A Crooked 400-Year-Old House Is Asking $867,750. Here's What That Money Buys in Haywood County.

By Jon Tharp, Broker  ·  August 20, 2026

A crooked 17th-century building in Canterbury, England, just hit the market for $867,750, and the number is worth a second look from Haywood County. The property is called The Crooked House, or Sir John Boys House, and its doorway leans far enough off true that photographs of it look doctored. An internal chimney slipped sometime over the centuries, the timber frame followed, and the result is what the listing agents call one of the most photographed buildings in the city.

It runs about 3,134 square feet over three floors, Grade II listed, offered with vacant possession. Read from here, roughly half an hour west of Asheville on I-40, where Waynesville and Canton and Maggie Valley all have their own stock of old buildings that have settled a little, that price tag lands differently than it does in Kent.

Why is a leaning building worth almost $900,000?

Because the lean is the asset. The Crooked House has cycled through tenants over the years, serving as a gallery, a school outfit shop, an instrument shop, and most recently a second-hand bookshop run by the Catching Lives charity. Different businesses, same reason people stop on the sidewalk.

Named in memory of Sir John Boys, an MP and Canterbury's first recorder, it sits at the end of Palace Street on what the city markets as the King's Mile. It is a landmark before it is square footage. Whoever buys it is paying for foot traffic, for a facade that already lives in ten thousand vacation photos, and for a story that comes with the deed.

That is a real category of value, and we understand it here too. It just gets priced into different things.

Does Haywood County have anything like it?

We do, though ours mostly sits at the end of a gravel road instead of a shopping street. Drive into Cataloochee Valley off Cove Creek Road and you find a preserved 1800s settlement inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park: the Palmer House, the Caldwell House, Palmer Chapel, Beech Grove School. The Park Service stabilizes the main structures, but plenty of the outbuildings and fence lines have taken on a lean of their own after a century and a half of mountain weather.

Closer to town, the Shelton House on Waynesville's south end dates to the 1870s and now holds the Museum of North Carolina Handicrafts. Downtown Waynesville's brick storefronts, the old Canton mill town architecture, the tin-roofed barns you pass on the way to Jonathan Creek, all of it carries the same appeal Canterbury is charging for.

The difference is that a wonky doorway in England comes with a Grade II designation and a rulebook. Here, an old homeplace that has settled a few degrees is usually just an old homeplace that has settled a few degrees, and what you do about it is between you, your budget, and your contractor.

What does that kind of money actually buy here?

In Haywood County, high-$800s is upper-end money, and it tends to go toward land and long views rather than a single well-known wall on a busy street. Depending on where you look, that can mean a larger home with a ridge view above Waynesville, acreage outside Clyde, or something with real elbow room near Lake Junaluska or Maggie Valley.

Views, road access, and how much land comes with it move prices around here far more than square footage does. Two houses of identical size can sit a wide distance apart in price because one of them looks at the Plott Balsams and the other looks at a bank.

What should you know before buying an old mountain house?

If a historic property is what you actually want, go in with your eyes open about what mountain terrain does to a foundation over eighty or a hundred years. Look under the house first. Stone or block piers, sagging floors, sticking doors, and sill rot are the usual story, and a structural engineer can tell you in an afternoon whether the movement is finished or still happening.

Then check the roof, the chimney, the wiring, and the septic permit. Old houses in Haywood County are often worth the trouble. They are just rarely a small amount of trouble, and knowing which kind you are buying before closing is the whole game.

The Crooked House will probably find someone who wants the lean and the history, and good for them. Around here, the same money tends to buy a porch, a view, and a quieter morning.

If reading about old houses has you curious about what is actually available in Waynesville or anywhere else in Haywood County, Jon Tharp is glad to talk it through whenever you are ready.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Crooked House in Canterbury and why is it for sale?

The Crooked House, also called Sir John Boys House, is a 17th-century half-timbered building at the end of Palace Street in Canterbury, Kent, England. It got its famous lean when an internal chimney slipped, pulling the frame and doorway out of true. It is named for Sir John Boys, an MP and Canterbury's first recorder, and is widely described as the city's most photographed building. Estate agents Christopher Hodgson listed it at $867,750 as a Grade II listed freehold commercial property with roughly 3,134 square feet across three floors, offered with vacant possession. It most recently housed a second-hand bookshop run by the Catching Lives charity.

Are historic homes in Haywood County protected the way UK listed buildings are?

Not in the same way. Grade II listing in England restricts what an owner can change about a building, inside and out, and consent is required for most alterations. In North Carolina, listing on the National Register of Historic Places is largely honorary for a private owner spending private money. It brings recognition and can open the door to rehabilitation tax credits, but it does not by itself dictate what you do with your own house. Real restrictions come from local historic district or overlay designations adopted by a town, which can govern exterior changes visible from the street. Rules vary by municipality, so check with the town before you plan work.

What should you inspect before buying an old house in Western North Carolina?

Start under the house. Many older mountain homes sit on stone or block piers, and decades of slope movement, water, and freeze cycles show up as sagging floors, sticking doors, and cracked masonry. Ask specifically about sill and joist rot, drainage away from the foundation, and whether any settling is ongoing or long since stopped. Above that, look hard at the roof, chimney flues, knob-and-tube or aluminum wiring, and plumbing. If the property is on well and septic, get both tested, and confirm the septic permit matches the bedroom count. A structural engineer's opinion costs a few hundred dollars and is worth it on anything pre-1950.

What does around $867,000 buy in Haywood County, North Carolina?

At that level in Haywood County you are generally shopping in the upper end of the market rather than at the entry point. Depending on the pocket, it can mean a larger newer home with long-range mountain views, an established property on acreage outside Waynesville or Clyde, or something in the Maggie Valley and Lake Junaluska areas with real land behind it. Prices move, and views, road access, and acreage swing values more here than square footage alone does. Anyone comparing should look at active listings and recent closed sales in the specific community rather than a countywide average.