TRUE TO ITS TRADITION
True to Its Tradition
Preserving a home’s heart and history
By Hazlette Huskins
Photographs by John Gessner
The “Nice Digges” cottage is exactly that. In an era of fast-paced living, retreating to this cottage is like going back to a time when your hometown was your whole world, and that was enough. Built in 1926 in the “community” section of Pinehurst, it was among the workers’ cottages where year-round residents lived, including postal employees, bank tellers, teachers, the Community Church minister and shop owners. Folks walked to work and school on streets named after local families like Everette, Fields, Kelly and Craig.
Van and Julie Mitchell were among the founding members of Forest Creek Golf Club when they purchased land there in 1994. After 10 years of staying in hotels on trips from their home in Southern Maryland, they decided to look for permanent accommodations that would be more comfortable while enjoying time at the club. They reached out to a Realtor friend who knew of a home that had been lightly renovated by a local family. Van came down to look at it the day after it went on the market, immediately made an offer, and the little white cottage on Short Road was theirs.
Once the couple got to know the neighbors and saw how special the block was, they decided to stay in the village full time. Julie credits the village’s National Historic Landmark designation with encouraging preservation through thoughtful restorations of the beloved workers’ cottages. Over the years, the neighborhood has evolved into an eclectic group of new and longtime residents, including folks from Germany, South Africa, Turkey and Australia, who attend the block’s warm weather happy hours they call “neighbor nights.”
Nothing says “welcome” better than the broad, covered front porch with a bespoke rocking chair. Sponsored by the Mitchells as part of the Rock the Village project during the 2024 U.S. Open, it was painted by local artist Vanessa Grebe and includes symbols of their home states of Maryland and North Carolina, along with a portrayal of our area’s most notable passions — golf and horses.
When the Mitchells decided to renovate their cottage in 2010, they felt it was important to keep the traditional Pinehurst look — white exterior, green roof and shutters — and applied for design approval from the Pinehurst Historic Preservation Committee. Van’s career in building supplies helped them clear hurdles along the way. When their builder suggested using easily available gray roof shingles, Van was able to track down the more elusive green ones. Dissatisfied with stock flooring options, he reached out to an old friend at a hardwood flooring manufacturer to get the lumber they knew would be perfect for creating a cohesive look between the old and new rooms downstairs. This attention to detail was carried up to the loft space, where they repurposed the living room’s original pine floorboards. At the top of the steep, winding staircase is a hideaway fit for Peter Pan, where the grandchildren cherish sleepovers in a space all their own.
Van chose a bright Pantone yellow for the front door — a color he had used in his building supply company branding — but it took some convincing to get it approved and included in the historic village color palette. Julie met with the committee and, armed with a folder of research featuring photos of historic homes graced with doors painted the same color in Annapolis, Maryland, and Alexandria, Virginia, the color was approved.
The seamless expansion of the cottage’s footprint belies the thought and care that went into its planning. When they learned the pin oak in the side yard was one of the oldest in the area, the Mitchells planned around it rather than remove it for an addition.
Maintaining the authenticity of the interior of the historic structure was just as important to Julie as the exterior. Subtle changes included extending the living room wall, adding space to the back of the house for a larger kitchen and primary bedroom, and adding a guest suite they call “the red room” to give the family more space for hosting friends and family.
Pinehurst was like a second home to Van long before he owned one there. A lifelong golfer, he has been a frequent visitor to the Sandhills since childhood. When he was 10, he and his father attended the 1974 opening of the World Golf Hall of Fame. He returned as a member of Campbell College’s golf team and later brought friends and colleagues to play Pinehurst No. 2.
On the way back to Maryland from the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta with their two young daughters, Molly and Megan, the family stayed at the Pine Crest Inn. Even then, Van and Julie knew they would eventually retire in Pinehurst. It’s been their full-time home now for five years, and they feel blessed to have their children and grandchildren in North Carolina as well.
When they began thinking of a name for the cottage, one of their daughters suggested using a paternal family name that was the perfect play on words — Digges. Van’s ancestors emigrated in the 1630s from Scotland to Maryland, where his family has been planted for five generations. “Nice Digges” was a natural. Julie has stayed in touch with the former owners — one grew up in the house, and the other is coincidentally from Julie’s hometown of Cranford, New Jersey — and learned the cottage was previously named Welikit (We like it). True to her dedication to preserving the home’s history, she hung a second nameplate over the porch’s screen door to honor its past.
Sitting humbly under the expansive pin oak, Nice Digges proudly turns 100 this year, lovingly prepared for its future.
