Press Releases

Montgomery County has been chosen as the subject of a comprehensive survey of historic buildings and landscapes planned from 2022-23. Funding for this architectural survey comes from the Emergency Supplemental Historic Preservation Fund (ESHPF), administered by the National Park Service, for hurricanes Florence and Michael.

Nominations are open for the North Carolina Heritage Award, the state’s highest honor for traditional artists, until May 2. A program of the N.C. Arts Council, the Heritage Award honors active traditional artists, recognizes artistic excellence in a traditional art, celebrates contributions to communities, and promotes North Carolina’s cultural heritage. Artists who are recognized within their communities as keepers of North Carolina’s living traditions may be nominated for the award. Anyone can nominate a traditional artist or group of artists for a N.C. Heritage Award.

Nominations are being accepted for the 2022 North Carolina Award, the highest civilian honor bestowed by the state, now through April 15. Created by the General Assembly in 1961 and administered by the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, the award recognizes “notable accomplishments by North Carolina citizens” in the fields of literature, science, fine arts and public service.

The North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources and the State Historic Preservation Office (HPO) seek to conduct oral history interviews with persons active in the Civil Rights Movement between the years 1941 to 1976 in northeastern North Carolina.

The North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources is pleased to announce that one district boundary increase, two districts and four 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 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., which is maintained by the National Park Service.

The CSS Neuse Civil War Interpretive Center is growing again.

Somerset Place State Historic Site will commemorate Black History Month with a virtual program, “The Anthropology of Adornment and Identity at Somerset Place.” 

Fort Dobbs State Historic Site will offer a glimpse of the harrowing days of the Anglo-Cherokee War Feb. 26.  The Cherokee and British had been allies when the French and Indian War started, but tensions quickly spiraled into hostilities. The fort was engaged by up to 70 Cherokee warriors in a confusing night-time skirmish on Feb. 27, 1760.

Reconstruction remains one of the most misunderstood periods in our nation’s history. Broadly, it was about the meaning of citizenship as African American enslaved people seized their freedom and the restoration of the former Confederate states to the Union. At the local or regional level within the American South, however, these broad issues played out very differently.   

The State Archives of North Carolina will host a virtual presentation, “Discovering and Telling Lost and Unknown Stories: A Family Odyssey,” Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2-3 p.m.  Deputy Secretary for Archives and History, Dr. Darin Waters, will discuss his research into the Rice and Waters families of western N.C., the importance of the State Archives and other public collections, and his donations of family materials. Join this free webinar to celebrate Black History Month and consider the significance of family and regional history for North Carolina.