Topics Related to Historic Preservation

The North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources is pleased to announce that one district boundary increase, two districts and five 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.
Join the Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum on Saturday, June 11, to honor educator and activist Dr. Charlotte Hawkins Brown for her 139th birthday. Hourly guided tours of Canary Cottage, Dr. Brown’s home, will take place from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Tour prices are $2 for adults (13-64), and $1 for children (12 and under) and seniors (65 and over). The site’s new Little Lending Library will be unveiled at 2 p.m., followed by a wreath-laying ceremony at Dr. Brown’s gravesite on the grounds at 2:30 p.m.
Montgomery County has been chosen as the subject of a comprehensive survey of historic buildings and landscapes planned from 2021-23. 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.
The Ocean City Beach Community will be honored for its historic role in North Carolina’s civil rights history with a marker on the North Carolina Civil Rights Trail. Founded in 1949, Ocean City was the only place African Americans could purchase coastal property in North Carolina, 15 years before the Civil Rights Act.
The North Carolina Historic Preservation Office (HPO) will conduct a comprehensive architectural survey of historic buildings, structures, and sites within the Valdese town limits. The survey will be conducted by Audrey Thomas, Architectural Survey Specialist in the Western Office of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources in Asheville.
A  new interpretive center is coming to Fort Fisher State Historic Site in Kure Beach. Nearly three times larger than its 1965 predecessor, the new center will welcome more than a million annual visitors and showcase museum exhibits about the history of Fort Fisher. In addition, the Underwater Archaeology Branch of the Office of State Archaeology will receive a new conservation lab.
Polk 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.
The Town of Swansboro and the Swansboro Historic Preservation Commission have been awarded a 2021 federal Historic Preservation Fund grant for Certified Local Governments from the National Park Service, administered through the State Historic Preservation Office (HPO) of the North Carolina Office of Archives and History. The project is to conduct an architectural survey update within the boundaries of both the National Register-listed Swansboro Historic District (NR 1990) and the locally designated Swansboro Historic District.
A free online program hosted by the Western Office of the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources will examine the formation of the Ku Klux Klan. Historian Steven Nash will present an in-depth look at the rise of the Ku Klux Klan during Reconstruction and its terroristic campaign against the biracial Republican political coalition that emerged in the late 1860s.
Tickets are now available for Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site’s illumination event, which will take place on the evening of March 19.

The program will commemorate the 157th anniversary of the battle with luminaries for all 4,133 of those killed, wounded, or missing from the battle. Gates will open at 6:30 p.m., with the last admission at 9 p.m.