11/7 Class Pt 2: Roadway

while we were go to and fro for the November 7th class, we traveled on a lot of roads. specifically we rode on the interstate between the High Point Road exit and Wendover Avenue, High Point Road, Wendover Avenue, Summit Avenue, and Battleground Avenue.

the roadways we covered had residential, retail, or open space views. the interstate just had resisential on either side behind the borderline of trees. Summit Avenue was mostly residential
neighborhoods. High Point Road and Wendover Avenue were mostly retail--with restaurants, car

dealerships, and hotels along the side of the street. Battleground Avenue was some residential and some retail but mostly it was open space leading to the Battleground Park.

along certain roads, Greensboro wants to give a different impression. the roads with residential--this is a community and this is where you could raise a family. the roads with with when traveling through. the roads with open space--this is were you and your family can come to have good quality tme together and to experience nature along with being in an historic area. retail--this is where you can but the things
needed for raising you family or even just to get by

11/7 Class Pt 1: Retail

for the November 7th class we covered many different areas.

for the retail section we went to the Friendly Center and the Four Seasons Mall.

the Friendly Center has many different types of shops and serves several age levels. they serve college students and middle age working class mainly. the shops range from clothes to pets to food to electronics. there are a couple pharmacies thrown in there too. the specific types of shops aren't put together, they are all intermingling through out the area. the Friendly Center is considered a strip mall so there are several buildings that have been split into a lot of spaces where the stores are. they all face outward around the building, even at the back of the building. the buildings full of stores fill the area from Friendly Avenue to Northline Avenue and from Greenvalley Road to Pembroke Road. there are parking lots in between all of the buildings and sidewalks along the sides of the buildings. in between some of the parking lots there are little pedestrian sitting/picnicking areas. security has a high value at the Friendly Center--there are little cameras set up and security guards forever circling around the parking lots and buildings.

the Four Seasons Mall has the same types of stores and targeted age groups. they have a couple extra types of shops such as there post office, the game room by the food court and the independent vendors throughout the store. the setup is what differs the Four Seasons Mall from the Friendly Center. the mall is all one big three story building with the stores side-by-side with the walk ways in between. the parking lots surround the building in a full 360. the elevators and escalators provide transportation to and from each level.

on the other side of the tracks

as you walk along S. Elm Street you will see a lot of building, in use or empty, and empty spaces, used as parking or allies. coming from Spring Garden St. towards the Lewis Street intersection, the buildings on the right side of the street are the odd numbered and the ones on the left side are even numbered. there are only several buildings on either side of the street but each building is split into 3 or 4 sections.

in 1925 most of the buildings were used as businesses, a few were vacant or residents. a lot of the second levels of the shops were used as homes for the shop keepers/owners. from the Southern Railroad:Captain of Police Office to the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. just about every type of business is covered. a couple of the businesses occupy two of the sections such as the Coble & Starr Motor Co. which is in Suite 531 and Suite 533.

in 1975 the economy must have dropped---a lot. the whole sections from Suite 401 to Suite 511 and from Suite 533 to Suite 601 weren't listed so we have to assume that they had been removed from S. Elm Street. a lot the odd side was missing and spacey. a couple of the addresses are missing from the even side of S. Elm Street but most of the buildings are still standing and in use. some of the second levels of the shops were still in use as homes as well.

in 2000 the economy still must have been low or the the people of Greensboro just didn't care enough to keep up that part of town because even more of the addresses were not listed--on both the left and right side of S. Elm Street.

in 2009--present day--the Greensboro people must have started to appreciate the older part of town more because more of the buildings are in use. the addresses that aren't listed are definitely parking lots and back streets.

some of the buildings have been in use by the same company since 1975. most havent though.

i think that the Greensboro people have realized the historic value of the old downtown part of Greensboro. and with this in mind they have focused on restoring and using the original buildings rather than replacing them with more modern buildings.

tracing the tracks: opening the gates

the greensboro train/bus station has been used for a long time. it stretches all over the eastern part of the USA. moorehead built the train station because he thought it would help bring people to greensboro plus it was really useful to the industrial side of town. now it still used for the industrial part of town and is widely used to bring people to and from greensboro. i think that in the future, it will still be useful for both reasons.

the Piedmont Triad International Airport brings tons of people from all over the eastern side of the USA. the mutual arrivals and departures : memphis, atlanta, dallas, detroit, hebron, philadelphia, washington, new york, charlotte, houston, chicago, newark. the arrivals: birmingham, miami. the departures: poanoke, lewisburg, leesburg.

greensboro has several non-western european culture institutions.

-Cultural Center

-http://www.greensboro-nc.gov/Departments/Executive/events/hosting/culturalcenter/

-Greensboro Symphony Orchestra

-http://www.greensborosymphony.org/

-Reed African American Heritage Museum

-http://www.ncat.edu/~museum/collect.html/Mattye

-Weatherspoon Art Museum

-http://weatherspoon.uncg.edu/

-Natural Science Center of Greensboro

-http://www.natsci.org/

downtown intitutions

we started at the intersections of
Market Street and Elm Street again today. we worked our way North this time. we looked at the old Wachovia building. it has been renovated on the inside to be apartments but kept the outside appearance of a legal building with the glass and metal. across
from the apartment building is the
Center City Park. it is a public private park
owned by the Center City Organization. it was
open space that was bought and cleaned up. it is strategically placed beside the apartments to give
the dwellings somewhere peaceful to go. a water
system is being put in at this time. it is important
to put water in the park because when the town was originally founded, it was dry, very dry. the local museum was originally a church. it was reused as the library for a while, becoming a museum recently. they have an exhibit about Gate City and how it was run. after the library was in the old church building, it got its own building which is now the Elon Law School building. the library now is bigger and set up similarly to the Elon Law School. as things expand they build new buildings but have always reuse
the old ones.

back to the center

the center of Greensboro NC is
the intersection of Market Street
and Elm Street. the four corners consist of a bank, a law building, and two others that are in reconstruction. this intersection is the highest point of town; there is a hill in each direction. all of the streets in Greensboro are
named significantly: Elm Street was lined
with elm trees, Market Street was the main road to the market places.
there are numerous stacks around town...they are commonly referred to as parking decks. they stragetically placed so that they are closest to the big industries and companies. the old Woolworth Company building is under renovation to restore the structure and to convert it into a museum. a lot of the old retail building that were here originally are being renovated and reused for practical reasons. most of the older buildings were built
without electricity so they were built with a lot of windows all
around the building to allow the sunlight in through out the day. the whole district we were looking at was one road wide. it is lined by the city-state-government buildings (aka courthouse, jailhouse, police department...ect...). some of the alleys have been converted for practical reasons with a pretty look to entertain the public.

blandwood

governor morehead's mansion is amazing. it was originally a 1795 four bedroom farm house, it is the oldest standing structure in greesboro. it sat on 100 acres stretching from railroad to market st one way and spring st to eugene st the other way. in 1822 it was expanded to a six bedroom home. in 1827 it was bought by
john motley and haley morehead. when mr. morehead became governor, he felt the home needed to appear grander so he hired Alexander Davis to design/build an addition in 1844. it then became the oldest example of italianate structure. this consist of a multi-level marble tower in the front of the house. it created a porch on each floor. the downstairs of the home has high ceilings and long horizontal windows. the west parlor was designed with cast plaster and marble. the chandeler was designed with grape and magnolia leaves in the plaster mold. it ties in the surrounding habitat. the west parlor was the gathering room in the evening so there are three big windows to be opened in the summer. they have doors with windows to close in the winter. the doors on the opposite side of the room have mirrors so that the
sunlight reflects off to make the room brighter. the east parlor was the morning gathering area. it was more for casual use so the design is not as elaborate as the west parlor. the chandeler's plaster mold is less decorated and more simple. the chandeler is referred to as the queen
chandeler and isnt as big or fancy as the king. the windows are also designed to brighten the room. in the winter though the doors are closed and they have mirrors to reflect the candle light or sunlight from across the hall. these front rooms are furnished with matching furniture that would have been moved from room to room. the fact that they matched demonstrated the family's wealth and stability.
the upstairs is plain and simple yet designed with taste. there is still the coordinating marble in the fireplace and floor boards(??). the ceilings are very low because it was one of the first southern homes to be designed/built by a northern designer/builder. the windows were built smaller as well. the beds were a traditional sleigh bed. the back rooms are the original bedrooms so they are very simple in design with not much at all. the primary color of paint in the house is green because it is the most stable(it doesnt fade). the house is very pretty over all and is an important historical landmark in greensboro.