Demolition Begins at Historic Adamsleigh Estate in Greensboro, NC

It’s one of the largest and most famous homes in the Triad and despite selling for $2,400,000 in 2018 to a furniture executive, the 17,000 square foot brick mansion is currently being demolished. Greensboro News & Record reported today that a crew from D.H. Griffin Companies started demolishing the nearly 90-year-old structure. The long vacant mansion had languished on the market since as early as 2007 and for as much as $5,900,000. In 2013, the historic mansion was taken over by talented designers and turned into a showhouse, transforming nearly every square foot. Traditional Home documented the transformations. It was also used as a filming location for the 2016 film The Disappointments Room, the crew reportedly paid upwards of $100,000 to rent the property for filming. The Tudor Revival mansion was designed by architect Luther Lashmit and built c.1930 for textile baron J.H. Adams. The residence faces the 12th hole and backs up to the 14th and 15th hole of the Sedgefield Country Club. 

A furniture executive and his wife purchased the 13.5 acre property in 2018 and an article by Biz Journals reports that they have said the house is not livable and that renovations would cost several million dollars. They also said that demolition was very possible. Despite sitting vacant and claims that the house is not livable, the most recent listing stated that the house has a solid masonry foundation and walls, clay tile roof, custom panelling and woodwork, plaster mouldings and custom ironwork. Photos courtesy of Traditional Home show the home busting with personality and original architectural detail when it was used as a showhouse in 2013. The grounds included matching stables with garages and an autocourt. We originally included a video below that was posted to YouTube on September 17, 2019 that has since been deleted. The drone footage appeared to show missing windows on the rear side of the mansion which was a clear indication that demolition would be happening. 

In a January article on Greensboro.com, they stated that the owners hadn’t decided yet whether to demolish the existing mansion and build a new family home or possibly restore the house for some kind of entertainment venue and build a separate home on the property. He’s quoted as saying, “It’s not a home that I would want to live in. It’s not fit for today’s lifestyle. Anybody who was really passionate about preserving it or doing something with it, the thing was on the market for a decade, they could have done something with it or bought it, or a group could have bought it. It’s a private matter now, and we plan to try to take the right steps to be respectful of that history.” The 33 room mansion spanned more than 17,000 square feet with 11 bedrooms and 11 bathrooms. See more photos of the mansion on Realtor. and scroll down to see detailed floor plans courtesy of the NC State University Libraries.

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