This Colonial Revival residence at 909 Fairmont Street was completed in 1924 and was first occupied by the Guilford County Coroner and his family. The house represents a renewed interest in the Colonial Period that occurred around the time of the nation’s Sesquicentennial in 1926.
On September 16, 1923, the Greensboro Daily News reported that permits were issued to the A. K. Moore Real Estate Company for two houses on Courtland Street and four houses on Fairmont…of which one of the four houses was likely the home located at 909 Fairmount. The Greensboro Record announced on February 18, 1924 “IN NEW HOME. Dr. and Mrs. W. W. Harvey are now occupying their handsome new home, Fairmont and Adams street, Westerwood, which has just recently been completed.”
Dr. Wallace Watson Harvey (1893-1963) was born in Jakin, Georgia and served in World War I. Upon discharge, he graduated from the University of Georgia and Emery University where he received his medical degree in 1920. He married Jimmie Sue Huling (1898-1952) of Waverly Hall, Georgia in 1920 and the couple moved to Greensboro in 1921 where Dr. Harvey established practice. Jimmie was a graduate of the School of Nursing at the Georgia Baptist Hospital in Atlanta. In Greensboro she was a member of the First Baptist Church, the Greensboro Woman’s Club, the Woman’s Auxiliary of the Greensboro Medical Society, and the Rose Garden Club. Dr. Harvey was selected as Guilford County Coroner in January 1925 and remained in that role until 1958. He was quite involved with community groups, serving as a member of the Guilford County Medical Society, the North Carolina Medical Society, and the American Medical Association. He also held membership in the Greensboro Sertoma Club, was a 32nd degree Mason, the Greensboro Shriner Club, the American Legion, Greensboro Elks Club, and the First Baptist Church. The couple remained in their home until Dr. Harvey’s death.
The house takes design cues from the colonial period, perhaps even New Bern. It features a symmetrical three-bay form centered on a front stoop sheltering the entrance. The entry dominates the façade with a gabled roof, a segmental arched ceiling and supports of lattice featuring an elliptical design, possibly inspired by the Jarvis-Slover House on East Front Street in New Bern – showcased in The White Pine Series Volume XIII Number 2. The façade is complemented on the left by a single-story room topped by a shed roof and another entryway stoop to the right. Other notable features are the wide clapboard with compound joints at corners, and boxed eaves with returns. The house is an academic representation of Federal-style houses found in the Mid-Atlantic states that was enabled through documented drawings of structures published in books such as The White Pine Series of Architectural Monographs of 1915.
Six vintage homes in the Westerwood neighborhood will open their doors to ticket holders during Preservation Greensboro Incorporated’s 13th annual Tour of Historic Homes & Gardens on May 20-21, 2023. The tour will highlight charming features of early nineteenth and twentieth century architecture, including Craftsman bungalows, and examples of Colonial Revival design.
Written by Benjamin Briggs
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