Live in Sunset Hills
A 1920s suburb on the National Register since 2013 and in none of the City's historic districts: the listing restricts nothing an owner does with private money, and can earn a contributing house a 15% state credit on a certified rehabilitation.
Sunset Hills is the 271-acre area the City of Greensboro's own neighborhood map draws south of West Friendly Avenue, 1,564 residents in 680 housing units at the 2020 census, with West Market Street through the middle and UNC Greensboro's campus 0.8 km to the east. A. K. Moore Realty filed its five plats in October 1926, laid West Market Street through it as a boulevard, and sold lots under deeds that barred Black owners; 1,319 of today's residents live inside the Sunset Hills Historic District, listed on the National Register on 14 January 2013 with 912 contributing buildings. That listing is recognition rather than regulation: Sunset Hills is not one of the City's three local historic districts, so no certificate of appropriateness stands between an owner and a new porch or a teardown. No public source publishes a sale price for the neighborhood itself; the nearest measure is Zillow's index for the whole 27403 ZIP, $237,287 in August 2026, condos included.
A 1920s boulevard suburb, listed but not regulated
An area the City of Greensboro's own neighborhood map draws: feature 22, "Sunset Hills", of the neighborhood layer the City published for its Neighborhood Traffic Management Program, marked VERIFIED NO, from a set of polygons the City describes as estimated and whose center points it says "should not be considered accurate". The current City limits take in all of it, 271 acres. It is not an association's territory, a registered organization or a plat. Traced on the City's street centerlines, West Friendly Avenue forms the northern edge for about 2.4 km; South Josephine Boyd Street and Smyres Place the eastern; and South Elam Avenue, a stretch of West Market Street and North Lindell Road the western. The southern edge follows no single street. West Market Street, West Greenway Drive, North Elam Avenue, Chapman Street, Camden Road and Madison Avenue run through it. The Sunset Hills National Register district is a different line, bounded in its 2012 nomination by West Friendly Avenue, Wright Avenue, North and South Elam Avenues, North Aycock Street and Kensington Road; it holds 1,319 of the guide's 1,564 residents. The whole guide is in Guilford County, Guilford County Schools, City Council District 4 and the 27403 ZIP code.
Sunset Hills began as 348 acres west of the State Normal and Industrial School, now UNC Greensboro. A. K. Moore bought 212 acres of the Morehead estate and the 136-acre Benbow Farm in 1922, and the City pushed its limits out to North Buffalo Creek the next year. Moore's engineer, Grady L. Bain, carried West Market Street through the tract as a boulevard, left a thirteen-acre park along a stream near the middle, and the five plats were filed in October 1926. Moore sold it as "Park here for Life" and wrote race into the deeds: one of 1926 bars anyone "of negro descent" from owning or living on the lot except as a servant. His company built 179 houses by 1929 and went bankrupt in 1934; building went on into the 1960s. Since 1996 residents have hung giant lighted balls in the trees between West Friendly Avenue and West Market Street each December.
This guide's line is not the historic district's. It is the area the City of Greensboro's own neighborhood map draws, on a layer published for its traffic-calming program and marked unverified, clipped to the City limits: 271 acres south of West Friendly Avenue between Josephine Boyd Street and Elam Avenue, with 1,564 residents in 680 housing units at the 2020 census. The National Register district, about 280 acres drawn on the old plats, holds 1,319 of them. This guide claims nothing about where residents think the name ends.
Listed in 2013, and regulated by nobody. The district went on the National Register on 14 January 2013 with 912 contributing buildings, the largest such district in Guilford County. A National Register listing restricts nothing a private owner does with private money. Sunset Hills is not one of the City's three local historic districts, where exterior work needs a certificate of appropriateness, and pays none of their levies. What a contributing house does get is a credit: North Carolina returns 15% of an owner-occupant's rehabilitation spending over $10,000 within 24 months, on up to $150,000, so at most $22,500, if the work meets the federal rehabilitation standards and the State Historic Preservation Office reviews it. The same listing does nothing to stop a neighbor's teardown.
What is not known is the price, and the students. No public source publishes a sale price for Sunset Hills. The nearest measure is Zillow's index for the whole 27403 ZIP, $237,287 in August 2026 and down 0.7% on the year, condos included. UNCG's campus begins 0.8 km east, and no census table counts students by block. Tract 106.02, home to 907 of the guide's residents, counted 51.3% of those aged three and over in college or graduate school on the 2020 to 2024 survey (margins of 662 undergraduates and 192 graduate students); tract 105, with the other 657, counted 4.9%. Both reach well past the line, so neither is the neighborhood's share.
The tax bill rests on 2022 values for one more year. Every address here pays Guilford County 78.95 cents and the City 79.85 cents per $100 for fiscal 2027, 158.80 cents in all, on the 2022 revaluation's values, because Senate Bill 889 held the 2026 reappraisal back until the 2027 bills. A house assessed at $400,000 owes $6,352; a buyer's first bill follows the seller's assessment, and the next comes on new values at rates nobody has set. There is no homestead exemption for an ordinary buyer. Stormwater and solid waste fees come on the City's water bill and were read only secondhand. Only 0.42% of the area, along creeks, is in a mapped flood hazard area.
- Check the 2012 nomination for whether the house contributes, and call the State Historic Preservation Office before work starts if you want the credit
- Budget the tax on the seller's 2022 value at 158.80 cents per $100, and expect the 2026 reappraisal on the 2027 bill
- Run the address through Guilford County Schools' locator; Lindley Elementary is meeting at Murphey while its building is rebuilt
- Look the address up on FEMA's flood map: the point is in zone X, but creek strips inside the line are not
How Sunset Hills got here
- 1891The State Normal and Industrial School, a school for women, opens east of the land that becomes Sunset Hills. It admits men and takes the name UNC Greensboro in 1963.
- 1922A. K. Moore, the developer of Westerwood and West Market Terrace, buys 212 acres from the estate of Col. James T. Morehead and the 136-acre Benbow Farm, names the tract Sunset Hills and sells it under the slogan "Park here for Life".
- 1923Greensboro extends its limits to North Buffalo Creek, taking in Sunset Hills.
- 1924Moore hires the architect Lorenzo S. Winslow to design houses for buyers through a service called Moore's Better Built Homes. Building begins in 1925.
- 1926Civil engineer Grady L. Bain lays West Market Street through as a boulevard, with a thirteen-acre park along a stream near the center, and Moore files the five plats in October. Deeds of that year set a $5,500 minimum cost, require Moore Realty to approve every plan, and bar ownership or occupancy by anyone "of negro descent" except as domestic servants.
- 1929A Moore Realty pamphlet counts 179 houses the company has built in Sunset Hills, about $2.5 million of them.
- 1934A. K. Moore Realty goes bankrupt in the Depression and stops building. About 150 houses still go up in the 1930s and about 125 in the 1940s, by which time much of the neighborhood is built out.
- 1950Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church, Gothic Revival in Rowan County pink granite, is built on West Market Street. Its school and First Christian Church follow in 1953, and St. Andrew's Episcopal Church's chapel in 1959.
- 1957Friendly Center, an outdoor shopping center, is developed northwest of the neighborhood.
- 1996Residents Jonathan and Anne Smith start the giant lighted balls hung in the trees each December, after their daughter asked for one. Neighbors learn to make them at workshops, and the display now spans the streets between West Friendly Avenue and West Market Street.
- 2013The Sunset Hills Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places on 14 January, with a period of significance of 1925 to 1965. It is the largest such district in Guilford County.
- 2024The neighborhood marks its centennial on 21 November at Sunset Hills Park, at Madison Avenue and West Greenway Drive, with a 16-foot steel sculpture by Lawrence Feir, commissioned by the Sunset Hills Neighborhood Association and the Greensboro Parks Foundation.
- 2026New FEMA flood maps take effect on 10 June. On 19 June, Senate Bill 889 holds the County's 2026 reappraisal back from the 2026 tax bills, so they go out on the 2022 revaluation's values for one more year.
The park the plats left, and a university's woods next door
The neighborhood's own open space is Sunset Hills Park, at Madison Avenue and West Greenway Drive, where residents marked the centennial on 21 November 2024 around a 16-foot steel sculpture by Lawrence Feir. The 2012 nomination describes a thirteen-acre park laid out along a stream near the center of the plats. College Park, a City park, is inside the line near its eastern edge. Across Josephine Boyd Street, Peabody Park is UNCG's 34 acres of hardwood forest and Piedmont prairie, first laid out in 1897.
What the map does not show: the City's park pages refused this site's requests, so neither park's facilities nor hours were read. The Greensboro Arboretum in Lindley Park, open daily without charge, is about 2 km west by road.
25 places, with real drive times
Road-adjusted distance and drive time from the centre of the community to each destination, nearest first. Filter by category.
Showing 1–12 of 25 places, nearest first.
Method: distances and drive times are computed from a representative point at West Market and South Chapman streets, using straight-line distance multiplied by a road factor and a tiered speed model: honest ranges, not routed times. The zoned elementary school is meeting about 3 km south while its building is rebuilt.
Every gym within reach
There is no gym or pool inside the line. The City's nearest recreation center is Lindley Recreation Center on Springwood Drive in Lindley Park, beside the outdoor Lindley Pool; the indoor pool is the Greensboro Aquatic Center on West Gate City Boulevard. The nearest YMCA is the Kathleen Price Bryan branch downtown.
- Lindley Recreation Center, 2907 Springwood Drive: the City's layer says to call for hours
- Greensboro Aquatic Center, 1921 West Gate City Boulevard: the City's indoor pool
- Kathleen Price Bryan Family YMCA, 501 West Market Street: the downtown branch
| Facility | What it is | Drive |
|---|---|---|
| Lindley Recreation Center open | The City's recreation center at 2907 Springwood Drive in Lindley Park. The City's facility layer says to call for hours; programs and fees were not read. | 6–8 min |
| Lindley Pool open | The City's outdoor pool in Lindley Community Park, 2914 Springwood Drive. Its season and fees were not read. | 6–8 min |
| Greensboro Aquatic Center open | The City's indoor pool at 1921 West Gate City Boulevard. Hours and fees were not read. | 5–8 min |
| Kathleen Price Bryan Family YMCA open | The YMCA of Greensboro's downtown branch at 501 West Market Street. Its amenities were not read. | 5–8 min |
The free option is the street: the 2012 nomination finds sidewalks on both sides of almost every street in the district, the exceptions being Ridgeway Drive and the east side of North Elam Avenue.
One zone for every block, and a school between buildings
Guilford County Schools assigns by the attendance zone of the parent's home. On its 2026-27 layers the point is zoned for Lindley Elementary, Kiser Middle and Grimsley High, and so is every one of the guide's 1,564 residents of 2020. NC DPI graded them C, C and B for 2024-25 and 2023-24; no school-level 2025-26 file was found. Lindley's building on Camden Road is being replaced at an estimated $76 million, and the district says the school is meeting at Murphey Elementary on Ontario Street meanwhile. Brooks Global Studies, a magnet elementary 1.82 km west, takes applications rather than addresses.
| School | Board | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Lindley Elementary School | Guilford County Schools | The point is zoned for John Van Lindley Elementary on the district's 2026-27 layer, and so are all 1,564 of the guide's 2020 residents. Its building at 2700 Camden Road, in Lindley Park 0.68 km from the point in a straight line, is being replaced: the board voted on 23 July 2024 to rebuild it for an estimated $76 million, and the district's site layer says the school is meeting at Murphey Elementary, 2306 Ontario Street, meanwhile. NC DPI graded it C for 2024-25 (score 69, growth met) and C for 2023-24; a school-level file of 2025-26 grades was not found. |
| Kiser Middle School | Guilford County Schools | The point is zoned for Kiser Middle, at 407 Campus Drive 1.57 km north in a straight line, and so is every 2020 resident of the guide. C for 2024-25 (score 57, growth not met) and C for 2023-24. |
| Grimsley High School | Guilford County Schools | The point is zoned for Grimsley High, at 801 North Josephine Boyd Street 1.24 km north-east in a straight line, and so is every 2020 resident of the guide. B for 2024-25 (score 76, growth exceeded) and B for 2023-24. |
| Brooks Global Studies Elementary School | Guilford County Schools | A Global Studies magnet at 400 Ashland Drive, 1.82 km west in a straight line. Nobody is zoned for it: a seat comes by application, and the district fills most choice seats by lottery. B for 2024-25. |
Run the exact address through the district's School Assignment Locator before you commit. The zones here were read at one point, not at your house.
Month by month, what living here looks like
Not a highlights reel: the actual annual rhythm, including the dates residents have to remember.
- Highs near 9.6 °C and lows near -1.1 °C at Piedmont Triad International, with 19.5 nights at or below freezing and 7.4 cm of snow on the 1991 to 2020 normal
- The trees the developer planted in the 1920s are bare, and the rooflines, garages and retaining walls show
- A buyer now pays the 2026 bill's rate on a 2022 value; the 2026 reappraisal reaches the 2027 bill
- Highs near 11.8 °C, 15.1 nights at or below freezing and 5.1 cm of snow on the normal
- Ask a seller for a year of heating bills: most of the district's houses are brick of the 1920s to 1950s
- Highs near 16.3 °C and 94 mm of rain on the normal, with 2.3 cm of snow still the March figure
- The canopy leafs out; the West Market Street lots are the largest in the district, with the grandest houses
- Highs near 21.7 °C, lows near 8.8 °C and 96 mm of rain
- Before planning exterior work on a contributing house, consult the State Historic Preservation Office if you mean to claim the 15% credit
- Highs near 25.6 °C, 89 mm of rain and 1.1 days at or above 32 °C on the normal
- Spring listings: the 2012 nomination counts just over 700 contributing principal buildings, from small houses on Camden Road and South Elam Avenue to the large lots on West Market Street
- Highs near 29.6 °C, 104 mm of rain and 6.6 days at or above 32 °C on the normal
- The City adopted its 2026-27 rate on 16 June and the County on 25 June; both are reset each June for the July fiscal year
- New FEMA flood panels took effect on 10 June 2026; the reference point is in zone X
- Highs near 31.4 °C, lows near 20.7 °C and 13.7 days at or above 32 °C
- The Fun Fourth Festival runs along Elm Street downtown on 4 July, about 3 km east
- Highs near 30.3 °C, 111 mm of rain and 9.1 days at or above 32 °C
- UNC Greensboro, 0.8 km east, enrolled more than 19,000 students in fall 2026, its most since 2020
- The County's rate sheet lists a 1% discount for paying the County and City bill early
- Highs near 26.9 °C and 117 mm of rain, the wettest month on the normal
- The North Carolina Folk Festival ran downtown from 18 to 20 September 2026; 2027 dates are not posted
- Highs near 21.7 °C, lows near 9.7 °C and 79 mm of rain, the driest month after February
- The one-way GTA fare is $1.50; UNCG students ride free with a university code
- Highs near 15.9 °C and 7.7 nights at or below freezing on the normal
- The neighborhood marked its centennial on 21 November 2024 at Sunset Hills Park
- Highs near 11.1 °C, 16.6 nights at or below freezing and 3.0 cm of snow on the normal
- The giant lighted balls residents have hung in the trees since 1996 light the streets between West Friendly Avenue and West Market Street, and draw traffic after dark
8 more photographs of Greensboro and the region
Drawn from the site's shared, freely licensed Greensboro photo library, not photographs of Sunset Hills itself. Filter by category.
Showing 1–8 of 8 photographs.
About these photographs. Openly licensed images from the site's shared Greensboro library, found on Wikimedia Commons and served from there with full attribution. None of them is presented as a photograph of Sunset Hills.