A Genteel Setting With World-Class Golf
By STEPHEN WELLS
WHEN most people think of Pinehurst, they think of a fancy golf resort in south-central North Carolina whose Course No. 2 has been the site of two United States Open tournaments in the last nine years and where this year’s United States Amateur championship will be decided on Sunday.
They don’t usually envision the turn-of-the-century New England-style village that preceded and surrounds it, where life isn’t so much fancy as it is a throwback to an era of casual gentility.
Or, as Adam Dolder, who bought a condo overlooking Lake Pinehurst in 2003, put it, “You get what’s best about the South — charm, hospitality and a close but not intrusive community.” Mr. Dolder, a private equity investor, lives in Manhattan and paid $178,500 for his three-bedroom condo, which he uses as a second home.
Built in the mid-to-late 1890s on 5,500 acres purchased in the Sandhills region of North Carolina by James Walker Tufts, the Village of Pinehurst was originally developed as a health resort for patients recovering from tuberculosis.
After much of the construction had been completed, Tufts, a Massachusetts philanthropist, made an unfortunate discovery: he learned that tuberculosis was contagious and was forced to alter his plan and turn his new community into a leisure resort instead.
Pinehurst has been growing steadily over the last few decades; according to the 2000 Census, the population of the municipality grew by 91 percent between 1990 and 2000, and village officials say the trend is continuing. Still, even at some of the busiest times of the year, the community doesn’t seem overcrowded, except perhaps by the pine trees that sweeten the air when the wind blows just right.
Unlike most resorts, which are set off by themselves, the hotels and activities of the Pinehurst complex are situated throughout the town.
What separates the Village of Pinehurst from other appealing nearby communities — Southern Pines, Whispering Pines, Aberdeen, Foxfire and Seven Lakes — is that while housing prices remain comparatively reasonable in all, most of the property in Pinehurst comes with a membership to the Pinehurst Country Club.
Property ownership is the only requisite for membership. Home buyers are required to pay a $12,000 transfer fee, often included in the purchase price (or a $40,000 membership fee in the few instances in which the property doesn’t have a membership already included), and $335 in monthly dues.
This gives golfers like Gary and Kris Bourque, who bought a 2,300-square-foot house on Course No. 5 last year for $350,000, unlimited play on six of Pinehurst’s eight courses at no additional cost — except for an often-optional $33 golf cart rental fee — and no greens fees. (The six include the legendary No. 2, which will again host the United States Open in 2014.) The Bourques, who live in Lancaster, Mass., now rent out a condo they bought in the village in 1998.
Like other second-home buyers in this low-key resort community, they say they feel they hit upon a great deal.
But the area isn’t just defined by golf, despite the area’s 43 courses. Robert Neff, a semiretired attorney who recently moved from Princeton, N.J., bought a 6,000-square-foot “cottage,” built in 1916, near the center of the village for $1.5 million last year. Mr. Neff is an avid tennis player, and said he considered the Pinehurst tennis complex to be first-rate. (Access to the tennis complex, as well as other resort facilities, is included in the $335 monthly dues.) The Scene
The Village of Pinehurst is a quiet community where you can take a stroll along picturesque streets and actually feel as if you’ve been transported to an earlier era in America. The energy that comes from the surrounding activities doesn’t intrude very often on the tranquillity of the town, but there’s also no sense of the lethargy inherent in many vacation and retirement communities.
The center of what is called the Old Town area has numerous boutiques and almost as many real estate agencies. There are also several restaurants and pubs, a few of which offer live entertainment at night in the peak seasons (spring and fall). More dining and entertainment options can be found in the neighboring communities of Southern Pines and Aberdeen.
Most socializing is done privately, with people who have bought homes in Pinehurst saying they have little trouble creating a circle of new friends. “We have met some of the greatest people in the world there,” Mr. Bourque said.
Somewhat surprisingly, real estate agents say there has been a marked increase in families with children buying in the area over the past decade. “The average age of new residents grows younger every year,” said Gwen Detering of Edwards Real Estate, “and, as a result, more in-line skating rinks, soccer fields and parks have been built.”
Lay of the Land
POPULATION 9,706, according to the 2000 census. Village officials estimate the current population at about 11,600.
SIZE About 14 square miles.
WHERE Pinehurst is about 70 miles southwest of Raleigh, 70 miles south of Greensboro, and 90 miles east of Charlotte. It is a little over an hour’s drive from the Raleigh-Durham International Airport.
WHO’S BUYING Mostly New Englanders, residents of the Metropolitan New York area, Midwesterners and North Carolinians, but there’s a growing trend of transplanted Floridians moving halfway back north.
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