Saved Property
212 Florence Street
Fisher Park Historic District
The Whitt and Bessie Stone House, ca. 1913
Gable-end structure; Chalet-like front dormer with ventilator at its peak, triangular knee braces, stickwork, and band of casement windows.
— Fisher Park Historic District, National Register nomination
The Whitt and Bessie Stone House was rundown and divided into three apartments when the Fund acquired it, but it was still charming. Most of its historic features were still intact. It was built around 1913 just up the hill from Fisher Park in the Fisher Park Historic District.
In 2022 the Fund bought the house from its absentee owner. One month later, it sold the house to Emily Hinton, subject to a preservation easement to ensure the retention of the house’s historic features, particularly on the exterior. Emily restored it as her own single-family home. As a contributing structure in the Fisher Park National Register Historic District, the restoration was eligible for federal and state historic preservation tax credits. The house has five bedrooms and three bathrooms in 1,770 square feet. It stands adjacent to a set of six recently built, upscale townhomes on the former site of Temple Emanuel’s activity center.
The original owners were Whitley Robert “Whitt” Stone (1881-1933) and Elizabeth Ella “Bessie” Eller Stone (1880-1963), who bought the property in 1911. They were listed at the address in the 1913-14 city directory.
Whitt, who was born in Raleigh, was vice president of Joseph J. Stone, printers, bookbinders and engravers (Whitt and Joseph were brothers). Bessie, a native of Nebraska, served as regent in the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and as a director of the YWCA. She was the founder of the Round Table Study Club. They sold the house in 1923.
From 1925 to 1931 and again beginning in 1937, the house was owned by Waldo Porter (1885-1943) and Rachel Jane Petty Porter (1886-1987). They used the house as a rental property. Waldo was vice president of American National Bank and Greensboro Mortgage Loan Company. He became the first manager of the local unemployment office when it was created in 1933. He was a cousin of William Sidney Porter, the writer O. Henry. Rachel attended Salem College and the State Normal and Industrial College. She worked at Greensboro College as supervisor of buildings and grounds and as assistant to the dean of students. She lived to be 100.
After Waldo died of Rocky Mountain spotted fever at age 52, ownership passed to a distant relative, Oscar R. Porter Jr. (1890-1970), a Christian Science practitioner. He sold the house in 1950 to Ella Bumgarner Ward (1902-1995), who owned it until her death. Ella was a real estate agent. She divided the house into three apartments and lived in one of them. After her death, her son donated the house to Greensboro College, which sold it to a landlord in 1998. Twenty-four years later, the Fund bought the now dilapidated house.