Uploaded July 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
#downtowngreensboro
With downtown bursting at the seams an expansion of businesses to the west was a natural. Kroger had their eye on the lot the Keeley Institute was deteriorating on - so a demolition crew was dispatched to clear the land. They would have succeeded had Anita Schenck and her mother Mary Lyon Caine not stood between the heavy machinery and that sacred place steeped in ceremony, where the Civil War came to an end in North Carolina, a once stately manor they knew as Blandwood.
Progress was reported in a ‘With the Women’ section of the newspaper alongside Martha Long’s society column and debutant ball photos. The ladies were smart enough to capitalize on that by hosting irresistible photo opportunities. A November 10th celebratory tea presided over by Mary Rucker, great-granddaughter of Morehead, was served in the West Room on the Governor’s own silver service. Throw rugs from the Zenkes covered the cracked and broken tile floor. It was left to one’s imagination to paper over the water damaged walls and boarded up staircase. The first Christmas decorations at Blandwood for almost a quarter century consisted of holly filled urns positioned on the mantle below two William Frerichs paintings that had hung in Morehead’s home, a gift from Mrs. Rucker.
A Committee of 122 was established under the leadership of former newspaper woman Kay Stern (1966’s Woman of the Year). A team led by Kathleen Bryan, Mrs. Wayne McGrew, and Mrs. James Whitton were given a scant few months to raise $400,000 (about a million today) to purchase and return Blandwood to something akin to former glory. Junior League president Mary Schenk presented the committee $50,000 from her organization and they were off and running. Or so they thought.
If not for Governor Morehead, you'd be reading Farm Weekly right now Seemingly forgotten on the part of the public was any knowledge of the historical significance attached to the former residence of Governor John Motley Morehead. The only governor of the state to hail from Greensboro proper, Morehead was an early champion of the railroad when it wasn't an obvious gambit and a fierce proponent of public education, one that included the disabled, women and slaves, a concept many considered blasphemous. The Governor’s response to his critics was masterful, “Why would you deny the right of any man, woman or child to read that book you claim will set them free?” He was a true visionary and a man of action, a rare combination. In 1840 he chartered the Edgeworth Female Seminary located where the YMCA is now, his 5 daughters were schooled there. During his 2 terms as Governor (1841-1845) he made major transportation and infrastructure improvements, implemented a progressive public school system and established the Governor Morehead School for the “deaf, dumb, and blind.” "The Father of Modern North Carolina” had one foot planted firmly in the future. In 1854, as the first president of the North Carolina Railroad, he undertook an aggressive expansion of what he called “the tree of life” connecting every corner of the state to the wider world. As a result, a delicate ‘City of Flowers’ morphed into the ‘Gate City,’ defined by a robust rail system that, not coincidentally, utilized Greensboro as it’s hub.
#downtowngreensboro
With downtown bursting at the seams an expansion of businesses to the west was a natural. Kroger had their eye on the lot the Keeley Institute was deteriorating on - so a demolition crew was dispatched to clear the land. They would have succeeded had Anita Schenck and her mother Mary Lyon Caine not stood between the heavy machinery and that sacred place steeped in ceremony, where the Civil War came to an end in North Carolina, a once stately manor they knew as Blandwood.
Progress was reported in a ‘With the Women’ section of the newspaper alongside Martha Long’s society column and debutant ball photos. The ladies were smart enough to capitalize on that by hosting irresistible photo opportunities. A November 10th celebratory tea presided over by Mary Rucker, great-granddaughter of Morehead, was served in the West Room on the Governor’s own silver service. Throw rugs from the Zenkes covered the cracked and broken tile floor. It was left to one’s imagination to paper over the water damaged walls and boarded up staircase. The first Christmas decorations at Blandwood for almost a quarter century consisted of holly filled urns positioned on the mantle below two William Frerichs paintings that had hung in Morehead’s home, a gift from Mrs. Rucker.
A Committee of 122 was established under the leadership of former newspaper woman Kay Stern (1966’s Woman of the Year). A team led by Kathleen Bryan, Mrs. Wayne McGrew, and Mrs. James Whitton were given a scant few months to raise $400,000 (about a million today) to purchase and return Blandwood to something akin to former glory. Junior League president Mary Schenk presented the committee $50,000 from her organization and they were off and running. Or so they thought.
If not for Governor Morehead, you'd be reading Farm Weekly right now Seemingly forgotten on the part of the public was any knowledge of the historical significance attached to the former residence of Governor John Motley Morehead. The only governor of the state to hail from Greensboro proper, Morehead was an early champion of the railroad when it wasn't an obvious gambit and a fierce proponent of public education, one that included the disabled, women and slaves, a concept many considered blasphemous. The Governor’s response to his critics was masterful, “Why would you deny the right of any man, woman or child to read that book you claim will set them free?” He was a true visionary and a man of action, a rare combination. In 1840 he chartered the Edgeworth Female Seminary located where the YMCA is now, his 5 daughters were schooled there. During his 2 terms as Governor (1841-1845) he made major transportation and infrastructure improvements, implemented a progressive public school system and established the Governor Morehead School for the “deaf, dumb, and blind.” "The Father of Modern North Carolina” had one foot planted firmly in the future. In 1854, as the first president of the North Carolina Railroad, he undertook an aggressive expansion of what he called “the tree of life” connecting every corner of the state to the wider world. As a result, a delicate ‘City of Flowers’ morphed into the ‘Gate City,’ defined by a robust rail system that, not coincidentally, utilized Greensboro as it’s hub.
