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

For Bellamy Mansion Museum, Wilmington, upcoming events click here.

Historic Wilmington Foundation Releases Annual Most Threatened List 

Aethelwold Hotel. Photo courtesy of Halifax Media Group

Tim and Nancy Hall, the owners of the ca. 1900 Aethelwold Hotel, the last hotel in downtown Brevard, have been working on the rehabilitation of the building for 20 years. Click here to read their story. 

Edwards-Franklin House

The Edwards-Franklin House was built circa 1799 near the Lowgap community in Surry County. Now owned by the Surry County Historical Society, the house is undergoing rehabilitation in consultation with Paul Fomberg, senior restoration specialist with the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office, beginning with porch repairs.  The separate kitchen will also be rehabilitated as part of this ongoing project. Following completion of the project, the Edwards-Franklin House will be open free to the public on the second weekend of each month through October from 1 - 5 p.m. The annual Sonker Festival will be held there on October 4.  Click here for more information. 

Stonewall Jackson Training School

Peter Kaplan, the author of The Historic Architecture of Cabarrus County, North Carolina, has been advocating for the sale and repurposing of the Stonewall Jackson Training School, listed in the National Register in 1984 as the Stonewall Jackson Training School Historic District.  The campus was designed by Louis H. Asbury, a prominent Charlotte.  Click here to learn more about Mr. Kaplan's efforts to promote the preservation of the campus. 

Prospectors were rushing to North Carolina in search of gold long before the California Gold Rush of 1848. A 17-pound gold nugget was found by a boy playing in a Cabarrus County creek in 1799 and by 1803 the hopeful were rushing to strike it rich in North Carolina. By 1828, 30,000 miners were working the state's gold deposits.  Now tourism groups want to capitalize on this history by designating a Gold Trail in the state that could wind through perhaps 20 counties. Click here for more information. 

A Charlotte neighborhood built between 2002 and 2004 has sixty percent of its houses in foreclosure due to the housing crash. It is a tale of planning gone wrong. Click here for more information. 

NPS Delivers Hill Briefings on Historic Preservation

On May 15, Stephanie Toothman, NPS Associate Director for Cultural Resources, Partnerships and Science, delivered House and Senate staff briefings on "Historic Preservation and the National Park Service." The briefing included a short history of the development of the preservation movement and a discussion of previous legislation that led to the creation of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. She also reviewed how preservation is a local/state verses top-down driven program and highlighted the roles and responsibilities of State and Tribal Historic Preservation Offices. A significant amount of time was also spent discussing the SHPO and T(ribal)HPO activities funded by the Historic Preservation Fund (HFP), including survey, National Register, Section 106, tax credits, state preservation plans, and working with communities and local governments. She concluded by reiterating the need for Congress to reauthorize the deposits from the sale of oil and gas leases into the HPF in 2015 as well the need for full and guaranteed funding for the HPF. 

Rightsizing Your City: An ACHP Report

The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) has written a report addressing "rightsizing" and its effect on historic preservation.  The report was written in response to the rising trend for "rightsizing" cities by demolishing large swathes of cities as a means of dealing with the economic downturn and a growing number of abandoned buildings.  Click here for more information. 

Smaller Commercial Buildings Better for Cities than High Rises

Neighborhoods and commercial areas with a mix of older, smaller buildings make for more vibrant, walkable communities with more businesses, nightlife, and cultural outlets than massive newer buildings, according a recently released National Trust for Historic Preservation Green Lab study. The analysis found that corridors with smaller, older buildings generally perform better for the local economy than areas with newer buildings that might stretch an entire block and, on a per-square-foot basis, small building corridors have a larger concentration of business and jobs, including creative sector jobs, than downtown skyscrapers. Click here and here for summaries of the information and here for the full report. 

The y:cube is a 280-sq-ft (26-sq-m) studio-like apartment made for single occupancy. It can stand alone, or be stacked into bigger housing blocks and is designed to help alleviate the growing lack of affordable housing in cities. Click here to learn more and watch a video showing how the space functions. 

Glass buildings are popular -- not just because of their striking appearance, but also for the views they boast and and the increased light they let in -- but are they sustainable? Governments are now so concerned by the long-term impact of "solar gain" -- the extent to which a building absorbs sunlight and heats up -- that they have introduced strict regulations around shape and structure.  Click here for more information.

$35 Million Project Underway to Clean Roman Colosseum

The Roman Colosseum, completed in 81 A. D., is getting a $35 million cleaning-the first full cleaning in the Colosseum's history-that aims to return it to its former splendor, while also strengthening the overall structure.  The project is being funded by Diego Della Valle, the billionaire owner of leather-goods maker Tod's. Mr. Della Valle's donation will also cover some restoration inside the Colosseum and the building of a visitors' center. Click here for more information about the project and to see before and after photos. 

After Kyle Obenauer contacted Claudia Brown a few months ago to express his interest in Rosenwald schools, the HPO was able to offer him a nine-week internship that began on May 12. Kyle is drafting a Multiple Property Documentation Form on North Carolina's Rosenwald schools and associated structures, which will simplify their listing in the National Register. He also is assisting the HPO's ongoing efforts to document the state's extant Rosenwald schools and helping to update the Rosenwald schools page of the HPO's web site with additional content to aid local preservation efforts.

Intern Kyle Obenauer

Although Kyle spent most of his childhood in the San Francisco Bay Area, he has also lived in northeast Florida, southeastern Washington, and Portland, Oregon, and in 2008 he moved to Vermont. His undergraduate academic background is in American history and sociology, and while employed as a social worker for a Burlington, Vermont-based agency located within the historic Fort Ethan Allen, he discovered the discipline and philosophy of historic preservation. His preservation interests are broad, ranging from preservation law to architectural materials conservation and notably include preservation issues throughout America's rural landscapes; historic African American resources and their architects, builders, and occupants; and America's manufacturing past. Some of his recent work includes the restoration of exterior bas-relief woodcarvings by Albert H. Whittekind on Burlington, Vermont's Wells Mansion; preservation advocacy and planning with the South Carolina-based Slave Dwelling Project; and industrial archaeology within Burlington's Lakeside Avenue area, which yielded a report which can be read here: Lakeside Avenue Manufacturing. Kyle will be graduating with a Master of Science in Historic Preservation from the University of Vermont in December 2014.