Historic Slate Roofs in Southern Pines, NC

Natural Slate Roofing Repair & Restoration for Southern Pines' Landmark Homes and Buildings

Southern Pines holds one of the most distinctive collections of early-twentieth-century resort architecture in North Carolina. Within a National Register historic district of nearly 500 contributing buildings — and across the curving streets of Weymouth Heights — stand the homes, churches, and civic buildings that gave this Sandhills town its character. Many were roofed in slate at a time when the material was the standard for anyone building to last. Carolina Slate works with Southern Pines property owners to keep those roofs performing for another century.

A Resort Built in the Pines — and Roofed for the Long Term

Southern Pines was platted in 1883 on logged-over Sandhills land alongside the Seaboard Air Line Railway, first conceived as a health refuge for Northerners and quickly growing into a fashionable winter resort. By the early twentieth century, wealthy seasonal residents — led by the influential Boyd family — were building substantial houses among the longleaf pines, and the town developed an architectural identity defined by golf, fox hunting, and finely built seasonal homes.

The houses and institutional buildings of that era were roofed in materials meant to endure, and on the finer properties that meant slate. Much of that original slate is still in place today. Slate does not "wear out" the way asphalt shingles do — it fails at fasteners, at flashings, and at isolated broken slates long before the field slate itself is exhausted. Proper maintenance and targeted repair can extend a historic slate roof's life by decades without disturbing the historic character that matters to preservationists and to the Historic District Commission.

The Architecture That Defined Southern Pines

More than any other place in eastern North Carolina, Southern Pines owes its architectural identity to one designer: New York architect Aymar Embury II, who worked in the Sandhills from roughly 1912 to 1937. Embury's Colonial Revival and English/Norman cottage designs — many built for the Boyd family's Weymouth Heights subdivisions — created a look that was, at the time, unknown in North Carolina east of Asheville.

The most influential of these houses was Loblolly (140 North Valley Road), designed in 1918 for Helen Boyd Dull. Loblolly was a tour-de-force of stuccoed clay tile, checkerboard brick, and bell-cast hipped and gabled slate roofs with tile ridges — and its style shaped the residences built throughout Weymouth Heights during the 1920s. New York contractor John A. MacPherson came south to build Loblolly, stayed, and went on to construct many of the district's most exacting commissions. The combination of slate, clay tile, and copper detailing on these homes is exactly the kind of work that requires a specialty roofer rather than a general contractor.

Southern Pines' Historic District & the Slate Roofs Within It

The Southern Pines Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, encompasses roughly 490 contributing buildings developed between 1883 and 1940. Its architecture ranges across Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, and Bungalow / American Craftsman styles, with the Embury-influenced English/Norman cottages concentrated in the residential subdivisions to the east.

Weymouth Heights

Laid out beginning in 1920 along picturesquely curving streets, Weymouth Heights became the address for the large seasonal houses of Southern Pines' winter colony. Its centerpiece is the James Boyd House (555 East Connecticut Avenue), known as Weymouth — a rambling Colonial Revival and Georgian brick mansion designed by Aymar Embury II and built for novelist James Boyd, author of Drums. Separately listed on the National Register in 1977, the house has served since 1979 as the Weymouth Center for the Arts and Humanities and is home to the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame. The streets around it — Valley, Highland, and Connecticut among them — hold the concentration of period houses where original slate is most likely to survive.

Downtown Southern Pines

The commercial and civic core along Broad Street contributes a different building stock to the district: brick storefronts, churches, and institutional buildings of an age and construction type where slate and other premium roofing materials were common. Notable district contributors include the Belvedere Hotel Building (1904), the Arcade Building (1917), the Southern Pines Public Library (1939), the U.S. Post Office (1937), the Seaboard Air Line passenger and freight depots, and several historic churches — First Baptist Church (1899), Emmanuel Episcopal Church (1926), the Church of Wide Fellowship (1927), and First Church of Christ, Scientist (1928). Churches and institutional buildings of this period were frequently roofed in slate, and several retain slate or partial-slate roofs today.

Frequently Asked Questions — Slate Roofing in Southern Pines, NC

Do I need Historic District Commission approval to repair my slate roof in Southern Pines?

Routine in-kind repair — replacing broken slates with matching slates of the same type — is often treated as maintenance and may not require a Certificate of Appropriateness. However, if you are replacing a significant area of the roof or changing flashings, you should contact the Town of Southern Pines Planning Department before beginning work to confirm whether a COA is required.

My home in Weymouth Heights still has what appears to be its original slate. Should I replace it?

Not necessarily — and probably not. Original slate from the 1910s–1930s, if well-maintained, may have many decades of service life remaining. The appropriate first step is a professional site visit to assess the condition of the slate field, fasteners, ridge, and flashings. Replacement is warranted only when the slate itself is exhausted; in most cases, repair and flashing replacement extend the roof's life significantly at a fraction of replacement cost.

What type of slate is found on Southern Pines' historic homes?

Most slate roofing installed in North Carolina from roughly 1880 through the 1940s came from Virginia quarries — primarily the Buckingham County region, which produced a hard black unfading slate prized for its longevity — or from Vermont, which supplied gray and green-gray slates. The Embury-era English/Norman cottages of Weymouth Heights often paired slate with clay tile ridges and copper detailing. Carolina Slate sources matching replacement material from active quarries producing comparable slate when salvaged material is not an option.

Does Carolina Slate work on landmark and historic-district properties in Southern Pines?

Yes. We provide condition reports, material specifications, and photographic documentation suitable for Historic District Commission review and State Historic Preservation Office coordination on landmark and contributing properties.

Can you assess a property in Southern Pines before we purchase it?

Yes. Pre-purchase slate roof assessments are one of the most valuable services we provide. An aging slate roof on a home in the historic district can represent either a significant ongoing asset or a near-term capital expense — and distinguishing between those two outcomes requires an experienced eye, not a general home evaluation. We provide written professional opinions that give buyers clear information before closing.

Serving Southern Pines and Moore County

Carolina Slate is based in Chapel Hill and serves historic properties throughout North Carolina, including Southern Pines and the surrounding Moore County area. If you have a slate roof on a historic property in Southern Pines — whether in the designated district or not — we'd welcome the opportunity to take a look.

Schedule a Site Visit in Southern Pines

Working Within Southern Pines' Historic Preservation Requirements

Property owners within the Town of Southern Pines' designated historic district must obtain a Certificate of Appropriateness (COA) before constructing, altering, or demolishing buildings in ways visible from the public right-of-way — and that includes most slate roofing work beyond routine in-kind repair. The Historic District Commission, a seven-member board whose membership must include people with demonstrated experience in history or architecture, reviews these applications against the town's Historic District Design Guidelines and issues the COA. The Commission may also request review and comment from the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

For buildings on the National Register that are pursuing historic rehabilitation tax credits, the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) reviews the scope of work.

Our general approach to historic slate in Southern Pines:

• Assess the existing roof slate by origin, thickness, and remaining condition — not all slates age at the same rate

• Identify and replace only the slates that are cracked, broken, or missing

• Replace deteriorated copper flashings with new copper to match period detailing — on roofs of this age, aged copper flashing is best fully replaced rather than patched, since soldering old copper is unreliable

• Source replacement slate compatible with the original in color, texture, and thickness

Why Natural Slate Still Makes Sense in the Sandhills

The Sandhills climate — hot, humid summers, occasional winter ice, and exposure to storm systems moving up from the coast — exposes roofing failures quickly. Asphalt shingles in this environment carry a realistic 15–20 year lifespan. A properly maintained natural slate roof carries a lifespan of 75 to 150 years or more, depending on slate origin and installation quality.

For homeowners in the historic district, that durability has practical significance: a roof installed during a COA-reviewed project is unlikely to need replacement during the current owner's tenure, and it keeps the property in harmony with the historic character of the district over the long term — with no mid-century asphalt overlay to explain to a future preservation reviewer.