North State Street, extending north from Vermillion Street, briefly along the Athens and Hinton Road, then to end at the Oxley Hollow Road. It contains a mixture of older historic homes, more modern brick and aluminum-sided ranch homes and small farms.

Once a landmark of Athens, the Russell Lilly home, a stately, large, white frame with a wrap-around porch, sat on the east side on North State Street not far from Vermillion Street. It was demolished in 2014 to make room for a Dollar General store. Interior and exterior photographs of this historic home, before and during its demolition, are in the Change chapter.

Dr. Frederick Holroyd and Dr. Samuel Reynolds Holroyd chose to build their homes on North State Street. The first women’s dormitory for Concord Normal School, now Concord University, sat across the street from Dr. Sam Holroyd’s house. It was a three story frame building with long arched porches on three floors. The porches were a great place for the young ladies to take a break from their studies to get some fresh air. After the fire that destroyed the third Concord Normal School building, then located on the site where Athens High School was later built, the college moved to its present location on Vermillion Street. A new women’s dormitory was built on the new college grounds and the first one became a dormitory for the men students.

A gallery on this page includes photos and brief histories of some of the more historic houses.

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Pioneer Day Homes

Benjamin Fanning House

James R. Vermillion House

William H. French House