207 Cascade Avenue, Fleshman-Graham House, 1925
A brick Colonial Revival H-shaped house that is oriented perpendicular to the street. It was built to face the Langenour-Fleshman House, home of Geraldine Graham’s parents, although she had the Victorian style home demolished in 1967. The main entrance is to the east while the back entrance faces Park Boulevard. It features a slate roof, steel-support system, two separate second-floor areas with separate staircases, and a central paneled living room with an 18-foot ceiling. The house was built by Thomas H. and Mina Fleshman for their daughter Geraldine, who married Gregory Graham. Fleshman had been district manager for Mutual Life Insurance Company and was successful in real estate as well, allowing him to retire from active business and devote his time to the supervision of his investments. Local architect Luther Lashmit designed the home, which won a national design award.Luther S. Lashmit (1899–1989) was a native of Winston-Salem where he practiced for many decades, both with Willard Northup's firm and alone. He designed the award-winning 1925 Fleshman-Graham House, and oversaw a major remodeling of Burton Craige's house at 134 Cascade in 1928 that transformed a mid-nineteenth century brick farmhouse into an elegant Colonial Revival style house. Lashmit studied architecture at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, and attended the École des Beaux-Arts Fontainebleau in France. Like Northup & O'Brien, he designed a large number of period revival residences, primarily for wealthy families. Perhaps his best known is Graylyn, the Norman Revival estate across from Reynolda House, completed in 1931. The fact that he also designed the 1940 Streamline Moderne “Merry Acres” for R. J. Reynolds, Jr. (demolished 1978) is a testament to his versatility. (https://ncarchitects.lib.ncsu.edu/buildings/B001945).
201, 203 and 205 Cascade Avenue, 1985
The three houses built along this stretch of Cascade Avenue were constructed in 1985 on the site of what had been the Langenour-Fleshman House, a large Victorian demolished in 1967. Each house was sympathetically designed to blend with the surrounding neighborhood. The granite wall that runs along Broad Street was part of the original home.
212 Cascade Avenue, Henry L. Trotter House, 1921
A frame foursquare house with a deck-hip roof and hipped central dormer on the front and both sides. The central entrance, which features a beautiful leaded glass elliptical fanlight and sidelights, sits beneath a gabled and arched portico supported by paired classical columns. The first floor facade was originally weatherboard, but is now covered by vinyl siding; the second floor retains the original shingles. A one-story shed-roof porch sits on the west side. In 1937 Trotter added a rear two-story flat-roofed ell with sleeping porch along with a second one-story hipped-roofed ell. Trotter and his wife Adelaide moved here from 800 S. Main Street in 1922 when Trotter was vice-president of Ideal Dry Goods Co. The property formerly included a garden at what is today 228 Cascade Avenue.Ell – a secondary wing or extension of a building, usually at right angles to the building’s principle block.
204 Cascade Avenue, Cicero Francis and Margaret Lowe House, 1911 (LHL 1989), https://www.cityofws.org/DocumentCenter/View/3860/074---Cicero-Francis-Lowe-House-PDF?bidId=)
A large hipped-roof frame Neoclassical Revival style house, one of the only classical designs in Washington Park. The weatherboarded two-story dwelling features a full-height central pedimented portico that rises above the projecting semicircular bay of a wraparound porch supported by fluted Ionic columns. Pedimented dormers with arched windows, heavy modillion cornices, and an elaborate tripartite entrance surround with leaded fanlight and sidelights complete the classical design. The house is built on one of the highest elevations in Winston-Salem – the intersection of Broad Street and Cascade Avenue. Cicero Francis Lowe joined the Brown-Rogers Hardware Company in 1908. His successful rise in management allowed him to commission this prominent house in 1911, and move here in 1912. (Design of the house is often attributed to Willard C. Northup.) Lowe, his wife Margaret, and their children enjoyed the house until 1931 when the family defaulted on the mortgage, relocating to the Gray Court Apartments. It was subsequently owned and occupied by several families (including a nephew of Jane Boyden Craige) then became a bed and breakfast, but now again functions as a single family home. Neoclassical Revival style (1895 -1955) – The facade is dominated by a full-height portico whose roof is supported by classical columns, usually with either Ionic or Corinthian capitals. Symmetrically balanced windows with a center entrance. The term Neoclassical Revival is usually reserved for monumental structures such as civic buildings, houses of worship, or homes of significant architectural design.
134 Cascade Avenue, Banner-Craig House, 1855 and 1928-29 (LHL 2001, https://www.cityofws.org/DocumentCenter/View/3895/109---Burton-Craige-House-PDF?bidId=)
A large wood-shingled Colonial Revival style house with one-story porches to each side, both supported by Tuscan columns: the right one topped by a pergola, the left an entrance porch featuring an elliptical fanlight and sidelights. The first floor has symmetrical six-over-six triple windows with single six-over-six on the second floor, then three hipped dormers above. The Broad Street facade features a large stepped brick chimney; the slate roof is deck-on-hip. A stone retaining wall runs along the Cascade Avenue and Broad Street sides, curving around a large tree. The property extends to Banner Avenue in the rear. The house was originally built in the mid-1800s as a four-room farmhouse by Constantine and Mary Banner, for whom Banner Avenue is presumably named. It was bought by Mrs. Lydia W. Schouler in 1894, who lived here for 25 years with her husband David D. Schouler (owner of Schouler’s Department Store) and their son James. It was first remodeled between 1890 and 1905 when a dining room and small den were added. In 1919, it was purchased by Jane Boyden Craige, wife of attorney Burton Craige. In 1929 the Craiges hired Northup and O’Brien to design a major remodel, removing the earlier changes and over-building the remainder with a new living room, dining room, library, bedrooms, and sleeping porches. The exterior was done in the popular Colonial Revival style. The remodel was so extensive the Craiges moved to 102 Gloria Avenue and lived there a year while work was completed.(Local legend insists the remodel was designed by architect Luther Lashmit, who was employed with Northup and O’Brien at the time. Most documentation on this house notes his name does not appear on the plans, however, a former owner of the house insists it does. Lashmit also included this home on lists of his projects.) The landscaping was designed by Philadelphia landscape architect Thomas Sears with gardens that extend through to Banner Avenue. They originally contained a swimming pool, matching garage, servant’s quarters, boxwood and rose gardens, and terraced lawn. For many years the Craiges also owned the land which is today 120 Cascade Avenue. On January 3, 1911, the Winston-Salem Journal reported that Burton Craige of Salisbury had been appointed the first full-time attorney for the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. The paper noted that “in the profession he is looked upon as one of the leading lawyers in the state… Mr. Craige considers Winston-Salem the best city in the state, and this he says was the chief inducement that determined him in making this his home for the future.” He retired in 1916 and then maintained two private practices with Craige & Vogler Law firm in Winston-Salem, and with Craige & Craige (his brother Kerr Craige) in Salisbury. 134 - pool, c.1929 (contributing)Concrete swimming pool designed as part of Thomas Sears' landscape plan. The Craiges frequently invited neighborhood children to swim here. 134 - rear garage, c.1930 (contributing, designed by Northup and O’Brien) A large gable-roofed frame garage with four car bays, each with half-glazed double doors and hipped dormers, and a slate roof. Building permits indicate this was built around 1930 by "day labor.” Deck roof, deck-on-hipped roof - A hipped roof that has been truncated to form a flat-topped roof.Tuscan Columns – similar to the Greek Doric order (within the five Classical Orders), the Roman Tuscan order is the simplest of the five orders. The columns are always unfluted with no ornamentation, a simple round shaft topped by a round capital.
129 Cascade Avenue, Adolphus H. Eller House. 1918
A stuccoed "English bungalow"' that features a Ludowici green tile gambrel roof with a full-front shed dormer. The wide eaves create a “prairie style” feel. The central entrance shows off a cantilevered gable pediment over a spiderweb fanlight and single-leaf door. There are one-story porches to either side of the central section, each supported by robust Tuscan columns similar to those in the Charles Barton Keen Reynolda House design. The Ellers first lived in a c. 1893 Queen Anne style house on this property, but in 1918, decided to “modernize.” Rather than demolish their current house, they purchased land on Park Blvd. then moved their Queen Anne onto that lot. (It still stands, in beautiful condition, at 14 Park Blvd.) They then commissioned this Dutch Colonial style home from Northup and O’Brien with a design attributed to architect Willard Northup. Eller (1861-1941) began practicing law in Winston-Salem with the firm of Eller and Starbuck in 1888, becoming a leader in the trust field. He then served as a trust officer with Wachovia Bank and Trust Company, eventually rising to vice-president. He was secretary and treasurer of the NC Railroad Company from 1903-1905, and helped organize the Standard Bldg and Loan Association of Winston-Salem (serving as president). He served in the NC Senate from 1905-1907; was chairman of the state Democratic executive committee from 1908-1912; was chairman of the Winston-Salem School Board; a trustee of UNC; and was a founder of NC Baptist Hospital. He also served as a trustee of Slater Industrial Academy for 50 years (from its founding in 1892), during which it evolved into WS State Teachers College, now Winston-Salem State University. 129 - pool house, 1918 (contributing)A small gable-roofed brick building with the gable end facing Broad Street. It is connected (engaged) as a continuation of the high brick wall along Broad Street.
121 Cascade Avenue, Jonathan Worth McAlister House, c. 1908
A frame shingled house with a complex hipped roof and a front gabled, slightly projecting entrance bay that includes a massive wood single-leaf door with partial sidelights. First floor cladding is weatherboard, wood shingles on the second. The one-story wrap porch with hipped roof is supported by square Doric posts with a decorative picket balustrade. The house style is a mix of Craftsman and Colonial Revival details and massing. It features decorative brackets at the gable; a projecting polygonal bay to the west; multi-pane glazing in double- and triple-grouped windows; and three brick interior chimneys. Like several other houses in this area, it also features wide, overhanging “prairie style” eaves that add a horizontal emphasis to the form. McAlister was a prominent lawyer and vice-president of Howe Real Estate Loan and Insurance Company. He and his wife Margaret were living here by 1908, having moved from W. Fifth Street. McAlister died in 1909/10, but Margaret remained in the house until at least 1929, at times renting rooms to teachers.
115 Cascade Avenue, Reed-McKaughan House, 1913
A frame shingled house with a hipped-roof; three corbelled brick interior chimneys; and a one-bay porch with a "rainbow roof" supported by large brackets. The eastern side bay of the second floor front facade is cantilevered above paired Craftsman brackets; there is multi-pane glazing in double and triple window groupings (Craftsman/Arts and Crafts style); and a one-story hipped-roof porch projects to the east side. Shaped rafter ends can be seen under the house and side porch eaves. The design is a mlx of Craftsman and Colonial Revival elements with significant interior details.The house was built by William P. Reed, a freight agent for the WS Southbound Railway, and his wife Frances W. in 1912 or 1913. He sold the house to Luther C. McKaughan and his wife, who moved here about 1917 from Holly Avenue. McKaughan was a lawyer and partner in the Sapp & McKaughan law firm.Rainbow roof – A pitched roof that has slight convex curves to the top surfaces. Depending on the amount of curve and the ratio of width to height they can range from almost a semicircle to a Gothic arch.
104 Cascade Avenue, Henry Elias and Rosa Mickey Fries House, 1914
A large hipped-roof brick Neoclassical Revival style house with a full-height gable-on-hip portico. The paired fluted Doric columns with matching pilasters shelter the double-leaf entrance which is framed by a leaded-glass fanlight and sidelights. The cantilevered balcony on the 2nd floor sits on substantial brackets and features a decorative balustrade. Shaped rafter ends decorate the deep eaves including the weatherboarded side addition. The structure sits on a granite foundation with granite steps and sidewalls, and a granite retaining wall survives on Doune Street. (All rusticated granite.) The interior features significant woodwork. (It is said that a window in the library was copied from a building constructed at Westminster Abbey in 1912 for the coronation of King George V.) Constructed by Fogle Brothers Company. The Frieses lived on Main Street near Belews Creek Street (an area greatly impacted by interstate 40 - now Salem Parkway) until moving in 1914 to this Cascade Street residence. Sadly, their only daughter Anna Marguerite died of scarlet fever in 1916. Rosa died in 1938 and in 1945, Henry sold the residence to William J. Fishel who had the house partitioned into six apartments the next year. The property was rented as individual apartments until 1995, when it was purchased by Paul and Diedre McGann, who rehabilitated it back to a single-family residence. Henry E. Fries (1857-1949) was a prominent Salem industrialist who managed his family holdings which included the Arista and Wachovia Mills. He also chartered the Fries Manufacturing and Power Company in 1891, and had the Idol’s Hydroelectric Generating Station constructed on the Yadkin River near Clemmons, NC in 1898. The 1913 city directory lists his occupations as general manager of the Winston-Salem Power Co.; president of the Forsyth Manufacturing Co.; president of the WS Southbound Railway; vice-president of Forsyth Furniture Co.; vice-president of Forsyth Iron Bed Co.; vice-president of the Journal Publishing Co.; and vice-president of Wachovia Mills. He served three terms as mayor of Salem, was a member of the County Board of Education, and a trustee of Slater Industrial and Normal School (now WSSU) for 53 years. He helped establish the NC College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (now NCSU in Raleigh) and was the driving force behind the NC Industrial Exposition in Raleigh in 1884. Of major importance was his ownership of the Winston-Salem Railway and Electric Company (1891) that eventually became the WS Street Railway Company (1899), whose tracks ran for several blocks on Cascade Avenue. He had a significant role in the development of the Washington Park, Wachovia Development/Belview, and Sunnyside/ Central Terrace neighborhoods. (https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/fries-henry-elias)Doric Columns – A very plain, straightforward design, simpler than the later Ionic and Corinthian column styles. A Doric column is also thicker and heavier than an Ionic or Corinthian column. Often used with a simple circular capital.
105 West Banner Avenue, Henry E. Fries Outbuilding, 1914-15
A two-story brick building with its original one-story brick wing, both with penciling and both hip-roofed with cement shingles. It includes a central brick chimney, wide overhanging eaves with exposed rafter ends, and tall vertical four-over-four windows. Today's front entrance facing Banner was originally a window. The one-story section is now a two-car garage with half-glazed double doors beneath header arches. The outbuilding was built as a carriage house and servants quarters for the Henry E. Fries House at 104 Cascade Avenue, however, Henry kept his electric car here as well. It first appeared in city directories as a separate residence (behind 104 Cascade) in 1938 when Dora E. Miller, a nurse, lived there. First listed in city directories as 105 Banner in 1949/50.
28 Cascade Avenue, Frederick Fries and Bleeker Estelle Reid Bahnson House, 1914
A large stuccoed Tudor Revival style frame house with a one-story porch on the west wing, a porte cochère on the east wing, and a steep-gabled entrance porch. The design features typical Tudor style half-timbering and steeply pitched gables. It also features a front gabled projecting bay, sets of paired windows, and a slate roof. At the rear is a covered walkway leading to a large two-car garage. Building permits indicate that Bahnsen hired Fogle Brothers to do "general interior remodeling" in 1934. Bleeker Reid Bahnson, an award-winning horticulturist, designed the landscape plan. By 1915 Bahnsen (1876-1944) and his wife Bleeker had moved here from Salem, where he had grown up in a prominent Moravian family. An engineer, he began collaborating in 1905 with his uncle, John William Fries, in experimental and development work on humidifiers. He, his brother A. H. Bahnson Sr., and James A. Gray acquired the rights to John W. Fries's humidifier in 1915 and quickly founded the Normalair Company. The brothers eventually acquired James Gray’s interest, and by 1929 the firm had become the Bahnsen Company. Bahnson founded the Southern Steel Stamping Company (in today’s Sunnyside historic district) to make furniture hardware in 1929 as well. In 1940, Fred sold his interest in the Bahnson Company to his brother in order to focus on his Southern Steel Stamping Company. During his career, Bahnsen acquired several patents in humidification and in furniture hardware design. At his death he was president of Southern Steel Stamping Company and a consulting engineer for the Bahnsen Company. In 1970, the North Carolina School of the Arts Foundation acquired the property from Bleeker Bahnson’s estate to serve as its chancellor’s residence. The home retained that function until 2006 when the State of NC sold the house to David S. and Brantly B. Shapiro. 28 Cascade Avenue Outbuilding, 1936 (contributing)A large hipped-roofed building with three hipped dormers, a brick chimney, and two wide auto bays. Slate roof. Built as a garage and servants quarters in 1936 by Frank L. Blum Construction, it was later converted to an apartment.Tudor Revival style (1880 -1940) – A revival of English Tudor architecture (1485-1558) that includes: a steeply pitched roof, usually gabled; one or more prominent front-facing gables; tall, narrow windows, usually with multi-pane glazing and in groupings; massive brick chimneys, often crowned with decorative chimney pots; an entrance that includes a round or Tudor arch; and half-timbering. The style is actually taken from a variety of English architectural styles to include: Elizabethan, Jacobean, simple medieval houses and rural cottages, and might include British Arts and Crafts details.
20 Cascade Avenue, Charles Shober and Clara Vance Siewers House, 1917
Although many houses in the Washington Park historic district have Colonial Revival elements, the Siewers House is a fully rendered example. A large German-sided frame house with one-story side porches supported by paired Doric columns, the side-gabled roof includes three gable dormers to the front, each with arched windows. The distinctive tripartite entrance surround features fluted Doric columns supporting a central pediment above a recessed, glazed, double-leaf door, and multi pane sidelights and transoms flanked by paneled pilasters. The interior woodwork is significant.Siewers (1878-1932), from a prominent Salem family, started as a salesman with Forsyth Manufacturing Company, then later founded and became president of Forsyth Chair Company. He invested in and eventually managed Forsyth Iron Bed Company, Forsyth Manufacturing Company, Forsyth Chair Company, and Forsyth Dining Room Furniture Company, merging the five plants to create Forsyth Furniture Lines, Inc. in 1922. (All of these plants were located just across South Main Street in what is today the Centerville and Sunnyside historic districts.) Siewers also served several terms on the board of commissioners of Salem prior to its consolidation with Winston. The Siewers were living in Salem when they commissioned noted local architect Willard C. Northup to design a home closer to their factories with construction by Fogle Brothers Company. The home was damaged by a fire in the early 1930s that required a renovation and roof replacement. Upon Clara Siewers 1963 death, the property was given by the estate to the Moravian Music Foundation (https://moravianmusic.org/). The house served as offices and the library of the Foundation (founded in 1956) until 2001 when the home was purchased by Dr. Charles Turner, a grandson of the Siewers, and his wife Lynn. The Turners then completed a restoration of the house.
1820 South Main Street, David S. and Bettie Reid House, 1894 (LHL 1982, https://www.cityofws.org/DocumentCenter/View/3828/042---David-Reid-House-PDF?bidId=)
A large brick asymmetrical two-story Queen Anne style house with an elaborate turned and sawnwork porch. (Originally with metal roof cresting.) A wide frieze crosses the structure below the cornice. The gable ends are frame with false half-timbering; the gable tops project as small pediments. The large octagonal bay at the NE corner was originally capped by a tall conical roof that was removed in the 1940s, reportedly because it leaked often and roofers were reluctant to work on it. The pedimented gable dormer features paired windows with a lattice pattern upper light. Above the central entrance is a recessed balcony with brackets that form a round arch currently sheltering a ten-light French window. (This balcony was originally fronted by a balustraded deck.) A one-story porch wraps the south elevation along Cascade Avenue and curves around the octagonal bay to the north elevation; the porch is supported by turned posts and ornate Victorian sawnwork and brackets with a sawnwork frieze. The porch balustrade is a pattern of turned balusters between plain pickets. There are interior and end corbelled brick chimneys, and the original stepped stone retaining wall still runs along South Main Street. (A documentary photograph shows the building in 1894 shortly after it was completed, and helps to identify later alterations. Glass negative in files of Old Salem Museums & Gardens.) Reid ran a successful grocery and dry goods business on Main Street in Salem, and was living on East Second Street when he bought this property in 1891, although the house was not completed until 1894. By 1906 his business was listed in the city directories as groceries, china, and crockery, but by 1908 he was no longer identified as a grocer. (Reid’s son, David Jr., had taken over the Salem store.) He later operated Reid's China Hall at 110 West Fourth Street. Paul Otto Schallert and his wife Grace Jackson bought the property in 1920. He was a physician and surgeon at the Gilmer Brothers building. In 1943, the couple converted the residence into four rental units and relocated to Florida where Dr. Schallert worked as a Veteran Administration physician. The property remained in the family as rental property until 1966 when it was restored to a single family residence.
1903 South Main Street, Rufus Authur and Lula C. Spaugh House, 1908
This lot is unusual in that it contains both the Rufus and Lula Spaugh House (the original structure) as well as the former 1957 Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church and School building to the rear of the house (along Sunnyside Avenue). Rufus and Lula moved here in 1908 to be closer to his jobs at factories just up Sunnyside Avenue. Spaugh was treasurer, then vice-president of Salem Iron Works and Forsyth Manufacturing Company as well as vice-president of Arista Mills and Washington Mills Company. The couple moved on to Buena Vista in 1933.The two-story hip-roofed frame house features a pedimented projecting bay at each side elevation. Fluted Doric columns with a picket balustrade support the one-story wrap front porch which includes projecting front and side entrance bays topped by a segmental arch. The wooden double door entrance is surrounded by an upper transom and sidelights; the large first floor window is an operable single sash with transom. The retaining wall and corner steps are concrete. After the property was purchased by Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church, the house was used by the Sisters of St. Joseph, who operated Our Lady of Mercy school, as their convent. Needing more space, the church opted to sell the various structures that eventually formed its larger campus in 2002 to the State of North Carolina for use by the UNC School of the Arts. The building now houses the UNCSA Office of Public Relations. Sitting directly behind the Spaugh House is the 1957 yellow brick Modernist Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church and School, which was formed in 1954 with a congregation of 235. It was built on a section of the lot that had once been a tennis court owned by Harry Spach, who lived across the street at 1901 Sunnyside Avenue (now gone). Designed by Greensboro architects and engineers Andrews and McGready, the structure accommodated over 600 parishioners by its completion.The structure was designed in the International style, popularized in North Carolina when Bauhaus architect Walter Gropius taught at Black Mountain College during the 1940s. It now functions as classroom and performance space for UNCSA, and is titled Workplace West V. International style - Minimalist in concept and devoid of regional characteristics, the style stresses functionalism and rejects all nonessential decorative elements. Typically emphasizes the horizontal lines of a building, and usually has a flat roof. Windows treatments include horizontal bands of windows, large floor-to-ceiling windows, metal window frames set flush with the exterior walls, and glass-to-glass joints at corners without framing.
1919 South Main Street, Lindsay E. and Mary J. Fishel House, c. 1919
Mary J. Fishel bought this property in 1919, and had the home built that same year. The large stuccoed side-gable structure includes a full-front shed porch and side porte cochere, both supported by granite posts spanned by a granite knee wall. The southern end features a one-story sunroom side wing with casement windows that originally had brackets in a parapet roof. Paired brackets decorate the cornice along with denticulated pedimented gables. In 1922, Lindsay Fishel was president and manager of the Motor Company and Auto Repair Company as well as vice-president of Universal Auto Company. By 1928, he was president of the Lindsay Fishel Buick Company with Mary eventually becoming his vice-president. Although ownership of the house changed hands in 1930, the Fishels continued to live here. Lindsay died in 1939, and Mary then rented furnished rooms to boarders. The house was sold to the Catholic diocese in 1974, at which point it became the rectory within the Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church and School complex. It now houses the UNCSA Office of Advancement. The Catholic church and school complex utilized a number of surrounding buildings. In addition to the construction of the 1957 sanctuary and school, the utilization of the Spaugh House as a convent and the Fishel House as a rectory, Our Lady of Mercy also used the Rowan F. and Phoebe Long House at 23 East Banner Avenue as a kindergarten. In 1988, the church erected the Monsignor Lawrence Newman Center at 17 East Banner Avenue, directly behind the Fishel House. In 2002, Our Lady of Mercy purchased the former Bishop McGuinness High School complex on Link Road, moving both church and school to that location. That same year, this complex was bought by the State of North Carolina for use by the UNC School of the Arts. Much thanks to UNCSA for their thoughtful adaptive reuse and continued care of these historic buildings!
