Kiser House
ca. 1891, 1896, ca. 1945
This house started life as a store in the early 1890s.
Aligning oral tradition and documentary history suggests that Luther McKenzie
built the store southwest of its current location, and that the Rainey family
moved it here in the mid-1890s. In the mid-1940s, the Kiser family converted it
for residential use.
In 1890, Luther McKenzie made his first land purchase in
Germanton south of the courthouse square, on Main Street.[1]
This purchase included the existing Luther and Carrie McKenzie House and the
now-vacant lot between the existing McKenzie House and the Shropshire-WagonerHouse. In 1892, McKenzie sold the now-vacant lot to Alice Rainey.[2]
Because an 1894 newspaper article notes that L.M. McKenzie was building a
cottage south of “his” store (even though he no longer owned it), it is likely
that Luther McKenzie, rather than Alice or E.H. Rainey, built the store
building on the now-vacant lot sometime between 1890 and 1892.
 |
| 1896 Greensboro Patriot article |
In 1896, the Greensboro Patriot
reported that E.H. Rainey had moved a “large double two-story [3] A 1900
deed regarding the lot on the courthouse square noted that the “Rainey
Storehouse” stood on the lot by that point.[4]
Therefore, it seems likely that the 1896 article refers to this building and
that Rainey is who moved it to courthouse square lot.
store” to the
courthouse square, and in 1897, E.H. Rainey sold the lot where the store had
originally stood.
This, however, is not entirely clear-cut. The 1896 newspaper
article refers to a two-story building, but in the early 1980s, Germanton
residents recalled this house is an expansion of a one-story store.[5]
Indeed, a late nineteenth century photograph of the courthouse shows a
one-story building at or near this location. However, there is also oral history
that a smaller store was joined to this building, so it is possible that this two-story
building was moved to this site and joined to the smaller, one-story building
pictured in the late-nineteenth century photograph.
 |
| ca. 1900 photograph from The Heritage of Stokes County, volume 1 |
Further confusing the history is a statement by the
building’s owner in the 1980s that part of the building may have been a school
building. The late 1800s photograph of the courthouse shows a one-story gabled
building with a copula or belfry in this vicinity, but its location is somewhat
southwest of this site. Certainly, the school building, assuming that’s what
can be seen in the photograph, may have been joined to this building at some
point, but that, too, is not known.
Because this lot stood on a corner of the courthouse square,
it is likely that it had been used for commercial purposes from the town’s
founding. Although no buildings remain from previous ownerships, recounting the
lot’s earlier history reveals the name of a mid-nineteenth century cabinet
maker who lived in the town during its 1850s building boom and whose furniture
or possibly interior woodwork may have been found in the town’s homes from that
era.
In 1854, a cabinetmaker and coffin maker named John B.
Kingsbury used his wife’s money to purchase this lot. Kingsbury may have built
his own shop here or he may have occupied an existing building. According to
census records, Kingsbury was born in South Carolina around 1813, but he can be
traced to Greensboro, where he married Elizabeth Chapman.[6] He
resurfaced in Madison, where he was working as a cabinetmaker in 1839, but by the
time of the 1850 census, he was living in northeastern Stokes County.[7] By
1853, however, he was in Germanton where he was elected as an officer to
Germanton’s fledgling chapter of the Royal Arch Masons.[8]
The Kingsburys didn’t stay in any one location very long:
despite having been appointed Germanton’s postmaster in 1858, he had moved to
Pilot Mountain by the time the 1860 census recorded him, but the couple
retained ownership of their Germanton property. Presumably, they leased it to
other merchants until 1874 when they sold it to John W. Bitting.[9]
After Bitting’s death, the property traded hands twice
before L.M. McKenzie bought it in 1893.[10]
Thus, it appears that L.M. McKenzie built this store between 1890 and 1892,
sold it to Alice and E.H. Rainey in 1892, and E.H. Rainey moved it to McKenzie’s
lot on the square in 1896.
The McKenzies sold the property in 1900, but then bought a
half-interest in it in 1905.[11] The
McKenzies remained part-owners until sometime prior to 1923. During this
twenty-year span, E.J. Styers, H. Kobre, and Robert Tuttle were all associated
with the store. A 1920 plat of the square notes the store as housing E.J.Styers’ store and R.L. Tuttle’s store.[12]
In 1945, James and Pearl Kiser bought the store and remodeled
it for use as their home, and it remained in the Kiser family until after Mr.
Kiser’s death in 1990.[13]
Today, the house reflects the mid-twentieth century changes.
The gable-front building features six-over-six sash windows, a one-story
wrap-around porch with square posts, and a side-gable, single-car garage
attached to the northeast elevation. Vinyl siding covers the exterior.
Sarah Woodard David, 2017
[1] William
Campbell to L.M. McKenzie, Stokes County Deed Book 31, page 563, November 21,
1890.
[2] L.M. McKenzie to Alice M. Rainey, Stokes County Deed
Book 34, page 172, September 2, 1892.
[3] It is
unclear when ownership transferred from Alice Rainey to E.H. Rainey.
[4] L.M. and
Carrie McKenzie to H. Kobre, Stokes County Deed Book 42, page 135, July 21,
1900.
[5] State
Historic Preservation Office Survey File, SK 302.
[6] U.S.
Census, Population Schedules, and North Carolina Marriage Records, accessed via
ancestry.com.
[7] Greensboro Patriot,
November 19, 1839, page 4, and U.S. Census, Population Schedule, 1850.
[8] Raleigh Weekly
Standard, May 4, 1853, page 3.
[9] Record
of U.S. Postmasters, accessed via ancestry.com, U.S. Census, Population
Schedule 1860, and J.B. and Eliza Kingsbury to John W. Bitting, Stokes County
Deed Book 22, page 226, January 2, 1874.
[11] L.M. and Carrie McKenzie to H. Kobre, Stokes County
Deed Book 42, page 135, and H. Kobre to L.M. McKenzie and Robert L. Tuttle,
Stokes County Deed Book 48, page 386, July 26, 1905.
[12] Stokes
County Deed Book 65, page 591.
[13] William and
Marjorie McIver to James and Pearl Kiser, Stokes County Deed Book 107, page 313,
December 14, 1945, and William D and Mary Kiser to Thad K and List H. Evitt,
Stokes County Deed Book 357, page 314, March 17, 1992.
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