444 North Elm

The commercial office building at 444 North Elm Street sits on about two acres of land that used to be residential. In the early years of Greensboro, pre-dating this building, 444 North Elm seemed far from downtown. Now, the 40,000 square ft. concrete, glass and stone office space is considered part of the central business district. The building is very curious as it is almost square, the windows are square, and there are drive through bays around back. Perhaps it was formerly a bank. With no prominent signage, one has to drive around the block a couple of times to figure out that the building houses VF (Vanity Fair) Services, Inc. VF is the parent company to Wrangler next door.

The only readily searchable article about the building was the page advertising the building for sale. Surely, this building has an elusive history which, surely, is worth telling. If we uncover something, we'll let you know.

 

Comments

[B Pete]

This is the former headquarters of First Home Federal, a casualty of the S&L crisis.

[Preston Earle]

I recall that the building was built to house a regional branch of the federal agency that oversaw savings & loan banks. After that agency moved (to Atlanta, I believe), Home Federal S&L (by then First Home Federal S&L) took over the building. Google found this scrap of info about the story: http://www.ncbankers.org/uploads/File/fhlb-greensboro.pdf .

[David T]

Thanks for the information. We've gotten some comments along these lines at our Facebook page as well. Anyone interested can view (and Like) our page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Greensboro-Daily-Photo/217652621884?v=wall

One of our Facebook Fans, Tracy, pointed out that VF no longer owns the Vanity Fair brand. So, VF is just that-VF.

[Greensboro Daily Photo]

We love it when the Greensboro community comes together to help us learn more about the history of Greensboro! Thank you Tracy, Preston, B Pete and the rest of our dear readers!