Enjoy a free walking tour of College Hill and Aycock neighborhoods
It's almost over - National Preservation Month - but there's still time to enjoy two neighborhood walking tours sponsored by Preservation Greensboro Inc.
Wednesday at 7 p.m., the tour will cover Piety Hill, now known as the College Hill Historic District. It's boundaries are approximately between the Greensboro College campus and the eastern edge of the UNCG campus.
It was first called Piety Hill after the opening of Methodist-affiliated Greensboro College on a hill above downtown in the 1830s. Methodist preachers and lay people built homes in the neighborhood around the college.
Some of those homes remain, including the Troy-Bumpass House, now a bed and breakfast.
Many College Hill houses date to the early 20th century, with varying architectural styles, including an abundance of Queen Ann-style houses.
There's plenty of craftsman-style bungalows, plus the Spanish Colonial Revival Winburn Court Apartments on Tate Street. The Winburn was designed in 1929 by Lorenzo Winslow, a Greensboro architect who went on to become architect of the White House. He did the White House renovations in the late 1940s that resulted in the Truman Balcony.
The College Hill tour will be led by Benjamin Briggs, Preservation Greensboro's executive director. It will start in front of Tate Street Coffee Shop.
On Wednesday, May 31, also at 7 p.m., the tour goes to the Charles B. Aycock Neighborhood, named for the middle school on Cypress Street that is the neighborhood's largest structure.
Split by Summit Avenue, the neighborhood was developed early in the 20th century by a subsidiary of Cone Mills, with the many of the earliest homes occupied by managers and executives of Cone.
Members of the Cone and Sternberger families had large houses on Summit Avenue. The Sternbergers were partners with the Cones in establishing the former Revolution Mill that was part of a cluster of mills near the Aycock neighborhood.
Mill co-founder Ceasar Cone persuaded the city to build Summit Avenue to connect with his mills. The street car went up the middle of the street. For years, the rails were a favorite way for people downtown to get to Cone Athletic Park, where minor league baseball was played from 1902 until 1929. The park is now the site of the Oaks Motel.
The Aycock tour will be led by Ashley Poteat, curator of Blandwood Mansion.
Also on this Wendesday and next, Blandwood Mansion, former home of 19th century Gov. John M. Morehead on West Washington Street downtown, will be open for free tours from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
