For statewide event lists, visit the HPO Facebook event list, Preservation North Carolina events list, or a March - May 2014 calendar and workshop and conference list courtesy of the Federation of N.C. Historical Societies. 

Residents in Charlotte recently saw Duke Energy's newest efforts to protect power lines from the encroachment of tree limbs.  A chemical designed to inhibit growth was being injected into the trees that lined the streets, despite Charlotte's stated goal of 50 percent tree coverage by 2050.  Click here for more information about the program and the product. 

USS North Carolina

The Wells Fargo Foundation has awarded the USS North Carolina a $250,000 grant towards the estimated $17 million needed to repair the World War II vessel, which is a self-supported member of the North Carolina Division of State Historic Sites. Click here for more information about the grant and here for more information about the battleship. 

William W. Dodge III, a well-known and respected architect in Raleigh for many years, died April 25 in Asheville after a period of declining health.  Mr. Dodge was widely acclaimed for his historic preservation work, having received awards for his roles in restoring the State Capitol, Mordecai House, and the Joel Lane House in Raleigh and the Brooks/Hollandsworth House at Asheville School in Asheville. Mr. Dodge also worked on the restoration of the old U. S. Post Office on Fayetteville St. in Raleigh and on several historic buildings on the campus of UNC-CH. He was a member of the North Carolina chapter of the American Institute of Architects, a past president of its Raleigh chapter of the AIA, and a member of the board of the AIA's Asheville chapter. He had served as chair of historic district, site and property commissions for both Raleigh and the state; served several terms on the N. C. National Register Advisory Committee; and was a charter member of the State Capitol Foundation. Click here for his obituary.

Rex Houston Todd, the president of Todd Development, Inc., died in Raleigh on April 26 in a tragic car accident caused by another driver who crossed the median. As the Garner Community Development Director and later the town's Economic Development Director, Mr. Todd led early efforts during the 1990s to revitalize Garner's downtown, including the rehabilitation of Garner High School as senior apartments and the Garner Performing Arts Center. Since 2000, he was instrumental in forty tax credit projects in five states, including two recent projects in North Carolina: the rehabilitation of Durham Hosiery Mill No. 15 in Mebane and Gaston Memorial Hospital-City Hospital in Gastonia. Click here for more information about Mr. Todd's work. 

The Preservation Green Lab, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, is a great source of information about historic buildings and sustainability. It has conducted several studies on historic buildings and energy and also provides a weekly e-newsletter of related articles. See this page to access these reports and sign up for the newsletter.

The National Park Service is rolling out a new historic preservation tax credit application and review fee payment system for the federal historic rehabilitation tax credit program. Changes will go into effect May 15, 2014, and earlier versions of the federal application will not be accepted after that date. The new federal forms are included in our income-producing application and information packet and are also available online here. The federal review fee payment will be made on pay.gov, but only after an invoice is provided to the applicant by email from the National Park Service. If you have any questions or need an income-producing application and information packet, contact Tim Simmons at 919-807-6585, [email protected]. 

The National Park Service has initiated a study of the nomination of landscapes to the National Register of Historic Places, which recognizes significant designed landscapes as well built resources. The effort is called the "National Register Landscape Initiative" (NRLI). The first task of the NRLI will be an examination of current practices and existing guidance, with the end goal of establishing best practice guidance and increasing the attention paid to landscapes in nominations. In April, examples of National Register-listed landscape architecture across the nation were posted on the National Register web site. Click here for more information about these examples and here for more information about the NRLI.

Here is an interesting article from the Georgia SHPO's April newsletter. Many thanks to that office for sharing such a timely piece as we continue to commemorate the sesquicentennial of the Civil War in North Carolina.

The Effects of Reenactments on Civil War Battlefields
By Jennifer Weber, Staff Archaeologist

McLemore Cove

The Historic Preservation Division (HPD) recently assessed the effects of Civil War reenactment on historic battlefields.  The National Park Service (NPS) has had a ban on Civil War reenactments on National Parks since 1962 when a reenactment at Manassas National Battlefield Park caused damage to the battlefield itself.  Since the Civil War Sesquicentennial is upon us and the public's interest in the conflict has increased as a result, HPD took an opportunity to determine if reenactments damage historic battlefields as the NPS suggests.  

The 150th year anniversary reenactment of the Battle of Chickamauga was held in September of 2013 at McLemore Cove in northern Georgia and provided the perfect test case for our study.  The original Battle of Chickamauga took place in September of 1863 northeast of Chattanooga, TN but because the battlefield is now a National Battlefield Park the reenactment cannot take place in its original location.  A reenactment of the Battle of Chickamauga was scheduled to take place at McLemore Cove located in Walker County, on state owned land. With about 5,000 participants, it was one of the largest reenactment events in the southeastern US to date.

While anecdotal evidence suggests that reenactments are harmful to historic sites, no systematic studies have investigated their actual effects.  In order to determine the reenactment's effects, HPD and volunteers from New South Associates, Inc. metal detected four 100x100 foot areas to clear them of artifacts and metal debris. Three of the locations, the Union Camp, the Confederate Camp, and the battlefield, were selected based on information provided by the event planners. After the reenactment, the areas were metal detected again, to identify materials introduced by the event. No materials dating to the civil war were recovered during the first survey but new artifacts from the reenactment were found during the second one. The reenactment introduced a significant amount of reenactment grade replica artifacts into the archaeological record. Approximately 444 "artifacts" were collected during the post-reenactment survey, including percussion caps, spent shells, and friction primers. Those "false artifacts" could mix with authentic artifacts and increase research time and money spent in the lab when trying to distinguish replicas from original materials if deposited on an actual battlefield.  Additionally, reenactors created new "features" such as fire rings, which could confuse future archaeologists investigating an actual battlefield.

 
This study suggests Civil War reenactments do in fact negatively impact historic battlefields through the introduction of replica materials, the introduction of new features (fire pits, tent rings, perhaps privies, etc), and the potential damage to above ground features and the landscape.  This study supports the National Park Service's position on reenactments on battlefields.  Luckily, there are areas like McLemore Cove where large reenactments can take place without damaging historic resources.
 
The results of this study were presented at the "Fields of Conflict" conference, the eighth biennial conference on battlefield archaeology, which was held March 11-16, 2014 in Columbia, SC.

Handicap accessibility is an important aspect of modern architecture but difficult to retrofit into a historic building.  A company from the United Kingdom has designed an innovative answer to the problem.  Click here for more information and be sure to watch the video to see the product in action. 

LeRae Umfleet, Supervisor of the Education and Outreach Branch of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, is putting together an email list of those interested in receiving notices about activities related to WWI taking place across the state.  If you would like to be added to the list she can be reached by phone at 919-807-7289 or by email at [email protected]. 

NPR's "StoryCorps" is collecting oral histories at the American Tobacco Campus in Durham through May 16.  Click here for more information about the project and how you can share your story.

This is almost as good as a time machine. Use the slider in the middle of the photo to move through time. Click here.