Live in Warnersville
Greensboro's first planned Black community, sold in plots to freed people in the 1860s and virtually cleared by urban renewal a century later, where the census tract rents three homes in four and the block decides between two high schools.
Warnersville began in the 1860s when Yardley Warner, a Pennsylvania Quaker, bought 35½ acres south of Greensboro and sold them in plots to freed people; the City calls it the first planned African American community in the area. The City's three Warnersville redevelopment plans of 1966 and 1967 recommended acquiring and demolishing buildings, realigning roads and opening land to industrial, institutional and commercial use, and in the City's own words the neighborhood was virtually cleared. Of the 2,112 residents the 2020 census counted on the City's 204 acres, in 745 housing units, 2,079 live inside those three plan areas, now inactive. In 2015 the City named Warnersville its first Heritage Community, a recognition and not a historic district.
The first Black suburb, mostly erased, and what stands on it now
An area the City of Greensboro's own neighborhood map draws: the feature named Warnersville (OBJECTID 18) on the hosted neighborhood layer the City publishes on its ArcGIS Online organization for its Neighborhood Traffic Management Program, marked VERIFIED NO, from a set of polygons the City describes as estimated, clipped to the current City limits (none of it fell outside): 204 acres. It is not an association's territory, a plat or the historic Warnersville tract, and this guide claims nothing about where residents think the name ends. Traced on the City's street centerlines, West Gate City Boulevard runs along its north side; South Eugene Street, Ashe Street, Orchard Street, West Florida Street, West Terrell Street and short stretches of Randleman Road and West Whittington Street make up the rest of its edge; Randleman Road runs through it for about 1.4 km, with West Whittington Street, South Street and West Florida Street. Other City lines overlap it: the three inactive Warnersville redevelopment areas hold 2,079 of its 2,112 residents, and 548 are in the GSO2040 plan's Downtown character area. No local historic district or National Register district touches it. The whole guide is in Guilford County, Guilford County Schools, City Council District 1 and ZIP code 27406.
After the Civil War Yardley Warner, a Pennsylvania Quaker, bought land just south of Greensboro's limits and sold it in plots to freed people, with help, NCpedia says, from the Association of Friends of Philadelphia. The City calls the result the first planned African American community in the area, and the 1991 National Register nomination for South Greensboro calls it the city's first suburb. The sources do not agree on the details: the City says more than 35 acres around 1865, the Greensboro History Museum 35½ acres, YES! Weekly 1867 and one-acre lots. Harmon Unthank, one of the first landowners, made coffins, repaired stoves and became the community's unofficial mayor in the 1870s. St. Matthews Methodist dates from 1864, New Zion Baptist from 1897, and J.C. Price School taught from 1922 to 1983, with Black-owned businesses along Ashe Street.
Then the City took most of it down. Its three Warnersville redevelopment plans, adopted in 1966 and 1967, recommended acquiring and demolishing buildings, realigning roads, rezoning, and making land available for industrial, institutional and commercial use. YES! Weekly calls it Greensboro's first urban renewal program and the first of its kind in North Carolina, paid for with federal money, and the City's own Heritage Community text says Warnersville was virtually cleared. What survived is disputed. YES! Weekly says J.C. Price School and Union Cemetery were spared; ENGAGE Warnersville, a community group, says the cemetery and the historic school were demolished. Triad City Beat wrote in 2015 that not enough of the old neighborhood remains to qualify as a historic district, and none has been drawn.
The name is now several City lines, and only one of them is this guide's. The guide is the area the City's neighborhood map draws, a layer published for its traffic-calming program and marked unverified: 2,112 residents in 745 housing units on 204 acres at the 2020 census, with Randleman Road running through it. 2,079 of them live inside the three 1960s plan areas, all now inactive. In 2015 the City named Warnersville its first Heritage Community, a recognition that carries no design review, and no local historic or National Register district touches the guide. 548 residents are in the GSO2040 plan's Downtown character area, which is not the Downtown Improvement District; whether any of them pays that district's extra 9 cents per $100 was not established.
Most homes here are rented. Census tract 114, which holds every resident and more besides, had 447 owner-occupied homes among 1,841 in the Census Bureau's 2020 to 2024 survey, about 24% against 50.5% citywide, and a median owner's estimate of $140,800, give or take $45,099. No public source publishes a sale median for the area; Zillow's index for ZIP code 27406, a much larger area, was $227,489 in August 2026. Every owner pays Guilford County and the City, 158.80 cents per $100 for 2026-27, on values from the 2022 revaluation, because Senate Bill 889 moved the County's 2026 reappraisal onto the 2027 bills. A buyer's first bill follows the seller's old assessment, and the next one a new value at rates not yet set.
The block decides the schools. The point and 1,382 residents are zoned for Jones Elementary, Kiser Middle and Grimsley High, graded C, C and B by the state for 2024-25; the other 730 for Peck Elementary, Jackson Middle and Smith High, each graded D. Route 13 stops 0.18 km from the reference point every 30 minutes at weekday middays, City Hall is 1.28 km north in a straight line, and UNCG's campus is 0.9 km away, though the tract counts under 6% of residents in college.
- Run the exact address through Guilford County Schools' locator; the guide is split between two sets of zones
- Ask the City whether the parcel is inside the Downtown Improvement District, which adds 9 cents per $100
- Pull the County's 2026 reappraisal value as well as the current one: the new value goes on the 2027 bill
- Budget for stormwater and solid waste on the City's water bill; their amounts were read only secondhand
- Read the Randleman Road Corridor Plan's two phases if the house is near the road
How Warnersville got here
- 1864St. Matthews United Methodist Church is founded; the City counts it among Greensboro's oldest congregations, and it is still in the community.
- 1865Yardley Warner, a Pennsylvania Quaker, buys land just south of the city limits and divides it into plots for freed people, with help from the Association of Friends of Philadelphia. The City says more than 35 acres around 1865, the Greensboro History Museum 35½ acres, YES! Weekly 1867 and one-acre lots, and the 1991 National Register nomination for South Greensboro the late 1860s, near Ashe Street, then Mebane Road.
- 1870sHarmon Unthank, one of the first landowners, becomes the unofficial mayor of Warnersville. He makes coffins and repairs stoves, and is active in local and state politics, which was possible for Black residents before the Jim Crow era.
- 1891The city limits expand. On the City's annexation layer, 1,068 of the guide's 2020 residents live on land annexed in 1891 and 1,044 on land annexed in 1923.
- 1897New Zion Baptist Church is founded. The Ashe Street School, Graded School Number 2 for Colored Children, runs from 1898 to 1922 and the Jacksonville School from 1909 to 1954.
- 1922J.C. Price School opens, by the City's dates, and runs until 1983. Many Black-owned businesses thrive in the community, especially along Ashe Street.
- 1939The National Register nomination for South Greensboro, citing a 1940 survey, places the Black community of Warnersville west of Ashe Street, beside an almost exclusively white South Greensboro.
- 1966The City adopts the first of three Warnersville redevelopment plans, the last in 1967: acquisition and demolition of structures, rehabilitation of dwellings, realigned roads, rezoning, public spaces, and land for industrial, institutional and commercial uses. YES! Weekly calls it Greensboro's first urban renewal program and the first of its kind in North Carolina, funded with federal money.
- 1983J.C. Price School closes. The accounts of what urban renewal left standing differ: YES! Weekly says the school and Union Cemetery survived it, ENGAGE Warnersville that the community's cemetery and its historic school were demolished.
- 2008The City's Central Gateway Corridor Plan covers West Lee Street, now Gate City Boulevard, from downtown to Interstate 40; 548 of the guide's residents are inside it.
- 2014The Greensboro History Museum opens Warnersville: Our Home, Our Neighborhood, Our Stories on 23 November, with the doors and cornerstone of J.C. Price Elementary School; it runs to 14 February 2016.
- 2015The City recognizes Warnersville as Greensboro's first Heritage Community. In November the Kevin Harvick and Cal Ripken Sr. foundations open a turf youth field on West Whittington Street for the Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club of Greensboro.
- 2016The City adopts the Randleman Road Corridor Plan's first phase, covering 730 of the guide's residents, and Sunny Gravely-Foushee and Darlene Clinton paint the mural at the Warnersville Recreation Center.
- 2024The second phase of the Randleman Road Corridor Plan, for the road and the parcels beside it, is adopted on 19 November.
- 2026Senate Bill 889, signed on 19 June, moves Guilford County's 2026 reappraisal onto the 2027 tax bills.
The Warnersville center and pool, a turf field, and downtown's parks
The City's Warnersville Recreation Center at 601 Doak Street is inside the line, with an outdoor pool and a mural painted in 2016 by Sunny Gravely-Foushee and Darlene Clinton. On West Whittington Street, Kevin Harvick Foundation Park is a turf youth field with dugouts and a scoreboard, opened in November 2015 for the Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club, which maintains it. Downtown's Center City Park and LeBauer Park are about 1.7 to 1.8 km north and northeast.
What the map does not show: the recreation center's hours (the City's layer says to call) and the pool's season, which the City's pages would not serve. Whether the Harvick field is open to the public outside club programs was not read.
Elsewhere in Greensboro, not Warnersville
24 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 24 places, nearest first.
Method: distances and drive times are computed from a representative point, OpenStreetMap's Warnersville node, using straight-line distance multiplied by a road factor and a tiered speed model: honest ranges, not routed times. There is no supermarket inside the line; the nearest on OpenStreetMap is a Piggly Wiggly on West Florida Street, 1.28 km away.
Every gym within reach
The Warnersville Recreation Center and its outdoor pool are inside the line. The City's indoor Greensboro Aquatic Center is on West Gate City Boulevard, the Xperience @ Caldcleugh center on Orchard Street, and the downtown Kathleen Price Bryan Family YMCA, with an indoor pool and a track, opens at 5 a.m. on weekdays.
- Warnersville Recreation Center, 601 Doak Street: call for hours
- Greensboro Aquatic Center, 1921 West Gate City Boulevard: indoor City pool
- Kathleen Price Bryan Family YMCA, 501 West Market Street: indoor pool
| Facility | What it is | Drive |
|---|---|---|
| Warnersville Community Recreation Center open | The City's recreation center and outdoor pool at 601 Doak Street, inside the line; the City's layer says to call for hours, and the pool season was not read. | 3–4 min |
| Xperience @ Caldcleugh open | A City recreation center at 1700 Orchard Street, to the southwest; its hours were not on the City's layer. | 4–6 min |
| Greensboro Aquatic Center open | The City's indoor pool at 1921 West Gate City Boulevard; its hours and fees were not read. | 6–9 min |
| Kathleen Price Bryan Family YMCA open | The downtown YMCA at 501 West Market Street: an indoor pool, indoor courts, a track and a gym, open from 5 a.m. Monday to Friday. | 4–6 min |
The free option is the walk north: downtown's parks are under 2 km away.
Two sets of zones, one line
Guilford County Schools assigns by the attendance zone of the family's home, and its 2026-27 layers split this guide. The point and 1,382 residents of 2020 are zoned for Jones Elementary, inside the line at 502 South Street and listed by the district as a Spanish Immersion magnet, Kiser Middle and Grimsley High. The other 730 are zoned for Peck Elementary, Jackson Middle and Ben L. Smith High. The grades given are 2024-25 and 2023-24; the state has 2025-26 grades, but no school-level file was found. Choice programs take applications in the fall and fill most seats by lottery.
| School | Board | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Jones Spanish Immersion Elementary | Guilford County Schools | The point is zoned for Jones Elementary on the district's 2026-27 layer, and so are 1,382 of the guide's 2020 residents. The school, David D. Jones Elementary to the state, is inside the line at 502 South Street, 0.53 km from the point, and the district's site layer lists it as a Spanish Immersion magnet; how zoned seats and magnet seats share the building was not read. Graded C for 2024-25 (score 55, growth met) and C for 2023-24. |
| Peck Elementary | Guilford County Schools | The other 730 residents are zoned for Clara J. Peck Elementary at 1601 West Florida Street, 2.16 km southwest of the point. Graded D for 2024-25 (score 46, growth met) and D for 2023-24. |
| Kiser Middle School and Jackson Middle School | Guilford County Schools | The point and the same 1,382 residents are zoned for Kiser Middle at 407 Campus Drive, graded C for both years (score 57, growth not met); the 730 for Jackson Middle at 2200 Ontario Street, graded D for both years (score 40, growth met). |
| Grimsley High School and Ben L. Smith High School | Guilford County Schools | The point and 1,382 residents are zoned for Grimsley High at 801 North Josephine Boyd Street, graded B for both years (score 76, growth exceeded); the 730 for Ben L. Smith High at 2407 South Holden Road, graded D for both years (score 52, growth not met). |
Check the exact address in the district's School Assignment Locator before you commit. How Jones divides its seats between the zone and the magnet program was not read.
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 on the 1991 to 2020 normals
- 7.4 cm of snow in an average January, the snowiest month
- The County's next scheduled reappraisal after the deferred 2026 values is in 2032
- Highs near 11.8 °C, 15.1 freezing nights and 5.1 cm of snow on the normals
- The County mailed 2026 reappraisal notices in February 2026, but those values go on the 2027 bills
- A buyer's first bill follows the seller's assessment from the 2022 revaluation
- Highs near 16.3 °C and 94 mm of rain on the normals, with frost on 8 nights
- The guide is split between two sets of zoned schools: run the exact address through Guilford County Schools' locator
- Route 13 runs along Randleman Road every 30 minutes at midday on weekdays
- Highs near 21.7 °C and 96 mm of rain; frost is down to about one night
- The Curb Market's Tuesday evening market, 4 to 7 p.m., runs from April to October at 501 Yanceyville Street
- Kevin Harvick Foundation Park's turf field, inside the line, is the Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club's
- Highs near 25.6 °C, lows near 13.9 °C and 89 mm of rain on the normals
- UNCG's campus outline is 0.9 km from the reference point; its students ride GTA free with a university code
- The outdoor pool at the Warnersville Recreation Center is inside the line; its season was not read
- Highs near 29.6 °C and 104 mm of rain, with 6.6 days at or above 32 °C
- The City adopted 79.85 cents per $100 on 16 June 2026 and the County 78.95 cents on 25 June, both on the 2022 values
- 548 residents are in the Downtown character area; whether any of them pays the Downtown Improvement District's extra 9 cents was not established
- The hottest month: highs near 31.4 °C, lows near 20.7 °C and 13.7 days at or above 32 °C
- Fun Fourth fills Elm Street downtown on 4 July: in 2026 the Freedom Run started at 7:30 a.m. and the Freedom Fest ran from 1 to 6 p.m.
- 106 mm of rain on the normals
- Highs near 30.3 °C and 111 mm of rain
- Guilford County and the City take 1% off a property tax bill paid before 1 September
- Greensboro adds a $30 vehicle fee to vehicle tax bills
- The wettest month on the normals, at 117 mm, with highs near 26.9 °C
- Route 13 keeps its 30-minute midday weekday service; weekend service on every numbered route is hourly
- 2.93% of the guide's area is in a mapped special flood hazard area, along a creek, but no 2020 resident lives in it by block; FEMA's zone at the reference point is X
- Highs near 21.7 °C and 79 mm of rain, the driest month on the normals
- Guilford County Schools takes choice applications in the fall; most seats are filled by lottery
- The Curb Market's Tuesday evening season ends with October
- Highs near 15.9 °C and frost on 7.7 nights
- The museum's Warnersville exhibition opened on 23 November 2014, and the Harvick field in November 2015
- The Randleman Road Corridor Plan's second phase was adopted on 19 November 2024
- Highs near 11.1 °C, 16.6 freezing nights and 3.0 cm of snow on the normals
- Downtown's Festival of Lights is a Friday evening in early December, with the tree lighting in Center City Park; the 2026 date was not posted
- City Hall is 1.28 km north of the reference point in a straight line
4 more photographs of Greensboro and the region
Drawn from the site's shared, freely licensed Greensboro photo library, not photographs of Warnersville itself. Filter by category.
Showing 1–4 of 4 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 Warnersville.