Kentland Ridge

About the Area:

Kernersville, North Carolina, a town of more than 22,000 people in the heart of the Piedmont, was considered a suburb of Winston-Salem until the recent arrival of new industries, which has given the city a booming population and a character all its own. The site was first settled by an Irishman named Jacob Story in 1756. Around 1770, the site was purchased by William Dobson and was called Dobson's Crossroads. George Washington was served breakfast at Dobson's tavern on June 2, 1791. Joseph Kerner bought the property in 1871, and the town became known as Kerner Crossroads. Eventually the town became Kernersville.

Flue-cured tobacco was the major crop grown in the area when Jule Korner, a dapper young gentleman, arrived in town 126 years ago. An interior designer, decorator and artist, he broke ground on what he intended to be a showplace and a temporary home. Soon becoming famous as the painter of Bull Durham bulls, he established a successful interior design business. Deciding to stay in the town, he set out to create a combination bachelor’s quarters, artist’s studio, office, billiard and ballroom, carriage house and stables. The resulting design reportedly caused a cousin to comment when strolling by one day, "That will surely be Jule Korner's folly." Korner so enjoyed the concept, that he dubbed the building "Korner's Folly," even setting the name in tile outside the front door. And thus it is known today. Now held by a non-profit foundation and open to the public for tours, the home was recently featured in the New York Times.

Much of the rural farmland surrounding the town has been sold and turned into large middle-to-upper-class housing developments and large shopping centers. Kernersville today has an identity all its own as part of the Piedmont Triad region, a six-county area whose central location puts it within 90 miles of the Blue Ridge Mountains to the west and within 200 miles of the Atlantic Ocean to the east.