Lost to Time

Conrad House, once part of city's elite neighborhood, is demolished

Credit: Journal photo by David Rolfe

The Conrad House on Fifth Street, which was built more than 100 years ago, was torn down last week.

By: Mary Giunca | JOURNAL REPORTER
Published: January 29, 2009

One of Winston-Salem's few remaining remnants of Millionaires' Row is gone.

The Conrad House was demolished on Saturday by Centenary United Methodist Church, which owns the property on Fifth Street across from Forsyth County Library's Central branch.

The church does not know what it will do with the property, said John Long, the director of communications for the church.

"It's always in a church's best interests to buy property close by if it's feasible," Long said.

The house was built in 1905 in the Queen Anne style and had about 3,300 square feet, according to county tax records.

The church bought the house on Dec. 31 for $341,000. The house was not on the National Register of Historic Places, and there was nothing to prevent its demolition, said LeAnn Pegram, a project planner with the City-County Planning Department.

The house was one of the few that remained from West Fifth Street's days as Millionaires' Row, where the city's elite, including R.J. Reynolds, lived.

Other houses from that time include the Bahnson House, which is currently for sale, and the Rosenbacher House in the 800 block.

Doug Conrad, whose family owned the house during World War II, told a reporter in 2006 that his brother, Robert Conrad Jr., had been Gen. George Patton's chauffeur in 1940 and 1941.

Patton told Robert Conrad that he needed to have a secret meeting somewhere before Christmas in December 1941. The chauffeur volunteered the use of his house in Winston-Salem.

The story cannot be fully verified, but Patton's papers place him in the region during that time.

John Larson, the vice president of restoration for Old Salem Inc., said he was saddened by the loss of the house.

"It raises the whole basic question of our commitment to look at architecture as a renewable resource," Larson said. "Can we not spend the money to rehab these buildings so that they can be viable and useful, particularly if they've stood for 104 years?"

■ Mary Giunca can be reached at 727-4089 or at mgiunca@wsjournal.com.