Fisher Park, Greensboro, North Carolina

Last updated September 16, 2019

Fisher Park is a neighborhood in the north central section of the United States city of Greensboro, North Carolina. Captain Basil J. Fisher turned a swamp into Greensboro's most fashionable Gilded Era address in 1901 when he donated the lowlands for a city park that bears his name. Residents took full advantage of ample lots overlooking the park by commissioning the city's best architects to design sometimes palatial homes. The neighborhood is recognized as Greensboro's first suburb, and is the city's most popular historic district.

A neighbourhood, or neighborhood, is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural area. Neighbourhoods are often social communities with considerable face-to-face interaction among members. Researchers have not agreed on an exact definition, but the following may serve as a starting point: "Neighbourhood is generally defined spatially as a specific geographic area and functionally as a set of social networks. Neighbourhoods, then, are the spatial units in which face-to-face social interactions occur—the personal settings and situations where residents seek to realise common values, socialise youth, and maintain effective social control."

The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country comprising 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the most populous city is New York City. Most of the country is located contiguously in North America between Canada and Mexico.

North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. North Carolina is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the 50 United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and South Carolina to the south, and Tennessee to the west. Raleigh is the state's capital and Charlotte is its largest city. The Charlotte metropolitan area, with an estimated population of 2,569,213 in 2018, is the most populous metropolitan area in North Carolina, the 23rd-most populous in the United States, and the largest banking center in the nation after New York City. North Carolina's second largest metropolitan area is the Raleigh metropolitan area, with an estimated population of 1,337,331 in 2018, and is home to the largest research park in the United States, Research Triangle Park, in Chapel Hill, Durham, and Raleigh.

Geography

Boundaries

Fisher Park is bounded as follows:

on the north by Wendover Avenue;
on the west by the Green Hill Cemetery;
on the east by the Southern Railway tracks; and
on the south by the central business district and Smith Street.

ZIP code

The 27401 ZIP code corresponds entirely or almost entirely with Fisher Park.

History

With the establishment of the convenient trolley line through the heart of the neighborhood in 1902, industrialists, bankers, and professionals erected homes based on popular national styles such as Frank Lloyd Wright-influenced Prairie School style, California-based American Craftsman style, and New England-inspired Colonial Revival styles. The district remained the epicenter of Greensboro's cultural elite until it was overshadowed by Irving Park, just a mile to the north. The Fisher Park Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992, with a boundary increase in 1996.^[1]

Prairie School is a late 19th- and early 20th-century architectural style, most common in the Midwestern United States. The style is usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped in horizontal bands, integration with the landscape, solid construction, craftsmanship, and discipline in the use of ornament. Horizontal lines were thought to evoke and relate to the wide, flat, treeless expanses of America's native prairie landscape.

American Craftsman American domestic architectural, interior design, landscape design, applied arts, and decorative arts style and lifestyle

The American Craftsman style, or the American Arts and Crafts movement, is an American domestic architectural, interior design, landscape design, applied arts, and decorative arts style and lifestyle philosophy that began in the last years of the 19th century. As a comprehensive design and art movement, it remained popular into the 1930s. However, in decorative arts and architectural design, it has continued with numerous revivals and restoration projects through present times.

Colonial Revival architecture was and is a nationalistic design movement in the United States and Canada; it seeks to revive elements of architectural style, garden design, and interior design of American colonial architecture.

The 1950s and 60s brought challenges to the neighborhood bordering Greensboro's center city as office development threatened to replace historic homes. Efforts to regulate development and change advanced in 1982 when the neighborhood was designated as Greensboro's second historic district. Since then, the rate of destruction of historic homes has slowed (but not halted), the park has received a much needed make-over, and land values have spiraled upwards.

Fisher Park remains a popular destination for city residents who walk the tree-lined streets and lush park during lunchtime, attend occasional house tours, and enjoy a shaded diversion during summer heat. The district enjoys a wide diversity of private historic homes, some dating back to the nineteenth century, such as The Elms at 220 Fisher Avenue, the Dixon-Leftwich-Murphy House at 507 Church Street, and the Cumming House at 908 Cherry Street. Other houses represent a broader spectrum of twentieth century styles, including the Tudor-style John Marion Galloway House at 1007 North Elm Street, the prairie-styled Latham-Baker House at 412 Fisher Park Circle, the Classical Revival-style Henry C. Simpson House at 117 East Hendrix Street (circa 1906) and the charming Spanish-style Casa Sevilla Apartments on Bessemer Court (all private).^[2]^[3]

Dixon-Leftwich-Murphy House, also known as the Leftwich House, is a historic home located at Greensboro, Guilford County, North Carolina. It was built between 1870 and 1875, and consists of an original two-story, three-bay Gothic Revival style main brick block; a brick addition; and a gabled two-story frame rear addition. It has Italianate style details, a complex hipped roof with steep cross gables, a brick front porch added about 1920, and an enclosed two-tier rear porch.

John Marion Galloway House is a historic home located at Greensboro, Guilford County, North Carolina. It was designed by noted architect Harry Barton and built in 1919. It is a three-story, rectangular dwelling with Tudor Revival and Bungalow / American Craftsman style design elements. It has a veneer of random-coursed granite with half-timbered gable ends, gable-roofed dormers, and a red tile roof. Also on the property is a contributing two-story double garage which once included servants' quarters.

Latham-Baker House is a historic home located at Greensboro, Guilford County, North Carolina. It was built in 1913, and is a two-story, Prairie School style dwelling. It has a low-pitched hip roof, broad, projecting eaves, and green terra cotta tile roof. An addition was constructed about 1916. Also on the property is a contributing carriage house, or three-car garage.

Parks and public spaces

Fisher Park
Green Hill cemetery

Notable architects and builders

Hobart Upjohn
Charles C. Hartmann
Harry Barton
Raleigh James Hughes
Wells L. Brewer
Andrew Leopold Schlosser
Lorenzo S. Winslow

Hobart Brown Upjohn (1876–1949) was an American architect, best known for designing a number of ecclesiastical and educational structures in New York and in North Carolina. He also designed a number of significant private homes. His firm produced a total of about 150 projects, a third of which were in North Carolina.

Charles C. Hartmann (1889–1977) was an American architect.

Harry Barton was an American architect in North Carolina.

Other notable civic institutions

First Presbyterian Church is a historic Presbyterian church located in the Fisher Park Historic District of Greensboro, North Carolina.

Holy Trinity Episcopal Church is an Episcopal church in the Historic District of the Fisher Park neighborhood of Greensboro, North Carolina.

On the National Register of Historic Places

Fisher Park National Register Historic District

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References

↑ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. 2010-07-09.
↑ Marvin A. Brown (December 1992). "Fisher Park Historic District" (pdf). National Register of Historic Places - Nomination and Inventory. North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office. Retrieved 2014-11-01.
↑ Jo Ramsay Leimenstoll (April 1996). "Fisher Park Historic District (Boundary Increase)" (pdf). National Register of Historic Places - Nomination and Inventory. North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office. Retrieved 2014-11-01.

External links

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[nris-1] "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. 2010-07-09.

[nrhpinv-2] Marvin A. Brown (December 1992). "Fisher Park Historic District" (pdf). National Register of Historic Places - Nomination and Inventory. North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office. Retrieved 2014-11-01.

[nrhpinv1-3] Jo Ramsay Leimenstoll (April 1996). "Fisher Park Historic District (Boundary Increase)" (pdf). National Register of Historic Places - Nomination and Inventory. North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office. Retrieved 2014-11-01.