Let award-winning Realtor Greg Rapp/Salisbury Real Estate LLC introduce you to Salisbury, North Carolina, & help you meet your real estate needs! Salisbury is home to a wide range of residential and commercial architectural styles priced attractively FOR SALE. For over 250 years Salisbury has been recognized for its culture and charm. Let Greg Rapp get you into the home of your dreams or your new business locale!
Patience wins! We know a sprawling 3,600+ square foot, 123 year-old Victorian home is not for everyone. But Realtor® Greg Rapp also knows that a buyer who appreciates the character and quality circa 1895 home ~ that you simply cannot find in today's building standards or materials ~ will come along. Especially when the home is completely restored, turn-key, and move-in-ready.
Enter the story of the M.C. Rufty House ~ the gracious and eclectic ca. 1895 Victorian in the Brooklyn South Square historic District of Salisbury, North Carolina. Listed by historic property specialist Greg Rapp of Wallace Realty in May of 2017, the home entertained dozens of interested buyers. Greg has a marketing strategy for 'old houses' that works, coupled with specialized video that let's potential buyers 'tour' the home. Yet, time, and seasons, (and more video) went by. In March of 2018, patience wins! The M.C. Rufty Home went under contract ~ and in July 2018, the new owners moved in!
Why wait? The hottest real estate markets in the U.S. — San Francisco, Manhattan, and Boston, among others - all have predominantly historic homes. After decades trying to build the idyllic suburban 'town center', it turns out that early city planners did it just right 100 years ago – which is why the downtown historic real estate market is back in a big way with Generation X and millennial home buyers. According to a recent National Trust For Historic Preservation report, millennials are overwhelmingly on the move downtown.
Authentic architectural design features are reflective of an original commitment to artistry and quality that has stood the test of time, and Realtor Greg Rapp makes sure that potential buyers know it. The oldest homes often have the most jaw dropping interiors, and younger buyers love old-meets-new. It’s the luxury real estate equivalent of buying a new $450 pair of jeans that are already ripped and faded. Many assume that most of the historic homes automatically come with cold claw foot tubs, drafty windows, small rooms, and old kitchens. Everything has a stereotype. What we know is that virtually every historic home has had at leastone owner (if not more) who was willing to bang down the walls, open up a master suite, rock a garden tub, chef out the kitchen and put in a state-of-the-art laundry room. Voila! Historic architecture meets modern luxury. (Adapted from 4 reasons buyers love historic homes-- and how to market them , MEGGEN TAYLOR. Inman.com, February 3, 2016)
The right buyer. The right Realtor.
The right buyer will come along for your historic house, especially if you list with the right real estate agent! Give Greg Rapp a call at 704.213.6846, and let his marketing strategy work for you. Homes are selling much more quickly today (than one year ago), so if you're even thinking of moving, downsizing, relocating . . . now is the time to list your 'old house' with Greg Rapp. Call or text today! 704.213.6846
These beautiful homes in central North Carolina are currently for sale. Any one of these could be YOURS in time for hanging the stockings by the chimney with care ~ in hopes that St. Nicholas soon will be there! Think winter and holiday season is the wrong time to go house hunting? Think again! Call 704.213.6846 and ask for Greg to see any one of these or more!
Who is selling the historic houses in Salisbury, North Carolina? Greg Rapp with Wallace Realty, that's who! Who closed on three historic houses in three weeks? Greg Rapp with Wallace Realty, that's who! • The Kluttz House - circa 1908 - at 1627 North Main Street SOLD DATE: 4/29/2016 Listed in September 2015, under contract by February 2016
At the brink of what was once a textile mill district stands the grande dame of homes ~ the imposing circa 1891 Victorian at 414 Park Avenue. If this house could talk, oh! the tales it would tell!
"I
am the oldest home in the Park Avenue / N. Long Street District. My
recorded history is obscure, but maps produced by the Central Land
Company in 1891 show me sited here, in all my glory. When I was built,
few homes existed in this neighborhood."
"The district was developed by the Central Land Company after the company purchased much of the land in East Salisbury from Edwin Shaver in 1891. The company began to sell lots in the district in 1891 and the area quickly began to develop as a residential area of elaborate frame residences built by prosperous Salisbury businessmen for their own use. By 1895, nine dwellings had been built in my district."
"Then, along came the Kesler Mill in 1895 to the east end of my neighborhood. After that, home construction expanded in my Park Avenue neighborhood and the Kesler Manufacturing neighborhood."
"In the City of Salisbury, the roads were not yet paved, and horse drawn carriage was still my owner's main mode of transportation. Of course we had the train depot to the south, and many arrive in Salisbury by train." "My lady of the house wore sweeping dresses - simple high necked blouses with an ankle length skirt by day, and a more elaborate dress for 'going out' with a wonderful hat! My gentleman wore dapper suits and always a hat. *Sigh* I miss those days!"
"Because of my location at the top of the block on Park Avenue, I often got to see the children playing. What a different world it was then! I loved to watch the children playing with their building blocks, constructing miniature buildings, houses, and castles. Most girls and some boys had dolls. Dolls were like an extra friend who always agreed and never fought. The Jack-in-the-Box, with its turn-crank on the side, the tinny music, and the 'Jack' who would pop out of the top at a random moment, would have the little ones squealing with delight."
"On a breezy spring day, the kids would be running up and down Park Avenue pulling their paper kites tied to long strings behind them that would eventually lift off the ground and fly in the air.
I would often see the neighborhood children playing games such as Tag, one person is "it" and that person had to touch someone else then that person was "it". The kids seemed to be able to run forever playing this game! Hide-&-Go_Seek was another favorite, where someone again was "it", and all the other children would find hiding places. The "it" child had to try to find the others playing the game. They played Kick-the-Wickey with a foot long stick. One child kicked the stick ~ and whoever caught the stick was the winner! And marbles were a never-ending favorite! I'll bet there are still lost marbles buried in yards up and down my neighborhood!"
"I saw a new mode of transportation come to Salisbury...and more than once! In 1905, the Salisbury-Spencer Railway installed the wonderful trolley system ~ and I saw Salisbury's first suburb built. This neighborhood is known as Fulton Heights and the trolley connect that neighborhood to the North Main Neighborhood and on to the Spencer Shops.
I watched as more homes were built along the trolley lines, connecting merchants and others to their work. The trolley was the catalyst for a big housing boon in Salisbury! This boon would last through to the 1920s, when the Great Depression hit. Many of those homes still exist today, thanks to Historic District overlays both locally and on the National Register!"
"In about 1905, I started to hear about the practice of using existing buggy models with motors installed, and that led to the early coinage of the 'horseless carriage' or 'buggymobile' for early cars. There were about 2,400 automobiles in North Carolina by 1910. At that time, there were 600 generally small automobile manufacturers in the U.S. By 1912, Henry Ford was gearing up his assembly line factory system — in 1914 Ford produced 300,000 cars compared to the rest of the industry which produced 200,000 cars. Although there were several 'buggymobile' manufactures by now, Ford was able to lower prices on the Ford product, and the great elimination of auto makers began."
"I watched the automobile gradually take the place of horse-drawn carriages and our beloved
trolley system. By 1930 Duke Power owned the streetcar systems in
Winston-Salem, Greensboro, High Point, and Salisbury. The trolleys in
Salisbury would disappear by 1938, the roads were all paved in downtown,
and the cars were the main mode of transportation!"
"I sadly watched as The Great Depression (1929-39) crushed my town and the country with the deepest and longest-lasting economic downturn in history. The stock market crash of October 1929 sent Wall Street into a panic and wiped out millions of investors. Over the next several years, consumer spending and investment dropped, causing steep declines in industrial output and rising levels of unemployment as failing companies laid off workers. By 1933, when the Great Depression reached its nadir, some 13 to 15 million Americans were unemployed and nearly half of the country’s banks had failed. Though the relief and reform measures put into place by President Franklin D. Roosevelt helped lessen the worst effects of the Great Depression in the 1930s, the economy would not fully turn around until after 1939, when World War II kicked American industry into high gear."
"Yes...I stood here at 414 Park Avenue through it all!
While the economy would take its ups and downs, so would the hemlines of my lady of the house! I watched as fashions changed dramatically!"
"Later, as cars became a more common mode of transportation, all the kids loved to play with mini models of cars, trucks, and tractors...or fire engines! How fun for the little ones!"
"I'll tell you more of my story in another segment. I've been in the North Long/Park Avenue Historic District for a long time, and seen many changes. Come visit me ~ perhaps you'll hear the whispers of my stories within my five bedrooms, elegant parlors, or as you sit in front of one of my nine, yes (9), fireplaces. I've managed, through the years, to hold on to many of my original details, and I'm just waiting for someone to show me the love of my earlier years!"
"You can call my friend and agent Greg Rapp, with Wallace Realty, (704-213-6846) to set up an appointment to come see me! I'm so excited to show you my elegant rooms, hardwood floors, ample center hallways, and nine . . .yes (9) . . . fireplaces! A good portion of my restoration process already been completed, and I retain loads of my original charm. You and I will be great friends, and we'll add your stories to mine!"
