HPO staff attended many meetings and made dozens of site visits throughout December.

William Henry and Sarah Holderness House, Caswell County, prepared by R. Little, listed 12/02/14

The ca. 1855 William Henry and Sarah Holderness House has statewide significance as one of North Carolina's finest and most intact Greek Revival-style houses finished with interior woodwork by master artisan Thomas Day. Built for William Henry Holderness and his wife Sarah, the prominent two-story house features a low hip roof, a one-story, pedimented entrance portico with Doric columns, and one-story wings, each with a matching portico, that are a rare element of Greek Revival-style houses in North Carolina. The original smokehouse and carriage house to the rear create a well-preserved 1850s complex.

D. C. Umstead Store and House, Durham County, prepared by H. Slane and E. Wallrath , listed12/02/14

The D. C. Umstead Store and House, located near the small town of Bahama, served an important role in the commerce and communication of its rural community. The store was built ca. 1880, and from 1882 to 1903 it also operated as a post office. In the late 1870s storekeeper D. C. Umstead built the two-story frame house that contributes to the historic character and setting of the store, together with outbuildings dating to the late nineteenth century. The one-story frame store has a small post office space partitioned off on the interior and is a rare survivor of this rural building type in the county.

Old German Baptist Brethren Church, Forsyth County, prepared by H. Fearnbach , listed 12/01/14

In 1860, a small group of Old German Baptist Brethren constructed a plain, heavy-timber frame building, and over time the church members remodeled and enlarged the church to accommodate their specific worship practices. The church featured an attached lovefeast kitchen where meat, soup, buttered bread, pickles and water were prepared for the silent meditation service, which included foot washing and communion. Other Brethren congregations worshipped at the church annually, and in 1942 the sanctuary was expanded and the main entrance moved to the long side wall. In 1950, the kitchen was expanded across the end wall, and the entire building covered in German siding. All three phases of construction are key elements in understanding the architectural significance of the building and its manifestation of the sect's worship practices.

Enterprise Building, Guilford County, prepared by C. Griffith and A. Cole, listed 12/02/14

The Enterprise Building is architecturally important for its fully articulated Art Deco-style exterior. Originally two stories in height, the newspaper building was designed by High Point architect Tyson T. Ferree in 1935. The new stylish headquarters reflected the growing success of the publishing company. The pale gray cast stone façade of the original building was seamlessly replicated in the third story added in 1945. The remarkably intact building façade features a stylized classicism, including the full height fluted and incised pilasters, curving, solid brackets above the door, and the round-arched windows.

Proximity Print Works, Guilford County, prepared by C. de Miranda and J. Martin, listed 12/01/14

In the early twentieth century, the Cone family expanded their textile empire by broadening their product line to include printed fabric, which previously had been the domain of textile companies in the Northeast. The Proximity Print Works stands on the rail line that accessed all three of the Cone's Greensboro textile mills, Revolution, Proximity, and White Oak. Starting with raw cotton, denim, khaki, and another durable fabric, drill, were produced. The process of finishing and dyeing fabric at the extensive complex of buildings at Proximity Print Works is believed to be one of the largest such operations in North Carolina.

Standard Drug # 2, Lenoir County, prepared by S. Wyatt and S. David, listed 12/01/14

Located near the county courthouse in Kinston, Standard Drug # 2, built from 1918 to 1924, had a racially-segregated lunch counter frequented by Kinston's white leaders and businessmen. Two Civil Rights movement sit-ins occurred during the early 1960s at the lunch counter in an effort to force its desegregation. The first sit-in occurred in 1960, shortly after the February 1960 Greensboro Woolworth's sit-in, during which three local African American high school students were able to gain service for one of the youths at the lunch counter.  The second, larger sit-in was held in 1961 and led to the successful desegregation of the lunch counter. Boycotts and picketing that followed the 1961 sit-in at several of the most important downtown Kinston businesses brought about meetings between the protesters and downtown businessmen, including the owner of Standard Drug #2, resulting in desegregation of downtown Kinston businesses.

Everetts Historic District, Martin County, prepared by S. Wyatt and S. David, listed 12/02/14

The Everetts Historic District encompasses most of the well-preserved rural railroad town in Martin County, featuring commercial and small industrial buildings, houses, and churches dating from the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth century. The town sustained prosperity as a rural trading center serving local farmers with a variety of stores, a cotton gin and sawmill, and agricultural export facilities. The collection of historic buildings within the district exemplifies the architectural styles and forms found in small railroad towns in eastern North Carolina during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Savona Mill, Mecklenburg County, prepared by R. Sidebottom and J. Hembree, listed 12/02/14

The remarkably intact Savona Mill is architecturally significant for the sequence of mill construction methods featured in the building. The 1915-1916 one-story, brick and heavy-timber weave mill has a low-pitched gable and monitor roof and all of its nine-over-six wooden windows are still in place. The three-story spinning mill dating to 1921-1922 doubled the size of the textile mill, and its interior exhibits a combination of heavy-timber, metal, and concrete construction. In 1951, the building was expanded again with a large, three-story fireproof addition at the north end constructed of reinforced concrete and brick infill walls. Distinctive mushroom shaped columns provide interior structural support.

Brookwood Historic District, New Hanover County, prepared by H. Slane and S. Stewart, listed 12/02/14

The Brookwood Historic District was platted in 1920 and 1927 and constructed near the terminus of the streetcar line, illustrating a shift away from city center neighborhoods to subdivisions at the perimeter of the city in the early twentieth century. Initially located just beyond the city limits and several blocks from the streetcar line, Brookwood is among the most intact of Wilmington's early to mid-twentieth-century middle-class suburbs. The development included municipal services such as water, sewer, gas, and electric lines, and a public park, a feature usually found only in more prestigious suburbs. Brookwood developers used the rising popularity of the automobile to their advantage, as advertisements for the development touted straight roads that offered easy access "without a turn or a curve." The district comprises houses constructed in a variety of early twentieth-century architectural styles, including Craftsman, Colonial Revival, Cape Cod, and Period Cottage. The district's continued development after World War II includes examples of the Minimal Traditional and Ranch styles.

Wingate Commercial Historic District, Union County, prepared by S. Argintar, listed 12/01/14

Wingate Commercial Historic District, a cluster of brick one- and two-story commercial buildings dating from ca.1904 to ca. 1925, was built immediately north of the railroad line and depot in the center of town. The Austin Store, the State Bank of Wingate, the Wingate Drug Company Store, and Katie Lee Austin's dress shop long served the community and the nearby Wingate College. Through the loss and substantial alteration of other older commercial buildings in the town center, this group of buildings is now the only intact collection of historic commercial buildings in Wingate.  

Barker House, Vance County, prepared by H. Fearnbach, listed12/01/14

The Barker House, one of Vance County's oldest extant dwellings, is a remarkably intact rural North Carolina plantation house built during the eighteenth century's third quarter. The modest one-and-one-half-story, side-gable-roofed, weatherboarded residence manifests the lasting influence of traditional building practices brought south from tidewater Maryland and Virginia as settlers from those colonies populated North Carolina's northeastern counties. Surry County, Virginia, native Ambrose Barker is the earliest identified owner of the heavy-timber-frame dwelling that has been known as the Barker House for most of its history. He likely occupied the original one-room house soon after its construction around 1764. Dendrochronology results indicate that carpenters expanded the residence with a second room ten years later, perhaps coinciding with Ambrose Barker and Mary Ann Ragland's November 1773 marriage.

Inaugural HPO Newsletter for Commissioners and Certified Local Governments Released  

• All issues of Our State magazine, through 2011, have been digitized and can be found here.

• Most architects do not seem to be in touch with those for which they design. Does this make architectural design irrelevant to common society? If so, how do we make it more relevant? See the thoughts of the New York Times here. 

• The BBC drama "The Game" is set in Cold War England and most of the action takes place in Brutalist buildings. Can "The Game" make Brutalist architecture more popular the way "Mad Men" helped mid-century modernist architecture? Read one perspective here.