restored it for offices. The Greensboro Women's Resource Center occupied the house for awhile and is now located in a new building across the street.
Mongomery is seeking the rezoning. He could not be reached for comment.
"The interior is absolutly gorgeous," says Geary, who attended an opening house there recently.
To her, a coffee shop, would be "just the type of business that Summit Avenue wants to see.''
The historic preservation commission will only make a recommendation about rezoning. The recommendation will be sent to the Greensboro Zoning Commission.