News

National Register adds 17 North Carolina historic places

The Eunice Waymon Birthplace in Polk County is the first home of legendary pianist, composer, singer, and Civil Rights Activist Nina Simone (1933-2003).

By Lightning Reports, Published: December 13, 2023

Two historic districts and 15 individual properties across the state have been added to the National Register of Historic Places, the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources announced.

Listing of a property in the National Register places no obligation or restriction on a private owner using private resources to maintain or alter the property. Over the years, various federal and state incentives have been introduced to assist private preservation initiatives, including tax credits for the rehabilitation of National Register properties. As of Jan. 1, 2023, over 4,209 historic rehabilitation projects with an estimated private investment of over $3.5 billion have been completed.

The following properties were reviewed by the North Carolina National Register Advisory Committee and subsequently nominated by the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Officer and forwarded to the Keeper of the National Register for consideration for listing in the National Register:

Central North Carolina

Coan-Gray House, Winston-Salem, Forsyth County, listed 8/7/2023
The locally significant Coan-Gray House meets National Register Criterion C for architecture due to its refined Colonial Revival-style design rendered by Charles Barton Keen’s Philadelphia-based firm. The remarkably intact residence erected by Winston-Salem contractors Fogle Brothers occupies a sizable lot in Reynolda Park, where winding roads, deep setbacks, and dense landscaping create estate-like settings for an eclectic mixture of finely detailed dwellings commissioned from nationally recognized architects. The exterior displays Colonial Revival stylistic elements often specified by Keen’s firm: red brick and white weatherboarded and painted-brick walls, and a green Ludowici-Celadon tile roof. On the interior, the formal spaces — reception hall, dining room, and living room — are embellished with classical cornices, door and window surrounds, and mantels executed in the Federal style. Intact finishes include random-width quarter-sawn oak floors, smooth plaster walls and ceilings, ornamental plaster cornices, paneled wainscoting, and molded baseboards, chair rails, and cornices. The period of significance is 1928, the dwelling’s construction date.

Downtown Greensboro Historic District (Additional Documentation II, Boundary Increase and Boundary Decrease), Greensboro, Guilford County, listed 4/20/2023
Building on the original 1982 Downtown Greensboro Historic District and the amended 2004 nominations, this nomination provides updates through Additional Documentation, a Boundary Increase, and a Boundary Decrease. It includes an updated inventory with additional description, a discussion of alterations made since 2003, and an updated contributing status for each property. The Additional Documentation extends the period of significance to 1963 with a discussion of the continued commercial and architectural significance of the district and to encompass significant Civil Rights activities. This Boundary Increase expands the district in three different areas and by 60 primary resources. The period of significance for the Boundary Increase extends to 1975, to incorporate the architecturally significant city and county government buildings. There are thirteen areas of significance under Criteria A and C and listed at the national, state, and local levels. The Boundary Decrease removed four different areas along the boundary periphery in which historic resources have been altered or demolished since 1982.

Flint Mill No. 2 – Burlington Industries, Inc. Plant, Gastonia, Gaston County, listed 4/19/2023
The Flint Mill No. 2 – Burlington Industries, Inc. Plant consists of the 1923 Flint Mill No. 2 and a series of one- and two-story brick, concrete, and steel manufacturing, storage, and office additions erected by Burlington Industries between 1950 and 1997. It is locally significant under Criterion A for industry and Criterion C for architecture. The building was associated with two of the primary textile manufacturers that drove Gastonia’s economic and physical growth during the twentieth century. The industrial concerns’ contributions as manufacturers, employers, consumers of local goods and services, and taxpayers were enormous. Executed per the design of the Atlanta-based architectural and engineering firm Robert and Company, the building manifests significant 20th-century advances in fire-resistant industrial building technology. Flint Mill No. 2 is one of only two Gastonia mills with a reinforced-concrete structural system comprised of mushroom columns and formed-concrete floor slabs. The period of significance begins in 1923, when the first portion of the building was erected, and ends in 1972.

Alexander S. and Mary R. Hanes House, Winston-Salem, Forsyth County, listed 4/18/2023
The remarkably intact residence rendered by Charles Barton Keen’s Philadelphia-based firm and erected in 1923 occupies a sizable prominent corner lot in the Buena Vista subdivision. Although abodes influenced by seats of American and European country estates are plentiful in Winston-Salem, the Hanes House is distinguished by its scale, sophisticated execution, and estate-like setting. The spacious Colonial Revival style residence encompasses a two-and-one-half-story, gable-roofed, ten-bay-wide main block; one-story, hip-roofed, three-bay north service wing; and inset, two-story porches. The exterior is characterized by white weatherboarded walls, a Ludowici-Celadon tile roof, and classical details. The formal spaces — reception hall, dining room, living room, and library — feature classical cornices, door and window surrounds, and mantels. Single- and double-leaf raised-panel wood doors and wood-framed multi-pane French doors and transoms possess original hardware. The period of significance is 1923, the dwelling’s construction date.

Mooresville Water Pump and Filter Plant, Mooresville, Iredell County, listed 4/18/2023
The Mooresville Water Pump and Filter Plant is significant at the local level under Criteria A for Engineering and C for Architecture. The period of significance runs from 1924, its estimated date of construction, to 1949 when significant physical improvements were made to the plant. The complex, part of a larger water system, was built during a period when municipal water systems proliferated throughout the state of North Carolina. It reflects early and mid-20th century advances in technology and engineering related to water purification and distribution. Though modest in size, the pump house's design includes elegant and complex brickwork evidencing civic pride through the sophisticated design of a government building. The Mooresville Water Pump and Filter Plant, designed by Gilbert White, is one of a first wave of water plants that were more constrained in size and design than the later designs of engineers. The pump house (1924, 1949) stands close to the road at the eastern side of the parcel. Immediately south of the pump house is a cylindrical concrete reservoir (1924). West of the pump house is a concrete chemical feed house (1949). Two metal garage buildings (ca. 1956 and ca. 1983) are also on the site.

William and Barbara Mutschler House, Wake Forest, Wake County, listed 4/20/2023
The 1973 William and Barbara Mutschler House is locally significant under National Register Criterion C for architecture as an excellent example of a Modernist residence with a split-foyer plan, one of only a few such dwellings in a town where traditionally-styled dwellings predominate. Mrs. Mutschler, a Modernist architecture aficionado, emulated aspects of the family’s 1967 split-foyer-plan home in Vestal, New York, as well as Raleigh houses that she admired while planning their new house. The residence manifests Modernist principles in its long, low form and generous use of glass and high-quality natural materials such as rough-sawn board-and-batten sheathing and variegated-red brick to create continuity between the interior and exterior. Beneath the low-pitched side-gable roof, deep eaves shelter plate-glass casement windows and fixed windows and sliding-glass doors. The interior retains a split-foyer plan and original character-defining features including rough-sawn board-and-batten accent walls, variegated-red-brick chimneys, exposed ceiling beams in the upper-level public rooms, built-in bookshelves, a brick stair landing, and lower-level game room, family room, and sunporch brick floors. The period of significance is 1973, the construction date.

Jeter and Ethel Neville House, Carrboro, Orange County, listed 8/1/2023
The Jeter and Ethel Neville House meets National Register Criterion A for its local significance in the area of architecture as a distinctive example of a stone building constructed by an African American mason whose training continues a tradition established locally among enslaved people during the antebellum period. Built by John Wesley Campbell and located in the historically African American Northside neighborhood spanning the line between Carrboro and Chapel Hill. The Neville House exhibits the bungalow form in its one-and-a-half stories and engaged front porch while the Craftsman style is expressed in the exterior materials, particularly Campbell’s signature hand-crafted, roughly dressed masonry of irregularly shaped granite fieldstone. The craftsmanship of this house bears witness to the traditions passed down from the African American masons who labored to create the buildings, stone walls, and brick pathways in the towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro from the early 19th century to the present. The period of significance of the Neville House is 1945, the date of construction.

Uzzell-Best Farm, La Grange, Wayne County, listed 9/7/2023
The Uzzell-Best Farm is significant at the local level under Criterion A in the category of agriculture and Criterion C in the category of architecture. The Uzzell-Best Farm contains three developed areas set within the context of cultivated fields and wooded lots. The oldest of these areas includes the primary dwelling, a fine example of Victorian-era architecture, which retains evidence of regional vernacular building typology. The farm also has an impressive complement of 19th- and 20th-century agricultural outbuildings. Tobacco barns and sharecropper housing on the farm that were documented in earlier surveys were demolished in the late twentieth century. Despite these losses, the complex continues to communicate the appearance of a stylish late nineteenth-century residence set within a larger agricultural complex that reflect the changes in over 150 years of continued agricultural use in Wayne County. The period of significance extends from 1875, when the current parcel was subdivided from larger family holdings, through 1972, the year the farm was sold to a closely held family corporation.

Wemple-Shelton House, Yanceyville, Caswell County, listed 8/8/2023
The Wemple-Shelton House is locally significant in Caswell County under National Register Criterion C in the area of architecture as a representative example of a remarkably intact one-and-a-half story masonry Federal-Greek Revival transitional style house with architectural features attributed to Thomas Day (1801-1861) and Dabney Cosby (1779-1862). Built in the early years of Caswell County’s tobacco-driven Boom Era (1840-1860), the two-room plan and nine-over-nine, double-hung windows of the Wemple-Shelton House reference earlier Federal forms, while exterior and interior classical architectural features are representative of the Greek Revival style. Apart from a 1930 addition and the c. 1997 enclosure of the porch at the rear of the addition, few changes have been made to the interior or exterior of the house. The c. 1843-45 footprint of the home continues to be clearly identifiable, and its original interior and exterior woodwork elements and door hardware, plaster walls, fireplaces, and windows remain intact as character-defining features. The period of significance is the construction date c. 1843-1845.

Eastern North Carolina

Davis School, Engelhard, Hyde County, listed 4/17/2023
The Davis School campus, one of two in Hyde County that served first- through 12th-grade African American youth during the mid-20th century, is the product of a statewide mid-20th-century campus improvement and consolidation campaign. The complex comprises a 1953 school with a 1964 gymnasium/auditorium and locker rooms and 1971 cafeteria/kitchen wing as well as a freestanding 1964 classroom. The 1964 gymnasium/auditorium and classroom building were erected as the Hyde County Board of Education (HCBE) attempted to “equalize” facilities for Black and white youth rather than desegregate them. Davis School students and their families played a significant role in the African American community’s 1968-1969 public school boycott in response to the HCBE’s May 1968 plan to close Davis and O. A. Peay schools, consolidate all mainland Hyde County students, and terminate many African American faculty and staff. The period of significance for Davis School begins with the 1953 building’s completion and ends in 1970, when full integration was finally achieved in Hyde County. Davis School possesses significance at the local level under Criterion A in the areas of education, Black ethnic heritage, and civil rights.

Golden Asro and Ruth Holley Frinks House, Edenton, Chowan County, listed 8/8/2023
The locally significant Golden Asro and Ruth Holley Frinks House in Edenton, N.C., meets National Register of Historic Places Criteria A and B in the area of civil rights for its association with Black activist Golden Asro Frinks throughout his productive career. Frinks and other civil rights leaders traveled throughout the United States facilitating nonviolent direct action that led to the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act and hastened the implementation of the legislation. Frinks and Rev. Frederick H. LaGarde led an effort, known as the Edenton Movement, which brought national attention to the small town. During December 1962 and May 1966 trips to northeastern North Carolina, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a meal at Golden and Ruth Frinks’ residence, called Freedom House due to its function as a meeting place, protest origination point, and lodging place for visiting equal rights advocates. The period of significance for the Golden Asro and Ruth Holley Frinks begins with the couples’ 1958 acquisition and renovation of the dwelling and ends in 1973. The dwelling displays integrity of design, materials, and workmanship from this period, during which all substantial modifications were made for the Frinks.

Holt’s Chapel School, Oriental vicinity, Pamlico County, listed 8/8/2023
Holt’s Chapel School is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places at the local level of significance under Criterion A in the areas of education and Black ethnic heritage. Its significance derives from its association with Black education in Pamlico County from 1922 to 1963, the period during which it enrolled students in a racially segregated school district. Holt’s Chapel School originally served Black students from kindergarten to eighth grade. Holt’s Chapel School also meets Criterion C for its architectural significance as an intact three-teacher rural schoolhouse built with financial support from the Rosenwald Fund and based on a plan issued by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. The intact frame building standing on an open-pier brick foundation displays the character-defining features of a 1920s rural school including the banks of oversized windows on its west-facing elevation. As an example of model rural school design, it includes an industrial room, blackboards along two walls, and cloakrooms. Holt’s Chapel School is one of four Rosenwald Fund schools built in Pamlico County and retains excellent architectural integrity including intact design, workmanship, materials, location, and setting.

Western North Carolina

Blue Ridge Tourist Court, Boone, Watauga County, listed 4/18/2023
The Blue Ridge Tourist Court is significant at the local level under Criterion A in the area of entertainment/recreation for its association with mid-century tourism and roadside lodging in Boone and Watauga County at the beginning of the region’s transformation into a tourist hub. The Blue Ridge Tourist Court is also significant at the local level under Criterion B in the area of entertainment/recreation for its association with Estel G. Wagner, a mid-century developer and real estate magnate who is believed to have been Boone’s first real estate broker and who was a pioneer in the early development of Boone’s mid-century tourism trade. The period of significance is 1950 to 1970. This date range represents the core period of the property’s use as a true roadside tourist court and motel after its construction on the site of an already existing residence (built circa 1948) and its operation under management first by the Wagner family (1950-1956), then by the Rice family (1956-1970). Significant dates include 1950 (construction of the Tourist Court and Office), circa 1951 (estimated construction of the Annex and Garage Apartment), and circa 1953 (estimated construction of the Motel).

Craggy Historic District, Woodfin, Buncombe County, listed 4/19/2023
Located on the west bank of the French Broad River four-and-a-half miles north of Asheville, the Craggy Historic District is a dense collection of historic buildings that grew up around the Craggy Depot. Although the depot is no longer extant, the remaining buildings in the district are evidence of the industrial, commercial, and domestic history of this transportation hub. The buildings include a timber-frame grain mill, a concrete-block fraternal lodge, a concrete-block residence, and a concrete-block commercial building. Also included in the district are two structures: the platform of the former railway depot, and the right-of-way of the former Southern Railway line. The district is significant under Criterion A in the area of community planning and development as a rare surviving example of a railway hamlet that developed in the rural outskirts of Asheville. The district is also significant under Criterion C for architecture as an intact assemblage of early-20th-century concrete block buildings related to the railway depot. The period of significance for the district is from the construction of the original depot platform in 1904 to the final historic buildings ca. 1940.

Boyce K. and Kitzi McLamb Miller House, Asheville vicinity, Buncombe County, listed 8/7/2023
Built around 1936, the Boyce K. and Kitzi McLamb Miller House near Asheville, N.C., is locally significant and meets National Register Criterion C in the area of architecture. The two-story log-and-stone dwelling is one of the largest and most distinctive examples of the Rustic Revival style in Buncombe County. Boyce K. and Kitzi Miller, both public school employees, worked in the eastern part of the state for much of their career and built the house over several summers as a seasonal residence near B. K. Miller’s native Fairview. Built of pole log construction, the house has twin two-story front porches framing a façade chimney of river rock, a capacious gable-roof side porch on the north elevation, and multi-light double-hung and wood-sash casement windows. The interior features a large living room with a stone fireplace, double-run central stairs, wood floors, and exposed log and wood-paneled walls. Two apartment units on the second story, with separate exterior entrances, were used as guest suites to accommodate the Millers’ friends and family. The period of significance is ca. 1936, when construction of the house is believed to have been completed.

Waldensian Swiss Embroidery Company – Valdese Weavers, Inc. Mill, Valdese, Burke County, listed 8/9/2023
The Waldensian Swiss Embroidery Company – Valdese Weavers, Inc. Mill (“the mill”) is locally significant under National Register Criterion A in the area of industry. The mill played an important role in the Waldensian community of Valdese as it transitioned from a primarily agrarian community to a center of the textile industry in Burke County. Initially established in 1915 as the Waldensian Swiss Embroidery Company, the mill was one of the earliest large-scale industrial endeavors in Valdese. Additionally, the Waldensian Swiss Embroidery Company – Valdese Weavers, Inc., Mill was the only mill in Valdese to manufacture lace and embroidery products and the only mill in Valdese to target the local furniture industry with the production of upholstery fabrics; most other textile mills in Valdese largely produced apparel products such as hosiery and undergarments. While the mill cycled through different ownership and company names throughout the twentieth century, it was in near-continuous operation as a major local employer and manufacturer of textile goods for nearly sixty years. The period of significance, 1915 to 1974, begins with the building’s initial construction and ends with the relocation of Valdese Weavers, Inc. to a new facility on a separate site.

Eunice Waymon Birthplace, Tryon, Polk County, listed 5/18/2023: The Eunice Waymon Birthplace is the first home of legendary pianist, composer, singer, and Civil Rights Activist Nina Simone (1933-2003). Nina Simone is a figure of outstanding historic and cultural significance during the second half of the twentieth century. Her rise to international fame was rooted in her early childhood experience in the small town of Tryon, during the Jim Crow era. The three-room house at 30 East Livingston Street — where she was born and was first introduced to music and learned to play the organ and piano — embodies her significant experiences as a girl of substantial musical talent in a well-regarded, working-class African American family. The Eunice Waymon Birthplace is locally significant for the National Register under Criterion B in the area of African American Ethnic Heritage and Performing Arts for its association with Eunice Waymon’s early life and influence of her experience in Tryon on her later musical career and Civil Rights activism. It also meets Criteria Consideration C as a birthplace. The period of significance is 1933 to 1947, encompassing the period beginning in the year of Eunice’s birth to the year that she left Tryon to attend the Allen School in Asheville, North Carolina.