The ca. 1895 Hughes House and Store before (left) and  after (right) restoration

The ca. 1895 Hughes House and Store, in the Edenton Historic District (Chowan County), was rehabilitated for continued commercial and residential uses with one commercial space and three apartments with an investment of $99,000.

2110-2114 Angier Avenue before (left) and after restoration (right)

The commercial building at 2110-2114 Angier Avenue, in the East Durham Historic District, was rehabilitated, after a devastating fire, into three commercial spaces, including the longtime Samuel & Sons Barber Shop, with an investment of $121,000.

133 North Main Street after restoration

The Rouzer Apartments after restoration

The Rouzer Apartments in the Salisbury Historic District (Rowan County) was rehabilitated for continued residential use as four apartments with an investment of $260,700.

Heather Fearnbach. Photograph courtesy of the Winston-Salem Journal online

The North Carolina Society of Historians, Inc., has awarded consultant Heather Fearnbach a Willie Parker Peace History Book Award for three of her reports--"Forsyth County's Agricultural Heritage," "The Bethania Freedmen's Community," and the historic store context that she wrote for the NC Department of Transportation. The society, established in 1941 to collect and preserve "North Carolina history, traditions, artifacts, genealogies and folklore," presents the Willie Parker Peace Award annually to "encourage the writing and publication of the history of a North Carolina county, institution or individual." The judges said "All three books, issued as reports for either the NC Department of Transportation or the Forsyth County Historic Resources Commission, are magnificent!  The researcher performed each job in a sophisticated manner, paying meticulous attention to detail. Each endeavor is prodigiously illustrated via some magnificent current photographs of vintage subject matter; and each has been copiously researched to provide the reader with a remarkable history that will preserve the subject for generations to come." Well done, Heather!

The HPO is now accepting applications for FY 2013 federal Historic Preservation Fund (HPF) pass-through grants. Eligible projects include architectural and archaeological surveys, nominations of eligible districts and properties to the National Register of Historic Places, survey publication manuscripts, local preservation design guidelines and preservation plans, educational programs, and restoration of National Register properties. Funds for restoration are limited. Eligible applicants are local governments, local historic preservation commissions, nonprofit organizations, and educational institutions.

Please note that the application process has changed.  Before preparing and submitting an application, applicants must contact HPO staff to discuss the scope of work and budget of their potential project along with the grant standards and requirements. If there are questions about the application process, please contact Michele Patterson McCabe, grants coordinator, at 919-807-6582. For assistance with developing a project proposal and budget, please contact an HPO staff member listed in the instructions. 

An estimated total of $80,000 to $90,000 may be available for projects in Certified Local Government (CLG) municipalities and counties, in accordance with federal requirements.  A list of local CLG staff contacts is on the HPO website. Unfortunately, funds for non-CLG projects have not been available in recent years due to reductions in our federal allocation.

Grant awards, which may cover up to sixty per cent (60%) of total project costs, generally range from $1,500 to $15,000 and are available on a reimbursement basis. Local matching funds should cover at least forty per cent (40%). Grant projects will be selected for funding on a competitive basis.

Applications must be postmarked by Friday, February 15, 2013. Applicants must submit the paper original and two paper copies. Applications sent by email or fax will not be accepted. Nonprofits and educational institutions submitting an application through a CLG should submit their proposed application to the CLG by the beginning of January 2013. See the Instructions for Completing the 2013 Application for more details.

Awards will be announced in April 2013. Projects should be under way by the fall of 2013. All projects must be completed by Friday, August 15, 2014.

The Western Region Archives in the Western Office of the Department of Cultural Resources, Office of Archives and History, has received a sizeable donation of architectural drawings and community plans developed in the 1920s for American Enka, a Buncombe County textile manufacturer. 

The donation was made by Colbond USA, a producer of synthetic industrial textiles and the current owner of the mill.

Incorporated in 1928, American Enka was a subsidiary of the Dutch company Nederlandse Kunstzidefabriek. The American firm's name was derived from the phonetic pronunciation of N and K in Flemish. The Dutch company acquired land in the Hominy Valley, roughly seven miles west of downtown Asheville, for construction of the mill and village.  Conceived as a large company town following the planning principles of the Garden City movement, the community never expanded beyond the mill, gymnasium, lake, and clubhouse, commercial building, and roughly 75 dwellings for management and workers. 

Western Office staff reviewing American Enka plans with Colbond USA intern Mary Archer, whose great-grandfather was one of the Dutch engineers on the company's original management team. From left, Annie McDonald, HPO Preservation Specialist; Jeff Futch, Western Office Regional Supervisor; Heather South, Archivist; Mary Archer, Colbond USA

Nevertheless, American Enka became one of the leading manufacturers of rayon textiles in the United States, adding nylon to its production line in 1953.  In 1985, American Enka was sold to the German firm BASF, which sold the property to the Dutch firm Colbond USA in 2001.

In 2007, Colbond USA sold a portion of the then-unused mill property to an Asheville-area development firm that demolished many of the historic industrial buildings.  The residential areas remain intact, however, and were placed on the National Register Study List in 2006.  Residents of Enka Village have recently expressed interest in pursuing National Register listing, and the donated plans will be invaluable in contributing to the community's historic narrative, as well as aiding in determining the architectural integrity of the contributing resources.

The plans, which date to the late 1920s, include plats of the land purchased by American Enka, plans for rerouting Hominy Creek and the creation of Enka Lake; conceptual plans for a garden city; original plans and elevations for the mill, company store, clubhouse, and dwellings; and some drawings illustrating rayon processing techniques.  The paper, parchment, and linen documents are fragile and require conservation. 

For more information about the National Register eligibility of properties in western North Carolina, contact Annie McDonald, Preservation Specialist, at 828.296.7230, extension 223, or email.

HPO Staff Speak at Preservation Durham-Hosted Tax Credit Workshops

The State Historic Preservation Office has teamed up with local non-profit Preservation Durham to co-host three historic rehabilitation tax credit workshops in the Bull City.

 

Durham is a veritable poster child for the tax credit program.  The city ranks number one in North Carolina with $349 million of qualified investment in the rehabilitation of commercial properties, nearly equaling the total investment of the next three most active communities.  Rehabilitations of iconic mill campuses like those at the American Tobacco Company and Golden Belt Manufacturing Company have led the way.

 

Mitch Wilds and Claudia Brown presenting at the October tax credit workshop in Durham

Durham ranks a close third in the state with $33 million of qualified investment in the rehabilitation o owner-occupied properties.  Trinity Park, Watts-Hillandale, and Forest Hills are among the 15 most active National Register Historic Districts in the state in taking advantage of the historic rehabilitation tax credit, but residents in Cleveland-Holloway and the Burch Avenue historic districts are rapidly picking up the pace.

 

Well over 200 owners in Durham have applied for state tax credits during the last 15 years, but over 3000 properties are eligible!  With this in mind, the HPO and Preservation Durham seek to educate homeowners, realtors, and commercial property owners about the ways in which they can leverage the historic rehabilitation tax credits to facilitate their renovations - especially during tight economic times.

 

The next workshop is scheduled for Tuesday, January 8, beginning at 7 PM, at the King's Daughters Inn.  The final workshop will take place Tuesday, March 5, beginning at 7 PM, at the historic offices of Measurement, Inc.  Both of these property owners have been tax credit projects and their owners have been pivotal players in revitalizing their respective corners of Durham. Join them!

 

National Trust Hosts Board Development Workshop in Williamston for Rosenwald School Support Groups

On November 16 and 17, members of the boards of six organizations devoted to the preservation of Rosenwald schools in eastern North Carolina attended the workshop "Planning, Leading, Advancing: African American Historic Sites" conducted in Williamston by the National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP) with the assistance of a grant from the 1772 Foundation. The workshop is a training program offered to nonprofits working to save places of importance in African American history with the goal of strengthening the capacity of board members and site directors in governance, fundraising, visioning, planning, and best practices in nonprofit management.  The first day was an intensive curriculum focused on planning for productive partnerships, how to use history to leverage fundraising, techniques for making the "perfect ask," and strategic planning. Day two of the workshop was a half-day meeting with each volunteer director, board chair, and other members with the purpose of refining action items defined by the full board on day one. NTHP staff with follow up with each board by conference calls to review progress on action items and offer guidance 30, 90, and 120 days after the workshop.

The six boards in attendance are affiliated with the C. S. Brown School in Winton, the Hamilton School in Martin County, the E. J. Hayes School in Williamston, the Castalia School in Nash County, the Princeton School in Johnston County, and the Ware Creek School in Beaufort County. The workshop was conducted by Rob Bull Jr., the NTHP's acting director of development and senior vice president of The Compass Group, a fundraising consulting firm, with assistance from Brent Leggs, head of the NTHP's Northeast African American Historic Places Outreach Program, and Tracy Hayes and Katherine Carey with the NTHP's Rosenwald Schools Initiative led from the Charleston office. Claudia Brown and Reid Thomas of the HPO, Melanie Allen of the Conservation Trust of North Carolina, and Michelle Lanier, Director of African American Heritage Development and Cultural Tourism Programs of the NC Arts Council, participated in the workshop as observers and resources with the intention of applying lessons learned to their efforts to establish a formal statewide Rosenwald schools preservation network. Look for more on these efforts in future HPO newsletters.

The restored barn at Northeast Park, Guilford County, where the interviews took place

Until the 1970s, it was not possible to drive through rural areas in the northern Piedmont or much of eastern North Carolina without being in sight of a flue-cure tobacco barn somewhere on the horizon.  While no one ever counted the barns that stood in the heyday of traditional tobacco production, it is probable that the 160,000 farms producing over 600,000 acres of tobacco in 1950 averaged at least two barns per farm, and there may have been close to a half million of the structures. 

Made obsolete with the advent of modern bulk curing systems and offering little opportunity for adaptive use other than storage, the barns are rapidly succumbing to storms, material salvage operations, and rural clean-up campaigns. They are becoming so rare that when one is saved, it becomes news.

A 1985 photograph, by Michael Southern, of the crew priming tobacco at the Carter Farm, Rockingham County

On September 9, Susan Ladd of the Greensboro News & Record published a story about two tobacco barns on property owned by UNC-Greensboro that are being offered to any taker who will move and preserve them.  In researching her story, Ladd discovered the Celebrate Tobacco Barns site posted by Michael Southern on the HPO website and contacted Michael for information and comments. 

Bob Buckley of WGHP-TV in Greensboro saw Ladd's article and on November 9 invited Michael to meet him at Northeast Park in rural Guilford County, where park staff has restored an early 20^th-century farmstead with a log tobacco barn. Michael was joined by his friend Bob Carter, a retired Rockingham County tobacco farmer and historian. Michael provided Buckley with still shots he had made of a work crew on Carter's farm in 1985 - one of the last opportunities to record priming and curing tobacco in the traditional way. Buckley's tribute to the vanishing tobacco barn aired on WGHP-TV on November 14.

On November 1 and 2, the HPO conducted a National Register workshop hosted by Eastern Office staff and attended by 14 historic preservation consultants and 9 staff from the Asheville, Greenville, and Raleigh HPO offices. Jim Gabbert, North Carolina's National Register reviewer with the National Park Service, presented most of the program on Thursday, covering numerous topics. These included technical matters such as the new registration form, embedded photographs, mapping, and future plans for electronic submissions and bulletin updates; boundary changes and additional documentation amendments to existing listings, including extension of the period of significance; establishing significance under Criterion A in the area of agriculture; and registration requirements for mid-twentieth-century resources.  The second day of the workshop consisted of a tour of sites in Pitt and Beaufort counties, including Voice of America Site B and Grimesland Plantation in Pitt County and Belfont Plantation, Bath, and districts in Washington and Washington Park in Beaufort County.  Notes taken by staff during Jim Gabbert's presentations as well as his PowerPoint presentation will be posted on the HPO web site. Look for notice of these postings early in 2013. 

957 tee-beam bridge on NC 63 in Buncombe County, near the Madison County line

The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) has issued the Program Comment for streamlining Section 106 review for undertakings affecting post-1945 concrete and steel bridges.  This was done at the request of the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to relieve it and other federal agencies from the requirement under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act to consider the effects of undertakings on common bridges and culverts constructed of concrete or steel after 1945. The federal agencies using the Program Comment must still complete Section 106 review for the undertaking, including the identification of historic properties and consideration of effects of the undertaking on historic properties other than the common bridge itself. NCDOT will be following this guidance. Click here to read the full text. 

Bellamy Mansion Makes Changes for a Truly "Green" Garden

Bellamy Mansion Cistern Work Underway

The Bellamy Mansion Museum of History and Design Arts underwent construction on Monday, November 19, to restore the mansion's historic cistern and connect it to the surrounding irrigation system. The museum will now be able to collect and use rainwater when watering the gardens surrounding the site, rather than using the city's municipal water. The project, which was funded by a grant from the Cape Fear Garden Club, was completed by JB Lawn Sprinklers Inc.

The use of the cistern to collect and repurpose rainwater is both environmentally friendly and historically fitting. The cistern was the vital source for water when the Bellamys moved into the mansion in 1861. Each morning a servant pumped the cistern to provide water for use in the house throughout the day. The well holds 6,600 gallons of water and is a bell-shaped, brick-lined tank. It measures 11 feet deep and 10 feet wide.

Materials created for Save Outdoor Sculpture! (SOS!) are now available free of charge online. SOS!, co-sponsored by Heritage Preservation and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, is a program committed to the preservation and celebration of America's outdoor sculptures.