The List: 4 historic places in the Triad

On March 22, the NC Department of Natural & Cultural Resources announced that the Oak Crest Historic District — a residential neighborhood in north Winston-Salem recognized for its variety of architectural styles dating from the 1920s through the mid-1960s — would become the Triad’s most recent addition to the state’s historic places.

Its inclusion calls for a review of a few of the Triad’s other structures on the National Register:

1. The Ireland House, corner of Spring Street and Friendly Avenue (GSO)

Perhaps you’ve waited for the light at the intersection where this house once stood. Charles H. Ireland built the house in 1904 in what used to be a fashionable residential section of Greensboro. Four corbeled brick chimneys featuring arched panels once protruded from a steep roof covered in slate. But a fire destroyed the house in 1996.

2. The Deep River Friends Meeting House and Cemetery, 5300 W. Wendover Ave. (HP)

Included on this property are the Quaker meeting house, constructed in 1875, and the Friends cemetery, which dates back to the 1750s. North of the meeting house sit the “Uppin’ Blocks” — a stack of three large granite slabs created for mounting horses and carriages, that date back to 1830.

3. St. Philips Moravian Church, east side of S. Church Street near Race Street (W-S)

St. Philips Moravian Church — the oldest surviving African-American church building in North Carolina — stands on the east side of Church Street in the Old Salem Historic District. Unlike the houses surrounding it, the church sits about 50 feet back from the street to accommodate the site of a graveyard for non-Moravians, or “strangers.” The grave markers are no longer visible, but the graves themselves remain, dating back as early as 1775.

4. The Old Mill of Guilford, along the east side of NC 68, Guilford County

A waterwheel continues to power this three-story grist mill much as it did upon construction in 1822. Electricity was installed in the mill for lights and elements of the milling process, but the grinding stones are still water-powered. Built in the 1920s, there’s a small bungalow uphill from the mill, where the miller now lives.