The North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources is pleased to announce that eight 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.
“North Carolina continues to be a leader in the nation’s historic preservation movement, and the National Register is a vital tool in the preservation of our state’s treasured historic resources,” said Secretary Susi Hamilton, N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. “When we add new properties to the register, we are continuing to expand and diversify the story of North Carolina."
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 January 1, 2018, over 3,665 rehabilitation projects with an estimated private investment of over $2.571 billion have been completed.
In Central North Carolina
Canetuck School, Currie vicinity, Pender County, listed 05/31/2018
Canetuck School’s construction in rural Pender County was possible because of the Rosenwald Fund, which provided architectural plans and matching grants that helped build African American schools from Maryland to Texas from the late 1910s to 1932, with 818 projects in North Carolina, more than any other state. The school is significant for its association with African American education in Pender County from the building’s construction in 1921 until its closure in 1958, serving students within walking distance in grades one through six. It is also significant for its architecture as an intact school following Floor Plan No. 20 for a two-teacher school, from the Rosenwald Fund’s Community Schools Plans, Bulletin No. 3, although slightly modified, as was common. The nomination for Canetuck School was funded by an Underrepresented Community Grant to the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office from the National Park Service.
Concord School, Kitrell vicinity, Franklin County, listed 05/31/2018
Concord School’s construction in rural Franklin County was possible because of the Rosenwald Fund, which provided architectural plans and matching grants that helped build public schools for African Americans from Maryland to Texas between the late 1910s and 1932, including 818 projects in North Carolina. The school is significant for its association with African American education in Franklin County from 1922, when the school was built to serve students in grades one through seven, until its closure in 1955 due to school consolidation. Concord School also is important for its architecture as an intact school following Floor Plan No. 20 for a two-teacher school in the Rosenwald Fund’s Community Schools Plans, Bulletin No. 3, although slightly modified, as was common. The nomination for Concord School, which is undergoing rehabilitation, was funded by an Underrepresented Community Grant to the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office from the National Park Service.
Flynt House, Rural Hall, Forsyth County, listed 05/31/2018
The Flynt House is significant as an intact rural Forsyth County example of a comprehensive Colonial Revival renovation by Winston-Salem architect William Roy Wallace. In the 1930s, the Flynt family engaged Wallace, highly regarded for Revival-style designs and meticulous historic building restorations, to oversee the remodeling and expansion of their farm residence, which encompassed two late 18th-century log dwellings that the family had updated in the Greek Revival style in the 1830s. The addition of one-and-one-half-story wings flanking the existing hall-and-parlor-plan two-story house and a rear frame hyphen between the main house and detached kitchen created a tripartite main block with a one-story rear ell. The renovation combined original, salvaged, and reproduction “period” elements including weatherboards, doors, and wall and ceiling sheathing for a uniform Colonial Revival appearance. The property is also significant for landscape architecture due to its Colonial Revival aesthetic expressed in the planting of boxwoods, a stone rear terrace and side patio, a stone bench over a natural spring, a stone well, a picturesquely renovated single-room log cabin and stone paver walkways connecting each of these elements to the main dwelling.
In Western North Carolina
Green Hill Cemetery, Waynesville, Haywood County, listed 5/31/2018
Green Hill Cemetery is locally significant in Waynesville for its excellent and intact collection of grave markers that represent a wide range of funerary art from the mid-19th century into the 1940s. Among the most notable monuments are the post-Civil War marble statues purchased from Asheville monument dealer W. O. Wolfe. In the 20th century marble gradually gave way to granite as a preferred monument material. Other distinctive markers are made from concrete with decorative pebble finishes; these relate to North Carolina’s tradition of folk concrete funerary art.
Haywood County Hospital, Waynesville, Haywood County, listed 06/18/2018
Designed by Charlotte-based architect Louis Asbury and constructed in 1927, Haywood County Hospital is locally significant for the role it played in the history of medicine and health care in Waynesville and Haywood County during the second quarter of the 20th century. After World War II, an increasing need for improved health services resulted in a modern addition in 1952, designed by Asheville architect Lindsay M. Gudger. A second addition, designed by the firm of Foy & Lee Associates of Waynesville and constructed in 1958, expanded the facility’s capacity to 154 beds.
Mars Hill School, Mars Hill, Madison County, listed 05/31/2018
Mars Hill School’s construction was possible because of the Rosenwald Fund, which provided architectural plans and matching grants that helped build African American schools from Maryland to Texas between the late 1910s and 1932, including 818 projects in North Carolina. Mars Hill School was the only school in Madison County assisted by the Rosenwald Fund and is one of only three Rosenwald schools known to be extant in the westernmost counties of North Carolina. The school served elementary school students in grades one through eight in Mars Hill, Marshall, and parts of Yancey County to the east. Thus it is significant for its association with African American education in Madison County and western Yancey County from its construction in 1928 to its closure in 1965 following desegregation. The building is a modified example of Floor Plan No. 20 in Samuel L. Smith’s Community School Plans, Bulletin No. 3. Despite alterations and a loss of material integrity largely due to changed use and deterioration, the school, which is undergoing a thorough rehabilitation, retains distinctive characteristics of the two-teacher school plan and building form. The nomination for Mars Hill School was funded by an Underrepresented Community Grant to the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office from the National Park Service.
In Eastern North Carolina
Allen Grove School, Halifax, Halifax County, listed 05/31/2018
Allen Grove School is located in rural northern Halifax County, approximately two miles northwest of the town of Halifax and five-and-a-half miles south of Weldon. Allen Grove School was one of 46 schools in Halifax County, more than any other county in the state, that were financed and constructed with the assistance of the Rosenwald Fund. The two-classroom school served African American elementary students in the Allen Grove community who lived within walking distance of the school. The school was moved to its current site on the grounds of the former Halifax County Home (now a county-owned community center) in 1996 from its original rural location approximately three miles to the south, where it was threatened with demolition. Allen Grove School meets the National Register criteria for its local significance as an intact example of Floor Plan No. 20 from Samuel L. Smith’s Community School Plans, Bulletin No. 3. The nomination for the school was funded by an Underrepresented Community Grant to the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office from the National Park Service.
Castalia School, Castalia, Nash County, listed 06/18/2018
Castalia School is located in a rural area in the northwest corner of Nash County, just beyond the western municipal limits of Castalia and 10 miles northwest of Nashville, the county seat. This school was one of 17 schools in the county financed and constructed with the assistance of the Rosenwald Fund and one of only six still standing. It served African American elementary students who lived within about five miles of the school. Castalia School is eligible for listing in the National Register for its association with African American education in Nash County from 1921, when the original three-classroom building was constructed, and extending through the 1940s, when two additions were built, to 1961 when the school closed and students were transferred to Cedar Grove Elementary School in downtown Castalia. The nomination for Castalia School was funded by an Underrepresented Community Grant to the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office from the National Park Service.
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About the National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the nation's official list of buildings, structures, objects, sites, and districts worthy of preservation for their significance in American history, architecture, archaeology and culture. The National Register was established by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 to ensure that as a matter of public policy, properties significant in national, state, and local history are considered in the planning of federal undertakings, and to encourage historic preservation initiatives by state and local governments and the private sector. The Act authorized the establishment of a State Historic Preservation Office in each state and territory to help administer federal historic preservation programs.
In North Carolina, the State Historic Preservation Office is an agency of the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. Kevin Cherry, the department's deputy secretary of Archives, History, and Parks, is North Carolina's State Historic Preservation Officer. The North Carolina National Register Advisory Committee, a board of professionals and citizens with expertise in history, architectural history and archaeology, meets three times a year to advise Dr. Cherry on the eligibility of properties for the National Register and the adequacy of nominations.
The National Register nominations for the recently listed properties may be read in their entirety by clicking on the National Register page of the State Historic Preservation Office website. For more information on the National Register, including the criteria for listing, see this page.