Greensboro Introduction Walking Tour (Self Guided), Greensboro

Center City Park, Greensboro’s most popular place for family entertainment and outdoor events, is located between North Davie and North Elm Streets. Officially opened in 2006, this park features many beautiful works by talented local artists, including fountains, beautiful sculptures, pottery, metalwork, granite and bronze benches. Its beautiful landscaping and lovely atmosphere attracts both locals and visitors to this park.

In the Face of Strange Fruit was created by artist Derrick Monk, inspired by the Billie Holiday song Strange Fruit. The sculpture depicts the faces of those who struggled for freedom and equality. Included is a quote by Antoine De Saint-Exupery: "He who is different from me does not impoverish me - he enriches me." The bronze sculpture is located on the lawn of the Greensboro Cultural Center on North Davie Street.

The Greensboro Children's Museum, a favorite place of local kids, was founded in 1999 on North Church Street. Featuring over twenty permanent exhibits and a large outdoor area, its aim is to entertain children while educating them on a variety of fascinating subjects.

Operation Hours: Monday: 9 am - 12 pm; Tuesday - Thursday: 9 am - 5 pm; Friday: 9 am - 8 pm; Saturday: 9 am - 5 pm; Sunday: 1 pm - 5 pm;

Metaphor, a famous work by artist Ogden Deal, is a twelve foot steel statue of a human figure stretching out its hands to the sky. Standing for nearly forty years, the statue is sponsored by the Greensboro Youth Council and installed on Youth Square at the intersection of Summit Avenue, East Lindsay Street and Church Court.

The Greensboro Historical Museum, located downtown, was established in 1924, making it the city’s oldest museum. Located in the former First Presbyterian Church, constructed in the Romanesque style, this museum offers 15 galleries including the Voices of a City: Greensboro North Carolina exhibition that interprets more than 300 years of Greensboro and Guilford County history. Additional exhibitions include First Lady Dolley Madison, Welcome to the Gate City, the Murphy Confederate firearms collection, Zenke miniature rooms and more. The Museum Shop features "history in every purchase" with merchandise inspired by the museum’s collections and exhibitions. Admission and parking are free. Museum hours: 10 am to 5 pm, Tuesday through Saturday; 2 pm to 5 pm on Sunday; closed Mondays and City of Greensboro Holidays.

Walking down North Elm Street you will notice a huge stone book. It is a monument to the famous writer William Sydney Porter, commonly known as O. Henry. His life was short and much of it was spent in Greensboro. The monument depicts two of his stories, “The Gift of the Magi” and “The Ransom of Red Chief,” with the sculpture of a young boy peeping out through the pages. Created by artist Maria J. Kirby-Smith and unveiled in 1985, a few steps from the book you will find a life-size statue of O. Henry and his beloved dog.

West Market Street United Methodist Church, erected in 1851, was designed in the Richardson Romanesque style. In 1893 stained glass windows from Chicago were added. During the latest renovation additional buildings were constructed and the Dobson-Rosales organ was installed. One of this church’s most notable attributes is its Via Dolorosa paintings from the 1890s.

The Jefferson Standard Building is a 233 ft (71m) skyscraper in Greensboro. It was completed in 1923 as the headquarters for Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Co (now known as Lincoln Financial Group) and has 18 floors. Until it was superseded by the Nissen Building in Winston-Salem in 1927, it was the tallest building in North Carolina (succeeding the Independence Building in Charlotte) and the tallest building between Washington, D.C. and Atlanta, Georgia. It was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. A 20-story addition first known as the Jefferson-Pilot Building and later the Lincoln Financial Building was finished in 1990.

Julian Price, president of Jefferson Standard Life Insurance, asked New York City architect Charles C. Hartmann to design his company's new headquarters. Price paid for the building in full because he did not believe in debt. The Jefferson Standard Building copied the Equitable Building in its use of a U-shape allowing more light and air into more of the building. The exterior is terra cotta and granite. Architectural styles include Neo-Gothic, Neo-Classical and Art Deco. The terra cotta tile facade incorporates Beaux-Arts and Romanesque characteristics. Above the doorway is a bust of Thomas Jefferson, for whom the company was named, with Buffalo nickels on either side of ground floor windows to represent thrift and economy.

Millennium Gate, unveiled in 2002, has become one of Greensboro’s most notable landmarks. Installed at the Municipal Office Building on West Washington Street, it was created by Jim Gallucci, a famous Greensboro artist. This bronze sculpture was inspired by the world’s greatest events, inventions and figures of the last millennium.

Overcome, a coffee cup created by artist Rodney Bennett, is located on the Melvin Municipal Building lawn on South Greene Street. The sculpture includes a quote by Ambrose Redmoon: "Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear."

Blandwood Mansion, originally built as a four room Federal style farmhouse in 1795, is the restored home of two-term North Carolina governor John Motley Morehead. Blandwood is the oldest building on original foundations in the city of Greensboro. Originally located within a rural context, it is a remarkable survivor of urban development as the city grew around the house. Its primary national significance is its role as the earliest identified Tuscan Villa in the United States (1844).

Architect A. J. Davis designed the building to resemble villas of Tuscany (though he never visited Italy) using wide overhanging eaves, low rooflines,casement windows, stucco-on-brick veneer, and most notably the tall prospect tower which dominated the facade. Davis adaptively reused the existing free-standing kitchen by expanding its size and matching it with a nearly identical building on the other side of the house, creating freestanding hyphen wings with arcades. The building is also a rare example of grand antebellum architecture in the Piedmont section of North Carolina - a territory characterized by small farms and a relatively small enslaved population.

The building was purchased reserved by Preservation Greensboro Incorporated, a citywide non-profit organization dedicated to historic preservation in 1966 as a museum. The nonprofit initiated a program of restoration, including paint analysis, archaeological investigation, a furnishings plan, reconstruction of dependencies, and restoration of surrounding gardens. Many items original to the house were returned by members of the Morehead family in the 1960s and 1970s. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, and recognized as a National Historic Landmark in 1988. The house is recognized by architectural historians as the "Embodiment of the antebellum 'spirit of improvement,'" in North Carolina, and the "most important building in Greensboro."

Weatherspoon Art Museum, founded in 1941 at the University of North Carolina, possesses a grand collection of contemporary American art. Featuring nearly 6,000 works, including post-war paintings, sculpture, photography and graphic art, it also houses beautiful prints and bronze works by Henri Matisse. Besides its stunning permanent collection you can see temporary exhibitions here. It also has a sculpture garden worth seeing. Welcoming about 30,000 visitors annually.

Operation Hours: Tuesday - Wednesday: 10 am - 5 pm; Thursday: 10 am - 9 pm; Friday: 10 am - 5 pm; Saturday - Sunday: 1 pm - 5 pm

The bust of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was installed in honor of the famous leader of the African American Civil Rights Movement in the United States, known for his non-violent methods of protest inspired by Mahatma Gandhi. Sculpted by Wilbur Lee Map, this bronze bust was unveiled in 1994, capturing the face of Dr. King in his final hour of life. The monument is located at the intersection of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive and South Elm Street.

The Pearl of Equity is a cup shaped like a flower with a pearl on an oyster shell. The pearl represents the civil rights struggle, the shell the status quo, and the flower symbolizes spring and rebirth. Created by Greensboro artist Timothy L. Daniel, it is located on Hamburger Square on South Elm Street. A plate on the pedestal features a quote by Margaret Mead: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

Downtown Greensboro Historic District is a national historic district located at Greensboro, Guilford County, North Carolina. The district encompasses 96 contributing buildings in the central business district of Greensboro. The commercial buildings were built between about 1885 and the 1930s in a variety of popular architectural styles including Italianate and Art Deco. Located in the district is the separately listed Jefferson Standard Building. Other notable buildings include the Vanstory Building (c. 1885), Kress Building (1929), Woolworth's (c. 1929), Efrid's Department Store (c. 1930), Montgomery Ward (1936), the Carolina Theatre (1927), Center Theatre (1948), the former Belk Building (1939), Ellis Stone/Thalhimer's Department (1949-1950), and the former American Exchange National Bank Building (1920). The Woolworth's store is notable as the site of the Greensboro sit-ins of 1960. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, with a reevaluation in 2003.