An eye-catching period home in Burlington’s historic district has nabbed more than just a curious glance from the city’s historic preservation commission.
Earlier this week, this quasi-judicial body selected the W. T. Cheatham House at 1007 West Davis Street is the latest recipient of the city’s annual Minetree Pyne award for historic preservation.
Built in 1925 by Edwin C. Holt, this white stucco dwelling embodies a “Classical Mediterranean” style that features decorative touches like Tuscan columns and turned balustrades, which top the one-story wings on either side of home’s two-story core. Over the years, these architectural flourishes have made the century-old home one of the most recognizable landmarks in the city’s primary historic district.
It nevertheless took a wholesale renovation of these iconic digs before the city’s historic properties commission conferred its kudos on the Cheatham House. This overhaul followed the dwelling’s sale to attorney Robert Norris, a one-time partner in a storied law firm that once operated in both Burlington and Charlotte.
Norris and his wife Kay embarked on this renovation after they purchased the home in 2021. The recent completion of this historical makeover has allowed the couple to share their handiwork with the commission, whose president Brian Pennington said that he and his colleagues found the results well worth the wait.
“It has been brought up to contemporary standards and is now in pristine condition,” Penning declared when he appeared before Burlington’s city council on Tuesday.
Pennington announced that this restoration has earned the W.T. Cheatham House the city’s Minetree Pyne award, which is named in honor of a late resident credited with jumpstarting Burlington’s historic preservation program.
He went on to present a plaque to Robert and Kay Norris’ son Bryan, an attorney who briefly held an appointed judgeship in Alamance County district court, and who was on hand to accept the award on behalf of his parents.
