At Home, Fall 2019

fall 2019

5 6 8

As the wheel turns Farmland to shopping

When the (train) whistle blew

10 12

Fun with ďŹ re (pits)

Fall lawncare checklist

14 18

Forging a path

Upcoming community events

19 20 24

Horse show memories School facilities study Hunting treasure trees

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Fall 2019

As the wheel turns Memories from the Old Mill of Guilford with its familiar red water wheel are being compiled into a book

by CHRIS BURRITT OAK RIDGE – The Old Mill of Guilford is a good listener. For two-and-a-half centuries, the Oak Ridge landmark has witnessed history, overhearing whispers of men wanting to buy moonshine. It watched as parents weighed their children on scales intended for sacks of flour.

The mill heard the crack of gunshots as boys perched in the upper windows took aim at snakes and rats. If it could have turned on its stone foundation, it would have seen a wagon coming down the dirt road, drawn by two mules toting corn and wheat and a little girl named Marie Lowrey Armstrong.

“It was just such a treat” to visit the mill, recalled 99-year-old Armstrong, one of more than 40 people who gathered in the mill’s tobacco barn one afternoon in mid-September to share stories about the mill.

“It has lasted for so many years.”

Dating back to 1767, the mill fell into possession of British troops 14 years later, before they fought American soldiers in the Battle of Guilford Courthouse. That’s an important part of the Old Mill’s history that has been documented time and time again. So, approached by the Guilford Battle chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution to write a book about the mill, owner Amy Klug asked if instead

File photo/NWO

Tales and memories of the Old Mill of Guilford, which dates back to 1767, are being compiled into a book. they could collect memories from people still alive to share them.

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“What are the experiences that people had here?” Klug asked, explaining her intentions to those who gathered around a table covered with a checkered red-and-white cloth. A vase with a white tulip rose sat in the middle.

Klug is part of the mill’s official history: she and her husband, Darrell, purchased the property in 2008. They joined a long list of owners reaching back to Daniel Dillon, a Quaker who gained permission from British authorities in 1764 to build a grist mill on the Reedy Fork of the Haw River, according to a chronological history by Jack Perdue.

Although she’s not a historian, Klug is part of the tradition of oral history, made

Fall 2019

famous in recent decades by the PBS documentaries of Ken Burns.

“Before these memories die, we need to collect them,” Klug said in an interview as she prepared for what she called “an informal conversation to gather the stories and tales of the mill.”

Klug kicked off the Sunday afternoon gathering by recalling a story she had heard from others about people visiting the mill during Prohibition to buy moonshine from a still hidden on the property. She said the password for getting a bottle of the illegal liquor was “Ferdinand.”

Annie Laura Perdue took over as miller in 2007 after the death of the former and beloved miller/owner, Charlie Parnell (Charlie’s wife, Heidi, equally beloved, died six months afterward).

Perdue recalled her conversation with a man from Texas who had grown up in Oak Ridge and visited the mill with his grandfather when he was a boy.

“They always told us certain places we shouldn’t go,” said Perdue, retelling the Texan’s story. “You don’t tell 12-year-old boys they can’t go somewhere. They found the still. It was up this little creek, way over in the woods.”

Phyllis Anders shifted the conversation from sin to salvation.

“I remember mostly the mill having a pond across the road,” she said,

continued on page 22

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In 1972, changes in the Greensboro City school system prompted Jerry and Phyllis Cooke to make a decision that would ultimately lead to much of the commercial development Oak Ridge has experienced in the last 25 years.

“We spent two years looking at what was available (in the rural part of the county),” Jerry Cooke said. During their search, he created a 3x5 card system and wrote down every tract of undeveloped land in northwest Guilford County that had recently sold, and the selling price.

Cooke said he had spent many Saturday mornings looking at land when in 1974 an acquaintance told him about some farmland in Oak Ridge for sale. The 130-acre tract, which bordered N.C. 68 on both sides, was owned by five heirs.

Almost immediately after seeing the property, Cooke said he made an offer.

It was accepted, and within a month he and Phyllis agreed to owner-financing at 10 percent interest; compared to the going interest rate in 1974 of 22 percent, it was a bargain. The couple also agreed to make a $30,000 payment at the end of the first year, with the balance due at the end of 10 years.

Cooke said he later found out a local resident had been offered the property, but declined to pay more than $500 an acre for it. Insulted, the heirs’ family manager said no one in Oak Ridge would own his family’s farm.

“That was my opportunity, but I didn’t

Photo by Patti Stokes/NWO

Oak Ridge resident Jerry Cooke, soon to be 84, credits his wife and youngest son for their help and support in commercially developing much of the 130-acre farm he purchased in 1974. know that at the time,” Cooke said. “The asking price was $1,442 an acre, and that’s what I had offered him.”

Before construction could begin on the Cookes’ new home, to be located on the farmland, trees and brush had to be cleared for a driveway. For about a year Cooke and Philip, the couple’s son who at the time was 7, spent almost every Saturday cutting out the ¼-mile driveway that led from N.C. 68 back to where their new home would be.

“We drug all that brush back here (into the woods) and burned it,” Cooke told the Northwest Observer while sitting in his former home, which is now where the company’s offices are located.

At the end of the workday, the two tired and hungry workers would go to Libby Hill Seafood on W. Market Street for dinner and pay $3.50 a plate for all they could eat. He said they got their money’s worth.

In the spring of 1975, a $30,000 loan payment came due on the Cookes’ farm property. Concerned about falling short, Cooke sought help from his father.

continued on page 28

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From the whistle blast of the Atlantic & Yadkin to the sound of cars, trucks and tractor trailers Stokesdale’s history dates back to 1860, when John King opened a general store on presentday Ellisboro Road; Friends of Stokesdale wants to preserve the town’s history and revitalize a once vibrant downtown area

by CHRIS BURRITT

with contributions by JOE THACKER Photo courtesy of David Bott

In 1886, the Cape Fear & Yadkin Valley Railroad (later Atlantic & Yadkin) laid tracks in Stokesdale, followed by construction of a depot for freight and passengers. Several wooden buildings were built on the opposite side of the street that ran along the track.

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Fall 2019

STOKESDALE – As a boy, Bob Simpson knew the train was coming by the blast of its whistle.

Two long blasts followed by one short and one long signaled the train was crossing a street. It sounded one short and one long blast as it departed the train depot on U.S. 158.

Those memories from half a century ago have surfaced in Stokesdale as the historic depot that once anchored downtown was put up for auction in late September after being relocated to property on U.S. 220 in Madison as a private residence 42 years ago.

“I’d like to see it moved back to Stokesdale,” Simpson, 82, said in an interview before the auction. As a boy, he’d go into the depot to listen to clicking of the telegraph. He worked as a brakeman on the railway 60 years ago. “I would like to see it as a museum.”

The history of the railroad goes back to the founding of Stokesdale; known originally as Green Pond, it was likely named for a nearby pond green with algae. It’s unclear why the name was changed to Stokesdale.

“Some say there was a conductor or surveyor of the railroad named

Mr. Stokes,” according to a history of the town written by Stokesdale resident Joe Thacker. “Maybe it was the town’s proximity to Stokes County. No one knows for sure.”

The history outlined below comes from Thacker, president of Friends of Stokesdale, a nonprofit focused on promoting the town’s history, preserving its old buildings and revitalizing the downtown area. In recent months, the organization secured a clock that fronts U.S. 158 at the fire station – the former site of the train depot – and commissioned a mural commemorating the town’s 30th anniversary of incorporation this year.

Stokesdale originated in 1860 when John King built a general merchandise store on present-day Ellisboro Road.

There, he sold coffee, sugar, salt, beans, seed, hoes, shovels and other general goods to local farming families. A post office was assigned to the store within a few years.

Twenty-six years later, the Cape Fear & Yadkin Valley Railroad (later Atlantic & Yadkin) laid tracks in town, followed by construction of a depot for freight and passengers. Several wooden

continued on page 30

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Fall 2019

SUMMERFIELD – As far as Glen Claeys can see, fireplaces and fire pits sprout from backyards and decks along Rob Roy Drive in Summerfield’s Lennox Woods subdivision, and they’re almost as common as mailboxes.

Across our area, fireplaces are increasingly the focal point of decks and covered porches, creating outdoor caves for men grilling and watching football games on big screen TVs. Others stand alone in the yard as stout stone towers of fire where families and friends gather on chilly nights.

“It’s an excellent place to reconnect with your family,” said Claeys, owner of The Garden Outlet in Summerfield with his wife, Donna. The fire pit he and his crew built in Lennox Woods was relatively simple – a half moon-shaped hole encircled with dry-stacked stones and surrounded by a gravel patio and landscaping.

“When you want to build a fire, it’s almost a fantasy,” said John Futrell, owner of Common Ground, a Greensboro-based landscaping company. “A fire pit is very primal.”

Homeowners can expect to pay $1,000 or more for contractors to build fire pits and sitting areas, according to Claeys and Futrell.

The cost for outdoor fireplaces can easily exceed $10,000. Landscaping and lighting add to the expenses.

Outdoor living areas figure into home prices when they’re built along with the rest of the house.

Photo by Chris Burritt/NWO

A fire pit is “an excellent place to reconnect with your family,” said Glen Claeys, owner of The Garden Outlet with his wife, Donna. Shown in photo is a fire pit Claeys built in Summerfield’s Lennox Woods neighborhood.

A year ago, builder Kevin Lansink and his family moved into their new home on Pleasant Ridge Road in Summerfield with a wood-burning fireplace as the centerpiece of a covered porch overlooking their wooded backyard.

A big-screen TV hangs above the stone fireplace, surrounded by a black granite countertop with a grill. Lansink, the owner of Lansink Custom Homes, is eyeing a spot for a refrigerator.

“The sky’s the limit,” he said.

“There is something relaxing and hypnotizing about a fire and often it becomes the center piece of our outdoor spaces,” said Paige Friddle, owner of Friddle Construction Company with her husband, Michael. For clients who want more than a fireplace, outdoor movie

screens, sound systems and landscape lighting add “the finishing touch,” she said.

“Most of the outdoor living areas we’re building now have TV hookups and surround sound,” said Casey Johnson, who owns construction company Johnson and Lee with his father, Commie, and another father-and-son team, Rick and Mike Lee. “Homeowners are trying to bring the inside outside,” he said.

Many homeowners prefer gasburning fireplaces to avoid the inconvenience of removing ashes from burned wood, according to Johnson. For people who want to burn wood, fireplace log lighters eliminate the need for kindling, paper and matches, he said.

But not all homebuyers want to incur the extra cost of an outdoor living space, according to Ray Bullins, owner of Ray Bullins Construction. For builders, that means constructing an outdoor fireplace in a spec house may deter potential buyers.

“It’s not for every family,” he said.

Outdoor living spaces are especially appealing to families moving to our region from the northeastern and midwestern U.S. where temperatures in those regions are too cold for entertaining outside during the late fall and winter months, said Matt Walraven, owner of Walraven Signature Homes. It’s typically warm enough in our area to entertain outside until December, he said.

“There’s nothing more romantic or cozy or fun than sitting in front of a fire,” he noted.

By contrast, there’s nothing worse

Triad Land Surveying, PC Photo by Chris Burritt/NWO

A fire is “relaxing and hypnotizing,” making fireplaces the centerpiece of outdoor living areas, said Paige Friddle, who owns Friddle and Company with her husband, Michael.

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(336) 993-9650 than “smoke blowing in your eyes,” said Futrell, of Common Ground. He urged homeowners planning to build fire pits to pay attention to the direction of the wind, which he said typically blows from the southwest to the northeast.

While construction of fireplaces is regulated by local building codes, homeowners are typically free to build fire pits as they choose, Futrell said.

He and Claeys, of The Garden Outlet, recommend people dig fire pits with curved sides, rather than straight up and down like a box, to make cleaning easier.

They put loose gravel or set stones in concrete in the bottom of the pits. When the slope of the land allows, Futrell runs a two-inch, non-galvanized pipe from the bottom of the pit to the outside. The heat of the fire draws cool air through

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the pipe, stoking the fire.

“It makes you look like a heck of a Boy Scout,” said Futrell, who also recommended that people stack rocks around the pit no higher than a foot.

“I want to feel the fire on my legs and see the coals,” he said.

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ng & vices!

Do this fall yard work now, reap benefits next spring Autumn is no time to ignore your lawn and landscape.

“What you do now will determine the quality of your family yard next spring and summer,” said Kris Kiser, president and CEO of the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute (OPEI), the international trade association representing power equipment, small engine, utility vehicle, golf car and personal transport vehicle manufacturers and suppliers.

“People know to plant flower bulbs in the fall, but this time of year is perfect for mowing, mulching, aerating, trimming and patching your yard,” Kiser said. “You might use a lawn mower to trim the grass, mulch the leaves, or pull an aerator attachment around your yard. Leaf blowers can help corral those

troublesome leaves, and string trimmers can help you make your yard tidy.”

It’s important to take care of your yard, Kiser said. “After all, your living landscape does a lot for you. It produces oxygen, reduces the urban heat island effect, filters and captures runoff, improves air quality, controls erosion, absorbs carbon dioxide, and supports biodiversity. You benefit when your yard is in top shape.”

OPEI offers the following checklist to make sure your yard is ready for relaxing and fun outdoor activities next year.  #1 Keep mowing. Grass that is too high may attract lawn-damaging field mice. Shorter grass is more resistant to diseases and traps fewer falling leaves. Cutting the grass low allows more sun to reach the crown of the grass, so less leaf will turn brown in the winter. However,

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Fall 2019

cutting off too much at one time can be damaging, so never trim more than a third of the grass blades’ height off in a single cutting. Put mower blades on the lowest settings for the last two cuts of the season. #2 Aerate your lawn. Compressed soil hurts grass health. Aerating punches holes into the soil and lets oxygen, water and nutrients into a lawn. Use a walk-behind aerator or get an attachment to pull behind a riding mower. #3 Mulch your leaves. Many mowers can mulch leaves with an attachment. Since mulching with a mower can mix grass clippings with leaf particles, these nitrogen-rich grass particles and carbon-rich leaf particles will compost more quickly.

Together, they return nutrients to the soil. #4 Trim and shore up trees and bushes. Use trimmers, chainsaws or pole pruners to cut back trees, shrubs and plants. Make sure branches are safely trimmed back





from overhead lines, and not in danger of falling on a home or structure in winter weather. You may need to tie or brace limbs of upright evergreens or plants to prevent them from breaking in high winds or snow. Call a professional arborist for big trees or hard-to-reach spots. #5 Repair bald spots. The easiest way to do this is with an all-in-one lawn repair mixture (found at most garden shops and home centers).

Use a garden rake or de-thatcher to scratch loose the soil on the bald spot. #6 Ready your outdoor power equipment for winter storage.

Drain fuel tanks before storing your lawn mower, leaf blower or string trimmer for the winter. Service and winterize your outdoor power equipment before storing in your garage or shed. Taking these simple steps now will ensure that in the springtime when you’re ready to get back outside, your equipment will be also.

Autumn evenings begin in your

Enchanted evenings begin in your BACKYARD ROOM BACKYARD ROOM Enchanted evenings begin in your BACKYARD ROOM ny Jen !

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Forging a path

File photo

Earlier this year dozens of volunteers with Oak Ridge’s Mountains-to-Sea Trail Committee cut a .4-mile trail through the woods in the 130-acre Cascades Preserve, northwest of Oak Ridge, as part of statewide efforts to move the nearly 1,200-mile-long MST from busy roads to woodlands. The new trail segment, which opened May 3, crosses this stream in three places and connects with a 2.8-mile trail already within the preserve, which is owned by Guilford County.

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14

Fall 2019

Summerfield plans to celebrate the opening of the U.S. 220 pedestrian tunnel and sidewalk Oct. 5, while Oak Ridge continues work on Mountains-to-Sea Trail

by CHRIS BURRITT SUMMERFIELD/OAK RIDGE – After the opening of the U.S. 220 pedestrian tunnel and sidewalk, Summerfield is throwing a party on Saturday, Oct. 5, to celebrate the long-awaited path for cyclists and runners. Meanwhile, Oak Ridge is pulling out the hoes and rakes, preparing to build another stretch of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail (MST).

Whether celebrating or getting their hands dirty, trail supporters in Summerfield and Oak Ridge share a common vision: providing routes that are more scenic and safer for hikers, joggers

and cyclists than traveling on roads.

That’s the primary goal of volunteers statewide who are relocating the nearly 1,200-mile MST from busy roads to woodlands. Almost 700 miles of the footpath from Clingmans Dome in the Great Smoky Mountains to Jockey’s Ridge on the Outer Banks run through woods and fields. That leaves another 500 miles, including most of the section in northwestern Guilford County, following roadways.

Oak Ridge’s MST Committee recently began building an approximately 1 ½-mile trail along the Haw River from Pepper Road to Linville Road. Earlier this year, volunteers finished a 0.4-mile section of the trail northwest of town.

The Oak Ridge Town Council has embraced the trail, putting $50,000 in the current year’s budget for building the new section of the trail and a trail head parking lot and kiosk. It also appropriated $250,000 to build a halfmile sidewalk connecting two off-road

sections of the trail so hikers don’t have to walk along the road.

The town is waiting to hear whether it will get a $50,000 state Recreational Trails Program grant that would defray costs for trail building, according to Martha Pittman, co-chair of Oak Ridge’s MST Committee.

Eventually hikers will follow a sidewalk on Linville Road to Oak Ridge Town Park before heading east on N.C. 150 toward Summerfield.

“Ideally, Oak Ridge’s MST would connect to Summerfield at the Haw River on Eversfield Road,” Pittman said. “As Summerfield works west and Oak Ridge works east, we will need to work together to make sure that happens.”

In Summerfield, moving the MST off road is several years away. Meanwhile, the town is preparing to celebrate the Aug. 30 opening of the pedestrian tunnel under U.S. 220 that NCDOT built in 2012. A new sidewalk runs from the western end of the tunnel to Summerfield Road.

Both the tunnel and sidewalk keep runners and cyclists off the highway. Summerfield Mayor Gail Dunham told the Town Council last month her neighbors rode their bikes through

Photos by Patti Stokes/NWO

The trail in Cascades Preserve off Goodwill Church Road in Oak Ridge is now part of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail.

(Right) Scouts and leaders with Cub Scout Pack 943 based in Kernersville enjoyed hiking on a segment of the MST in Cascades Preserve the afternoon of Sept. 29. the tunnel and followed the Atlantic & Yadkin (A&Y) Greenway into Greensboro to eat breakfast.

“People have been waiting for this for years,” Councilman John O’Day said. “I can’t tell you the number of people who have come up to me and are just super excited to have the tunnel open.”

The council set aside $1,500 for town staff and the Trails and Open Space Committee to organize what committee chair Jane Doggett called “a community walk through the tunnel.” It is scheduled for 10 a.m.

Saturday, Oct. 5, at the eastern entrance to the

continued on page 31

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NOVEMBER Thanksgiving Parade

Town of Oak Ridge will sponsor a Thanksgiving parade for the first time this year. The 1-mile route will begin at the entrance to the town park on Lisa Drive, head right on Linville Road and end at Scoggins Road.

Upcoming community events in northwest Guilford County

Saturday, Nov. 23, 3:30 p.m. (Rain date Dec. 7) Oak Ridge Town Park 8231 Lisa Drive, Oak Ridge

OCTOBER Touch-A-Truck

More info: www.oakridgenc.com

Kids can explore big trucks, tractors, buses, heavy equipment – and maybe even a helicopter at this annual event in Summerfield. Plus, Vulcan Materials will be offering free hot dogs, chips and drinks!

Christmas Tree Lightings

Enjoy caroling, refreshments, marshmallow roasting and a visit from Santa

Saturday, Nov. 23, 5:30 p.m.

Summerfield Athletic Park 5200 U.S. 220 North, Summerfield

Saturday, Oct. 12, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m.

More info: www.summerfieldnc.gov

Summerfield Athletic Park 5200 U.S. 220 North, Summerfield

Enjoy luminaries all along the sidewalks in Oak Ridge Park, the Christmas tree lighting in the center of the park, a visit from Santa and refreshments during this popular holiday event

More info: www.summerfieldnc.gov

Great Pumpkin Event Merchants of Oak Ridge invites kids of all

Saturday, Nov. 23, 6 p.m.

ages to this annual event, when humans and their pets are invited to don their Halloween costumes and trick or treat with local merchants and non-profits. People costume contest, pet costume contest and more!

Oak Ridge Town Park 8231 Lisa Drive, Oak Ridge

More info: www.oakridgenc.com

Saturday, Oct. 26, 3 to 5 p.m.

Enjoy caroling, a visit from Santa and the lighting of the Christmas tree in front of Town Hall

Oak Ridge Commons Shopping Center N.C. 68 & 150, Oak Ridge

Saturday, Nov. 23, 6:30 p.m. (date/time may change)

More info: www.merchantsofoakridge.com

Stokesdale Town Hall 8325 Angel-Pardue Road, Stokesdale

Halloween Haunted Trail

This new event, co-sponsored by the Town of Oak Ridge and Oak Ridge Youth Association, is still in the planning stages, but it’s sure to be both spooky and fun for middle-schoolers to adults.

Fri.-Sat., Oct. 25-26, 7 to 10 p.m.

Oak Ridge Town Park 6231 Lisa Drive, Oak Ridge

More info: www.oakridgenc.com

Look for more details closer to event dates in upcoming issues of the Northwest Observer.

18

Fall 2019

More info: www.stokesdale.org

DECEMBER Christmas Parade

A long tradition in Stokesdale, the annual Christmas parade will have floats, tractors, trucks, a marching band and much more – and kids, remember to bring something to hold the candy that parade participants will throw out as they pass by!

Saturday, Dec. 14, 2 p.m.

Downtown Stokesdale

More info: www.stokesdale.org

Oak Ridge Horse Show, 1946-2012 The annual Easter weekend horse show holds many fond memories for volunteers, participants and spectators

by PATTI STOKES Many years ago the late Edna Linville, who was describing how the Easter Horse Show in Oak Ridge got its origins, wrote in the show’s program: “It was early in 1945 when a group of Oak Ridge men were leisurely sitting around the old pot-belled stove at Linville’s Store trying to come up with an idea to raise money for a new church. Charlie Oakley, a local resident, came up with the idea for a horse show, the proceeds of which could be given to the Oak Ridge United Methodist Church building fund.

It didn’t take long for this idea to develop steam and plans were started for the first Oak Ridge Horse Show held on Easter Monday, April 22nd, 1946, with D. Lan Donnell as the first chairman.”

A charity event run entirely by volunteers, the show was for several decades a much-anticipated

Photo courtesy of Bud Blaylock

This photo taken in the 1950s shows participants lining up for the annual parade that kicked off the Oak Ridge Easter horse show. “Mr. Benbow’s barn is in the background, which is just off Hwy 150 at Billet Road and near what is now Farmsworth Road,” wrote Oak Ridge native Bud Blaylock in a post on Old Oak Ridge’s Facebook page. Blaylock said the man at the reins was Charlie G. “Pops” Oakley. event by community members and others who came from miles around to show off their horses and riding abilities, participate in the draft pull and later, in such events as mutton bustin’.

Over the years it was held the horse show raised money not only for the Oak Ridge United Methodist Church building fund, but also for a new gym at

continued on page 26

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Recommendations from comprehensive school facilities study still under consideration Information for this article was obtained from the Guilford County Schools’ website as well as other sources According to a year-long comprehensive facilities study paid for by the Guilford County Board of Education and the Board of County Commissioners, building new schools, making needed repairs to aging systems, bringing all schools up to standard, eliminating the backlog of deferred maintenance and providing adequate funds for preventive and ongoing maintenance for school and support facilities will cost more than $6.9 billion over the next 30 years.

But for now, an estimated $1.5 billion doled out in four phases could suffice to bring all the school buildings in the

district up to new or like-new condition by 2038.

The school board and the commissioners received the final results of the school district-wide facilities and boundary optimization study at a special meeting last January.

The $899,635 study by MGT Consulting Group examined the district’s long- and short-term facility needs to serve more than 73,000 pre-K-12 students.

While addressing facility shortcomings the report also identifies areas where the district could more efficiently utilize space.

School and district buildings were assessed, scored and ranked based on the overall condition of the facility,

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educational suitability for 21st-century learning, technology infrastructure and site, including age of facility infrastructure, quantity and size of appropriate academic and support spaces, and space utilization compared to short- and long-term student enrollment projections. These scores then were combined into one rating that was used to rank and prioritize schools by need by level (elementary, middle and secondary).

Per the study, almost half of the district schools, particularly at the elementary school level, received unsatisfactory or poor ratings. Schools received some of the lowest scores for educational suitability, which indicates whether the facility and technology support current academic standards and instructional strategies. Facilities for maintenance, transportation and administration also received low ratings.

“I visit schools and classrooms every week, and I have seen for myself how our aging and often dilapidated buildings and inadequate instructional technology are hampering the work of our educators and holding our students back in comparison to what school districts are providing students nationally,” said Superintendent Sharon L. Contreras. “21st century learning requires new ways of designing and building schools and classrooms.” continued on page 23

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OLD MILL

Annie Laura Perdue (left) trained to be a miller at Old Mill of Guilford under former miller/owner Charlie Parnell. Old Mill of Guilford owner Amy Klug (right) listens as Perdue tells of a creek where moonshiners made illegal liquor during Prohibition and other stories about the mill offered by those who gathered there one afternoon in mid-September.

continued from page 5 referring to N.C. 68. “All the churches would bring their candidates for baptism” to be dunked in the water.

The mill was a gathering place for farmers who brought their grain to be ground into food for their tables and livestock. As they waited, they fished in the creek. Children walked on top of the pipe that carried water from the pond to the wheel that turns the grist stones.

Joseph Gorrell Pierce said his great-great uncle spent the night on the property in the late 1800s. He carried legally made liquor from Belews Creek to Greensboro where U.S. inspectors collected excise taxes on it.

“It was a good place to stop,” Pierce said.

The water that turned the wheel served other purposes. It filled barrels for farmers to irrigate their gardens and tobacco fields. Oak Ridge’s fire department filled its tanker trucks from the mill pond. Firefighters used the rush of water to clean the soot and grit from hoses after fires, recalled Ted Wright, a retired school teacher and former fireman.

Hampton Atkins, of Colfax, recalled collecting sand from along the creek and selling it for making mortar

for new houses.

“We loved to live here,” said Ruby Cole, despite a scary memory when her family owned the mill and they lived in the adjacent house. One of her duties was calling her father for lunch.

He was often working upstairs, requiring her to climb steps that were so shaky that she said she crawled up them instead of walking.

“I was scared to death,” she said.

Cole recalled another job: helping her brothers and sisters collect corn cobs to burn in the fireplace of their home.

Dorothy Anderson said her family lacked a scale in their home, giving her father an idea.

“When he was coming to the mill, he would bring us to weigh us,” she said.

Bill Donnell remembered fishing on Saturdays and working in the mill in the 1950s. When he and his brother weren’t busy twisting copper wire to secure the bags of flour, they perched in upstairs windows and shot snakes and rats, he said.

“When we were kids, raised around here, the mill was an integral part of our childhood,” Donnell said.

“It has changed around here, but the mill will be in our history a long, long time.”

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Fall 2019

SCHOOL STUDY continued from page 20

“Updates have been made with a limited operations/ facility budget, which has affected the district’s ability to keep up with the rising costs of maintaining their asset portfolio,” the report said.

Balancing capacity in densely populated areas and rural areas is another challenge the district faces.

In many cases, schools that are overcrowded are located in different communities and geographic areas than schools that are underutilized.

The report also noted that magnet and option schools are not distributed equitably across the county.

Potential solutions offered by the consulting firm include building new schools, repurposing some school buildings, and adjusting and consolidating some schools and school boundaries. However, these are recommendations only.

“While there aren’t any real surprises, the study provides a useful framework and has identified some of the areas of greatest need,” said Deena Hayes, chair of the county’s Board of Education.

To address future needs of schools in northwest Guilford County, the study’s recommendations include building a new elementary school to accommodate 500 students and adjusting the boundaries of Colfax Elementary to assign 100 students to the new school; 160 students from

Pearce Elementary; 65 students from Summerfield Elementary and 150 students from Oak Ridge Elementary.

The study also recommends assigning 170 students from Northwest Middle School to Kernodle Middle School and 150 students from Northern Middle School to Northeast Middle School.

No student assignment changes are recommended for Northern Guilford High School, but to address the needs of Northwest Guilford High School, the district’s most overcrowded school, the study recommends assigning 600 students to Western Guilford; to accommodate the additional students and address existing needs, Western would undergo a $45 million renovation, which would include a $14 million addition.

No action has been taken on the study’s recommendations, but a joint committee of the Guilford County School Board and County Commissioners met in March to discuss the report. The committee recommended conducting another study that would look at school boundaries, and repurposing some underutilized magnet schools as well as adding new choice option schools.

Guilford County voters last approved a school facilities bond in 2008. The last school construction project using money from that $457 million bond will be completed this year.

2019 -2020 Guilford County School Calendar AUGUST S

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Workday Vacation Holiday First/last day for students Mandated work day Inclement weather make-up day

Your Guilford County real estate experts the

Bobbie Maynard Team Bobbie Maynard

(336) 215-8017 bobbie.maynard@allentate.com

www.BobbieMaynard.com

Walt Maynard

(336) 215-9767 walt.maynard@allentate.com

want to view the complete report?

The summary facilities report and school-by-school analyses are available at www.gcsnc.com; enter “facilities report” in the search bar.

Kelli Young

(336) 337-4850 kelli.young@allentate.com

Scott Aldridge

(252) 531-7456 scott.aldridge@allentate.com

Fall 2019

Steve Scott

(336) 772-7430 steve.scott@allentate.com

23

Hunting for Treasure

in Oak Ridge

Trees

Perils of poison ivy, mosquitoes and falling persimmons outweighed by thrill of discovering magnificent trees

by CHRIS BURRITT OAK RIDGE – “What a dream-climbing tree,” said Roy Nydorf, eyeing a Deodar cedar with drooping branches in Shelia Oliver’s yard on Linville Road. “You could build a village up there.”

Nydorf took a field trip one late September morning, along with three other members of Oak Ridge’s Treasure Tree Committee. Their mission: judging trees based on their height, crown spread, trunk diameter and overall appearance.

“Our primary goal is to establish a registry of notable trees in Oak Ridge,” said Nancy Stoudemire, chair of the committee. “This registry will be kept at Town Hall, probably with a plaque of the most noteworthy trees.”

Oliver nominated two trees on her property – the cedar in her side yard and an oak measuring 13.5 feet around.

Treasure Tree Committee members also measured a persimmon tree, standing tall and straight and dropping mushy orange fruit on the ground – and the roof of committee member Mickey Aycock’s car.

Searching for magnificent trees isn’t risk-free. Mosquitoes, poison ivy and falling fruit go with the territory, which for the committee encompasses property dotted with oaks, pecan, black walnut and a dozen other varieties of trees nominated by their owners and admirers.

“We’re a well-oiled machine,” said

24

Photos by Chris Burritt/NWO

Above, Jim Foreman (left) and Roy Nydorf measure the circumference of a Deodar cedar in Shelia Oliver’s yard in Oak Ridge.

At right, Treasure Tree Committee members (L-R) Nancy Stoudemire and Mickey Aycock talk to Oak Ridge homeowner Shelia Oliver, examining a cone from her tree.

Nydorf, holding one end of a tape measure while Jim Foreman held the other. They wrapped the tape around trees and called out the measurements for Aycock to jot down on a clipboard.

Standing in the distance, Stoudemire held a device called a clinometer to her eye to measure the height of trees.

The committee expects to wrap up its field trips by the end of October, Stoudemire said. As of early last week, it had measured 16 trees at six locations.

Several of the nominations were already recognized or registered with the state of North Carolina, she said.

The Town of Oak Ridge is part of Tree City USA, a program of the Arbor Day Foundation aimed at managing

Fall 2019

and planting trees in public spaces.

“Becoming a Tree City shows our desire to keep our rural character, as well as the fact that we value open space,” Oak Ridge Mayor Spencer Sullivan said when the Town’s Tree City designation was announced at a council meeting in March 2017. “And, after all, it seems an important and appropriate designation to have for a town named after a tree.”

Oak Ridge is required to perform a project every year to maintain its status in the program. This year’s project was the Treasure Trees inventory.

Win or lose, Oliver said she welcomed the committee’s efforts.

“I really appreciate trees,” she said.

For more information on Oak Ridge’s Tree City USA designation or about serving on the Tree Committee, contact Sandra Smith at ssmith@oakridgenc.com or (336) 644-7009.

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HORSE SHOW continued from page 19 Oak Ridge Elementary School. In subsequent years proceeds from the show were donated to schools and their PTAs, Scout groups, churches, youth recreation associations and other organizations. Each year, the show also awarded a scholarship to a Northwest High School senior.

Oak Ridge native Bud Blaylock recalls not only the horse show, but the annual parade that kicked it off in many of the earlier years.

“The parade was a huge part of the show kickoff,” Blaylock wrote on the Old Oak Ridge Facebook page. “Folks lined the road for a long way.”

Andrew McIndoe grew up in Oak Ridge and now lives in the District of Columbia with his wife and young daughter. As a young boy he volunteered at the horse show, which he said produced many highlights. “But

my favorite one must have been as a “mutton bustin’” competitor – those few seconds on the back of that sheep were something else!” he wrote on Northwest Observer’s Facebook page.

Chelsea Barnum recalls the mouthwatering barbeque sandwiches the Oak Ridge Fire Department sold at the horse show.

“That was one of my favorite parts of the show,” Barnum said.

Kathryn Bunthoff, who now lives with her family in Stokesdale, has many memories of riding locally.

“I rode at my grandparents’ place on Pleasant Ridge Road, and took lessons with Cammie Bell and Tami Batts at Henson Farms,” Bunthoff wrote on the Northwest Observer’s Facebook page.

“The show I looked forward to as a kid, more than any other, was the Oak Ridge Horse Show. I rode in this show in the late 1980s and early ‘90s. It happened early in the year, and there were plenty of classes in the hunt seat ring.

File photo

The draft horse pull was for many years a popular spectator event at the annual Oak Ridge Horse Show.

“Ray Combs was the announcer I remember – he knew many of us there,” she continued. “The thrill of the

modest prize money for top places was memorable. Most years I wouldn’t win much, but it was so satisfying to

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File photo

Many residents fondly remember the sport of “mutton bustin’” at the horse show.

head home with envelopes containing cash, mostly in dollar bills (to spend at Purgason’s, probably)! I remember I could get incredible crinkle-cut fries at the ORHS and at the Piedmont Saddle Club shows, which were loads better than the PB&J and cookies or crackers I usually had with me.

“The lengthy class list – spread over multiple days – meant plenty to watch and plenty of riding if my family could stand to bring me back for more than one day. The only other ‘big’ show I went to regularly was the yearly 4-H show in Raleigh, so the one here in Oak Ridge was a chance to experience the wide range of horsemanship folks enjoyed around here,” she said.

Until 2004, the annual show was held on the grounds of Oak Ridge Elementary School. When the school underwent a major expansion, the show lost its longtime home in Oak Ridge and moved to Steeple Hill Farm in Summerfield.

After 68 years, the committee that oversaw the Oak Ridge Horse Show suspended sponsorship for the annual event in 2013, with the hope of bringing it back the following year.

Oak Ridge resident Bill Newman, who chaired Oak Ridge Community Center (ORCC), which sponsored the show, cited the move out of Oak Ridge as one of the reasons the show fell on hard times in its latter years.

“Following the loss of the show site in Oak Ridge in 2004, and the subsequent relocation of the show to Summerfield,

we have experienced dwindling participation, attendance and volunteer and financial support as well as higher site costs, insurance and operating expenses,” Newman told the Northwest Observer in 2013.

“As a result, the show has been unable to produce sufficient operating profits to fund its charitable contributions.

Cost cutting and financial support from our longtime supporters are no longer enough to ensure the long term survival of the show. We need to re-think the entire concept.”

The ORCC and the Oak Ridge Horse Show Committee explored options for a suitable site to bring the show back to Oak Ridge, while also gauging volunteer support and financial sponsorships to assess the feasibility of holding a 2014 show.

“The horse show has served this community well over the past 68 years,” Horse Show Committee Chair Sharon Smith wrote in a press release the committee sent out in 2013. “It provided voluntary support of hundreds of thousands of dollars to a primarily aggressive community which did not rely upon taxes for community amenities.

Today taxes provide the funding for town amenities and the community has changed into a bedroom suburb of Greensboro. If the Community chooses not to support the horse show and its traditions, it too will go the way of tobacco farms, horse farms and truck farms which once defined the way of life in Oak Ridge.

We will make that determination this year.”

The horse show never returned to Oak Ridge; the last year it was held was in 2012.

For articles and photos we’ve published about the Oak Ridge Easter Horse Show, visit www.nwobserver.com, click on the Advanced Search link at the top left of the homepage and type in “Oak Ridge Horse Show.”

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COMMERCIAL CORE continued from page 6 “My dad refused to loan me the money,” he said. “He told me if I got myself in a situation, I had to see my way through it… Fortunately, I was able to get a 30-year loan through the Federal Land Bank.”

The Cookes’ new home was completed in March 1976 and Philip transferred to Oak Ridge Elementary, which at the time had a new gym.

“I enjoyed playing basketball, and asked the principal about starting a basketball league,” Cooke said. The principal wasn’t keen on the idea of making the gym available after school hours, but Cooke found enough interested parents and supporters in Oak Ridge to get a basketball program started for boys and girls. During the first two basketball seasons, he and Phyllis also ran a snack bar in the gym hallway.

Meanwhile, Cooke had attracted the attention of some of the community’s established residents, one of whom paid

Courtesy rendering

Jerry Cooke said in the 1990s he paid $2,000 for this artist’s rendering of the proposed Oak Ridge Commons Shopping Center which residents requested so they would have a visual of what he planned on the site. After it was completed no one came to see it, he said. It still hangs on a wall in his office.

him a visit at his home.

“He told me that to have any success in Oak Ridge I would have to be a Democrat, a member of the Oak Ridge (United Methodist) Church and to volunteer with the horse show,” Cooke said. “He was a very influential member of the community and he also told me we didn’t need any commercial

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Fall 2019

development in the town (which was unincorporated at that time).”

Undeterred, within a few years Cooke rolled out plans to develop 67 acres on the northwest corner of the town’s main intersection. Over the next 14 years he went before the Guilford County Planning Department and county commissioners three times to request the property be rezoned for commercial use.

And three times he was rejected.

“Before the third time I went before the commissioners, we had a reception at our house and invited anyone to come and learn more,” Cooke said.

“One person said they wanted to see a rendering – I spent $2,000 on that rendering and no one ever came to see it. It’s still in my office.”

Meanwhile, he struggled to make payments on his property.

“I didn’t know anything about tobacco,” he said. “When I bought the farm, Dick Holt, the heir who managed the property for his family, told me they had been leasing the land to a tobacco farmer, paid one-third of the expenses and got one-third of the profit. I went to see the farmer, Wade Tuttle, and we worked out a deal.

“The first year I got a check for $1,600 and I thought, ‘oh my goodness!’ I began to take an interest in this tobacco,” Cooke said. “Then I got to where I made $5,000 to $8,000 a year. That was an

unexpected gift. I can’t tell you how much that arrangement helped me.”

Eventually, regulations for tobacco farming changed and Cooke ended his tobacco lease.

By this time he had tried again to develop some of his property and finally got 4.9 acres rezoned near the southeast corner of N.C. 68 and 150.

“You know the story of the dog chasing the squirrel and when he finally catches the squirrel, he didn’t know what to do?” Cooke asked. “That was me. I had already been shot down three times – so, we decided to put a convenience store there and an office building behind it.”

It was at that point that Philip, who had since graduated from college, told his parents he wanted to join them in business.

“I told him I couldn’t pay him anything but he and his wife could live rent-free in the small guest house on our property.

He came on board and has been with me ever since,” Cooke said. “We decided to develop a country store (initially called the Village Store). We had no experience, and we had to come up with someone to supply the gas. We worked with an architect on the design, had it built and ran the store for 10 years.”

When Cooke learned the military academy wanted a new post office, he initiated a conversation with post office representatives. With the hope the post office would lease one-third of the building

they planned to locate behind the Village Store, the Cookes got construction underway.

“We had started the building with not a single tenant and the post office ended up locating on Linville Road,” Cooke said. “The Village Store was the financial engine that saved us on the building behind it. It was the heart of what we did. When we opened I was 60 and retired from Eastman Kodak. I went in every morning at 4:30 to get things going. Phyllis came in at 5 a.m. and we ran things with help until 11 a.m., when Philip would come in and work until closing time. Jackie LeFrois was with us back then and is still with us. She has been very important to our operation.”

In 1998 Cooke went before the county commissioners for the fifth time (after three failures and one success with the Village Store and commercial building behind it) and finally got the land rezoned for what is now Oak Ridge Commons. He said Oak Ridge native Bob Benbow was instrumental in at last getting a favorable vote.

“He (Benbow) spoke for us before the commissioners and with his influence we got 21 acres of the 67 acres rezoned,” he said.

With no municipal water or sewer system, the Cookes made a hefty investment in a system that would support the center. Once again, the path to get there wasn’t an easy one, but with research, time and perseverance they got the county health department’s approval. Then, it took nine months to get a sewer permit from the state.

Meanwhile, construction on the center was at a halt and the contractor almost pulled off the job.

The financial stress took its toll, and in the midst of it, Cooke had a heart attack in May 2001.

“I was out of it until September,” he said. “When I could function again I went to two meetings with Philip and our contractor, realized he had been carrying the ball and told him he was doing a good job.

“I said, ‘If you need me, I’m available. You carry on.’

That’s how the shopping center got going.”

After Lowes was secured as an anchor tenant, Bank of Oak Ridge, Wendy’s and J.P. Looneys signed ground leases for outparcel space soon afterward. Over the years since, tenants in the shopping center’s main building have come and gone, but one of the earliest tenants, Rio Grande, has remained, and the center is almost fully leased.

In 2005, the Town forged an agreement with Forsyth County to operate an ABC store in Oak Ridge, which located in another of the shopping center’s outparcels.

“We were fortunate the key players during the recession stayed with us,” Cooke said.

The Cookes later bought the parcel adjoining their property on the southeast corner of N.C. 68 and 150 and leased it to CVS Pharmacy. Then, they began developing the 15-acre tract on the southwest corner of N.C. 68 and 150, with Tractor Supply and McDonald’s being among

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the Marketplace’s first tenants.

“It was a major investment,” Cooke said of the water/ sewer system that now operates under a private utility company his family formed. It takes up 46 acres of the 67-acre property Oak Ridge Commons shopping center rests on, and serves all of the commercial tenants at the three corners of Oak Ridge’s main intersection.

Cooke credits his wife for supporting him through all of his financial risks and struggles.

“Phyllis was so important to our business,” he said. “Our ping pong room downstairs was our conference table, and it was there that I proposed we borrow $633,000 to build the Village Store; she was very supportive.”

Of his role today, Cooke, who will soon turn 84, said with a laugh, “I’m a pick-up – and I have permanent employment. I still pick up the trash I see on the ground in our centers and weed the flowers.”

As he reflects on his journey and that of the town’s, he noted, “I call Oak Ridge a miracle because now the post office is there on Linville Road, the fire department and the Town Hall. And then, the Town was able to buy the land across the street for the park – at $20,000 an acre, that was a hell of a buy. So it worked out well for the Town.”

And then he added, “Between the town and what we’ve been able to do, how it has worked out is beyond any of us.”

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continued from page 8

by trucks hauling freight cut into demand for rail service.

buildings were built on the opposite side of the street that ran along the track.

In the late 1880s, Atlantic & Yadkin built a track to Madison. A daily train from Greensboro served passengers and carried freight from Summerfield to Stokesdale to Madison. On the Fourth of July, a special train from Madison would carry passengers to the Guilford Courthouse Park for a picnic and fireworks.

The train depot in Stokesdale burned in 1907. It was replaced by a new depot on the same spot in 1910. The town was incorporated that same year.

Stokesdale suffered through the Depression, ultimately going bankrupt in the 1930s. The state of North Carolina revoked the town’s charter in 1971. It reincorporated in 1989.

The Depression also took its toll on Atlantic & Yadkin, prompting its sale to Norfolk & Western Railway. North Carolina’s Construction of roads used

“One thing a lot of people don’t remember or realize is the importance of pulpwood,” Thacker wrote File photo/NWO in his account of the town’s “The railroad presented The original train depot in Stokesdale burned in 1907 and history. “There was a siding was replaced by a new depot in 1910.

The historic Stokesan opportunity for put in at Stokesdale, and dale train depot has served as a private residence since its Stokesdale to grow and rail cars were brought there relocation from downtown Stokesdale to Madison in 1977. become a small commercial and left to be loaded with district for the surrounding pulpwood. This allowed area,” Thacker wrote. “Goods farmers and land owners and people came in, and products were a small sum of money, though, because to make some extra money, especially shipped out. Some industry came to during the winter months. most of it was handled by hand,” Thacker Stokesdale because of reliable labor and wrote.

The railroad loaded the pulpwood rail service. In the early days, it allowed onto cars headed out of town. In the The railway running along U.S. 158 some families to invest in building and early 1960s, a cord of pulpwood fetched served industry over the years. Starting operating businesses. $13 or $14, enough money to buy a in the 1920s or ‘30s, a spur line to the “That’s what it took back then to be a family’s groceries for a week.

Stokesdale Rock Quarry carried open small town and survive the Depression.”

“Selling pulpwood was hard work for cars that were loaded with gravel.

RAILROAD

Foremost Screenprint and Burlington Industries relied upon trains. The track ran behind a truck stop restaurant called the Copper Kettle. After it closed, the copper-colored coffee pot that stood on top of the building moved across the highway where it sits in front of the Countryside Village Retirement Center.

Even so, the railroad remained vital to Stokesdale.

Pulpwood harvested by local farmers provided income during the winter.

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As train traffic slowed in the 1970s, the depot in Stokesdale closed and the tracks through town were removed. Retired carpenter Sam Heffinger bought the depot for $500 in 1977 and moved it nine miles to his property on Highway 220 near Madison.

Heffinger restored the station, preserving the overhanging roof and adding historic artifacts such as a heavy chain used to right an overturned Southern Railway freight train near Danville, Virginia, in 1903, according to Mary Hunter.

She and her now-deceased husband, Bobby, bought the house from Heffinger in 2003. After deciding

its upkeep was too much for her, Hunter planned to sell the house at auction Sept. 28, but no one bid on it.

Thacker gives a nod to Stokesdale’s earliest residents and businesses for the investment they made in the town.

“Nothing has changed from then to now. That’s what sets a small town apart from other towns – people willing to invest in buildings and businesses, providing goods and services to the people who live here,” Thacker wrote.

“Also, we need people who want to buy those goods and services that friends and neighbors have to offer,” he noted. “There is a way to keep our

small-town feel and charm if we can work together. Small farms can be here, as well as people who want to live here in more densely populated residential areas.”

want to help?

Thacker and other members of Friends of Stokesdale are interested in speaking with anyone who has stories, photos, memorabilia or insights related to Stokesdale’s history. To contribute to Friends of Stokesdale’s efforts to preserve the town’s history or learn more about the group, contact Thacker at (336) 708-0334.

TRAILS continued from page 15 tunnel, Doggett said.

Eventual plans call for MST to overlay the A&Y Greenway as it exits the western end of the tunnel and turns south toward Lake Brandt. The trail would meander along the lake before entering Summerfield, according to plans posted on Summerfield’s website. The start of construction is slated for 2024.

The trail will go north on Summerfield Road before turning west onto Medearis Street and connecting with a trailhead near Summerfield Community Park.

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File Photo

Dawn Leone leads the Streakers, a Greensboro-based running group, up the new sidewalk leading from the recently opened pedestrian tunnel beneath U.S. 220 to Summerfield Road on Labor Day. NCDOT built the tunnel in 2012 and cyclists, walkers and runners had waited for more than seven years for it to open and the new sidewalk to be constructed.

From there, the trail may follow Summerfield’s right of way along the Haw River before passing through neighborhoods on the way to its hookup with Oak Ridge’s trail, according to Doggett.

Its exact route hasn’t been determined, Pittman said. “We will have to work with multiple property owners and modify the plans as we obtain access,” she said.

want to learn more?

Visit Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail at www.mountainstoseatrail.org Check out the Town of Oak Ridge’s MST Committee on Facebook.

Visit www.summerfieldnc.gov for information about the trail in Summerfield. Click on the “Parks & Rec & Events” tab at the top of the page and then the “Trails & Greenways” link.

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