A homeowner in West End wanted to cut a dog door into a nonhistoric basement door. Twenty-five and a quarter inches by about fourteen, white aluminum, centered at the bottom. A City of Winston-Salem Minor Work Approval Report shows that the dog door still had to go through the Forsyth County Historic Resources Commission's review process before anyone could pick up a drill. A few miles away in Ardmore, listings routinely advertise full renovations, brand new hardwood floors, new HVAC, new kitchens, on 1920s bungalows covered only by the National Register listing, where the City of Winston-Salem says no Certificate of Appropriateness is required on that basis.
Both houses sit in neighborhoods that market themselves as historic. The West End house is regulated by its overlay designation; Ardmore's National Register designation alone does not impose that review.
"Historic" Is Doing Two Different Jobs
In Winston-Salem, the word covers two legally distinct situations, and almost nobody explains the difference before a buyer signs a contract. West End carries a local Historic Overlay District designation. Ardmore's designation comes from the National Register of Historic Places. They sound similar. They are not.
The City of Winston-Salem's Certificate of Appropriateness guidance says that a local Historic Overlay District gives the Historic Resources Commission actual authority over what happens to a building's exterior. Any work beyond routine maintenance, new windows, additions, demolition, relocation, has to go through a Certificate of Appropriateness process before permits can be issued. A National Register listing, by contrast, is an honor roll. It documents architectural significance, but it does not hand any commission veto power over a private owner's renovation plans.
Ardmore's own history proved the point. According to Preservation Forsyth, in 2024, Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist told the Ardmore Neighborhood Association it intended to demolish ten vacant, hospital-owned houses in the 200 and 300 blocks of Lockland Avenue, all inside the Ardmore National Register district. Nothing about that listing stopped the plan on its own. What changed the outcome was public pressure: a petition, a walking tour that drew dozens of residents, media coverage, and an independent structural assessment that preservation volunteers arranged and Atrium agreed to accept. According to Ardmore.ws, by late 2025 the hospital system had reversed course, proposing to convert four of the home sites into a small park tied to a future city greenway and to sell the remaining six, likely as-is.
That is the version of "protected" a National Register listing actually offers. It is reputational and persuasive. It is not procedural. A West End homeowner facing the same demolition proposal would need the Commission's sign-off first, full stop.
What the Rulebook Actually Requires
For property in West End's Historic Overlay, the Commission sorts work into two tracks. Minor Work, things like tree removal, small utility screening, or certain window and door repairs that match existing materials, can be approved directly by Historic Resources staff. Recent staff approvals on file include a screening wall built to hide electrical boxes at the Bethabara district's Distiller's House, a hazardous sugar maple removed from a lot bordering Old Salem after an arborist found active decay in the trunk, and a rear porch enclosed in transparent screening because it sat in a low-visibility spot and wasn't part of the home's original structure.
Major Work, additions, new construction, and anything the standards don't clearly cover, has to go before the full twelve-member Commission at its monthly meeting. That meeting happens the first Wednesday of the month at 4 p.m. in the Bryce A. Stuart Building downtown, with one exception: the Commission typically does not meet in July. Applications for Major Work have to be submitted several weeks ahead of the meeting date, and the city's own guidance on the exact cutoff varies slightly depending on which page you read, so anyone with a firm renovation deadline should confirm the current submission date directly with Historic Resources staff before finalizing a contractor's schedule.
Run the calendar forward from today and the cadence becomes concrete. This fall's meetings fall on October 7, November 4, and December 2. Miss a submission window and a Major Work project doesn't just wait a few days. It waits a full month, sometimes two if the miss happens to land near July.
Properties covered only by Ardmore's National Register listing skip that exterior design-review clock, though standard city building permits and zoning rules still apply regardless of neighborhood.
The Same Word, Two Different Price Signals
| West End | Ardmore | |
|---|---|---|
| Designation | Local Historic Overlay District | National Register Historic District |
| Exterior design review | Required (Certificate of Appropriateness) | Not required by the National Register designation alone |
| Review body | Forsyth County Historic Resources Commission | None under the National Register designation alone |
| Typical listed price range (recent readings) | Roughly $280,000 to $305,000, with renovated and larger homes reaching $400,000 and above | Median listing around $346,900 as of early 2026 |
| Days on market (recent readings) | Reports range from under 20 days for move-in-ready homes to the mid-30s for others | Homes selling in roughly 31 to 50 days depending on the data source |
The spread in West End's own numbers is the tell. Some snapshots show homes moving in under three weeks at prices climbing into the $400,000s. Others, pulled from a different window, show a median price down nearly 10 percent year over year with days on market closer to 37. That is not necessarily a soft market. It is two different kinds of inventory getting averaged together: fully renovated, COA-cleared homes competing hard for buyers who want to move in without touching the exterior, sitting alongside as-is properties that come with an unfinished design-review process baked into the price. A buyer comparing listing prices without asking which bucket a house falls into is comparing two different products.
Ardmore's pricing tells a more consistent story because the National Register designation alone doesn't impose the same regulatory friction. For properties without an individual Local Historic Landmark designation, a renovation moves at the pace of a contractor's schedule and standard permitting, not a monthly commission calendar.
What This Means Before You Write an Offer
Anyone shopping a "historic" listing in Winston-Salem, whether as a future resident or an investor planning a fix and flip, should get three answers before going under contract:
- Is this property inside a local Historic Overlay District, or only listed on the National Register? The city's Historic Resources Commission page and staff can confirm this by address.
- If it's inside a local overlay, does the planned work qualify as Minor Work that staff can approve directly, or Major Work that has to wait for the next Commission meeting?
- What's the actual submission deadline for that meeting, and does the renovation timeline survive a July gap if the math runs that direction?
For an investor modeling a flip's holding costs, the answer changes the deal. A West End property needing Major Work approval can add a month or more to the timeline before a permit is even pulled. An Ardmore property covered only by the National Register designation carries no such design-review clock, though it still needs standard permits and, notably, carries no protection against an owner or institution simply choosing to tear a contributing structure down, a risk Lockland Avenue made concrete rather than theoretical.
One additional tool worth knowing about, separate from the district-level question: the City of Winston-Salem says an owner of a Local Historic Landmark may apply for a property tax deferral of up to 50 percent, ongoing as long as the home keeps its historic integrity.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a National Register listing stop a house from being demolished? No. It documents significance but it does not give any commission the authority to block demolition or exterior changes. The Lockland Avenue situation in Ardmore showed that community pressure, not the listing itself, was what changed the outcome.
How long does Certificate of Appropriateness approval actually take in West End? Minor Work can be approved by staff without waiting for a meeting. Major Work needs a full Commission hearing, which only happens once a month except in July. Submissions have to be in several weeks ahead of the meeting date, so a Major Work project started without that lead time built in can lose a month or more before a permit is even possible.
Can I install standard replacement windows without going through this process in West End? It depends on whether the replacement matches the district's design standards closely enough to qualify as Minor Work. Staff-level approvals for window and door work do happen, but anything that changes the historic appearance typically needs full Commission review.
Does buying in Ardmore mean no permits at all? No. Standard city building permits and zoning requirements still apply. For properties covered only by Ardmore's National Register designation, the Historic Resources Commission's design review over exterior appearance is absent.
Whether you're comparing a move-in-ready home in West End to a project house in Ardmore, or weighing a flip against a design-review calendar that only meets eleven times a year, the difference between these two kinds of "historic" is exactly the kind of detail that changes a closing date, a renovation budget, or an offer strategy. Gray France Realty Group works both sides of that distinction regularly, for homeowners and for investors running fix and flip timelines through neighborhoods where the paperwork moves at very different speeds. Buy with confidence. Sell with strategy. Invest with insight.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
