CityView Magazine

24 | January/February 2015 T he Dr. William C. Verdery House, at 1428 Raeford Road, may not have been home to any former presidents or played host to visiting ambassadors or prime ministers, but for Fayetteville, the two- story Colonial Revival-style white house is an important part of the community's history. Built in 1936, by the aforementioned Dr. William C. Ver- dery, the residence has been a staple of the area for decades and was added to the National Registry of Historic Places in 2007. e home was designed by architect William C. Holley- man Jr., who used a careful blending of Colonial and clas- sical architectural elements to create a unique and beautiful design unlike any other residence in the town. Verdery, was born in 1893, in Harlem, Georgia. He would go on to study medicine at e University of Georgia and the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta. Like so many who would come aer him, Verdery would come to Fayetteville thanks to his service with the U.S. Army. He was tasked with creating a health department for the city and county. Verdery was honorably discharged from service in 1920, the same year he would marry resident Marie Judge. Later in life, Verdery joined the staff of Fayetteville's Pittman Hospital, where he specialized in obstetrics and pediatrics. Before his retirement, Verdery helped deliver an estimated 10,000 babies. However, he and his wife, would only have one child, their daughter Stuart Verdery Kerr. She would later inherit the Dr. William C. Verdery House aer her parents passing. Stuart cared for her four children in the house and at some point built an extension onto the house so as to give her children more room as they became teenagers. Aer Kerr's death, at the age of 85, in 2011, the home went unlived in for several years, with her four children hav- ing started their own lives in other communities. at all changed last year. Upon making the move to Fayetteville, Todd and Paulette were still uncertain about where they wanted to live or if they had even made the right decision in moving here, so instead of immediately buying a house, the couple decided to rent a home for 16 months. In this time, the duo began looking at houses around the area that might be a good place to raise their two boys. "We plan to stick here for a while. We have uprooted our kids too many times. It is a good community," said Todd. "We needed to commit to a home." Commitment didn't come easy. According to Todd, the couple managed to look at somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 different homes in three years, with none of the houses standing out. Finally, the couple decided that they would just have to build their own home and in the summer of 2013, they met with contractor Bud Tisdale. Aer the meeting, the couple's realtor Donna Clayton Lloyd (who Harris describes as having the patience of a saint) told them that she had a surprise for them. "She drove us up to this house and she brought us in," Todd The Man Cave A rustic, yet elegant fireplace

• Cover