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 The Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro began its 21st year of service to the community in its new downtown Greensboro home, aptly named "Foundation Place," formerly the Cone Export and Commission Building at 330 South Greene Street. The 33,000-square-foot, Elizabethan Revival-style structure stands at the corner of Greene and Exchange Place, one block south of the historic Carolina Theatre. Foundation Place's façade is styled with an upper bay window above a pointed arch-entry, both crafted of limestone. Visitors walk up steps and through French-style doors into a rotunda with walnut walls and a black and white, checkerboard marble floor. Recent restoration to the rotunda was made possible by the Wilbur L Carter Jr. Family in honor of Wilbur L. and Mott Carter's 60th wedding anniversary. It is used for ART/Foundation exhibits and has been named the Carter Family Gallery.
The Carter family has a long history with the building. The Cone Export and Commission Building was purchased in 1945 to house the growing Southern Life Insurance Company, which was relocated to Greensboro in 1931 by W.L. Carter Sr. T.C. Collins Sr., another prominent Greensboro family, later joined the firm and worked to grow the company's thriving business. After WWII, Wilbur "Bo" Carter Jr. and T. Clyde Collins Jr. joined their fathers in the firm and worked for the company until after 1986, when the business was sold. Both the Carter and Collins families are strong supporters of Greensboro and have played significant roles in our community's development, as well as, key roles in the life of the Foundation. Their generosity and involvement in our city serve as a constant inspiration to many.
Prior to housing Southern Life, the building was the headquarters to another famous Greensboro entity, Cone Mills. Built in circa 1924, Foundation Place was the original executive offices of the Cone Export and Commission Company. Cone occupied the building until approximately 1940. In the early days of the cotton textile industry actual commodity exchanges for Cone were made here rather than on Wall Street at the New York Stock Exchange or Chicago at the Commodities Exchange, hence the name of the side street of the property of Exchange Place. The Cone family remains a generous philanthropic and guiding force in Greensboro and the Cone family foundation, Cemala Foundation, is housed in the building.
In addition to building's rich history, ties to prominent Greensboro philanthropic families, and a revival as Greensboro's center for philanthropy, Foundation Place serves as a great community resource for meeting space, grant making, fundraising collaboration and a small museum. The main Board room houses a rotating collection of works from the Weaver Foundation Gallery. This collection is composed of talented artists of the region with ties to one of the four institutions of higher learning that call Greensboro home. The Weaver family has a deep commitment to Greensboro, and has worked to make Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro a success.
Other notable previous tenants to Foundation place include the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce and US Representative Howard Coble.
At the Foundation, our motto is "Connecting Our Community through Giving," and clearly Foundation Place is highly "connected" to the Community and its wonderful history of giving.
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