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For years, the plot never varied. A developer bought a tract with an old house or building dear to the surrounding community.

Down came the structure.

The Arbor House on West Market Street and Reedy Fork Ranch house on U.S. 29 North are examples.

But destruction has slowed because of federal tax credits for preserving old structures. Innovative developers find ways to blend old and new.

Developer George Carr is preparing for an Aug. 26 open house at the Rankin King Farm on Summit Avenue near Cone Boulevard.

Until 1997, ground was still plowed there, one of the city’s last active farms. Outbuildings behind the farmhouse overflowed with rusting farm implements, furniture and bicycles that old Western Union telegraph boys would recognize.

“Things like this,” Carr says, holding up an old hand-powered drill he saved.

Now, Rankin King Farm has 82 just-completed apartments for older people eligible for federal rent subsidies.

Carr could have built more by removing the house. Instead, he polished up the wood floors and fireplaces and made other improvements. The house will be a clubhouse for apartment residents.

The house dates to when the Rankin community was saturated with Rankins (a few remain). Rankin Elementary School, near the farmhouse, once had grades one through 12, with sports teams called the Rankin Rockets.

Carr’s Beacon Management Co. has become known for converting old structures into apartments for older people, including the former Alamance Hotel in Burlington, Reidsville High School in Reidsville, Granger High School in Kinston and L. Richardson Memorial Hospital in Greensboro. All have kept their original architectural look.

Had he been here then, Carr surely would have sought to convert the nearly blocklong St. Leo’s Hospital, which opened in 1906 on Summit Avenue and later became Notre Dame High School before it was demolished in the 1960s.

A devout Catholic, Carr is a University of Notre Dame alumnus, and his daughter is married to Patrick Theismann, son of the great Fighting Irish and Washington Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann.

Patrick Theismann, an associate in Carr’s company, assisted with the Rankin Farm project.

The hospital couldn’t be saved, but Carr used the vacant rear grounds to build what’s now St. Leo’s Apartments. He kept alive an old name.

He rejects some opportunities. Making old like new can be expensive. He recalls that replacing windows at the old Reidsville High cost $500,000.

He paid, but says, “sometimes you can study a project from here to eternity but can’t make it work out.”

Other developers also have done conversions here. Projects include old Lindley Junior High School, now student apartments; the former David

Caldwell School, now the Nettie Coad apartments for senior citizens; Wafco Mills apartments; Morehead Apartments, built around an elegant former private home; Revolution Mills, a former factory redesigned for businesses, offices and studios; Center Pointe, once a high-rise office building, now luxury condos; and Gardens at Anthony House, which also features a preserved farmhouse.

Tax credits for historic preservation that lower conversion costs have resulted in more projects. Carr worries a scarcity in suitable properties may result.

Before tearing down Rankin King Farm’s outbuildings, Carr had renowned photographer David Spear of Madison take photographs; they decorate the farmhouse walls. Relics from the building are in storage elsewhere.

“That chair,” Carr says of an antique in the house, “David pulled it out of the barn, and it has been redone.”

Conversions please preservationists and boost a developer’s ego. Carr displays a certificate from Preservation Greensboro Inc., which awarded it to his company earlier this year for preservation excellence at Rankin King Farm.

Contact Jim Schlosser at 601-9879 or beale1@clearwire.net