National Register of Historic Places in Davidson County
Exploring the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places in Davidson County, North Carolina.
The National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America's historic and archeological sites. As of 2022, Davidson County, North Carolina is home to 58 National Register of Historic Places sites. Explore the map below to learn more about each site and follow the links provided for each site's complete record. Site locations, which include public and private property, are approximate.
Abbots Creek Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery
The Abbott’s Creek Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery served the community of Abbott’s Creek and the Abbott’s Creek Primitive Baptist Church is considered to be the first Baptist church established in the Northeastern section of Davidson County. The church was first organized in 1756. This assembly were “Separatist Baptists” which held to a more robust missions’ doctrine than its southern Davidson County counterparts at the Jersey Settlement.
Adertton-Badgett House
The Adertton-Badgett house is located in the community of Jackson Hill of southern Davidson County. It was built around 1850 consisting of a two-story farmhouse, gable roof with exterior end chimneys. The family of Stephen L. Adderton is thought to have constructed the home with his daughter Martha Jane having married Cicero Lowe Badgett. This home serves as an example of the prosperity of the era and the folk architecture of the times.
Beallmont
Federal design two story hall and parlor house that sat near the Yadkin River in the Jersey Settlement of southern Davison county. Having acquired a land grant in 1763, Dr. Robert Moore would eventually construct the Moore-Beall House. His son, Ebenezer Moore, also a doctor, would redesign and add to the home during the time he lived there. His daughter Ellen married Dr. Burgess Lamar Beall and a further redesign would take place. Dr. Burgess Beall would represent Davidson County in the state legislature during the 1840s.
Beck’s Reformed Church Cemetery
The earliest tombstones in Beck’s Reformed Church Cemetery dates back 1o 1771 and some of these stones are part of the early phase of pierced tombstones as well as some in the Swisegood style. The cemetery contains some of the largest German stones in Davidson Co. NC. The church was founded officially in 1787 and was then called Beck’s Lutheran and Reformed Church. The first minister was the Rev Mr. Scheneider with land being donated by Dr. John Billings, L. Smith and others. Beck’s operated as a Union church made from logs until 1878 when the two congregations separated. The Reformers built a larger church and the Lutherans formed a new church at a different location.
Bethany Reformed and Lutheran Church of Christ Cemetery
The earliest tombstone in the cemetery at Bethany Reformed and Lutheran Church dates back to 1791 with the church having been established in 1789. Frederick Miller deeded the land for the church to the “inhabitants of Brushy Fork belonging to the Societies of the Church and Presbyterian parties.” As with the earliest churches in Davidson County, (Pilgrim, Beulah and Abbott’s Creek), Bethany has an extensive collection of pierced tombstones.
Beulah Church of Christ Church and Cemetery
Beulah Church of Christ was first established in 1788 as Sauer’s Church. The founder of the church was Philip Sauer (Sowers) who gave land in 1788 on which the meeting house made of logs was constructed. This church never served as a Union Church, unlike Pilgrim Reformed and Lutheran Church and Beck’s Reformed and Lutheran Church. In 1851 the name of the church was changed from Sauers’s Meeting House to Beulah Church. The cemetery like Abbott’s Creek, Beck’s Bethany and Pilgrim is the home of a beautiful collection of pierced tombstones with the earliest stone dating back to 1799.
Brummel’s Inn
The Brummel’s Inn was built by Jacob Brummel in 1814 in the northeastern part of Davidson County. The original log home was located on the road from New Garden Meeting House to Salisbury. When Guilford County was established, traffic on the lower road (Old Greensboro Rd.) began to increase. This created a great need for travel accommodation. The Brummel’s Inn was ideally suited for a stagecoach stop. Travels were able to pause for refreshment and occasional overnight lodging. The stagecoach would be provided with fresh horses from the large stock Brummel kept. Large grazing pastures were available. Food would be served to guests provided from the work of the Brummel slaves. This would last through the 1850s. At times there was postal service as well. The Brummel Inn would be passed down and sold through a few families such as Brummel, Cridlebaugh and others to serve as a large family home.
Chapel Hill Church Tabernacle
Chapel Hill Church Tabernacle is located in the southeastern section of Davidson County and stands on the grounds of Chapel Hill United Methodist Church. The earliest records state the church was organized around 1854. It was founded as part of the Methodist Protestant branch of Methodism. It was here that camp meetings and revivals were held during the nineteenth century as these religious services gained in popularity. Congregants would meet under the Chapel Church Tabernacle Arbor which is the only remaining arbor in Davidson County and among those still standing in the state.
Church Street School
The Church Street School is located on Jasper Street in Thomasville, NC and faces Church Street. Built as part of a project that also included companion white schools in Thomasville (Kern Street School) and Lexington’s Grimes School, it was constructed between 1935 and 1937 under a combination Works Progress Administration (WPA) grant and local money as the first brick school facility in Thomasville for African Americans. It would serve African Americans in Thomasville until school integration in 1968. It was designed by well-known Winston Salem architect, William Roy Wallace.
Emanuel United Church of Christ Cemetery
Emanuel United Church of Christ was established in 1814 as a union church but would later become a Reformed church by 1925. The cemetery as others in Davidson County is home to a collection of pierced tombstones dating from 1808.
Erlanger Mill Village Historic District
The Erlanger Mill Village lies one mile north of downtown Lexington and was built around 1913 to accommodate the employees of Erlanger Cotton Mill. The area encompassed an 85-acre mill village which included a playground, athletic fields, swimming pool, church, cemetery, school and other community amenities.
Hamilton Everhart Farm
The Hamilton Everhart Farm is located in the northern area of Davidson County on Thomas Road near Midway. It was built in 1860 by Hamilton Everhart that encompassed a small farm, outbuildings and a former blacksmith’s shop which formerly stood on the farm. The farm is the most intact example in Davidson County of the small homestead built through the county in the mid-nineteenth century. Hamilton Everhart, according to family folklore, built this log home at the time of his marriage to Barbary Brinkley. This is where they would raise eight children. Hamilton was the son of a German Lutheran farmer, John Christian Everhart.
Riley Everhart Farm and General Store
Also known as the Elmer Everhart Farm. This home was built by Riley Everhart, a farmer and mercantilist in 1885. The home is an example of the Italianate Revival style and represents the highest level of economic and architectural developments in Davidson County in the 1880s. Riley Everhart was a successful tobacco farmer and operated a tobacco factory in the crossroads of the Arnold community, north of Lexington. The enterprise also included a dairy, wellhouse, large log barns, frame granary, chicken house as well as a general store.
Fair Grove Methodist Church Cemetery
The Fair Grove Methodist Church was the first known Methodist congregation in Davidson County when the church was established in 1828. The cemetery dates back to 1828 and includes stones cut by Thomas Fisher and is the only known stone made by him.
T. Austin and Ernestine L. Finch House
The 6,570-sq.ft house was erected as per Renaissance Revival architecture style in 1921 on a lot that Ernestine Lambeth Finch received as a wedding gift from her parents John Walter and Daisy Sumner Lambeth, who then resided in the home on the adjacent parcel to the east. It was later enlarged in 1938.[3] The structure consists of "stuccoed walls, green Ludowici-Celadon tile (Terracotta) hip roof, deep eaves supported by shaped rafter ends, wood casement and double-hung multipane windows and French doors".
First Reformed United Church of Christ
Located at 22 E. Center Street in Lexington, North Carolina, First Reformed Church is a modernized Gothic Revival building erected in 1927 -1928 according to the design of High Point architect Herbert B. Hunter.
Good Hope Methodist Church Cemetery
This cemetery is located near Welcome, NC, at the junction of NC 150 and SR 1445. It contains about 350 gravestones. The earliest are a group of about 26 locally crafted gravestones, including a group of eight decorative soapstone markers dated 1836-1862 being the work of the “Master of the Upper and Lower Case” who lived in the Welcome vicinity. The John Zimmerman headstone, dated 1843, is a rare example of the “Pierced Style” design of the Swisegood School. Good Hope Methodist Church was established as a Methodist-Episcopal congregation about 1836.
Grace Episcopal Church
Grace Episcopal Church is located on South Main Street in Lexington, NC. Built in 1901-1902, it is a rare example of the Late Gothic Revival style of architecture in the county. Among the other stained-glass windows of the church is a three-part stained-glass window produced by Tiffany Studios in 1918. This window is located above and behind the altar and depicts the Three Marys at the Tomb and is the only original Tiffany window in Davidson County. Grace Episcopal grew from its beginnings on April 18, 1822, and has gone through several locations and name changes. https://files.nc.gov/ncdcr/nr/DV0530.pdf
Grimes Brothers Mill
The Grimes Brothers Mill, built in 1885, is located at the corner of N. State and W. Center streets in Lexington, NC. It is a brick building of four stories and a basement. Although converted to bank use in the early 1960s, the third and fourth floors, as well as the basement and exterior, remain largely intact. In 1879, brother John D. and Thomas J. Grimes built a four-story wooden steam-powered flour mill and soon installed rollers, replacing the buhr-stones, and becoming the first in North Carolina to do so. Their success in producing a larger amount of better-grade flour led to the construction of the brick addition of 1885 that remains. Other names for their mill have been Lexington Roller Mill and Excelsior Mill. https://files.nc.gov/ncdcr/nr/DV0024.pdf
Grimes School
Grimes School opened in the fall of 1936 and is located on Hege Drive in Lexington, NC. At the time it was built, Grimes represented the latest in school design. It is one of only two pre-World War II brick schools in Lexington still standing. The school closed in 1982. The architect was William Roy Wallace of Winston-Salem.
Grimes-Crotts Mill
Crotts Mill, also known as Grimes-Crotts Mill, Eureka Mill, or simply “Old Mill,” is located on the east bank of the Yadkin River at the end of Old Mill Farm Road in the Reedy Creek community of Davidson County. It is the only remaining water-powered mill in the county, though non-working, and the last of a number of such mills on the Yadkin River. The first story framework dates to the original Grimes Mill, built between 1870 and 1880. The second story and most of the visible exterior came from renovations between 1890 and 1952. George Grimes founded the mill, and Franklin P. Crotts was the miller from about 1890-1930. From 1936-1952, William and Helen Storey owned the mill, and during this time, the interior spaces were altered, following the removal of the mill machinery.
Haden Place
The Haden house was built in the late 1700s or early 1800s, most likely by planter Jesse Haden and his wife Rosana Stone Haden. The house is a late Federal two-story frame house located on Wesley Chapel Road in Boone Township, near Tyro. It is described as having a unique-in-the county floor plan of three rooms split by a center hall, with an enclosed stair, and fine Classical Revival style interior trim. A family graveyard is also on the property.
Hampton House
The William B. Hampton House, located in the Clemmonsville community, is a two-story frame house of Greek Revival style, built about 1879. The rear wing is an early 19th century log house which was moved and incorporated into the building during construction. The log house is believed to have been the home of Robert Hampton, William’s father.
Hedrick's Grove Reformed Church
Hedrick’s Grove Reformed Church, located on Allred Road and Old 64E outside of Lexington, was built in 1921-22. It is a large brick building with square towers at each corner and stained-glass window and represents the Romanesque Revival style of architecture. The cemetery predates the building and contains gravestones from 1893 forward. Today, it operates as Hedrick’s Grove United Church of Christ.
Holt House
The Dr. William Rainey Holt House, also known as the Homestead, is located on Main Street in Lexington. Built in 1834, it is one of two surviving antebellum houses in Lexington. Built in Greek Revival style, it has undergone three remodelings. Dr. Holt himself was born in Alamance County in 1798, graduated from UNC in 1817, and obtained his MD degree from Jefferson Medical College. Settling in Lexington in the early 1820s, Holt built on his interests in medicine, agriculture, education, religion, transportation, and manufacturing. He owned a large farm named Linwood in the Jersey section of the county which became one of the state’s model scientific farms.
Jersey Baptist Church Cemetery
Jersey Baptist Church Cemetery, located in southern Davidson County, contains about 225 gravestones, of which about 50 were carved by local craftsmen. The earliest dated gravestone has a death date of 1772, and there is a large group of late 18th century headstones by several anonymous stonecutters. The most distinctive of these is referred to as the “Colon Master” because of separating each word with a colon.
Jersey Settlement Meeting House
Jersey Baptist Church, established about 1755, is the oldest religious congregation in Davidson County. The brick Greek Revival style brick meeting house, built in 1842-1843, is the oldest surviving church building in the county as well. The church was formed by Particular Baptist from New Jersey. Until the mid-19th century, the meeting house was also used by local Presbyterians and Episcopalians. The 1843 church building has undergone only one major architectural change, in 1899.
Junior Order United American Mechanics National Orphans Home
The Junior Order Home was built between 1925 and 1932 on a 300-acre campus; the brick buildings are laid out around a rectangular quadrangle, based loosely on the University of Virginia campus and its Colonial Revival style of buildings. This was the second orphanage established by the national order of UAM. The complex is now known as the American Children’s Home.
Capt. John Koonts, Jr. Farm
The Captain John Koonts, Jr., farmhouse is located on the Yadkin River is western Davidson County, near Tyro. The frame one-story building was built between 1870 and 1880 and is one of two houses in the county inspired by the fashionable design of the 1855 Cooleemee Plantation in neighboring Davie County. There are three log outbuildings located behind the house: a barn, corn crib, and granary.
Shadrach Lambeth House
The Shadrach Lambeth House is a two-story brick house of late Federal style built between 1837 and 1838 in northeastern Davidson County. The house was built either for Clinton Johnson, a local coachmaker, or for Shadrach Lambeth, a wealthy farmer and physician. Although unusual for Davidson County, this style is found in Quaker settlements in Guilford County. Shadrach Lambeth was married to Jane Thomas, sister of John W. Thomas, founder of Thomasville.
Lexington Industrial Historic District
The Lexington Industrial Historic District contains a sizable, intact, and cohesive collection of late nineteenth to mid-twentieth-century industrial buildings, a municipal utilities office, a freight depot, mill worker housing, and the adjacent North Carolina Railroad corridor, which links the district’s resources. The industrial complexes comprise a series of freestanding and interconnected one- to three-story brick, concrete, and steel manufacturing and storage buildings erected between 1887 and 1980 to facilitate textile, furniture, clothing, hosiery, and candy production. Businesses including Dixie Furniture Company - Lexington Furniture Industries, Eureka Trouser Company, Lexington Shirt Corporation - Manhattan Shirt Company, Mountcastle Knitting Company, North Carolina Candy Company, Shoaf-Sink Hosiery Mill Company, Siceloff Manufacturing Company, and Wennonah Cotton Mills constructed and operated these complexes. For the most part, the industrial buildings exhibit a functional aesthetic in their form, massing, and open plans. Late-nineteenth- and early twentieth-century edifices feature “slow-burn” masonry construction, characterized by load-bearing brick walls, exposed heavy-timber framing, thick plank floors, large operable windows and transoms, and metal fire doors. The 1887 Wennonah Cotton Mill No. 1 is the most distinctive, characterized by decorative masonry including a corbelled cornice, pilasters, and quoins. As the twentieth century progressed, mill and factory designers specified steel and reinforced-concrete columns, posts, and beams; brick and concrete walls; bands of steel-frame multipane windows and roof monitors; steel truss roof systems; and corrugated metal and asbestos siding. The district also includes the ca. 1923 Lexington City Light and Water Office, which manifests classical features, and the 1930 Lexington Southern Railway Freight Depot, a stylish albeit standard company freight station design. West of the Wennonah Cotton Mills complex, twenty-four one-story, frame, late-nineteenth-century, company owned dwellings housed employees. The district’s fifty-three primary and ten secondary resources collectively possess integrity of location, setting, feeling, association, design, materials, and workmanship.
Lexington Memorial Hospital
The Lexington Memorial Hospital, a large masonry T-shaped building three-and four-stories tall, is a mix of Art Deco and Art Modern designed by NC architect Charles Hartmann. Opened in 1946, the hospital is a symbol of the efforts of the community to have healthcare access. Under the leadership of local dairyman George S. Coble, city and county workers- especially local workers- contributed ninety percent of the money. This was in spite of recovering from the Great Depression and the local impact of WWII. The period of significance begins in 1946 and ends in 1961.
Lexington Residential Historic District
The Lexington Residential Historic District contains the earliest (late nineteenth century) residential sections of town: platted early-to mid-twentieth century neighborhoods—Park Place, Robbins Heights, Courtenay, Rosemary Park, Hillcrest, Oak Crest, and Westover Heights—and the Lexington City Cemetery. The district lies one block northwest of the commercial core of Lexington and encompasses 264 acres, with 751 primary and 183 secondary resources. One property, Grimes School, was previously listed in the National Register in 1988. These buildings represent a variety of architectural styles, including Queen Anne, Craftsman, Italianate, bungalow, Colonial Revival, English cottage, Mediterranean Revival, and Ranch.
Mitchell House
The Mitchell House, also called the Mitchell Cottage, is located on the Mills Home campus in Thomasville, NC. Built in 1885, it was the first structure on the campus and was named for Rev. John Mitchell, who with his brother W.W. Mitchell, gave much of the money for construction. It is the only one of the original four cottages on the Mills Home campus that remains standing and is significant as the oldest house standing in North Carolina built expressly for the care of orphaned and dependent children. The period of significance for Mitchell House begins in 1885 and ends in 1950, which marked the beginning of the modern era of institutional childcare in North Carolina. The building remained a child care facility until 1979, always housing girls.
Eli Moore House
The Eli Moore House is a well-preserved one-and-one half-story hall-and-parlor log house located on an isolated ridge above Rich Fork Creek near the Wallburg-High Point Road in northeast Davidson County. The small farm complex also includes a late nineteenth or early twentieth century frame shed, barn, workshop, and stone springhouse. A blacksmith shop which was formerly part of the homestead has been moved to the High Point Museum grounds and restored. The rectangular log house, twenty-six by eighteen feet, is set on fieldstone piers on the slope of a hill. Instead of iron hardware in the interior, wooden hardware is substituted, rare in Davidson County dwellings. Eli Moore, a blacksmith, owned the land by 1815 and it passed to his son Nathan and then to his grandson Eli, all blacksmiths.
Mor-Val Hosiery Mill
Mor-Val Hosiery Mill, constructed in 1936, is located in Denton, NC. It consists of a one-story brick building with two distinct parts—the manufacturing area and the office wing. It is representative of the numerous small hosiery mills from the second quarter of the twentieth century that dotted the Piedmont. It is locally significant as the only hosiery mill in the area that survives with architectural integrity to provide a good picture of a textile/hosiery industrial building of the era. In 1940, the mill was purchased by Autie Morris and became known as the Morris Hosiery Mill. It closed in 1965.
Mount Ebal Methodist Protestant Church
The significance of Mt. Ebal Methodist Protestant Church is derived not from its history, which began about 1861 when the congregation began meeting in a private school house near Denton in southeast Davidson County, but from its representative architecture. The structure was built in 1883 by two local farmers, John T. Sexton and Alfred Thompson, members of the congregation, for $60.00. The church, typical of the small, unpretentious, frame meeting house constructed in the county from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries, ceased to be used by 1940, and is virtually unaltered. The church was a focus of annual camp meetings for rural farmers in southeast Davidson County in the late nineteenth century.
Old Davidson County Courthouse
Timeline of the Old Courthouse
Pilgrim Reformed Church Cemetery
Pilgrim Reformed Church, the earliest Lutheran congregation in Davidson County, dates to about 1757 when the first record book was begun. One of the earliest members was Philip Sauer, who emigrated from Palatine Germany to Pennsylvania in 1749 and came to the Pilgrim community in 1753. Another early settler was Adam Conrad, who came to Pilgrim about 1763. The cemetery contains a number of folk gravestones erected here by local stonecutters in the late eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth centuries. Almost all known gravestones attributed to master stonecutter David Sowers, a church member, cut between about 1815 and 1835 in the “Fraktur Style,” are located here, in addition to examples of the other six schools of gravestones in the county.
Randolph Street Historic District
The Randolph Street Historic District, located in Thomasville, NC, contains buildings constructed from about 1900-1951. It is a small, mixed-use, historic area with seven diverse primary resources: three residential properties, two industrial properties, one church, and one railroad depot. The buildings are the Standard Chair Company Building, the Frank S. Lambeth House, Memorial Methodist Church, the Hinkle Family House, the Carolina and Yadkin River Railroad Depot, the Arthur Kepley House, and the Gray Concrete Pipe Company Machine Shop.
Reid Farm
The Reid farm lies in Jackson Hill Township on the Cabin Creek tributary of the Yadkin River. It has been described as “one of the best conserved examples of the southern up county farm of the nineteenth century” (Thomasville Times, 14 May 1975) in the county. The farm complex was built well before the Civil War. Richmond Reid purchased the first plot of farmland in 1844. The Greek Revival-style main house and a massive barn with a second story threshing floor are surrounded by outbuildings. Another smaller house, said to be earlier than the main house, sits about a quarter of a mile away, along with a few outbuildings, including a small log pig pen.
St. Stephen United Methodist Church
St. Stephen United Methodist Church is locally significant for African American ethnic heritage. The congregation has played an important role in the religious, social, and political life of Lexington’s Black residents from its formation in 1868 until the present. The 1921 construction of a new sanctuary and reuse of the 1892 sanctuary as a classroom wing manifest the congregation’s resilience, growth, and prosperity. St. Stephen UMC is the oldest Black congregation in the Lexington District of the Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church, and is further distinguished by occupying Lexington’s oldest extant African American sanctuary of any denomination. Throughout the twentieth century, the congregation undertook community service projects and during the 1960s, the church became a forum for civil rights movement meetings and planning sessions. St. Stephen UMC is also significant under Criterion C for architecture as an intact example of Colonial Revival-style early- to mid-twentieth-century ecclesiastical architecture. The sanctuary has a traditional front-gable form and a projecting pyramidal-roofed entrance and bell tower. In addition to its symmetry, Colonial Revival stylistic elements include round- and flat-arched door and window openings, double-hung stained-glass windows with foliate and geometric motifs. The interior contributes to the overall high integrity. St. Stephen UMC meets Criteria Consideration A as it derives its primary significance from its architectural style and historical association with Lexington’s African American community. The period of significance begins with the 1921 expansion and remodeling and continues until 1971.
Salem Street Historic District
The Salem Street Historic District is a residential district located immediately north of Thomasville’s historic downtown on the main road (NC 109) leading to Thomasville from the north. The twenty-five primary resources are houses, except for two churches. The twenty-six secondary resources include garages, carports, and sheds or storage buildings. All but five of the buildings are located on the east and west sides of Salem Street. The largest building is the two-and-a-half story brick Heidelberg Church. The church, along with the Leon A. Kress House at 125 Salem Street, the Morris-Harris House at 207 Salem Street, and the Peacock-Pope House at 211 Salem Street, are examples of exceptionally high quality of design. The district has very diverse architectural styles: Colonial Revival, Queen Anne cottage, Craftsman, Late Gothic Revival, French Second Empire, Richardsonian Romanesque, Foursquare, and Ranch. The ages of the buildings range from ca. 1861-1957. https://files.nc.gov/ncdcr/nr/DV0841.pdf
Henry Shoaf Farm
The Henry Shoaf Farm, located west of Lexington on US 64, is one of the most intact early nineteenth century log farms remaining in Davidson County. The most significant building in the complex is the double pen barn with its principal rafter roof. The carved initials “H. S.” and the date “18ll” are found inside; Henry Shoaf (1792-1881) built the barn in that year. The original two-story log house is disguised by a Greek Revival-Italianate style addition, circa 1860. A log smokehouse, corn crib, granary, and potato house complete the farm. It has been in the continuous ownership of the Shoaf family since its construction.
Smith Clinic
Smith Clinic, locate on Randolph Street in Thomasville, is a simple Art Deco-style office building constructed in 1939 according to plans designed by Tyson T. Ferree, a High Point architect. The small, one-story brick building has served a variety of tenants, from the original medical clinic of Dr. William Gordon Smith, to a day care, to the law offices of Paul Mitchell. https://files.nc.gov/ncdcr/nr/DV0637.pdf
Philip Sowers House
Built between about 1861 and 1870, the Philip Sowers House is a large -story Greek Revival style brick home. The 1 1/2-story rear wing is of log construction and dates to the early-19th century. It has a "Y"-shaped triple wing design with the rooms arranged around a hexagonal stair hall with a graceful half-spiral staircase. Also on the property are a contributing corn crib and log barn.
Adam Spach House Site
Photo Courtesy of Old Salem, Inc.
Spring Hill Methodist Protestant Church Cemetery
The Spring Hill Church Cemetery lies just outside High Point off West Lexington Avenue. The church body itself is one of the oldest Methodist Protestant churches in the county, established in 1830, and first meeting under a brush arbor. The cemetery contains a small group of locally-manufactured gravestones dating from 1839 which represent echoes of the “Pierced Style,” as well a unique collection of folk gravestones by local stonecutters from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. These highly decorative soapstone gravestones with folk symbols represent the height of folk art within the craft community of north Davidson County’s Anglo-German farmers.
Spurgeon House
The Spurgeon House is a large, two-story frame house constructed, according to family tradition, in 1845 for John Spurgeon by builder Elijah Welch. It reflects the evolution of a family farm complex from 1845 to the present, and its outbuildings illustrate a significant variety of building periods in piedmont North Carolina. Composed of three distinct sections, the Spurgeon House now revolves around a three-bay, two-story dwelling featuring transitional Federal/Greek Revival woodwork. Additions to the house have given it an irregular form. The interior is remarkably intact, and some of the original furnishings included pieces by the noted cabinetmaker John Swicegood. A number of outbuildings complement the house and reinforce its place as a reminder of the lifestyle in the Abbott’s Creek Township area during the second half of the nineteenth century. The Spurgeon House is associated with local history. Joseph Spurgeon, the father of the home’s original owner, was a state senator who introduced the bill in the General Assembly to form Davidson County from Rowan County in 1822. William Spurgeon, the father of Joseph, was an early settler in the area and was a judge before the Revolutionary War. Feeling obligated by his oath to the King, William Spurgeon became a Tory Colonel, survived the war, and fled to Canada. His wife, Mary Jane Sellers Spurgeon, and children supported the Revolution. A large block of basalt located at the porch entrance is purported to be from the William Spurgeon homestead which stood about two miles away. https://files.nc.gov/ncdcr/nr/DV0005.pdf
St. Luke's Lutheran Church Cemetery
St. Luke’s Lutheran Church Cemetery, also known as Sandy Springs Cemetery, contains a total of some 300 gravestones, of which about 50 are of local manufacture. The earliest inscribed gravestone has a death date of 1804. The small number of early gravestones and the fact that only four of the gravestones are carved by major stonecutters of the area indicates that the congregation was small and outside the range of most of the stonecutting workshops. John Adam Swicegood in 1790 deeded land for the first church building, then known as Sandy Creek Lutheran Church. The cemetery is located in the Churchland area. https://files.nc.gov/ncdcr/nr/DV0294.pdf
Thomasville Downtown Historic District
The Thomasville Downtown Historic District is roughly bound by Main Street, Trade Street, Guilford Street, and Commerce Street and includes about six city blocks, the core or Thomasville’s commercial center. The district lies along both sides of the Town Common, split by railroad tracks. Although Thomasville was established in 1852 and developed as a railroad town, only one building, the 1871 Thomasville Railroad Passenger Depot, survives from that period. A series of fires around the turn of the century wiped out a large portion of the town’s commercial center. The town rebuilt, using brick for the new buildings. The following sites are listed as contributing to the historical significance to the district: Thomasville Railroad Passenger Depot, one of the oldest surviving frame depots in North Carolina; Town Common and Railroad Right of Way; The Big Chair; and the Lion’s Club Lion. Also adding to the history of the area are the 1938 former City Hall, the 1926 former U. S. Post Office, the 1957 former Davidson County Office Building, the 1922 former First National Bank of Thomasville, and the former Lambeth Furniture Building. These buildings represent a variety of architectural styles.
Thomasville Railroad Passenger Depot
The Thomasville Railroad Passenger Depot, built around 1870-1871, is one of the oldest remaining frame depot buildings in the state. It features a one-room plan and three principal entrances. This small building served as a passenger station until 1912 and as a freight agent’s office for many years after that.
Tyro Tavern
Tyro Tavern, also known as the Thompson House or Davis House, is a two-story brick structure built about 1840 and is the finest example of Greek Revival domestic architecture in Davidson County. It was built as the residence and tavern of Joseph H. Thompson, son of innkeeper Frederick Thompson. J. H. Thompson made a fortune from his Tyro Iron Works, the largest agricultural foundry in the county at one time. Some of the unusual hardware in the house may have been manufactured by this company. A folding partition wall between the two east first floor rooms and four small rooms along the upstairs hall offer proof that it was built to function as a tavern.
Uptown Lexington Historic District
The Uptown Lexington Historic District is located on Main Street, between Third Avenue and Second Street and includes parts of five blocks. The district’s mostly brick buildings reflect its 1824-1946 period of significance. At the center is Courthouse Square, dating from 1824 when the land was purchased and laid out for the county seat of the newly formed county. The 1856-1858 former courthouse is now a museum. The buildings in the district include the old Davidson County Courthouse, the 1907 Raper Building, 1885 and later commercial buildings, law offices, the former March Hotel, the Earnhardt Building, the Buchanan-Siceloff Building, the 1911 former U. S. Post Office Building, the former Marble Works, and the former City Barbeque on Greensboro Alley.
Waggoner Graveyard
The Waggoner Graveyard is a private family graveyard located on the old Daniel Waggoner farm on C. L. Wagner Road (SR 1814) near Midway Church. The cemetery contains about fifteen gravestones. Most of the pre-1850 gravestones are locally made by the Swisegood School or by imitators. One gravestone, the Lucinda Waggoner stone, 1840-1842, contains the only anthropomorphic decoration in the county: the center finial is carved with a small face.
George W. Wall House
The George W. Wall House, located on NC 109 in Wallburg, is one of the finest examples of late Victorian domestic architecture in Davidson County. George W. Wall built this two-story frame Queen Anne Revival style house in 1896. The main block of the house is three bays wide and two bays deep and features stained glass in some windows. A massive ornate stair railing of Eastlake design is present in the entrance hall. All mantels in the house are original, and most are of the Eastlake style. Most of the ceiling light fixtures in the house were installed in 1908 when a Delco generator at the lumber mill began to supply electricity to the house. Wall’s family lumber business, founded in the late 1880s, provided the financial prosperity and sources for the woodwork. The house is now owned by the Town of Wallburg.
John Henry Welborn House
The John Henry Welborn House, built about 1870, is one of the last remaining nineteenth century residences which lined Main Street on each side of Courthouse Square. It is a two-story frame Italianate Revival style house located on South Main Street, five blocks west of Courthouse Square, and is basically unchanged. A two-story center pavilion projecting from the main block creates an imposing focal point. John Henry Welborn was an attorney and served as mayor of Lexington in 1872.
Yadkin College Historic District
The Yadkin College Historic District is a tiny community containing about two dozen buildings and numerous outbuildings located in a bend of the Yadkin River. The most significant building is the first college building, a two-story brick structure built in 1856. Yadkin College, of state-wide significance as one of the most important of the twenty-two colleges founded in North Carolina during the “intellectual awakening” in the state from 1835-1860, was built on land donated by Henry Walser. Walser presented his plan to establish a Methodist-supported school, volunteering to finance the construction of the main building, to the Methodist Church convention in 1852. The school closed in 1924, and all that remains of the campus and once-bustling town are the original college building, an 1886 church, and several houses built between 1860 and 1890. The college’s successor is High Point College, now University, in Guilford County. One of the remaining houses, the E. L. Greene House, is a Gothic Revival cottage. Other houses are the Hanner-Charles House, the Benson-Taylor House, and the Gaither Walser House.
Abbots Creek Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery
The Abbott’s Creek Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery served the community of Abbott’s Creek and the Abbott’s Creek Primitive Baptist Church is considered to be the first Baptist church established in the Northeastern section of Davidson County. The church was first organized in 1756. This assembly were “Separatist Baptists” which held to a more robust missions’ doctrine than its southern Davidson County counterparts at the Jersey Settlement.
The Abbott’s Creek Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery is home to the most extensive collection of pierced fieldstones in Davidson County. All four styles of pierced tombstones made by local stone cutters can be found in this graveyard. The four styles include: The Early Phase, the Swisegood School, the deviated and the classical.
Adertton-Badgett House
The Adertton-Badgett house is located in the community of Jackson Hill of southern Davidson County. It was built around 1850 consisting of a two-story farmhouse, gable roof with exterior end chimneys. The family of Stephen L. Adderton is thought to have constructed the home with his daughter Martha Jane having married Cicero Lowe Badgett. This home serves as an example of the prosperity of the era and the folk architecture of the times.
Beallmont
Federal design two story hall and parlor house that sat near the Yadkin River in the Jersey Settlement of southern Davison county. Having acquired a land grant in 1763, Dr. Robert Moore would eventually construct the Moore-Beall House. His son, Ebenezer Moore, also a doctor, would redesign and add to the home during the time he lived there. His daughter Ellen married Dr. Burgess Lamar Beall and a further redesign would take place. Dr. Burgess Beall would represent Davidson County in the state legislature during the 1840s.
Beck’s Reformed Church Cemetery
The earliest tombstones in Beck’s Reformed Church Cemetery dates back 1o 1771 and some of these stones are part of the early phase of pierced tombstones as well as some in the Swisegood style. The cemetery contains some of the largest German stones in Davidson Co. NC. The church was founded officially in 1787 and was then called Beck’s Lutheran and Reformed Church. The first minister was the Rev Mr. Scheneider with land being donated by Dr. John Billings, L. Smith and others. Beck’s operated as a Union church made from logs until 1878 when the two congregations separated. The Reformers built a larger church and the Lutherans formed a new church at a different location.
Bethany Reformed and Lutheran Church of Christ Cemetery
The earliest tombstone in the cemetery at Bethany Reformed and Lutheran Church dates back to 1791 with the church having been established in 1789. Frederick Miller deeded the land for the church to the “inhabitants of Brushy Fork belonging to the Societies of the Church and Presbyterian parties.” As with the earliest churches in Davidson County, (Pilgrim, Beulah and Abbott’s Creek), Bethany has an extensive collection of pierced tombstones.
Beulah Church of Christ Church and Cemetery
Beulah Church of Christ was first established in 1788 as Sauer’s Church. The founder of the church was Philip Sauer (Sowers) who gave land in 1788 on which the meeting house made of logs was constructed. This church never served as a Union Church, unlike Pilgrim Reformed and Lutheran Church and Beck’s Reformed and Lutheran Church. In 1851 the name of the church was changed from Sauers’s Meeting House to Beulah Church. The cemetery like Abbott’s Creek, Beck’s Bethany and Pilgrim is the home of a beautiful collection of pierced tombstones with the earliest stone dating back to 1799.
Brummel’s Inn
The Brummel’s Inn was built by Jacob Brummel in 1814 in the northeastern part of Davidson County. The original log home was located on the road from New Garden Meeting House to Salisbury. When Guilford County was established, traffic on the lower road (Old Greensboro Rd.) began to increase. This created a great need for travel accommodation. The Brummel’s Inn was ideally suited for a stagecoach stop. Travels were able to pause for refreshment and occasional overnight lodging. The stagecoach would be provided with fresh horses from the large stock Brummel kept. Large grazing pastures were available. Food would be served to guests provided from the work of the Brummel slaves. This would last through the 1850s. At times there was postal service as well. The Brummel Inn would be passed down and sold through a few families such as Brummel, Cridlebaugh and others to serve as a large family home.
Chapel Hill Church Tabernacle
Chapel Hill Church Tabernacle is located in the southeastern section of Davidson County and stands on the grounds of Chapel Hill United Methodist Church. The earliest records state the church was organized around 1854. It was founded as part of the Methodist Protestant branch of Methodism. It was here that camp meetings and revivals were held during the nineteenth century as these religious services gained in popularity. Congregants would meet under the Chapel Church Tabernacle Arbor which is the only remaining arbor in Davidson County and among those still standing in the state.
Church Street School
The Church Street School is located on Jasper Street in Thomasville, NC and faces Church Street. Built as part of a project that also included companion white schools in Thomasville (Kern Street School) and Lexington’s Grimes School, it was constructed between 1935 and 1937 under a combination Works Progress Administration (WPA) grant and local money as the first brick school facility in Thomasville for African Americans. It would serve African Americans in Thomasville until school integration in 1968. It was designed by well-known Winston Salem architect, William Roy Wallace.
Emanuel United Church of Christ Cemetery
Emanuel United Church of Christ was established in 1814 as a union church but would later become a Reformed church by 1925. The cemetery as others in Davidson County is home to a collection of pierced tombstones dating from 1808.
Erlanger Mill Village Historic District
The Erlanger Mill Village lies one mile north of downtown Lexington and was built around 1913 to accommodate the employees of Erlanger Cotton Mill. The area encompassed an 85-acre mill village which included a playground, athletic fields, swimming pool, church, cemetery, school and other community amenities.
The entire property was purchased by New York textile businessmen, Abraham and Charles Erlanger in 1911 which formed from the Grimes estate property. The plant produced checked cotton dimity fabric for the one-piece men’s underwear manufactured for the BVD company. The mill continued playing a major part of Lexington’s economy well into the 1960s until it was sold in 1969 to Parkdale Mills Inc.
Hamilton Everhart Farm
The Hamilton Everhart Farm is located in the northern area of Davidson County on Thomas Road near Midway. It was built in 1860 by Hamilton Everhart that encompassed a small farm, outbuildings and a former blacksmith’s shop which formerly stood on the farm. The farm is the most intact example in Davidson County of the small homestead built through the county in the mid-nineteenth century. Hamilton Everhart, according to family folklore, built this log home at the time of his marriage to Barbary Brinkley. This is where they would raise eight children. Hamilton was the son of a German Lutheran farmer, John Christian Everhart.
Riley Everhart Farm and General Store
Also known as the Elmer Everhart Farm. This home was built by Riley Everhart, a farmer and mercantilist in 1885. The home is an example of the Italianate Revival style and represents the highest level of economic and architectural developments in Davidson County in the 1880s. Riley Everhart was a successful tobacco farmer and operated a tobacco factory in the crossroads of the Arnold community, north of Lexington. The enterprise also included a dairy, wellhouse, large log barns, frame granary, chicken house as well as a general store.
Fair Grove Methodist Church Cemetery
The Fair Grove Methodist Church was the first known Methodist congregation in Davidson County when the church was established in 1828. The cemetery dates back to 1828 and includes stones cut by Thomas Fisher and is the only known stone made by him.
T. Austin and Ernestine L. Finch House
The 6,570-sq.ft house was erected as per Renaissance Revival architecture style in 1921 on a lot that Ernestine Lambeth Finch received as a wedding gift from her parents John Walter and Daisy Sumner Lambeth, who then resided in the home on the adjacent parcel to the east. It was later enlarged in 1938.[3] The structure consists of "stuccoed walls, green Ludowici-Celadon tile (Terracotta) hip roof, deep eaves supported by shaped rafter ends, wood casement and double-hung multipane windows and French doors".
First Reformed United Church of Christ
Located at 22 E. Center Street in Lexington, North Carolina, First Reformed Church is a modernized Gothic Revival building erected in 1927 -1928 according to the design of High Point architect Herbert B. Hunter.
First Reformed United Church of Christ was formed in 1900 with the Rev. Jacob Calvin Leonard served as its first pastor. The first service was held on 17 Feb 1901 and continued to grow with membership growing to 444 by 1920. In 1935, following a meeting between the General Synod of the Reformed Church and the Evangelical Synod of North America, First Reformed Church became The First Evangelical and Reformed Church of Lexington.
Good Hope Methodist Church Cemetery
This cemetery is located near Welcome, NC, at the junction of NC 150 and SR 1445. It contains about 350 gravestones. The earliest are a group of about 26 locally crafted gravestones, including a group of eight decorative soapstone markers dated 1836-1862 being the work of the “Master of the Upper and Lower Case” who lived in the Welcome vicinity. The John Zimmerman headstone, dated 1843, is a rare example of the “Pierced Style” design of the Swisegood School. Good Hope Methodist Church was established as a Methodist-Episcopal congregation about 1836.
Grace Episcopal Church
Grace Episcopal Church is located on South Main Street in Lexington, NC. Built in 1901-1902, it is a rare example of the Late Gothic Revival style of architecture in the county. Among the other stained-glass windows of the church is a three-part stained-glass window produced by Tiffany Studios in 1918. This window is located above and behind the altar and depicts the Three Marys at the Tomb and is the only original Tiffany window in Davidson County. Grace Episcopal grew from its beginnings on April 18, 1822, and has gone through several locations and name changes. https://files.nc.gov/ncdcr/nr/DV0530.pdf
Grimes Brothers Mill
The Grimes Brothers Mill, built in 1885, is located at the corner of N. State and W. Center streets in Lexington, NC. It is a brick building of four stories and a basement. Although converted to bank use in the early 1960s, the third and fourth floors, as well as the basement and exterior, remain largely intact. In 1879, brother John D. and Thomas J. Grimes built a four-story wooden steam-powered flour mill and soon installed rollers, replacing the buhr-stones, and becoming the first in North Carolina to do so. Their success in producing a larger amount of better-grade flour led to the construction of the brick addition of 1885 that remains. Other names for their mill have been Lexington Roller Mill and Excelsior Mill. https://files.nc.gov/ncdcr/nr/DV0024.pdf
Grimes School
Grimes School opened in the fall of 1936 and is located on Hege Drive in Lexington, NC. At the time it was built, Grimes represented the latest in school design. It is one of only two pre-World War II brick schools in Lexington still standing. The school closed in 1982. The architect was William Roy Wallace of Winston-Salem.
Grimes-Crotts Mill
Crotts Mill, also known as Grimes-Crotts Mill, Eureka Mill, or simply “Old Mill,” is located on the east bank of the Yadkin River at the end of Old Mill Farm Road in the Reedy Creek community of Davidson County. It is the only remaining water-powered mill in the county, though non-working, and the last of a number of such mills on the Yadkin River. The first story framework dates to the original Grimes Mill, built between 1870 and 1880. The second story and most of the visible exterior came from renovations between 1890 and 1952. George Grimes founded the mill, and Franklin P. Crotts was the miller from about 1890-1930. From 1936-1952, William and Helen Storey owned the mill, and during this time, the interior spaces were altered, following the removal of the mill machinery.
Haden Place
The Haden house was built in the late 1700s or early 1800s, most likely by planter Jesse Haden and his wife Rosana Stone Haden. The house is a late Federal two-story frame house located on Wesley Chapel Road in Boone Township, near Tyro. It is described as having a unique-in-the county floor plan of three rooms split by a center hall, with an enclosed stair, and fine Classical Revival style interior trim. A family graveyard is also on the property.
Hampton House
The William B. Hampton House, located in the Clemmonsville community, is a two-story frame house of Greek Revival style, built about 1879. The rear wing is an early 19th century log house which was moved and incorporated into the building during construction. The log house is believed to have been the home of Robert Hampton, William’s father.
Hedrick's Grove Reformed Church
Hedrick’s Grove Reformed Church, located on Allred Road and Old 64E outside of Lexington, was built in 1921-22. It is a large brick building with square towers at each corner and stained-glass window and represents the Romanesque Revival style of architecture. The cemetery predates the building and contains gravestones from 1893 forward. Today, it operates as Hedrick’s Grove United Church of Christ.
Holt House
The Dr. William Rainey Holt House, also known as the Homestead, is located on Main Street in Lexington. Built in 1834, it is one of two surviving antebellum houses in Lexington. Built in Greek Revival style, it has undergone three remodelings. Dr. Holt himself was born in Alamance County in 1798, graduated from UNC in 1817, and obtained his MD degree from Jefferson Medical College. Settling in Lexington in the early 1820s, Holt built on his interests in medicine, agriculture, education, religion, transportation, and manufacturing. He owned a large farm named Linwood in the Jersey section of the county which became one of the state’s model scientific farms.
Jersey Baptist Church Cemetery
Jersey Baptist Church Cemetery, located in southern Davidson County, contains about 225 gravestones, of which about 50 were carved by local craftsmen. The earliest dated gravestone has a death date of 1772, and there is a large group of late 18th century headstones by several anonymous stonecutters. The most distinctive of these is referred to as the “Colon Master” because of separating each word with a colon.
Jersey Settlement Meeting House
Jersey Baptist Church, established about 1755, is the oldest religious congregation in Davidson County. The brick Greek Revival style brick meeting house, built in 1842-1843, is the oldest surviving church building in the county as well. The church was formed by Particular Baptist from New Jersey. Until the mid-19th century, the meeting house was also used by local Presbyterians and Episcopalians. The 1843 church building has undergone only one major architectural change, in 1899.
https://files.nc.gov/ncdcr/nr/DV0009.pdf
Junior Order United American Mechanics National Orphans Home
The Junior Order Home was built between 1925 and 1932 on a 300-acre campus; the brick buildings are laid out around a rectangular quadrangle, based loosely on the University of Virginia campus and its Colonial Revival style of buildings. This was the second orphanage established by the national order of UAM. The complex is now known as the American Children’s Home.
Capt. John Koonts, Jr. Farm
The Captain John Koonts, Jr., farmhouse is located on the Yadkin River is western Davidson County, near Tyro. The frame one-story building was built between 1870 and 1880 and is one of two houses in the county inspired by the fashionable design of the 1855 Cooleemee Plantation in neighboring Davie County. There are three log outbuildings located behind the house: a barn, corn crib, and granary.
Shadrach Lambeth House
The Shadrach Lambeth House is a two-story brick house of late Federal style built between 1837 and 1838 in northeastern Davidson County. The house was built either for Clinton Johnson, a local coachmaker, or for Shadrach Lambeth, a wealthy farmer and physician. Although unusual for Davidson County, this style is found in Quaker settlements in Guilford County. Shadrach Lambeth was married to Jane Thomas, sister of John W. Thomas, founder of Thomasville.
Lexington Industrial Historic District
The Lexington Industrial Historic District contains a sizable, intact, and cohesive collection of late nineteenth to mid-twentieth-century industrial buildings, a municipal utilities office, a freight depot, mill worker housing, and the adjacent North Carolina Railroad corridor, which links the district’s resources. The industrial complexes comprise a series of freestanding and interconnected one- to three-story brick, concrete, and steel manufacturing and storage buildings erected between 1887 and 1980 to facilitate textile, furniture, clothing, hosiery, and candy production. Businesses including Dixie Furniture Company - Lexington Furniture Industries, Eureka Trouser Company, Lexington Shirt Corporation - Manhattan Shirt Company, Mountcastle Knitting Company, North Carolina Candy Company, Shoaf-Sink Hosiery Mill Company, Siceloff Manufacturing Company, and Wennonah Cotton Mills constructed and operated these complexes. For the most part, the industrial buildings exhibit a functional aesthetic in their form, massing, and open plans. Late-nineteenth- and early twentieth-century edifices feature “slow-burn” masonry construction, characterized by load-bearing brick walls, exposed heavy-timber framing, thick plank floors, large operable windows and transoms, and metal fire doors. The 1887 Wennonah Cotton Mill No. 1 is the most distinctive, characterized by decorative masonry including a corbelled cornice, pilasters, and quoins. As the twentieth century progressed, mill and factory designers specified steel and reinforced-concrete columns, posts, and beams; brick and concrete walls; bands of steel-frame multipane windows and roof monitors; steel truss roof systems; and corrugated metal and asbestos siding. The district also includes the ca. 1923 Lexington City Light and Water Office, which manifests classical features, and the 1930 Lexington Southern Railway Freight Depot, a stylish albeit standard company freight station design. West of the Wennonah Cotton Mills complex, twenty-four one-story, frame, late-nineteenth-century, company owned dwellings housed employees. The district’s fifty-three primary and ten secondary resources collectively possess integrity of location, setting, feeling, association, design, materials, and workmanship.
Lexington Memorial Hospital
The Lexington Memorial Hospital, a large masonry T-shaped building three-and four-stories tall, is a mix of Art Deco and Art Modern designed by NC architect Charles Hartmann. Opened in 1946, the hospital is a symbol of the efforts of the community to have healthcare access. Under the leadership of local dairyman George S. Coble, city and county workers- especially local workers- contributed ninety percent of the money. This was in spite of recovering from the Great Depression and the local impact of WWII. The period of significance begins in 1946 and ends in 1961.
Lexington Residential Historic District
The Lexington Residential Historic District contains the earliest (late nineteenth century) residential sections of town: platted early-to mid-twentieth century neighborhoods—Park Place, Robbins Heights, Courtenay, Rosemary Park, Hillcrest, Oak Crest, and Westover Heights—and the Lexington City Cemetery. The district lies one block northwest of the commercial core of Lexington and encompasses 264 acres, with 751 primary and 183 secondary resources. One property, Grimes School, was previously listed in the National Register in 1988. These buildings represent a variety of architectural styles, including Queen Anne, Craftsman, Italianate, bungalow, Colonial Revival, English cottage, Mediterranean Revival, and Ranch.
Mitchell House
The Mitchell House, also called the Mitchell Cottage, is located on the Mills Home campus in Thomasville, NC. Built in 1885, it was the first structure on the campus and was named for Rev. John Mitchell, who with his brother W.W. Mitchell, gave much of the money for construction. It is the only one of the original four cottages on the Mills Home campus that remains standing and is significant as the oldest house standing in North Carolina built expressly for the care of orphaned and dependent children. The period of significance for Mitchell House begins in 1885 and ends in 1950, which marked the beginning of the modern era of institutional childcare in North Carolina. The building remained a child care facility until 1979, always housing girls.
Eli Moore House
The Eli Moore House is a well-preserved one-and-one half-story hall-and-parlor log house located on an isolated ridge above Rich Fork Creek near the Wallburg-High Point Road in northeast Davidson County. The small farm complex also includes a late nineteenth or early twentieth century frame shed, barn, workshop, and stone springhouse. A blacksmith shop which was formerly part of the homestead has been moved to the High Point Museum grounds and restored. The rectangular log house, twenty-six by eighteen feet, is set on fieldstone piers on the slope of a hill. Instead of iron hardware in the interior, wooden hardware is substituted, rare in Davidson County dwellings. Eli Moore, a blacksmith, owned the land by 1815 and it passed to his son Nathan and then to his grandson Eli, all blacksmiths.
Mor-Val Hosiery Mill
Mor-Val Hosiery Mill, constructed in 1936, is located in Denton, NC. It consists of a one-story brick building with two distinct parts—the manufacturing area and the office wing. It is representative of the numerous small hosiery mills from the second quarter of the twentieth century that dotted the Piedmont. It is locally significant as the only hosiery mill in the area that survives with architectural integrity to provide a good picture of a textile/hosiery industrial building of the era. In 1940, the mill was purchased by Autie Morris and became known as the Morris Hosiery Mill. It closed in 1965.
Mount Ebal Methodist Protestant Church
The significance of Mt. Ebal Methodist Protestant Church is derived not from its history, which began about 1861 when the congregation began meeting in a private school house near Denton in southeast Davidson County, but from its representative architecture. The structure was built in 1883 by two local farmers, John T. Sexton and Alfred Thompson, members of the congregation, for $60.00. The church, typical of the small, unpretentious, frame meeting house constructed in the county from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries, ceased to be used by 1940, and is virtually unaltered. The church was a focus of annual camp meetings for rural farmers in southeast Davidson County in the late nineteenth century.
Old Davidson County Courthouse
Timeline of the Old Courthouse
1858- The Courthouse is built. The Old Davidson County Courthouse was the second courthouse to serve Lexington, the original was built in 1825 and stood in the center of the square.
1865- Union Occupation & The Fire: In 1865 a fire did significant damage to the courthouse. Details to the full extent of the fire remain unknown. However, the total cost of repairs totaled $10,982.13.
Tradition says that Union soldiers set the courthouse ablaze during their occupation of the building. However, the troops stationed in Lexington were mustered out in July of 1865. The fire did not occur until November of that same year. While it is unlikely that Union soldiers set the fire, some believe that the fire was set deliberately.
1906- A clock, and a new bell weighing 500 pounds, are installed in the cupola.
1918- Major interior remodel. Many of the changes can still be seen today.
1958 - Building retired as the courthouse after 100 years of service.
1971- Recognizing the historic and architectural significance, the Old Courthouse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The first Davidson County location to receive the honor. Later in this same decade it would become the Davidson County Historical Museum.
2014 - The building underwent an extensive exterior restoration in 2014. Awards for the restoration were received from Preservation North Carolina and the North Carolina Main Street Center.
Pilgrim Reformed Church Cemetery
Pilgrim Reformed Church, the earliest Lutheran congregation in Davidson County, dates to about 1757 when the first record book was begun. One of the earliest members was Philip Sauer, who emigrated from Palatine Germany to Pennsylvania in 1749 and came to the Pilgrim community in 1753. Another early settler was Adam Conrad, who came to Pilgrim about 1763. The cemetery contains a number of folk gravestones erected here by local stonecutters in the late eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth centuries. Almost all known gravestones attributed to master stonecutter David Sowers, a church member, cut between about 1815 and 1835 in the “Fraktur Style,” are located here, in addition to examples of the other six schools of gravestones in the county.
Randolph Street Historic District
The Randolph Street Historic District, located in Thomasville, NC, contains buildings constructed from about 1900-1951. It is a small, mixed-use, historic area with seven diverse primary resources: three residential properties, two industrial properties, one church, and one railroad depot. The buildings are the Standard Chair Company Building, the Frank S. Lambeth House, Memorial Methodist Church, the Hinkle Family House, the Carolina and Yadkin River Railroad Depot, the Arthur Kepley House, and the Gray Concrete Pipe Company Machine Shop.
Reid Farm
The Reid farm lies in Jackson Hill Township on the Cabin Creek tributary of the Yadkin River. It has been described as “one of the best conserved examples of the southern up county farm of the nineteenth century” (Thomasville Times, 14 May 1975) in the county. The farm complex was built well before the Civil War. Richmond Reid purchased the first plot of farmland in 1844. The Greek Revival-style main house and a massive barn with a second story threshing floor are surrounded by outbuildings. Another smaller house, said to be earlier than the main house, sits about a quarter of a mile away, along with a few outbuildings, including a small log pig pen.
St. Stephen United Methodist Church
St. Stephen United Methodist Church is locally significant for African American ethnic heritage. The congregation has played an important role in the religious, social, and political life of Lexington’s Black residents from its formation in 1868 until the present. The 1921 construction of a new sanctuary and reuse of the 1892 sanctuary as a classroom wing manifest the congregation’s resilience, growth, and prosperity. St. Stephen UMC is the oldest Black congregation in the Lexington District of the Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church, and is further distinguished by occupying Lexington’s oldest extant African American sanctuary of any denomination. Throughout the twentieth century, the congregation undertook community service projects and during the 1960s, the church became a forum for civil rights movement meetings and planning sessions. St. Stephen UMC is also significant under Criterion C for architecture as an intact example of Colonial Revival-style early- to mid-twentieth-century ecclesiastical architecture. The sanctuary has a traditional front-gable form and a projecting pyramidal-roofed entrance and bell tower. In addition to its symmetry, Colonial Revival stylistic elements include round- and flat-arched door and window openings, double-hung stained-glass windows with foliate and geometric motifs. The interior contributes to the overall high integrity. St. Stephen UMC meets Criteria Consideration A as it derives its primary significance from its architectural style and historical association with Lexington’s African American community. The period of significance begins with the 1921 expansion and remodeling and continues until 1971.
Salem Street Historic District
The Salem Street Historic District is a residential district located immediately north of Thomasville’s historic downtown on the main road (NC 109) leading to Thomasville from the north. The twenty-five primary resources are houses, except for two churches. The twenty-six secondary resources include garages, carports, and sheds or storage buildings. All but five of the buildings are located on the east and west sides of Salem Street. The largest building is the two-and-a-half story brick Heidelberg Church. The church, along with the Leon A. Kress House at 125 Salem Street, the Morris-Harris House at 207 Salem Street, and the Peacock-Pope House at 211 Salem Street, are examples of exceptionally high quality of design. The district has very diverse architectural styles: Colonial Revival, Queen Anne cottage, Craftsman, Late Gothic Revival, French Second Empire, Richardsonian Romanesque, Foursquare, and Ranch. The ages of the buildings range from ca. 1861-1957. https://files.nc.gov/ncdcr/nr/DV0841.pdf
Henry Shoaf Farm
The Henry Shoaf Farm, located west of Lexington on US 64, is one of the most intact early nineteenth century log farms remaining in Davidson County. The most significant building in the complex is the double pen barn with its principal rafter roof. The carved initials “H. S.” and the date “18ll” are found inside; Henry Shoaf (1792-1881) built the barn in that year. The original two-story log house is disguised by a Greek Revival-Italianate style addition, circa 1860. A log smokehouse, corn crib, granary, and potato house complete the farm. It has been in the continuous ownership of the Shoaf family since its construction.
Smith Clinic
Smith Clinic, locate on Randolph Street in Thomasville, is a simple Art Deco-style office building constructed in 1939 according to plans designed by Tyson T. Ferree, a High Point architect. The small, one-story brick building has served a variety of tenants, from the original medical clinic of Dr. William Gordon Smith, to a day care, to the law offices of Paul Mitchell. https://files.nc.gov/ncdcr/nr/DV0637.pdf
Philip Sowers House
Built between about 1861 and 1870, the Philip Sowers House is a large -story Greek Revival style brick home. The 1 1/2-story rear wing is of log construction and dates to the early-19th century. It has a "Y"-shaped triple wing design with the rooms arranged around a hexagonal stair hall with a graceful half-spiral staircase. Also on the property are a contributing corn crib and log barn.
Adam Spach House Site
Photo Courtesy of Old Salem, Inc.
The Adam Spach house, no longer standing, was a rock house built by Moravian masons in 1774 in what is now the Arcadia area. However, records indicate that he was one of the first settlers outside the Wachovia Tract, and had built an earlier log house on the South Fork of Muddy Creek. He helped organize Friedburg Moravian Church, consecrated in 1772. The 36’ by 30’ single-story structure was built into a bank and included underground cellar rooms and internal end chimneys.
Spring Hill Methodist Protestant Church Cemetery
The Spring Hill Church Cemetery lies just outside High Point off West Lexington Avenue. The church body itself is one of the oldest Methodist Protestant churches in the county, established in 1830, and first meeting under a brush arbor. The cemetery contains a small group of locally-manufactured gravestones dating from 1839 which represent echoes of the “Pierced Style,” as well a unique collection of folk gravestones by local stonecutters from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. These highly decorative soapstone gravestones with folk symbols represent the height of folk art within the craft community of north Davidson County’s Anglo-German farmers.
Spurgeon House
The Spurgeon House is a large, two-story frame house constructed, according to family tradition, in 1845 for John Spurgeon by builder Elijah Welch. It reflects the evolution of a family farm complex from 1845 to the present, and its outbuildings illustrate a significant variety of building periods in piedmont North Carolina. Composed of three distinct sections, the Spurgeon House now revolves around a three-bay, two-story dwelling featuring transitional Federal/Greek Revival woodwork. Additions to the house have given it an irregular form. The interior is remarkably intact, and some of the original furnishings included pieces by the noted cabinetmaker John Swicegood. A number of outbuildings complement the house and reinforce its place as a reminder of the lifestyle in the Abbott’s Creek Township area during the second half of the nineteenth century. The Spurgeon House is associated with local history. Joseph Spurgeon, the father of the home’s original owner, was a state senator who introduced the bill in the General Assembly to form Davidson County from Rowan County in 1822. William Spurgeon, the father of Joseph, was an early settler in the area and was a judge before the Revolutionary War. Feeling obligated by his oath to the King, William Spurgeon became a Tory Colonel, survived the war, and fled to Canada. His wife, Mary Jane Sellers Spurgeon, and children supported the Revolution. A large block of basalt located at the porch entrance is purported to be from the William Spurgeon homestead which stood about two miles away. https://files.nc.gov/ncdcr/nr/DV0005.pdf
St. Luke's Lutheran Church Cemetery
St. Luke’s Lutheran Church Cemetery, also known as Sandy Springs Cemetery, contains a total of some 300 gravestones, of which about 50 are of local manufacture. The earliest inscribed gravestone has a death date of 1804. The small number of early gravestones and the fact that only four of the gravestones are carved by major stonecutters of the area indicates that the congregation was small and outside the range of most of the stonecutting workshops. John Adam Swicegood in 1790 deeded land for the first church building, then known as Sandy Creek Lutheran Church. The cemetery is located in the Churchland area. https://files.nc.gov/ncdcr/nr/DV0294.pdf
Thomasville Downtown Historic District
The Thomasville Downtown Historic District is roughly bound by Main Street, Trade Street, Guilford Street, and Commerce Street and includes about six city blocks, the core or Thomasville’s commercial center. The district lies along both sides of the Town Common, split by railroad tracks. Although Thomasville was established in 1852 and developed as a railroad town, only one building, the 1871 Thomasville Railroad Passenger Depot, survives from that period. A series of fires around the turn of the century wiped out a large portion of the town’s commercial center. The town rebuilt, using brick for the new buildings. The following sites are listed as contributing to the historical significance to the district: Thomasville Railroad Passenger Depot, one of the oldest surviving frame depots in North Carolina; Town Common and Railroad Right of Way; The Big Chair; and the Lion’s Club Lion. Also adding to the history of the area are the 1938 former City Hall, the 1926 former U. S. Post Office, the 1957 former Davidson County Office Building, the 1922 former First National Bank of Thomasville, and the former Lambeth Furniture Building. These buildings represent a variety of architectural styles.
Thomasville Railroad Passenger Depot
The Thomasville Railroad Passenger Depot, built around 1870-1871, is one of the oldest remaining frame depot buildings in the state. It features a one-room plan and three principal entrances. This small building served as a passenger station until 1912 and as a freight agent’s office for many years after that.
Tyro Tavern
Tyro Tavern, also known as the Thompson House or Davis House, is a two-story brick structure built about 1840 and is the finest example of Greek Revival domestic architecture in Davidson County. It was built as the residence and tavern of Joseph H. Thompson, son of innkeeper Frederick Thompson. J. H. Thompson made a fortune from his Tyro Iron Works, the largest agricultural foundry in the county at one time. Some of the unusual hardware in the house may have been manufactured by this company. A folding partition wall between the two east first floor rooms and four small rooms along the upstairs hall offer proof that it was built to function as a tavern.
Uptown Lexington Historic District
The Uptown Lexington Historic District is located on Main Street, between Third Avenue and Second Street and includes parts of five blocks. The district’s mostly brick buildings reflect its 1824-1946 period of significance. At the center is Courthouse Square, dating from 1824 when the land was purchased and laid out for the county seat of the newly formed county. The 1856-1858 former courthouse is now a museum. The buildings in the district include the old Davidson County Courthouse, the 1907 Raper Building, 1885 and later commercial buildings, law offices, the former March Hotel, the Earnhardt Building, the Buchanan-Siceloff Building, the 1911 former U. S. Post Office Building, the former Marble Works, and the former City Barbeque on Greensboro Alley.
Waggoner Graveyard
The Waggoner Graveyard is a private family graveyard located on the old Daniel Waggoner farm on C. L. Wagner Road (SR 1814) near Midway Church. The cemetery contains about fifteen gravestones. Most of the pre-1850 gravestones are locally made by the Swisegood School or by imitators. One gravestone, the Lucinda Waggoner stone, 1840-1842, contains the only anthropomorphic decoration in the county: the center finial is carved with a small face.
George W. Wall House
The George W. Wall House, located on NC 109 in Wallburg, is one of the finest examples of late Victorian domestic architecture in Davidson County. George W. Wall built this two-story frame Queen Anne Revival style house in 1896. The main block of the house is three bays wide and two bays deep and features stained glass in some windows. A massive ornate stair railing of Eastlake design is present in the entrance hall. All mantels in the house are original, and most are of the Eastlake style. Most of the ceiling light fixtures in the house were installed in 1908 when a Delco generator at the lumber mill began to supply electricity to the house. Wall’s family lumber business, founded in the late 1880s, provided the financial prosperity and sources for the woodwork. The house is now owned by the Town of Wallburg.
John Henry Welborn House
The John Henry Welborn House, built about 1870, is one of the last remaining nineteenth century residences which lined Main Street on each side of Courthouse Square. It is a two-story frame Italianate Revival style house located on South Main Street, five blocks west of Courthouse Square, and is basically unchanged. A two-story center pavilion projecting from the main block creates an imposing focal point. John Henry Welborn was an attorney and served as mayor of Lexington in 1872.
Yadkin College Historic District
The Yadkin College Historic District is a tiny community containing about two dozen buildings and numerous outbuildings located in a bend of the Yadkin River. The most significant building is the first college building, a two-story brick structure built in 1856. Yadkin College, of state-wide significance as one of the most important of the twenty-two colleges founded in North Carolina during the “intellectual awakening” in the state from 1835-1860, was built on land donated by Henry Walser. Walser presented his plan to establish a Methodist-supported school, volunteering to finance the construction of the main building, to the Methodist Church convention in 1852. The school closed in 1924, and all that remains of the campus and once-bustling town are the original college building, an 1886 church, and several houses built between 1860 and 1890. The college’s successor is High Point College, now University, in Guilford County. One of the remaining houses, the E. L. Greene House, is a Gothic Revival cottage. Other houses are the Hanner-Charles House, the Benson-Taylor House, and the Gaither Walser House.
NRHP Commonly Asked Questions: https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalregister/faqs.htm
For listing of NRHP sites in Davidson County, or to look up other sites in the US: https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/SearchResults/db19e867169140b1a5d46a6dd36e7b94?page=1&view=list&sort=default
Wikipedia listing of current Davidson County NRHP: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Register_of_Historic_Places_listings_in_Davidson_County,_North_Carolina