The North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources announces that six individual properties across the state have been added to the National Register of Historic Places. The following properties were reviewed by the North Carolina National Register Advisory Committee and were subsequently approved by the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Officer and forwarded to the Keeper of the National Register.
“The addition of these North Carolina listings to the National Register of Historic Places -- the honor roll of the nation -- continues to expand our telling of the diverse story of our state's history, and to acknowledge the important contributions of all North Carolinians,” said Secretary Susi Hamilton, N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
The 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, over 3,665 rehabilitation projects with an estimated private investment of over $2.571 billion have been completed.
In Central North Carolina
Caswell County Training School, Yanceyville, Caswell County, listed 1/25/2018
Designed in 1939 by Raleigh architects Atwood and Weeks and constructed in stages between 1948 and 1960, Caswell County Training School is associated with the era of consolidation of Caswell County’s rural 1- and 2-room frame African American schools. Built to remedy overcrowding at the Yanceyville School, which included a 1924, 4-teacher, frame Rosenwald School across the street, the large, red brick school allowed for greatly increased enrollment capacity. It was the only African American school in Caswell County to offer secondary education until desegregation in 1969. The rear 1949 auditorium/cafeteria wing was built first, followed by a 1951 main block and 1960 gymnasium. The school displays modernist form and massing and a double-loaded corridor plan lit by large steel-frame windows.
East Spencer Graded School, East Spencer, Rowan County, listed 1/25/2018
East Spencer Graded School, the only public school for the town’s white youth from around 1900 until desegregation in 1969, is locally significant under Criterion A for education and Criterion C for architecture. The school, which served students from first grade through high school, today comprises two buildings: a one-story masonry building erected in 1903 and expanded in 1913; and a two-story-on-basement, Classical Revival-style building erected according to a design by Charles C. Hook in 1921 and expanded in 1937 with the north classroom block and a rear auditorium designed by architects Yoe, Northup, and O’Brien. Both buildings are intact and increasingly rare examples of early 20th-century institutional architecture in Rowan County.
North Carolina Industrial Home for Colored Girls, Efland vicinity, Orange County, listed 1/25/2018
Efforts to establish the North Carolina Industrial Home for Colored Girls, also called the Efland Home, began in 1919 when prominent educator, Charlotte Hawkins Brown, led a campaign to sponsor a needed reformatory for African American girls. The reformatory comprised a 1925 one-story, frame cottage and farm on 143 acres and provided academic instruction as well as training in agricultural and domestic skills that would help the residents transition back into society. The reformatory served a statewide constituency and in 1930 was one of only 10 comparable institutions for African American girls throughout the U.S. and the only one in North Carolina. Despite a demonstrated need for such a facility, the Efland Home struggled with funding and administrative challenges until it closed in 1939. Today the residual property consists of the cottage and 2.4 acres which provide an appropriate setting.
In Western North Carolina
James Madison and Leah Acouet Chiles House, Asheville, Buncombe County, listed 1/25/2018
Having built his fortune in the furniture industry in the North Carolina towns of Hickory and Lenoir, James M. Chiles moved to Asheville in 1908 and embarked on a successful second career in land development. In 1911, he acquired 151 acres that included the burned ruins of the 1890 Kenilworth Inn. Shortly thereafter, he subdivided the acreage for the Kenilworth neighborhood, began a series of public improvements, and built a new inn. While Chiles and his family resided in a Craftsman-style bungalow on Kenilworth Road in the 1910s, he engaged Asheville architect Ronald Greene to design a new house overlooking a picturesque greensward in a newly expanded part of the development. Built between 1922 and 1925, the James Madison and Leah Acouet Chiles House is locally significant as a fully-expressed and intact example of a Spanish Colonial Revival-style dwelling.
Windover/Howell House, Waynesville, Haywood County, listed 1/25/2018
Built in 1910 for James H. and Pearl Howell, Windover is an imposing two-and-a-half-story building that the Howell family used as their personal residence and operated as a seasonal tourist home until the early 1970s. The dwelling is locally significant as an intact example of an early 20th-century vernacular Colonial Revival-style house, particularly with regard to its interior features.
In Eastern North Carolina
West Martin School, Oak City, Martin County, listed 1/25/2018
The 1951 West Martin School is significant under National Register Criterion A for education and ethnic heritage as a segregation-era school constructed to serve the African American population of Martin County, providing education in grades one through 12. It was one of only three African American schools in the county to include grades nine through 12 and is the only extant African American high school in the county’s western region. West Martin School also was the only school complex to be constructed for African American students in the northwest part of Martin County, replacing earlier one- and two-room frame schools throughout the region. The school is also significant under National Register Criterion C for architecture as a highly intact Modern-style brick school complex for African Americans. The use of the Modern style is illustrative of statewide trends in school design during the mid-20th century and represents the work of architect J. W. Griffith Jr., who designed numerous schools, gymnasiums and school additions in Martin County in the 1950s and 1960s.
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