Time Is Running Out for Condemned N.C. House
By Glenn Perkins | Online Only | May 29, 2008
Beautiful, spacious shingle home, built 1908 - Impossibly scenic lot on a cozy corner of the idyllic UNC campus - Home to famous Carolinians ...
What's the catch? Well, there's a hole in the house where a tree fell on it. The lot is overgrown. And it's been condemned by the town of Chapel Hill, N.C.
But the Edward Kidder Graham House is far from lost—at least if Preservation North Carolina can find a buyer in the next two months. If not, a demolition crew will swiftly erase this piece of Chapel Hill and North Carolina history.
It will take up to a million dollars, say restoration experts, to rehabilitate the 3,200-square-foot house. Add to that the $900,000 asking price.
Sounds like a lot? Take a look at home values in Chapel Hill's historic districts, and less than $2 million starts to sound like a bargain. The State of North Carolina offers 30 percent tax credits for qualified restoration of historic homes.
"This house embodies the progressive spirit of North Carolina in the 20th century," says Myrick Howard, president of Preservation North Carolina. "We must make every effort to rescue it."
Edward Kidder Graham, who built the house, was a Charlotte native who taught the first journalism course at the University of North Carolina. Appointed university president in 1914, he worked, in his words, "to make the campus co-extensive with the boundaries of the state." His tenure was cut short in 1918, however, when he died in the influenza pandemic at age 42.
It's not every house that has also doubled as the set for a semi-notorious B-movie.
In 1968, director Richard Wilson used the Edward Kidder Graham House to shoot most of Three in the Attic, a low-budget picture that remains a document of the sexual revolution.
"Having the movie shot here puts the house in a whole other category," says Ernest Dollar, executive director of the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill. "This film proves that preservation is sexy."
As for potential buyers, "They're out there," says Cathleen Turner, PNC's Piedmont Regional Director. "This house has so much going for it."
But they will have to step forward quickly, before the August deadline.
To learn more about the Edward Kidder Graham House, contact Cathleen Turner,
cturner@presnc.org cturner@presnc.org or 919-682-8540.
Watch a slideshow of the house's interior
Glenn Perkins is Preservation North Carolina's Web site editor.
For more photos, stories, and tips, subscribe to the print edition of Preservation magazine.
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Comments
Submitted by three at: June 4, 2008
c'mon folks, this looks like a great house. someone should capitalize on this. for reference, imdb link to attic flick: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063693/