Sherrod Park Historic District
The Sherrod Park Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. Portions of the content on this web page were adapted from a copy of the original nomination document. [‡]
Description
Sherrod Park Historic District is an eighteen acre, three block long district stretching along Woodrow Avenue in north central High Point, approximately ten blocks north of the central business district. This small subdivision was platted in 1926 into 66 lots, and by the mid-1930s Tudor Revival and Colonial Revival houses had been built on all but a few of the lots. All lots are approximately one-fourth acre in size, varying from 50 to 70 feet wide and 150 to 175 feet deep. With the exception of the infilling of Ranch dwellings on the unbuilt lots that remained after World War II, almost no changes have occurred to this 1920s and 1930s neighborhood. Forty-four houses and 29 garages, a total of 73 contributing buildings, were built by 1941, the end of the period of historical significance. Fifteen houses and 6 garages are post-1940 in date, a total of 21 noncontributing buildings. The overall landscape design of the subdivision is counted as one contributing site. Seventy-eight percent of the 95 total resources are contributing.
The subdivision, laid out on a small tract adjacent to already existing grid plan subdivisions, has all of its lots except for two on a single street, Woodrow Avenue, which curves on an approximate NE-SW axis. A.E. Taplin, the engineer who platted the development, continued the grid pattern of adjacent streets for Sherrod Park, but took advantage of an existing stream to create a dramatic landscape feature. The main entrance to the subdivision, approaching it to the south off Montlieu Avenue, is Brookside Drive, which is actually two narrow streets flanking a greenway through which a brook runs. Three of the platted lots flank the Sherrod Park entrance on Montlieu Avenue, but the west corner lot was not built upon until the 1950s, and this property is not included in the Sherrod Park Historic District boundaries. The east corner lot contains a modest frame Tudor style house built about 1926 (321 Montlieu Avenue, Hoskins-Flagler House) that is included in the Sherrod Park Historic District boundaries. The third lot contains a house (323 Montlieu Avenue) built in 1924 as part of the Montlieu subdivision, and so is not included in the Sherrod Park Historic District. The greenway is landscaped with grass and hardwood trees, and forms a cool glade that gives a picturesque focus to the district. Another charming feature, although accidental, is the gentle curve of the 300 block of Woodrow Avenue that echoes the shape of Montlieu Avenue one block to the south.
Mature landscaping contributes to the attractiveness of the Sherrod Park Historic District. The developer, Archibald Sherrod, used plantings to create an exclusive and beautiful ambiance for Sherrod Park. In newspaper advertisements of 1928, it is mentioned that J. Van Lindley was planting pin oaks forty feet apart on each side of Woodrow Avenue, with crepe myrtles spaced in between, and shrubs in the Brookside Drive greenway. Lindley owned Lindley Nurseries, one of the earliest and largest nurseries in North Carolina, located in Guilford County near Greensboro. Much of the original landscaping has survived. The sidewalk median now contains mature willow oaks and other hardwoods, creating a shady canopy over the street. Other landscape design amenities are the sidewalks running along both sides of Woodrow Avenue and the granite curbing throughout the subdivision.
One of the first houses erected in the new subdivision was a model home built by Sherrod in the middle of the subdivision at 311 Woodrow Avenue, the Earl Byrum House, in 1926 to serve as a sales office. This charming Tudor Revival cottage with steep, flared eaves, casement windows and pent roofs set a Tudor ambiance that determined the overall architectural character of the subdivision. Sherrod Park's dominant architectural style is the Tudor Revival, with nineteen characteristically Tudor style houses. The Thomas V. Long House at 215 Woodrow Avenue, believed to have been built as a speculative house in 1926 and one of the earliest houses in the subdivision, is the only stuccoed Tudor Revival house. Another early house, the Hoskins House at the entrance to the subdivision, at 321 Montlieu Avenue, is the only frame Tudor Revival style house. The relatively new technique of brick veneering, which was cheaper than load-bearing brick construction, was the preferred mode in Sherrod Park, and all of the other Tudors are of brick veneer construction, with stuccoing and half-timbering decoration in the gables and dormer windows of the picturesque roof lines. The typical Sherrod Park house is 1-1/2 stories tall, with three bedrooms and one bath. Only a handful of the houses have two full stories.
Other historic house styles in Sherrod Park include the Bungalow/Craftsman style, the eclectic mode, and the Colonial Revival style. Approximately seven houses built between 1927 and about 1931 have Craftsman Bungalow detailing such as wide overhanging roof eaves with exposed rafters and brackets, ample porches supported on short tapering upper columns resting on heavy piers, and shed dormer windows. The Walter Crissman House at 226 Woodrow Avenue and the W.L. Hepler House at 208 Woodrow Avenue are very similar Craftsman style houses, built in the 1927-1928 period. Each has a 1-1/2 story side section with a front entrance, an uncovered veranda, and a 2-story side section containing a porch with heavy brick posts. The O.D. McPherson House at 301 Woodrow Avenue, built about 1928, is one of the simplest Craftsman houses, with its gable front form, large front porch, and an intersecting cross-gable section to the rear. McPherson worked for Snow Lumber Company, and probably obtained the house plans from the company. The J. Clifton Moore House at 307 Woodrow Avenue, built about 1927, is a sophisticated Craftsman house with a Tudor Revival style shed dormer with casements. The S. Edward Montgomery House at 233 Woodrow Avenue, built about 1931, has a side gable roof with clipped gables, and a front gable porch and front gable shed dormer, all with heavy bracketed eaves.
A third stylistic category scattered throughout the Sherrod Park Historic District is the "eclectic," a mixture of Tudor, Classical and Colonial Revival, and Craftsman features. Architects of the 1920s prided themselves on how well they could integrate various romantic revival styles. Five houses, all built in the 1927-1929 period, reflect this style, and are among the most substantial and sophisticated designs in the district. The King-Hauser House at 227 Woodrow Avenue has the wide bracketed eaves of the Craftsman style, the steep picturesque gables of the Tudor Revival style, and an elegant classical front stoop and porch. The Robert A. Lloyd House at 303 Woodrow Avenue has Craftsman clipped gables and a recessed side porch combined with a classical stoop and lunette gable end window. The north side of the 300 block of Woodrow Avenue contains one of the most imposing row of houses in the Sherrod Park Historic District, four two-story brick houses. Three of these are "eclectic" in style: the Russell-Kester House at 323 Woodrow Avenue; the W.W. Preddy House at 327 Woodrow Avenue; and the James Walter Hinkle House at 329 Woodrow Avenue. The Russell-Kester House has Craftsman eaves and a Craftsman front dormer window, with a classical entrance stoop and symmetrical facade windows. The Preddy House has a horizontal emphasis created by its low hip roof and hipped front porch with overhanging eaves that gives a Prairie style feeling. The Hinkle House has a deep hip roof with hipped dormers, heavy eave brackets, and a Neoclassical style entrance stoop that spreads out as an open, balustraded veranda across the facade and around the corner to a side porch. Its plans were furnished by the Snow Lumber Company.
Another popular influence was the classical revival, seen in various forms such as the Neoclassical Revival and the Colonial Revival styles. Some seven of the contributing houses fit into this category. Two of the earliest are the W.A. Davis House at 232 Woodrow Avenue and the R.H. Garland House at 220 Woodrow Avenue, both built about 1928. The Davis House is a substantial but very simple 2-story brick house with a pent roof giving it a Colonial Revival feeling. The Garland House is a 1-story house that conveys the elegance of the Neoclassical Revival style through its Doric entrance porch that flows into an uncovered veranda on each side, the lunette dormer window, and the bands of flanking windows with louvered aprons. Local builder and Sherrod Park resident R.E. Shelton may have been the contractor. Another early Colonial Revival house is the Chernault-Proctor House at 321 Woodrow Avenue, built about 1927. It is the only stone house in the Sherrod Park Historic District, and has the fieldstone style stone veneer, large tiny-paned windows, and fake "Dutch" front door that imitate eighteenth century houses in the Hudson River area of New York. By the 1930s the two-story brick Georgian Revival style was very popular, and the Luther Tinsley House at 315 Woodrow Avenue and the D.A. Dowdy House at 228 Woodrow Avenue are examples of this mode. The Cape Cod style became popular in the late 1930s and remained popular throughout the 1940s and 1950s. The earliest one in Sherrod Park is the J.E. Horney House at 225 Woodrow Avenue, built in 1937 from the "Colonial Cape Cod" house of the month in a 1934 issue of McCalls Magazine. The Ranch house with "minimal traditional" features such as classical trim at doors and windows and symmetrical facades began to appear about 1940, and the J. Worth Ivey House at 222 Woodrow Avenue, built in 1941, is an early example of this trend.
The oldest house in Sherrod Park actually dates to 1907, and is a large frame late Queen Anne style house. It was built at 700 N. Main Street for Sidney H. Tomlinson, owner of the Tomlinson Chair Factory in High Point. In 1924 Tomlinson moved to his new large Tudor Revival house on Hillcrest Drive in Emerywood. His old house was moved off N. Main Street, which was changing from the main residential avenue to a commercial boulevard, to its current location at 213 Woodrow Avenue in Sherrod Park in the 1930s. The weatherboard is now concealed by vinyl siding, but the Sidney H. Tomlinson House still contributes a unique Victorian accent to the 1920s and 1930s streetscape. The two-story frame house has a high hipped roof with dormer windows and a two-story, cross-gabled side bay.
A trademark of Sherrod Park is the matching detached garage at the end of the side driveway. Twenty-nine of the 42 pre-1940 houses still have such garages. Most of these have a room over the garage, reached by interior stairs, that is now used for storage, but occasionally functioned as servants' quarters in the early years of the district. The Tudor Revival houses have garages with stuccoed, half-timbered front gable ends. The Colonial and Classical Revival houses usually have matching roof types, hipped or gambrel or gabled, and a matching window in the upper story. The Craftsman and eclectic houses have garages with matching roofs and sometimes matching dormer windows.
Significance
Sherrod Park is a three block historic district containing forty-four Tudor, Craftsman, Classical Revival and eclectic middle-class houses built primarily in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Twenty-nine of these houses have matching contemporary garages. The subdivision, platted in 1926, was the venture of Archibald Sherrod, High Point industrialist and developer, and was one of several subdivisions that developed in the North Main Street vicinity as a result of the trolley line that began operating in 1910. The district is a well-preserved middle class automobile suburb of the late 1920s and also a significant collection of period revival style houses, built from mail-order plans rather than from custom plans drawn by area architects. Three-fourths of the houses in the Sherrod Park Historic District were built before 1941, and the district is a well-preserved and vital link in High Point's early twentieth century suburban history.
Community Development Context:
Sherrod Park's significance to High Point's early suburban residential development is that it represents a middle-class alternative to the upper-class park suburbs that were developing in the 1920s across North Main Street in the farmland north of the business district. It reflects the transition from the first "streetcar suburb" of Johnson Place, adjacent to Sherrod Park, and the later automobile suburbs of Roland Park and Emerywood.
Early twentieth century suburbs began to be built in larger North Carolina piedmont industrial cities such as Charlotte and nearby Greensboro in the last decade of the nineteenth century.[1] In Greensboro the exclusive suburb of Fisher Park, centered around a large linear greenway, was begun about 1901. Soon after came the suburb of Lindley Park, established by J. Van Lindley and others, and the country club suburb of Irving Park, established in 1911.[2] High Point entered the suburban age in the first decade of the twentieth century with the new suburb of Johnson Place.
Like other western piedmont cities such as Charlotte, Greensboro, and Winston-Salem, High Point developed along the east-west North Carolina Railroad, completed in 1856 from Goldsboro to Charlotte. In the post-Civil War era, when cotton and tobacco factories were springing up in these cities, High Point's limited water power and small number of nearby cotton farmers prevented significant early industrial development. A major asset was the area's plentiful timber, and a few early High Point leaders capitalized on this resource. In the 1870s Captain W.H. Snow, founder of Snow Lumber Company in High Point, used dogwood and persimmon wood to make shuttle blocks for cotton mills across the South as well as in the North.[3]
Snow's son, E.A. Snow, organized High Point's first furniture factory, the High Point Furniture Company, in 1888. In the 1890s a few other furniture manufacturers joined Snow. With the interconnection of railroad lines throughout the piedmont in the 1890s, High Point experienced phenomenal growth in the first two decades of the twentieth century.[4] Furniture companies developed huge markets and found a ready labor supply in the surrounding countryside, where farmers were becoming increasingly indebted because of the depressed agricultural economy. By 1910 there were over three dozen furniture plants in High Point, as well as related industries providing wood veneers, bed springs, hardware, sawmill machinery, industrial steam engines, and mirrors. Printing companies profited from the sale of furniture catalogues. In 1904 the first textile mill located in High Point, with numerous others soon following.[5]
In 1910 an electric streetcar system was built from North Main Street down to South Main Street, with branch lines down several side streets. For the first time, residential development began to occur north of the railroad tracks. High Point's first generation of industrialists and workers lived on the south side of the railroad line near the factories. The streetcar made the sprawling farmland to the north more attractive to factory owners and to the middle-class, and the south side of High Point began to become a worker housing district.[6]
The first major "streetcar suburb" in High Point was Johnson Place, laid out on 68 acres of farmland by developer R. Homer Wheeler, a furniture entrepreneur, in 1907. Wheeler created a real estate development firm known as the Home Investment and Improvement Company, and took local landowners L.E. and L.R. Johnson as his partners. Johnson Place is an approximately twelve block, roughly rectangular neighborhood adjacent to Sherrod Park to the north, extending from North Main Street east. Four blocks of Johnson Street were designated as a local historic district in the late 1980s, but the subdivision has not been listed in the National Register.[7] This is a grid patterned development with lots generally fifty by 150 feet, with service alleys behind the lots. This grid pattern represents a transition between the earlier downtown High Point street plan, which lacked service alleys, and later suburbs, such as High Point's Emerywood, which used naturalistic curving avenues. Perhaps High Point residents were not quite ready to accept the new notion of "suburban" as opposed to "urban" living. Wheeler's deed restrictions included a minimum front setback of 25 feet and a minimum residence value of $1,500.00. Johnson Place lots sold quickly, and by 1915 were virtually sold out.[8]
Major factory owners tended to buy the lots along North Main Street, High Point's most fashionable street at the turn-of-the-century, where the first generation of wealthy entrepreneurs built grand Victorian mansions, while the quiet side streets filled up with solid middle class professionals during the 1910s and 1920s. Among the new residents were secretary-treasurers (young managers) of mills, various entrepreneurs, merchants, newspaper people, doctors, and attorneys.
Between 1920 and 1930 High Point experienced its greatest population spurt from 14,302 in 1920 to 36,745 in 1930.[9] In 1921 the Chamber of Commerce began the now internationally famous Southern Furniture Market. The massive immigration of management and workers to High Point during this decade created both a serious housing problem and great opportunities for real estate developers. The shortage was alleviated to some degree by mill owners who built some one thousand homes for their workers. People such as Wheeler, Stephen C. Clark, and Archibald Sherrod capitalized on the demand for middle-class housing by developing residential sections out North Main Street.[10] By this time the automobile was becoming the primary method of transportation for suburban residents. The streetcar ceased operation about 1925, when large numbers of middle and upper income High Pointers began to purchase automobiles and stopped riding the streetcars.[11]
Wheeler's next suburban development was Roland Park, with a circular street, Brantley Circle, platted in 1920.[12] It is located across North Main Street from Johnson Place, with lots generally one-quarter acre. In 1922 Stephen Clark, another High Point developer, opened a grand new 300-acre suburb called Emerywood adjoining Roland Park on the north and west.[13] The first section was platted by A.E. Taplin, and contained lots varying from one-quarter to nearly one-half acre, with some larger corner lots. The streets have an undulating design, with one linear greenway along Emerywood Drive at the entrance on North Main Street.[14] In 1923 a western extension of the subdivision, designed by noted landscape architect Earle Sumner Draper of Charlotte, was platted, featuring lots of similar size to the original section.[15] In 1922 the Emerywood Country Club was organized on property adjoining Emerywood.[16] Both Roland Park and Emerywood were further away from town and were more expensive suburbs than was Sherrod Park. Houses in these country club suburbs were affordable only by upper-middle- and upper-class buyers and accessible only by automobile. These were the two most exclusive suburbs in High Point throughout most of the twentieth century.
In 1926 industrialist Archibald Sherrod took a small parcel beside Johnson Place and laid out Sherrod Park, a middle-class suburb that filled a need in High Point for a more affordable suburban home than those that were being built in Roland Park and Emerywood. Although laid out twenty years later than Johnson Place, Sherrod Park followed the basic suburban model of Johnson Place, with the same grid street plan, lot size, and detached garage pattern. In landscape plan, plantings, and front setbacks, however, Sherrod Park follows the newer suburban design practices used in Roland Park and Emerywood. Sherrod Park's entrance greenway along Brookside Drive, the adornment of Woodrow Avenue with alternating pin oaks and crepe myrtles, and the forty-seven foot front setback, twice as large as that required in Johnson Place, all reflect the emphasis on naturalistic planning that dominated suburban design at this time.
Architecture Context
Sherrod Park's Craftsman, Tudor Revival, Colonial Revival and eclectic style houses are typical of 1920s suburban developments throughout piedmont North Carolina. They occupy a special niche in High Point between the late Victorian middle-class houses of Johnson Place, the first suburb, and the contemporary but more expensive 1920s suburbs of Roland Park and Emerywood, which feature larger period revival houses often custom designed by area architects.
Johnson Place houses, built in the 1910s and 1920s, are a blend of architectural styles, with some late Victorian houses but predominately Bungalow and Craftsman houses, Tudor Revivals and Colonial Revivals. The houses contrast strongly with those in Sherrod Park because they tend to be of frame construction and tend to have front porches. Nearly every house has a detached garage out back, most dating from the construction of the residence.
During the 1920s Emerywood filled up with large, impressive and well-landscaped houses designed in a variety of period styles by the most prominent architects in High Point, Winston-Salem, and Greensboro.[17] The earliest houses, built during the boom years of the twenties, are among the largest and best landscaped in High Point. Houses were designed in the 1920s by such area architects as Louis Vorhees and Fred Klein of High Point and Northup and O'Brien of Winston-Salem. The house which Sidney H. Tomlinson moved to when he left 700 N. Main Street is a sprawling Tudor Revival house designed by Harry Barton of Greensboro. Such houses compare in scale and grandeur to the period revival residences in Greensboro's Irving Park, Charlotte's Myers Park, and Asheville's Biltmore Forest subdivisions.[18]
The buyers of lots in Sherrod Park built smaller versions of the same Craftsman, Tudor Revival and Colonial Revival style houses that were being built in Roland Park and Emerywood. The Sherrod Park houses, however, were built from standard plans furnished by such local lumber companies as Snow Lumber Company. None of the Sherrod Park houses are known to be architect-designed. They are middle-class versions of the romantic period styles showcased in Roland Park and Emerywood, and reflect the high quality of mail order plans during the 1920s. Those families lucky enough to have owned a home in Sherrod Park in the 1920s and 1930s had realized the American dream.
Historical Background·
Sherrod Park derives its name from its developer, Archibald (generally referred to simply as "A." or "Arch") Sherrod (1860-1936), who moved to High Point in 1898 to purchase the High Point Chair Company (later Best Chair Company), which specialized in large oak rockers.[19] In 1900 he went back to his home town of Hamilton in eastern North Carolina's Martin County, where he had begun his career as a farmer, then store clerk, and eventually store owner. In the next few years Sherrod and a local Hamilton man organized the Hamilton Pants Factory, a small cutting and sewing plant, but in 1903 he returned to High Point.[20] There he succeeded J.H. Millis as secretary-treasurer of Union Furniture Company at the time when Millis and Adams were planning the city's first textile mill.[21] He later sold his interest in the plant and organized the High Point Insurance and Real Estate Company, in which he was active until his death.[22] Sherrod was active in the Chamber of Commerce during the boom years of the 1920s and his home (still standing at 1100 North Main Street) was one of the first to be built in Wheeler's Johnson Place streetcar suburb.[23]
Sherrod acquired the eighteen acres west of Forrest Avenue that comprise Sherrod Park in an exchange of land with Homer Wheeler's City Real Estate Company in 1925. This land belonged to the 70-acre Levi Horney farm, which Wheeler had purchased at public auction in 1916 for $26,000.[24] By September 1926, local civil engineer A.E. Taplin had surveyed the land and drawn the plat for Sherrod Park with 66 lots, generally one-quarter acre in size. In 1928 Sherrod hired J. Van Lindley of Greensboro to landscape the new subdivision. Lindley was a well-known nursery owner and landscape designer who is said to have introduced peach-growing to the North Carolina Sand hills region. Sherrod ran advertisements for the new development in the local paper, the High Point Enterprise, throughout 1928.
Like other suburban subdivisions that proliferated throughout North Carolina during the 1910s and 1920s, Sherrod Park's lots were sold with restrictive covenants to ensure property value and aesthetic continuity. Each residence was to have a minimum setback of 47 feet from the front property line and must cost a minimum of $5,000. There were no restrictions concerning racial or ethnic ownership.
The first house built was probably the model home erected by Sherrod at 311 Woodrow (Earl Byrum House, 1926). In addition to the model home, the house at 232 Woodrow Avenue is another speculative house apparently built for Sherrod. W.A. and Maude Davis bought their property at 232 Woodrow Avenue (W.A. Davis House), directly from Arch Sherrod in 1928 subject to a $13,000 mortgage, indicating that the brick Colonial Revival style house had already been built. Generally, however, Sherrod sold lots directly to buyers who contracted with local builders for the construction of custom houses. In some cases lots changed hands several times before a house was finally erected. For example, A.E. Taplin, the engineer who platted the subdivision, owned the lots at both 308 and 322 Woodrow Avenue, but he lived in the Emerywood subdivision, and was apparently simply speculating in the lots as investments. A few of the houses were apparently erected as rental property. Sarah Hyman, who had a house built for her own residence at 300 Woodrow Avenue, had a rental house built at 212 Woodrow Avenue and continued to rent it out until 1976. Lot sales were steady through 1927 and 1928, but the Stock Market Crash in 1929 and resulting depression postponed the construction of a number of houses until the later 1930s. J.E. and Gladys Horney bought their lot at 225 Woodrow Avenue in 1927, but they saved money for ten years before they could afford to build their Colonial Cape Cod house in 1937.
Sherrod Park developed quickly, with approximately twenty-five houses constructed by 1929, when the stock market crash slowed the development considerably. It is likely that one reason for its strong popularity was its affordability and its close proximity to central High Point. The original residents were young businessmen, lower-ranking officers in High Point's furniture and textile companies, tradesmen, and city employees.
Among the business and professional people who built homes in Sherrod Park were W.W. Preddy (327 Woodrow Avenue, ca.1929), owner of Preddy Grocery and Meat Market; D.A. Dowdy (228 Woodrow Avenue, ca.1930), owner of Mann Drug Company, which later became a chain of 25 stores in piedmont and western North Carolina; insurance agent Thomas V. Long (215 Woodrow Avenue, ca.1926); Robert A. Lloyd (303 Woodrow Avenue, 1927), sales manager at Wilson Motor Company; Luther Tinsley (315 Woodrow Avenue, ca.1934), owner of Clinard Printing Company; Walter F. Hester (309 Woodrow Avenue, ca.1928), with the local newspaper, the High Point Enterprise; and two widows, Sara Wagger (302 Woodrow Avenue, ca.1932), owner of Wagger's Ladies Shop; and Sarah Hyman (300 Woodrow Avenue, ca.1931), owner of Hyman Jewelers.
Among the junior textile and furniture executives who built homes in Sherrod Park were later High Point mayor W.A. Davis (232 Woodrow Avenue, ca.1928), owner of W.A. Davis Milling Company, one of the largest corn and flour milling operations in the state; Earl Byrum (311 Woodrow Avenue, 1926), vice-president and later superintendent of Robbins Knitting Company; Luther C. Parker (313 Woodrow Avenue, ca.1928), vice-president of Guilford Hosiery Mills and later superintendent of Adams-Millis Corporation's hosiery mill; W.R. Kester (323 Woodrow Avenue, ca.1928), president of Rose Furniture Company; J.E. Kester (328 Woodrow Avenue, ca.1927), secretary-treasurer of Kester Furniture Company; and James Walter Hinkle (329 Woodrow Avenue, ca.1927), auditor of Crown Hosiery Mills.
Such tradesmen and city employees as Owen McPherson (301 Woodrow Avenue, ca.1928), a mechanic at Snow Lumber Company; S. Edward Montgomery (233 Woodrow Avenue, ca.1931), a foreman at Snow Lumber Company, and Walter L. Hepler (208 Woodrow Avenue, 1928) and J.E. Horney (225 Woodrow Avenue, 1937), both with the High Point Fire Department, were among early residents.
Although many of the houses have changed hands numerous times, Sherrod Park has maintained its original ambiance as a stable, predominately owner-occupied middle-class neighborhood. Several of the original owners still [1991] live here. One of these is Gladys Horney, widow of fireman J.E. Horney (225 Woodrow Avenue). Mrs. Horney is a charter member of the local chapter of the Business and Professional Women's Clubs in 1936. As the houses have changed hands in recent years a new generation of young professionals have moved in and are carefully maintaining the historic character of the houses. The city of High Point has spread out far beyond this 1920s suburb, so that Sherrod Park is now considered a downtown neighborhood. Both older and newer residents take great pride in their neighborhood for its architectural integrity and neighborly atmosphere.
Endnotes
- David R. Goldfield, "North Carolina's Early Twentieth-Century Suburbs and the Urbanizing South," Early Twentieth-Century Suburbs in North Carolina, editors, Catherine W. Bishir and Lawrence S. Earley. Raleigh, N.C.: N.C. Department of Cultural Resources, 1985. pp.9-19.
- Gayle Hicks Fripp, "Greensboro's Early Suburbs," Early Twentieth-Century Suburbs in North Carolina, pp.49-57.
- Thomas W. Hanchett, designation report for "Johnson Street Historic District," prepared for the city of High Point, 1987, p.5. (Copy on file at the North Carolina SHPO.)
- Hanchett, p. 5.
- Hanchett, p. 5-6.
- Hanchett, pp. 6-9.
- Hanchett.
- Hanchett, pp. 10-11.
- Hanchett, p. 6.
- Stephen C. Clark, "Residential Development Has Provided A Romantic Chapter of Local History," in Frank J. Sizemore, ed., The Buildings and Builders of a City (High Point: Chamber of Commerce, 1947), p.290.
- Hanchett, p. 7.
- Map of Roland Park, 1920. High Point Plat Book 3, Guilford County Tax Office.
- Hanchett, p. 16.
- Plat of Emerywood, 1922, High Point Plat Book 5, page 268, Guilford County Tax Office.
- Plat of Emerywood Addition, 1923, High Point Plat Book 5, page 345, Guilford County Tax Office.
- Roy J. Shipman, High Point: A Pictorial History. 1983. p.247.
- Laura Phillips, "Part 1: Evaluation of Significance of Hardee Apartments, 1102 N. Main Street, High Point," for the Historic Preservation Certification Application, August 1990. (Copy on file at the North Carolina SHPO.)
- H. McKelden smith, Architectural Resources: An Inventory of Historic Architecture in Guilford County. Raleigh: N.C. Division of Archives & History, 1979, p.56.
- Greensboro Daily News, Greensboro, NC, Oct. 1, 1936; Sizemore, Buildings and Builders, p.124.
- Celia Stokes Brazeal, Joe Mobley, David W. Parham, Mary M. Shoemaker, and H. McKelden Smith III, Historic Architecture of Hamilton, NC. (Hamilton: Historic Hamilton Commission, 1979), p.30.
- Sizemore, p. 125.
- High Point Enterprise, High Point, NC, Dec. 24, 1972.
- Sizemore, p. 218ff; Hanchett, pp.11, 21.
- Guilford County Deed Book 482, p.87; Book 274, p.526.
References
Brazeal, Celia Stokes, Joe Mobley, David W. Parham, Mary M. Shoemaker, and H. McKelden Smith Ill. Historic Architecture of Hamilton, NC. (Hamilton: Historic Hamilton Commission, 1979).
Fripp, Gayle Hicks. "Greensboro's Early Suburbs." Early Twentieth-Century Suburbs in North Carolina. ed. by Catherine W. Bishir and Lawrence S. Earley. Raleigh: NC Department of Cultural Resources, 1985. pp.49-57.
Goldfield, David R. "North Carolina's Early Twentieth-Century Suburbs and the Urbanizing South." Early Twentieth-Century Suburbs in North Carolina. ed. by Catherine W. Bishir and Lawrence S. Earley. Raleigh: NC Department of Cultural Resources, 1985. pp.9-19.
Greensboro Daily News, Greensboro, NC. Oct. 1, 1936. Obituary of Archibald Sherrod.
Guilford County Deeds. North Carolina Archives, Raleigh.
Hanchett, Thomas W. "Johnson Street Historic District." Local historic district designation report prepared for the City of High Point, 1987. (Copy at North Carolina SHPO office).
High Point Enterprise, High Point, NC, Dec. 24, 1972.
Phillips, Laura. "Part 1: Evaluation of Significance of Hardee Apartments, 1102 N. Main Street, High Point," for the Historic Preservation Certification Application, August 1990. (Copy on file at North Carolina SHPO Office.)
Sanborn Maps of High Point — 1926 Map, updated to 1931, original in the North Carolina Archives, Raleigh; 1936 Map, original in the Guilford County Tax Office, High Point, NC.
Sizemore, Frank J., ed. The Buildings and Builders of a City. High Point, Chamber of Commerce, 1947.
Smith, H. McKelden Ill. Architectural Resources: An Inventory of Historic Architecture in Guilford County. Raleigh: N.C. Division of Archives & History, 1979.
‡ Ruth Little and Todd Johnson, Longleaf Historic Resources, Sherrod Park Historic District, Guilford County, NC, nomination document, 1998, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places, Washington, D.C.
Nearby Neighborhoods
Street Names
Brookside Drive • Woodrow Avenue
