Holland House

Holland House
ca. 1923 or 1937

Oral tradition suggests this house was built in 1923 by Ralph Beck, but public records document this house as being built either in the early 1920s by C. J. Helsabeck or in the 1930s by the Becks. What is certain is that it was constructed before 1939 when a deed mentions a five-room house at this location.

Although the Holland family did not build it, members of that family owned it for most of the twentieth century.

It is likely that the house was constructed as rental property. The Helsabecks owned the property from 1923 to 1937, but lived in Walnut Cove almost that entire time, and the next owners, the Becks, lived in
 in Germanton.[1]

In 1939, Sidney and Ida Holland bought this house from Ralph and Eula Beck.[2]

Sidney Holland ran a few different businesses in Germanton, and a few years earlier, in 1936, he had purchased the neighboring
 building in partnership with his brother-in-law J.E. Wagoner

Sidney Holland died in 1965 and Ida Holland died in 1966. In 1967, this house passed to their son and daughter-in-law, Calvin and Joy Holland.[3]

Calvin died in 1975, but Joy Holland remained here. She worked for Thalhimers and Davis’ department stores for many decades. In 2003, she moved to Florida to live with family members, and returned once to this house before her death in Florida in 2008. Following her death, her heirs sold the house out of the family.

The Holland House is a one-story, gable-front bungalow with Craftsman details and weatherboard siding. The attached, gable-front porch features battered square posts on brick piers. The original front door with three glazed panels over three horizontally-oriented solid panels is slightly off-center. Windows retain original six-over-six sash and batten shutters with crescent-moon cut-outs. An exterior brick chimney stands on the west side elevation. Behind the house is a gable-front garage probably built before World War II.

Sarah Woodard David, 2020
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1. J.W. and Flora Kurfees to C.J. Helsabeck, Stokes County Deed Book 70, page 422, September 17, 1923; C.J. and Harriet Helsabeck to R.T. and Eula Beck, Stokes County Deed Book 92, page 307, September 8, 1937; and the Danbury Reporter documented the Helsabeck’s move to Walnut Cove in the February 20, 1924 edition of the paper. 

2. R.T. and Eula Beck to Sidney and Ida Holland, Stokes County Deed Book 95, page 297, November 16, 1939. This deed states, “On this lot is a five room, one story house.”

3. Sidney and Ida Holland’s death dates are recorded on their gravemarkers at Friendship Baptist Church. Heirs of Ida Florence Holland to Calvin and Joy Holland, Stokes County Deed Book 174, page 529, February 6, 1967.