Alamance County may be about to acquire a storied Victorian abode that most recently served as a Bank of America branch in order to provide a new period headquarters for the local visitors bureau.
The purchase of this historic dwelling at 141 South Main Street in Graham is among the items that are slated to come up when Alamance County’s board of commissioners convenes its next semimonthly meeting on Tuesday.
According to a memo that accompanies this agenda item, the Alamance County Visitors Bureau has asked the county to facilitate this purchase using $650,000 in funds from the bureau’s own coffers.
“The property will be owned by Alamance County and leased to the visitors bureau per a separate lease agreement,” the memo from assistant county manager Brian Baker goes on to explain “No funding from the Alamance County[‘s] general fund is being requested [to complete the transaction].”
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The subject of the visitors bureau request to the commissioners is one of several late 19th Century homes that the prominent local industrialist E.M. Holt erected near Alamance County’s Historic Court House in order to house members of his immediate family. Completed in 1878, the home at 141 South Main Street was originally built for Holt’s daughter Mary Elizabeth and her husband Captain James N. Williamson, who went on to dub the residence “Elmhurst.”
With its charming bay window, wraparound porch, and top-story dormers, this baronial home would become one of the jewels of Graham’s downtown district. These Victorian-area flourishes were ultimately preserved when the structure underwent a full restoration after its purchase by Bank of America in 1993.
The Charlotte-based corporation went on to house its downtown Graham branch within the refurbished structure. The branch remained in operation until the bank closed this location in 2024.
The Alamance County Visitors Bureau isn’t the only local institution that has considered acquiring this dwelling since Bank of America decided to shutter this office.
At one point, the board of commissioners even considered buying the building to serve as a new home for the tax office as part of a complex round of musical chairs to create more space for the county’s courts. The commissioners ultimately scotched this idea in favor of a proposed expansion of the Judge J.B. Allen, Jr. Court House in Graham.
