| Alumni House (1996) |
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| The Lenoir-Rhyne College Alumni House has
been home to the Office of Alumni & Parent Relations as well as the Office
of Church Relations and Planned Giving since June, 1996. The Queen Anne
style structure is believed to have been built by the Reverend Robert Henry
Cline, younger brother of the Reverend William P. Cline, one of L-R’s four
founders. At the time, the Seventh Street NE was named Hope Avenue and the
William Clines lived across the street. Land records indicate the house was built around 1905, beginning with a lot valued at $250. According to local historian Albert Keiser of Hickory, Robert Cline served Lutheran congregations outside Hickory most of the time he owned the house so it was undoubtedly a rental property. During this time, the Rubertus Rhyne family resided in the home, followed by the Harlan Creech family. Creech was a bookkeeper for L-R and also taught business courses at the College. Elaine Maness Fritz of Hickory recounts a story that Dr. R.L. Fritz, second president of L-R once lived in the house and that his son, Bill, was born there years before his future wife would move to the house with her parents, James Maness and wife, Gaye. In fact, one of the trees her father planted remains on the property - the large magnolia out front. Maness, who owned the house from 1938 to 1966, was manager of the singer Sewing Machine franchise in Hickory and his wife, Gaye, a sewing instructor, later owned a children’s shop. Shortly after moving in the house in 1938, the home was of the wedding reception of Elaine and Dr. Bill Fritz and later during the war years, her sister Rachel who married Dr. Thomas Williams. Both sons-in-law once served as physicians for the College. During the 1940s and 50s, college students often boarded here as well as a number of professors. Tom Guthrie, class of ’62, vice president of Shuford Mills and his wife Anne Suggs Guthrie, class of ’62, owned the home in the 1960s, eventually transferring it to his parents in 1978. They sold it three years later. The new owners, Dr. and Mrs. Coke Gunter, did extensive renovations to the home, including the addition of two raised decks, a greenhouse, brick patio, expansion of an eat-in kitchen and overall refurbishing. The home is a real showplace and has been used for alumni dinners, cookouts, receptions, and reunions. A basement apartment is available for visiting alumni or parents who would like to stay on campus. |