For generations of drivers traveling the old High Point Road between Greensboro and High Point, the home at 3000 W. Sedgefield Drive was one of Sedgefield’s most recognizable sights. Built in 1927 and known as the historic Sedgefield Tea House, the home dates to the neighborhood’s earliest years and sits on 1.57 acres near the entrance to the community. 

Today, it is home to Sedgefield neighbors Miles and Holly Rudd, who moved there in 2021. The Rudds have embraced both the neighborhood and the home’s history, including supporting local preservation efforts.  

Horses were once as much a part of Sedgefield as golf. The surviving Sedgefield barn was originally part of an 18-acre stables and showgrounds complex created with the prestigious Sedgefield development in the 1920s. The country club offered riding and boarding facilities along with its Donald Ross-designed golf course, social activities and fox hunts. 

Built around 1927, the barn later became home to the Sedgefield Horse Show and the starting point for the annual Sedgefield Hunt. Its original complex was determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places in 1990 because of both its architecture and its connection to Sedgefield’s recreational and social history. 

The historic barn entered a new chapter in 2025, when the Greensboro Historic Buildings Trust sold it to Hensley Family Holdings for use by The Giving Tree Montessori School. 

Its stately silhouette has been part of the Sedgefield landscape for nearly a century. Completed in 1928, the Pilot Life Insurance Company Home Office was designed by Philadelphia architects Zantzinger, Borie and Medary, with Greensboro architect Harry Barton serving as local representative. The monumental Georgian-inspired complex was conceived in the context of the new Sedgefield golf and resort community developing across High Point Road. 

After Pilot merged with Jefferson Standard, the property was left vacant in 1990. Preservation efforts continued for decades, and the complex was ultimately listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

By the 1960s, a very different architectural style had arrived in Sedgefield.

The home at 3307 Gaston Road is the third and final Commencement House, an extraordinary collaboration between noted Greensboro architect Edward Loewenstein and 22 college students. The Mid-Century Modern home features expansive windows, an open staircase, minimal ornamentation and views toward the Sedgefield Country Club golf course. 

The Commencement House experiment began when Woman’s College art department chairman Gregory Ivy enlisted Loewenstein to teach students through the real-world process of designing and constructing a house. The first student-designed house drew considerable attention; contemporary coverage hailed the young women as pioneers. 

The Sedgefield house was built for Herbert and Nancy Downs Smith. Nancy had covered an earlier Commencement House while working for WUNC-TV—and later became the client for the final one. 

Resource notes:

Piedmont Historic Homes, David Arneke, “Classic House of the Week: A Distinctive 1927 Mansion in Sedgefield”; Stroll Sedgefield, July 2025, Miles and Holly Rudd Meet Your Neighbor feature.

Piedmont Historic Homes, David Arneke, “A 1964 House in Sedgefield Designed by Edward Lowenstein and 22 UNCG Undergraduates”;  Patrick Lee Lucas, Edward Loewenstein biography, NC Architects & Builders; N.C. Modernist material referenced in the source notes; Bride’s Magazine, Spring 1965.

Preservation Greensboro Development Fund/Greensboro Historic Buildings Trust materials on the Sedgefield Stables and Barn.

Preservation Greensboro, Pilot Life Insurance Company Home Office history and preservation materials; National Register of Historic Places.