Two Dilworth houses saved

Ted Alexander of Preservation North Carolina phoned Thursday to report that two historic houses in Dilworth had been sold to an owner who’ll preserve them.

Ted left a voice mail and he’s now out of the country, so I don’t have publication-worthy confirmation on the buyer’s name. He said the closing was Wednesday. The houses, at 329 E. Worthington Ave. and 1818 Euclid Ave., had been up for sale by an investor.

As I wrote in a column last year, the zoning was 22 units an acre, and it was likely the two lots could have been packaged, the houses demolished, and apartments or condos built.

The houses were modest, both dating to the early 20th century and, as PNC President Myrick Howard put it, help tell the story of Dilworth, a neighborhood designed with homes for the wealthy, the middle class and workers. “If all the worker parts are lost,” he said, “the story’s lost.”

As I reported last year, other cities such as Raleigh, protect their historic districts better, by not allowing large-sized additions to small houses if they’re out of keeping with the scale of the neighborhood. Charlotte, you’ll not be surprised to learn, does not. The fabric of Dilworth, a local historic district, is being changed by steroid-sized expansions. At least these two modest houses will survive to convey to future generations what the neighborhood used to be like: a place for people of high, middle and lower incomes.

PNC stepped in and bought the houses. They resold them with protective convenants in place to preserve them.