Before and after: The Ragsdale home

ASHEBORO — It was a center of social activities during its heyday, but in recent years had fallen into disrepair. The home of the late Lane Ragsdale was scheduled for demolition but instead has been given new life.

After Ragsdale died on Aug. 31, 2020, the house and property were put on the market. Meanwhile, Malcolm Voncannon was retiring and looking for something to keep him busy.

“We looked at the house in February of 2021 and got the price down,” Voncannon said. “The property was worth what we paid for it.” 

“We” includes his wife Wanda, who said she has always enjoyed decorating and remodeling. But that wasn’t the first inclination for the Ragsdale house.

It so happens that the property backs up to the home on Park Street of Wanda’s late mother, Mavis Seay. “Malcolm was going to tear down the Ragsdale house and have the entire property all the way to my mother’s house,” Wanda said. 

But, for some reason, Malcolm changed his tune, she recalled. “He said, ‘We’re going to remodel it.’ I said, ‘We are?’ He said, ‘You are.’ ”

So they bought the house and began working on renovating it in April 2021. Further inspection revealed what they were getting themselves into.

The floor in the living room had collapsed and termites were found. The room next to it in the front also needed to be replaced. Even the wallpaper was peeling off the walls.

“Basically, we had to reconstruct those rooms and we had to jack the house up,” Malcolm said. “The house was in such bad shape but we wanted to fix it and bring it back to life.”

Wanda, the self-taught redecorator, said, “We tried to stay with the era of the house,” which was built in 1920. 

Among the first jobs was to remove the green awnings, add vinyl siding, redo the front porch and cover the roof over the porch with metal. The exterior now looked much better, but the interior was another matter.

To fit the era of the house, Wanda said she kept the wide floor moldings, the transoms over some of the doors, and installed custom windows from the period. Improvements included the half bath downstairs and installing a walk-in bath upstairs. She kept the built-in china cabinets and replaced the floors with red oak. She also kept the mantels and light fixtures.

“We tore down the car shed next to the house and replaced it with a balcony and built a deck in the rear,” she said.

As for the “yellow” kitchen, which is now off-white, Wanda put in new cabinets and appliances and replaced the bar with an island for dining.

Other improvements to the house included a new heating and air-conditioning system, a concrete driveway, landscaping, and concrete wrap around the front porch.

The challenges the Voncannons faced were made worse by Malcolm’s mini-stroke and two heart attacks, the second this past September that nearly killed him. Despite it all, they completed the work in time for the house to be included on the Family Crisis Center’s Holiday Tour of Homes on Dec. 15.

Wanda was quick to give credit to “good carpenters, plumbers and flooring people.” She singled out the carpenters, Tony Richardson and Rene Ramo, since they “stayed with the design of double molding and door casings. Rene redid the mantel with old door casings and kept the original doors.”

Looking at the results of all their labor, Wanda said, “We love it. We feel like we brought some new life into the community. I hope others will bring more new life to downtown. It’s just a good place to be.”

Lane Ragsdale was an entertainer at heart, according to his obituary, which added that “performing came naturally to Lane whether it was singing and ad-libbing on stage or telling stories and doing impersonations in his own living room.”

He was well-known for inviting guests into his home for parties, when he not only fed them but performed.

•Mary Murkin, a good friend of Ragsdale who was one of his frequent guests, said, “When you were at Lane’s house, it felt like being at home. His personality made you feel that way.

“His parties were filled with food and merriment. He always had someone on the piano and Lane would sing with one hand on the piano, whether it was for support or for effect.

“He would have parties when he had a big pot of chili on and call people over. They gathered around in the yellow kitchen.”

•Carey Durham said, “Lane was a very big personality, on stage and off. I did enjoy singing a few duets with him back in the days of the popular Randolph Revue events that were sponsored by the Randolph Arts Guild in the early 1990s as a fund-raiser, and it was hard ‘holding my own’ with that powerful voice of his. 

“During the recent Tour of Homes, I do recall there being a lot of people crowded into that house on Dixon Street at Lane's after-parties, plus the signature bold yellow color of his kitchen. I was curious to see what the Voncannons had done to the Ragsdale place, and I was quite impressed with all of their design choices. I told Wanda that I think Lane would have loved the results!”

•Mary Joan Pugh got to know Lane when they worked together at the NC Zoo. 

“Lane was a truly talented, kind, generous and joyous soul,” she said. “His house which he inherited from his parents was like Lane, full of memories of gatherings of all sorts of friends who loved music and a good time.

“My best memories of Lane and his house are Lane’s Christmas parties. It was Christmas only after Lane’s epic Christmas party. The house was decorated with a large tree in the living room where the floor creaked from age. The main action was in the ‘bright yellow’ kitchen around the bowl of spiked punch and in the dining room around the vintage table of assorted treats.

“Most prominent was the piano where a young musician played Christmas and popular tunes. One by one, talented vocalists, usually from the Randolph County Pageant which Lane headed up, took turns singing solos. The highlight of the evening was, of course, Lane’s performance. His wonderful tenor voice was straight from heaven.

“For me, Christmas arrived only after Lane sang ‘O Holy Night.’ Lane knew that and made sure I was around before he performed it. To this day, when I hear it, I think of my friend Lane, and the incredibly wonderful Christmas parties at his house.”