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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda 10-17-23; 5-a - Joint Public Hearing with the Historic Preservation Commission Regarding the Proposed Designation of the Davis Cotton Gin and Press as an Orange County Historic Landmark 1 ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT Meeting Date: October 17, 2023 Action Agenda Item No. 5-a SUBJECT: Joint Public Hearing with the Historic Preservation Commission Regarding the Proposed Designation of the Davis Cotton Gin and Press as an Orange County Historic Landmark DEPARTMENT: Environment, Agriculture, Parks and Recreation (DEAPR) ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT: 1) Historic Landmark Application and Peter Sandbeck, (919) 245-2517 Report for the Davis Cotton Gin and Press 2) November 2, 2022 Historic Preservation Commission Meeting Minutes 3) Letter from State Historic Preservation Office PURPOSE: To conduct a joint public hearing with the Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) to receive public comment on the application to designate the Davis Cotton Gin and Press as an Orange County Historic Landmark. This is a routine joint public hearing required by State enabling legislation and the County's Historic Preservation Ordinance. BACKGROUND: In 1991, the BOCC adopted the "Ordinance Creating the Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) of Orange County," also referred to as the "Historic Preservation Ordinance." In 1997, the BOCC adopted the Historic Landmark Program, a voluntary program allowing the HPC to designate properties of local historic and/or architectural significance, as authorized by NC General Statute 160D-9-40 - 160D-9-51 . One of the HPC's duties is to recommend properties to the BOCC for historic landmark designation. Properties must meet a high standard of historic and/or architectural significance to be designated as a landmark. The higher standard is appropriate since landmark property owners are eligible for a fifty (50) percent property tax deferral as provided by State law, as long as the property retains its historic character. The intent of this tax treatment is to provide a modest benefit for owners who face high costs to maintain, paint and repair historic buildings, usually by employing local tradespeople. The historic landmark designation process involves several steps culminating with the adoption of an ordinance by the BOCC for each individual landmark. The HPC adopted a motion at its November 2, 2022 meeting stating that the Davis Cotton Gin and Press possesses special historical and/or architectural significance and is worthy of landmark designation. The November 2 2, 2022 meeting minutes are provided as Attachment 2. (This is the fourth of the four landmark applications approved by the HPC on November 2, 2022. The other three properties were approved by the BOCC in June 2023.) The application material for this property (Attachment 1) was then submitted to the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) for review and comment as required by State law. The SHPO provided a positive review (Attachment 3). The next step is for the HPC and BOCC to hold a joint public hearing as required by the County's Historic Preservation Ordinance. Following this joint public hearing, the BOCC and the HPC will take into consideration public comments, if any. It is projected that the HPC will then present a final draft landmark ordinance to the Board of Commissioners for consideration and adoption, likely at a November 2023 Business meeting. FINANCIAL IMPACT: Should this property move forward and the Board adopts the ordinance at a future meeting designating this property as a Historic Landmark, the owners will be eligible to apply for a fifty (50) percent property tax deferral as per State law and the County's Historic Preservation Ordinance. Only the small portion of the overall farm parcel that surrounds the cotton gin is being proposed for landmark designation. A final calculation will be generated by Tax Administration staff. SOCIAL JUSTICE IMPACT: There is no Orange County Social Justice Goal impact associated with this item. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT: There is no Orange County Environmental Responsibility Goal impact associated with this item. RECOMMENDATION(S): The Manager recommends that the Board hold a joint public hearing with the Historic Preservation Commission to receive public comment on the proposed designation of the Davis Cotton Gin and Press as a candidate for designation as an Orange County Historic Landmark. It is projected that the HPC will then present a final draft landmark ordinance to the Board of Commissioners for consideration and adoption, likely at a November 2023 Business meeting. 3 Attachment 1 Historic Landmark Application for the Davis Cotton Gin and Press y - Nil Y � �1 7T~ 4 4 ORANGE COUNTY LOCAL LANDMARK APPLICATION DAVIS FARM COTTON GIN AND PRESS PART I DATE OF APPLICATION: Oct. 25, 2022 1. HISTORIC NAME OF PROPERTY Davis Farm Cotton Gin and Press 2. LOCATION A. Street or Road: 421 C D Farms Road. PIN: 9862611999 B. Township: Chapel Hill c Hillsborough vicinity 3. LEGAL OWNER OF PROPERTY NAME: Weston Glenn Rose and Alexis Payton Rose FIRM and/or ADDRESS: 421 C D Farms Road CITY/STATE: Hillsborough,North Carolina ZIP CODE: 27278 DAY-TIME TELEPHONE: 503-268-2116 (Payton Rose) E-MAIL ADDRESS: paytonarose@gmail.com BRIEF STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE See Part 2, #5. PART 2 4. GENERAL DATA A. Date(s) of Building(s): ca. 1860s/ca. 1880 Original construction: ca. 1960s Subsequent additions, if applicable: ca. 1880 B. Outbuildings: N/A C. Have any buildings on the property been moved? No. Not on the property being designated. D. Approximate Acreage: Approximately 1.5 acres 5 ORANGE COUNTY LOCAL LANDMARK APPLICATION DAVIS FARM COTTON GIN AND PRESS E. Architect and/or Builder/Mason: Unknown. The cotton gin was manufactured by Daniel Pratt Gin Company. F. Original Use: Cotton gin and press G. Present Use: Inactive 5, STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE See attached. 6. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION See attached. 7. HISTORICAL OVERVIEW See attached. 8. PHOTOGRAPHS See attached photo list and digital photographs on enclosed flash drive. 9. SITE PLAN/SURVEY MAPS See attached and written justification under item 9 below. 10. REASON FOR REQUEST The Orange County Historic Preservation Commission has determined the Davis Farm Cotton Gin and Press to be historically significant. 11. IF FORMALLY DESIGNATED BY THE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, WILL THE PROPERTY OWNER SEEK THE TAX DEFERRAL: Yes. 12. APPLICANTICONTACT PERSONIPREPARER INFORMATION Preparer: Name: Laura A. W. Phillips, Architectural Historian Telephone: 336/727-1968 Address: 59 Park Blvd. City/State: Winston-Salem,NC Zip Code: 27127 Email: law bellsouth.net Ap licant � - Name: Peter Sandbeck, Orange Co. Cultural Resources Coordinator Address: PO Box 8181 Telephone: 9191245-2517 City/State: Hillsborough,NC Zip Code: 27278 Signature(s): Date: Email: sandbeck oran ecaun nc.gov This application is submitted at the request of the owner. 2 6 ORANGE COUNTY LOCAL LANDMARK APPLICATION DAVIS FARM COTTON GIN AND PRESS 5. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE The Davis Farm in Chapel Hill Township was in the ownership of the Davis family for 138 years or longer—from at least 1882 to 2020. This farmstead was documented during the initial rural survey of Orange County, carried out in 1992-93 and assigned a site number at that time: OR 0494. Along with the house, believed by the family to have been built in the 1860s, the farm possesses a well-preserved collection of outbuildings typical of those once found throughout Orange County on middling, largely self-sufficient farms dating from the second half of the nineteenth century through the first several decades of the twentieth century. The Davis Farm also had a small-scale agricultural-industrial complex that consisted of a blacksmith shop, a cotton gin and press, and a small corn mill that served not only the Davises but also area farmers. Such complexes, though not necessarily with the same industries, could be found scattered around the county, but surviving examples of these buildings are extremely rare. At the Davis Farm, the blacksmith shop and the corn mill are gone, but the cotton gin and press and the building in which they stand remain. Because of the composition of the soil, the southern part of Orange County, including Chapel Hill Township, was conducive to growing cotton. For a time, this was an important cash crop, and cotton gins to process the cotton appeared on the landscape. Two were noted in 1880, eight in 1907, fourteen in 1915, and fifteen in 1916, with nine of these being located in Chapel Hill Township. Whether these were small facilities like the cotton gin and press at the Davis Farm or much larger is not known, for no other surviving examples have been identified in the county. The gin machinery in the barn at Davis Farm was manufactured by the Daniel Pratt Gin Company of Prattville, Alabama, with patent dates of 1873 and 1877. The frame cotton press with its iron screw mechanism may have been built from a pattern or directions in an agricultural guide. The boll weevil infestation in the Piedmont beginning in the 1920s eventually ruined most of the county's cotton crops and greatly diminished the need for ginning facilities. The Davis Farm Cotton Gin and Press is architecturally significant in Orange County because the log and frame building along with its gin and press machinery displays the distinct characteristics of a small-scale cotton gin facility from the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. The Davis Farm Cotton Gin and Press operated from ca. 1880 to ca. 1940. It is highly significant in Orange County as the only known surviving example of this small-scale agricultural industry that assisted farmers during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. 6. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION E Settin Refer to rints of hotos and the attached Site Plan and Keyfor locations of buildings) The Davis Farm Cotton Gin and Press building at 421 C D Farms Road in Chapel Hill Township is part of the 19.5-acre tract that survives intact from the once much-larger Davis Farm located about 5.3 miles south of Hillsborough off the west side of Old NC 86 South. The setting of the rural, being in the midst of farm lands, woodlands, and some suburban overall property is very housing. The property proposed for designation as an Orange County Local Historic Landmark 3 7 ORANGE COUNTY LOCAL LANDMARK APPLICATION DAVIS FARM COTTON GIN AND PRESS includes approximately 1.5 acres in the southwest corner of the Davis Farm, but its farm setting adds to an understanding of its historic function. Located at the west end of the farm driveway, the cotton gin and press building (Photos 1-6) faces woods on its south and west sides. (refer to Site Plan) East of the cotton gin and press building stands the farmhouse (Photo 18), and north of the building is a collection of other farm outbuildings (Site map). The large area of the property to the south of the compound of buildings is wooded. East of the house and outbuildings is open farm land. To the north of the compound is a ca. 1940 manmade faun lake, a row of apple and pear trees, and additional open farm land edged by woods. The entire farm is not being designated because although it provides an appropriate setting for the cotton gin and press building, the house has been significantly altered, and the accompanying outbuildings are in varying stages of repair and do not bear the singular historic significance of the cotton gin and press building. The following is an overview of the other buildings on the farm and their layout that forms the setting for the cotton gin and press building. According to long-standing family tradition, the original house was built in the 1860s. Constructed of half-dovetail-notched oak logs, the one- and-a-half(nearly two) -story house has a stone foundation, a side-gable roof, a west gable-end chimney, and mortise-and-tenon, pegged rafters. (Photo 18) Additions were built to the house in the 1890s and the 1940s-1950s and aluminum siding was added. Today's owners have removed all the additions, except for the front and rear dormers, and the house currently stands in its exposed-log form. The owners plan to repair the log house and renovate it as part of their long- range project to construct a modest-sized modern farmhouse in the location of the former 1990s rear ell; the two will be joined by a porch/connector. The original log kitchen (Photo 17) was moved twice---to the west of the house in 1929 and again to its present location northwest of the house in 1940. Constructed of half-dovetailed logs, it has a widely overhanging gable on the front end supported by extended log plates and a double-leaf batten door with wrought-iron strap hinges believed to have been fashioned by blacksmith Robert Davis. The chimney, no longer standing, was at the north end. An open shed extends from the east side and a two-stage enclosed shed from the west. After it was moved, the former kitchen took on different uses. Both salt-cured meat and chewing tobacco were hung from rafters, and one of the open sheds was used as a garage. Immediately northwest of the kitchen is a small, concrete-block pump house. Northeast of the kitchen stands the V-notched log corncrib (Photo 17), similar in farm to the kitchen, but smaller. Like the kitchen, its gable roof has a wide front overhang supported by extended log wall plates. Open sheds run along the sides and rear of the crib. Northeast of the crib stands atwentieth- century frame gazebo with a wood floor, wood corner posts with upper braces, and a wood- shingled pyramidal roof. North of the kitchen and northwest of the corncrib is a ca. 1950 frame shed or crib with aside-gable roof, Its front and side walls have been stripped to the studs, and a metal-sheathed shed extends from the north (rear). Two large barns (Site map) stand west and northwest of the kitchen. The northwest barn, used to stable the animals and for feed storage, is the older of the two. The original west side is constructed of half-dovetail-notched logs and likely dates from the same period as the house and 4 8 ORANGE COUNTY LOCAL LANDMARK APPLICATION DAVIS FARM COTTON GIN AND PRESS kitchen. East of the log section and separated from it by an open passage is a ca. 1945 frame section.. The two are encompassed by a gable roof. Multiple open sheds were added over time to all sides of the barn. South of this barn stands the second barn, a frame structure dating from ca. 1950 that was used as a general storage building. It has a gable roof, double-leaf batten doors, and multiple closed and open sheds on all sides. Southwest of the frame barn and immediately northwest of the cotton gin and press building is a small frame granary with flush-boarded exterior walls (partially removed from the front, east), a single batten door on the north end, and a shed roof sloping downward from east to west. A flush-boarded partition wall divides the interior into two sections of unequal size, and an upper level contains multiple storage bins. Cotton Gin and Press In a wooded area at the southwest corner of the complex of farm buildings and directly west of the driveway is the most significant individual farm building on the property—the barn that houses the cotton gin and press and once also housed a small corn mill (Photos 1-6). The barn is a long, two-part, rectangular structure running east-west with large open sheds added in the twentieth century along both the north and south sides. The entire building treasures approximately fifteen feet wide and forty feet long with the open sheds on north and south sides measuring approximately fifteen feet wide. The extended-gable shed at the east end measures approximately eleven feet deep. The east section of the overall building (Photos 1-2 and 6) is built of V-notched logs and may date from around the same time as the house (1860s), although its log roof rafters are not mortise-and-tenoned as they are at the house, but instead exhibit a later method of joining by being attached to a roof ridge board. The bottoms of the rafters are shaped to fit snugly over the top logs of the north and south walls (Photo 6). The original use of the log building is not known. The frame west addition (Photos 4 and 5) has board-and-batten siding and likely was built in the 1880s specifically for the cotton gin and press. A five-V metal gable roof encompasses the two sections of the barn. The log barn rests on a fieldstone foundation. After it was built, an upper floor level supported by circular-sawn joists was inserted to accommodate the barn's new role as part of the cotton ginning process. This probably took place in the 1980s when the frame section was added to the west end. The added upper floor left a short main floor. The south side of the log barn has a large opening (Photo 3). A small opening on the east end allowed the machinery belt to pass through, and another small opening near the bottom of the east wall served the same purpose. A doorway on the west end wall of the log section (Photo 11) provides access to the main level of the frame section of the barn. When the log building became part of the cotton gin, a large open doorway was cut into the east end running from about halfway up the log wall into the weatherboarded gable end (Photo 2). This opening replaced an earlier, smaller window in the gable. A long gable roof supported by log corner posts extends eastward from the log barn (Photos 1-3). According to family tradition, wagons drove under the covered shed created by the extended gable roof to unload cotton into the large upper doorway. Sometimes there would be six to eight wagons lined up in the yard around the gin. Supported by the added floor, bins in the upper part of the log barn (Photo 15) stored cotton for farmers until they had enough cotton to gin and bale. 5 9 ORANGE COUNTY LOCAL LANDMARK APPLICATION DAVIS FARM COTTON GIN AND PRESS The gin is located in the frame section which forms the west end of the barn. While the machinery is on the same level as the upper floor of the log barn, there are support features on the lower level. An opening cut into the board-and-batten siding on the south wall allows for easier access to both levels of the gin operation (Photo 4). A small upper window is also on this wall (Photo 4). A regular-sized door opening on the north wall (Photo 5) provides additional access to the first level. In the northeast corner of the frame section, a ladder stair (Photo 11) rises to the upper level where the machinery is located. A double door at the west end of the upper level opens to a platform where the ginned cotton was pushed into the top of the cotton press (Photo 10). The purpose of a cotton gin is to separate the seeds from the cotton bolls so that the remaining lint can later be processed into cotton fabric. The gin at Davis farm is an iron and wood structure with a heavy timber frame and cast-iron pulley wheels for large leather belts (Photos 12-14)that ran through a slot in the floor and continued through slots in the lower west and east walls of the log section of the barn to the engine outside. During the early decades of the 20th century,the gin was operated by a"hit-and-miss" engine that was started with gasoline and, once started, continued to run on the more economical kerosene fuel. The engine also powered the grinding stones of the corn mill, but not at the same time as the gin. (According to Charles Davis Jr., after the gin and the mill ceased to operate, the hit-and-miss engine was sold to a man in Hillsborough in the 1940s. The corn mill is no longer in situ on the farm.) On the open ground at the west end of the overall building is a large industrial-duty electric motor fitted with a pulley for leather belts (Photos 4 and 7), suggesting that an electric motor may have replaced the hit-and-miss engine when electricity came to this area in 1935-36. Given that the Davis gin was established in the last decades of the 191h century, prior to the age of internal combustion engines, it is likely that it was initially powered by a small portable steam engine of the type often used to power farm machinery and small sawmill operations. In the upper level of the barn, raw cotton was fed from the east into the gin hopper (Photo 13). From there, the cotton bolls were pulled through the gin where nail-like teeth separated the seed from the fiber. Stencils on several part of the machine at the Davis Farm reveal the manufacturer. One cast-iron component of the machine is embossed with"Patented July 15, 1873." One wood part is stenciled with"Danl Pratt Gin Co, Patent .Tune 19, 1877" (Photo 14). The wood hopper bears the patent date of August 28, 1877. These dates, however, do not indicate when the gin was purchased by the Davis family. After the cotton exited the west end of the gin (Photo 12), it was fed from a platform (Photo 10) into the large vertical wood chamber of the cotton press in the adjacent, westernmost, section of the barn (Photos 7-9), where it was tightly compressed into bales. Supported at the corners of the west end by cedar posts, the upper half of the cotton press section of the barn is sheathed with circular-sawn vertical boards, while the lower half is open (Photos 4-5). The press, itself, is a tall, narrow structure of horizontal boards that now leans to the east (Photos 7-9). Corner timbers and iron rods running up the north and south sides (Photo 8), along with cross braces, helped to strengthened the press and hold the chamber together during the strong pressure exerted while the cotton was being pressed into bales. The cotton was pressed by a large iron screw mechanism (Photo 16) that pushed downward on the loose cotton as two bent wood poles attached to the 6 10 ORANGE COUNTY LOCAL LANDMARK APPLICATION DAVIS FARM COTTON GIN AND PRESS screw were pushed by men in a circle around the press (Photos 7-8). The pressed bales were removed through door panels that opened outward at the bottom (Photos 7-9). Integrity Statement: Overall, the Davis Farm Cotton Gin and Press building retains strong integrity. It is in its original location, never having been moved. It retains it setting as part of a little-disturbed nineteenth-to- twentieth-century Orange County farmstead, where it played an important role in the economic activities of the farm. Despite the fact that the log section of building is somewhat deteriorated, the design, materials, and workmanship of the Davis Cotton Gin and Press building retain a remarkable degree of integrity. The building retains its strong association with the farm of which it was a part, having remained in the ownership of the Davis family throughout its history until 2020. Because of all the factors stated above, the building retains the feeling of a late-nineteenth- century cotton gin and press representative of those that once served the cotton-growing farmers of Orange County. 7. 141STORICAL OVERVIEW Pro e Histor The Davis Farm was in the ownership of the Davis family from at least 1882 until 2020----138 years. family history claims that the Davis (earlier Davies) family occupied and farmed over one hundred acres in Orange County beginning prior to the Civil War.' However, the earliest public records of the family in Orange County date from 1880, when fifty-two-year-old Henry (Tames Henry) Davis and his family were recorded in the U.S. census. Born around 1828, Henry Davis was a farmer with a wife, Josephine, age forty-one, and five children—Mary, Flora, Wilson, Robert, and Walker—ranging in age from twenty-one down to nine.z The Agricultural Schedule for the 1880 census provides information on the character of the Davis Farm at that time. Of the farm's total acres, 100 were in woodlands and thirty-five were improved. Crops grown on those improved, or cultivated, acres were typical for Orange County during that period and included Indian corn (fifteen acres), wheat (sixteen acres) and both Irish and sweet potatoes. Neither cotton nor tobacco was grown. In 1879, the acres cultivated on the Davis Farm yielded 225 bushels of Indian corn, 120 bushels of wheat, eleven bushels of Irish potatoes, and thirty bushels of sweet potatoes. The Davises had three horses, one milk cow, seven other cows, fourteen swine, and thirty-five poultry—fifteen listed as "barnyard" and twenty listed as "other." The poultry produced twenty dozen eggs. The milk cow produced twenty-five pounds of butter. During 1879, Henry Davis paid out $20 in farm wages. Looking at the farm as a whole, the buildings and fences were valued at $600, the implements and machinery were valued at$20, and the livestock was valued at$175. The value of all the farm products was reported as being $240.3 'Charles W. Davis Jr.,Typed information on the Davis Hormeplace, April 24, 1991. z Tenth Census of the United States, Population Schedule, 1880,Chapel Hill Township, Orange County,North Carolina. s Tenth Census of the United States, �lgricarltan•e Schedule, 1880, Chapel Hill Township,Orange County,North Carolina. 7 11 ORANGE COUNTY LOCAL LANDMARK APPLICATION DAVIS FARM COTTON GIN AND PRESS Family tradition asserts that Henry Davis built the family's log house that stands today, along with the free-standing log kitchen and the log outbuildings, including the barn associated with the cotton gin.` The first recorded deed for the property dates from 1882, when on March 2, Oliver M. Williams sold James H. Davis eighty-seven and a half acres for $300.5 By 1887, James Henry Davis had died, as attested to by a deed of August 6, 1887, in which four of the Davis heirs and their spouses conveyed fifty acres to their fifth sibling, Robert A. Davis. (At the same time, in separate deeds, the siblings conveyed sixty acres to Wilson H. Davis and fifty acres to flora Davis and her husband George W. Riley.)6 Robert Davis (1867-1938) and Caroline Ray married on December 29, 1887, and thereafter built a log house (no longer standing) for themselves about one-half mile west of the Davis homeplace. After the three oldest of their eight children, including Charles Walker Davis, had been born, they moved their family to the Davis homeplace in 1895. They enlarged the house, dug a well adjacent to the original kitchen and, having moved the kitchen facilities to within the house, moved the original log kitchen northwest of the house. Robert Davis was the blacksmith for the community, and the farm's location along the road between Chapel Hill and Hillsborough placed his shop at a particularly good spot for providing blacksmithing services. The blacksmith shop no longer survives. Robert Davis also ginned cotton and ground both corn and wheat, as his father before him is believed to have done.' The building in which the cotton gin and corn mill were located (Photo 1) does survive and is the subject of this Local Historic Landmark designation. Robert Davis died intestate in 1938. In 1941 the Davis children conveyed the home property in two tracts totaling 125.25 acres to their mother, Cornelia Caroline Davis (1869-1952) until her death, after which the property would go to their sibling, Charles Walker Davis Sr. (1893-1980) and his wife, Mattie Garrett Davis (1898-1985). The Charles Davises continued farming on the homestead but did not continue the industrial activities of blacksmithing, cotton ginning, and corn and wheat grinding.9 In 1969, Charles and Mattie Davis transferred 111.55 acres of the home property in two tracts to their son Charles Walker Davis Jr. (1923-2008) while retaining a life estate. C. W. Davis Jr. was an architect in Raleigh, but he raised beef cattle on the farm and had great concern for its preservation.9 After Mattie Davis died in 1985, Charles Davis Jr. rented out the farm house for several years until one of his daughters and her family remodeled the house and moved into it in 1989.10 'Charles W. Davis Jr. information. 'Orange County Deed Book 49, p.479. f Deed Book 107,pp. 58, 59,and 60. 'Ancest►y.com;Charles Davis Jr. information. ` s Deed Book 114,p.295; Charles Davis Jr. information. 9 Deed Book 223,p. 1062;Charles Davis Obituary,Charleston(S.C.)Post& Courier,November 7,2008. io Charles Davis Jr. information. ( 8 l' 12 ORANGE COUNTY LOCAL LANDMARK APPLICATION DAVIS FARM COTTON GIN AND PRESS Charles Davis Jr. died in 2008, and on May 11, 2020, his five daughters and their spouses sold 19.5 acres of the farmstead, including the house and all the outbuildings, to Glen Weston and Payton Alexis Rose, bringing nearly 140 years of verifiable Davis family ownership to a close.' The Roses are continuing to farm the land. Cotton Production and Cotton Ginnie Because the property being designated is a cotton gin and press building, a look at cotton production and the ginning of cotton in Orange County during the last quarter of the nineteenth century and the first several decades of the twentieth century is important. Agriculture in Orange County, as elsewhere in North Carolina, suffered in the years immediately following the Civil War. For some time, most farmers focused on the production of crops and livestock to sustain their families, while selling any excess. However, as the nineteenth century moved closer to the twentieth, more farmers began to invest in cash crops. The two largest cash crops in the county were bright-leaf tobacco and cotton. Because of the composition of soils in various parts of the county, large crops of tobacco tended to be planted in the north, while cotton was most commonly found in the townships south of Hillsborough, including Chapel Hill Township where Davis Farm is located. In the state as a whole, cotton was one of the crops that regained its pre-war production level by 1870, and by 1880, its production was more than three times what it had been in 1860. However, cotton prices declined from twenty-five cents a pound in 1868 to twelve cents in the 1870s, to nine cents in the 1880s, and to seven cents in the early 1890s. By 1894, the price of cotton had dropped to only five cents a pound. Farmers found it difficult to break even unless they could sell their cotton for at least ten cents per pound.12 In 1880, no cotton was reported in the Agriculture Schedule of the census as being grown on Henry Davis's 135-acre farm (35 acres in cultivation). In 1890, the average farm size in Orange County was 114 acres, and a little over 1,000 bales of cotton were produced. By the turn of the twentieth century, 5,000 acres were being planted in cotton, primarily in the southern townships. By 1909, the number of cotton bales produced in the county had increased to 1,430. However, at the same time, 1.7 million pounds of tobacco were produced.' As a cash crop, cotton could not compare with the production levels of tobacco, and although some fanners cultivated cotton as a cash crop, other farmers planted small amounts of cotton that could be woven into fabric for the family's clothes. To get to the point of being able to make fabric in either large or small amounts, the cotton had to be ginned to remove the seeds. And that is where the Davis Cotton Gin and Press came into play, beginning it appears, in the 1880s. No census records ever mention the Davis cotton gin. That may have been because, although it was serving not only the Davis family but also neighboring farmers according to family tradition, the total amount of cotton ginned was small 11 Deed Book 6657,p.2086. 12 Hugh Talmage Lefler and Albert Ray Newsome,North Carolina: The Histoq of a Southern State(Chapel Hill; The University of North Carolina Press, 1973),pp. 521 and 524. "U.S. Census Agriculture Schedules for 1880, 1890, 1900, 1909,Chapel Hill Township,Orange County,North Carolina. 9 13 ORANGE COUNTY LOCAL LANDMARK APPLICATION DAVIS FARM COTTON GIN AND PRESS enough not to have been recorded in the industrial schedule of the census. Or perhaps the Davises did not report the gin's production. Nevertheless, its surviving presence on the Davis Farm as a gin that was obviously used, cannot be denied. There may have been many of these small ginning operations in the county, especially in Chapel Hill and the surrounding townships where the most cotton in the county was being grown, but none of the county-wide architectural surveys conducted since 1990 identified the presence of any others. The cotton gin at the Davis Farm was manufactured by the Daniel Pratt Gin Company, evident from the several places on the machine that are stenciled or embossed with the company's name and various patent dates from 1873 and 1877 (Photo 14). These dates, however, do not mean that the machine was purchased by the Davises in the 1870s, only that the machine was patented in those years. Daniel Pratt was born in New Hampshire in 1799 and worked on his family's farm until he was apprenticed to an architect at the age of sixteen. In 1819,he was released from him apprenticeship and moved to Savannah. After transferring to Milledgeville, the cotton-growing center of Georgia, he spent several years designing and building homes for wealthy planters. While in Georgia, Pratt met another New England transplant, Samuel Griswold, who manufactured cotton gins. After managing Griswold's factory for a year, Pratt became Griswold's business partner. He later left that venture and moved to central Alabama with enough materials to build fifty gins. He established the Daniel Pratt Gin Company around 1833 and began to manufacture gins around 1836. In 1838,he constructed a permanent factory and founded the town of Prattville. During the 1850s, the Pratt Gin Company manufactured cotton gins for planters all over the world, including Russia, Great Britain, France, Cuba, Mexico, and several countries in Central and South America. By 1860, the Pratt Cotton Gin Company was manufacturing at least 1,500 gins a year. Daniel Pratt died in 1873, and his estate went to his daughter, Ellen, and his adopted son, Merrill, who bought out Ellen in 1881. Merrill Pratt's son, Daniel, operated the gin manufacturing business from 1889 to 1899, when it was sold to Continental Gin Company. That firm later became the Continental Eagle Corporation, which continued to manufacture gins in Pratt's original factory buildings until at least 2009.14 One way to get a sense of the number of cotton gins in Orange County is through period business directories, although they obviously—given the presence of the gin at the Davis Farm--did not list all of them. In Levi Branson's business directories for North Carolina, no cotton gins were listed in Orange County for the years 1869, 1890, and 1896. (Several were listed in 1869, but they were in the area of Orange County that became Durham County in 1881.)15 However,two cotton gins were listed for the county in the Industrial Schedule of the 1880 census. In 1907, The North Carolina Year Book and Business Directory listed eight cotton gins in Orange County. By 1915, the same directory listed fourteen cotton gins in the county, eight of which were in Chapel Hill Township. In 1916 the number had grown slightly to fifteen gins, nine of which were in '4 Herbert J.Lewis,"Daniel Pratt,"Encyclopedia ofAlabama.h!tp://Encylcopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1 184. Accessed July 13,2021. "Levi Branson,Branson's North Carolina Business Directory(Raleigh:Branson& Jones, 1869;Levi Branson, Office Publisher, 1890 and 1896) 10 14 ORANGE COUNTY LOCAL LANDMARK APPLICATION DAVIS FARM COTTON GIN AND PRESS Chapel Hill Township." Although the Davis Cotton Gin and Press was never listed in these directories, family tradition claims that it was in production until at least the early 1930s.'7 Despite the fact that cotton production in Orange County had increased in 1909 from where it had been in the late-nineteenth century, this rise was short-lived. As throughout the South, cotton production was brought down by the boll weevil. Weevils that attacked cotton bolls entered the United States from Mexico in the late-nineteenth century. First spotted in Texas, they had spread to all the major cotton-producing areas in the country by the 1920s.18 That is when they first struck the Piedmont, bringing cotton prices down from thirty cents a pound in 1910 to twenty- five cents a pound in the late 1920s, By 1932, the price per pound had dropped to ten cents. After ruining cotton fields throughout the 1930s, cotton farming in Orange County largely ceased.19 In 1925, Robert A. Davis had eight acres planted in cotton. In that year the average for Chapel Hill Township, one of Orange County's largest cotton producers, was 3.7 acres, so Davis cultivated more than twice the average. According to the North Carolina Farm Census for the years 1925, 1935, and 1945, 1925 was the only year in which the Davises were recorded as growing cotton. By the 1935 census, cotton cultivation in Chapel IIill Township had dropped considerably from its level ten years earlier.20 According to a 1939 report prepared by Orange County agricultural agents Don S. Matheson and Joe N. Howard, cotton as a money crop was rapidly being displaced by tobacco, livestock, and poultry. In 1929, the county had planted a total of 3,206 acres of cotton and had sold 1,349 bales. Because of the boll weevil, the agents predicted a harvest of only about 400 bales in 1939. They considered the shift from cotton production to be very important, as cotton was one of the main sources of income for many farmers. Between the boll weevil and the low price of cotton, it had become very difficult for farmers to get even the cost of production out of raising that crop. Thus, the county's agricultural extension program had begun to encourage farmers to substitute livestock and poultry production for cotton. This had favorable results, with the gross income from the increase of livestock and poultry in the decade after 1929 being at least four times the lost income from cotton.2 1 By 1945, only 126.5 acres of cotton were being grown in Chapel Hill Township, representing only eight percent of the 1,540 acres planted in 1925.22 Thus, the recommendations made by the county agriculture agents to farmers in 1929 were both timely and good. "The North Carolina Year Book and Business Directozy(Raleigh: The News and Observer Publishing Company, 1907, 1915,and 1916). 17 Charles W. Davis Jr. Interview by Laura Phillips, September 12, 1991. 1a Dominic Reisig,"The Boll Weevil War,or Now Farmers and Scientists Saved Cotton in the South," in The Abstract,May 17,2017. 19 Richard L. Mattson,"History and Architecture of Orange County,North Carolina," September 1996,pp.42-43, froin John L.Bell Jr.,1-fard Thnes: Beginning of the Greal Depression in North Carolina, 1929-1933 (Raleigh:N. C. Division of Archives and History, 1982),pp. 5-11. 211925 Farm Census for North Carolina; 1935 Farm Szovey of North Carolina Townships. 21 Don S. Matheson and Joe N. Howard,"1939 Narrative Report,"Orange County,North Carolina, pp. 11-12. 22 1946 Farm Census: 1945 Crop lnventojy for North Carolina. 11 15 ORANGE COUNTY LOCAL LANDMARK APPLICATION DAVIS FARM COTTON GIN AND PRESS Context: The Place of the Davis Farm Cotton Gin and Press among Agricultural Outbuildings and Agricultural lndustr in Oran e Count North Carolina Historically, late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century farmsteads in Orange County were characterized by a house and an accompanying collection of both domestic and agricultural outbuildings. Early outbuildings and tobacco barns were usually of log construction, while later outbuildings tended to be frame. Typical outbuildings included a kitchen, well, smokehouse, corncrib, granary, privy, and a variety of sheds and barns that fulfilled the needs of the type of agriculture practiced on a particular farm. For example, farms that cultivated tobacco needed tobacco-curing barns and pack houses for packing and storing it. Dairy farms needed large dairy barns to house the cows and store hay in an accessible place, silos, and milking parlors. Other farms had outbuildings to accommodate special agricultural or industrial activities, such as the barn at the Davis Farm that housed a cotton gin and press and also a corn mill. Many outbuildings initially served one purpose but were later converted to another use as needed. Outbuildings closely associated with household activities, such as the kitchen, well, smokehouse, and privy, were located near the house, while those associated with agricultural activities were located farther away. Over time, many outbuildings fell out of use and eventually collapsed or were demolished. Nevertheless, some farms, including several in Chapel Hill Township, retain largely intact groups of outbuildings. The mid-nineteenth-century Samuel J. Couch Farm (OR0470) on West Cornwallis Road retains its kitchen, corncrib, and granary, while the ca. 1885 Donnell-Brown (OR0477) on Mt. Moriah Road retains its kitchen, smokehouse, and corncrib. The John Kirkland House (OR0435) on Old NC 86 has one mid-nineteenth century log barn along with a large complement of twentieth-century outbuildings, including a kitchen that was later converted to a potting shed, a barn with corncrib, a chicken house, a well house, a shed, and a shop. On Smith Level Road, the 1903 Sidney W. Crabtree Farm (OR0366) retains a picturesque setting with a barn, tractor shed, corncrib, smokehouse, and a cotton house. The Davis Farm (OR1179), itself, retains a large and representative collection of outbuildings including a kitchen, corncrib, shed, two barns, granary, pump house, and gazebo, in addition to the cotton gin and press building Photo 18). The make-up of a farm's outbuildings sometimes changed to support new agricultural endeavors, such as when many farms in Chapel Hill and adjacent townships converted to dairy farming after the demise of cotton. The Blackwood Dairy Farm (OR0346) on Mt. Carmel Church Road is a good example with its pre-dairy smokehouse, feed house, potato house, and tobacco barn--all log—and privy, storage building, and mills house. From the farm's dairy days are a large cow barn, a milking barn, two feed barns, and a corncrib. Another good example is the Jessie S. and Nettie Neville Farm (OR0386) on Old Greensboro Road. It retains its mid-nineteenth-century log house and smokehouse, as well its 1926 house, smokehouse, privy, corncrib, wood shed, chicken house, and other sheds. After the farm became a dairy in 1927, a lounging barn, milking barn, milk cooling house, and two silos were added. The Cate Farm (OR0436) on Old NC 86 constitutes a third example. It added a large dairy barn and silo to its already existing combination smokehouse/wash house, granary/cornerib, chicken house, and power house. i+ 12 16 ORANGE COUNTY LOCAL. LANDMARK APPLICATION DAVIS FARM COTTON GIN AND PRESS Another characteristic of rural Orange County from its early years until the twentieth century brought more and better roads, was the operation of small-scale industries that supported the needs of area farmers. The most prominent of these were grist mills and sawmills along the county's numerous waterways. Only a few of these, such as Faucett Mill and Morrow's Mill survive. The Faucett Mill (OR0301) on the Eno River in Cheeks Township is the most intact. A grist mill has stood on its site since 1792, but the present large, weatherboarded building may date from closer to the mid-nineteenth century. Morrow's Mill (OR0879), a large grist mill on Cane Creek in Bingham Township, was built ca. 1878, but a mill had been on the site since at least 1787. A sawmill and a cotton gin were also at the site, but they do not survive, although the large stone dam that served all these industrial concerns does. Morrow's Mill, itself, was remodeled and converted to a residence some years ago. There were also smaller-scale corn mills, sawmills, blacksmith shops, cotton gins, and other industries that supported farmers closer to home. However,these industries and their associated buildings proved ephemeral over time, and most have disappeared from the landscape. Such was the case, in part, at Davis Farm, which had a small-scale industrial complex consisting a blacksmith shop, a corn mill, and a cotton gin and press. The blacksmith shop no longer stands, and the grinding stones for the corn mill, which occupied the same building as the cotton gin and press, are long gone. Remarkably, the cotton gin and press survive in good shape, protected by the building in which they stand. 9: SETTING AND JUSTIFICATION OF PROPOSED BOUNDARY FOR LANDMARK DESIGNATION The proposed boundary shown on the attached aerial photo map was drawn to include the existing log and frame barn structure, with associated sheds, that house the cotton gin and its related components, including the press. The location of the barn at the SW corner of that section of the larger parcel provides ample visual buffers as the land on the neighboring parcels to the west cannot be built on within several hundred feet of the barn due to the topography and the position of the access road. This proposed boundary was established in consultation with the owners, who did not wish to include additional land or buildings within the landmark designation. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1925 Farm Census for North Carolina, 1935 Farm Survey for North Carolina Townships. 1946 Farm Census: 1945 Crop Inventory for North Carolina. Ancestry.com. Bell, John L. Jr. Hard Times: Beginning of the Great Depression in North Carolina, 1929-1933. Raleigh: N. C. Division of Archives and History, 1982. '€ 13 17 ORANGE COUNTY LOCAL LANDMARK APPLICATION DAVIS FARM COTTON GIN AND PRESS Branson, Levi. Branson's North Carolina Business Directory. Raleigh: Branson& Jones, 1869. Branson, Levi. Branson's North Carolina Business Directory. Raleigh: Levi Branson, Office Publisher, 1890, 1896. Charleston (S.C.) Post and Courier,November 7, 2008. Davis, Charles W. Jr. Interview by Laura Phillips. September 12, 1991. Davis, Charles W. Jr. Typed information on the Davis Homeplace, April 24, 1991. Lefler, Hugh Talmage and Albert Ray Newsome. North Carolina: The History of a Southern State. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1973. Lewis, Herbert J. "Daniel Pratt." Encyclopedia ofAlabarna. htt ://Enc leo ediaofalabama.or article/h-1184. Accessed July 13, 2021. Matheson, Don S. and Joe N. Howard. "1939 Narrative Report." Orange County,North Carolina. Mattson, Richard L. "History and Architecture of Orange County,North Carolina." September 1996. The North Carolina Year Book and Business Directory. Raleigh: The News and Observer Publishing Company, 1907, 1915, 1916. Orange County Deeds. Reisig, Dominic. "The Boll Weevil War, or How Farmers and Scientists Saved Cotton in the South." The Abstract, May 17, 2017. Tenth Census of the United States, Agriculture Schedule, 1880, Chapel Hill Township, Orange County,North Carolina. Tenth Census of the United States, Population Schedule, 1880, Chapel Hill Township, Orange County,North Carolina. U.S. Census Agriculture Schedules. 1880, 1890, 1900, 1909. Chapel Hill Township, Orange County,North Carolina. 14 <�, ►s-. _-p. . ->'?�. •►•.i.; _F�_. . 1 _..P�r/f��, �* ;: a ..r .t:• . �_ a •�, ,;!iC�. s��, , '. '.:�• . . •sri�{ � ,� 5"i� � r 1 +} � �'. -' r x �_ P� ,s 1, �f ��. � '��"'•fie ''.� .!',Y.'i^1': i1 �^ • - tit. A i . _ _ 'r_I�I #-• .!• '• i; 1!tti� 1�_ks.1T����'.. �,� r,=JL � :` y ew... - -T - A jr, -.gk it _ vk Photo 1: Davis Farm : barn housing cotton gin; the oldest east section at left is built of log; addition at right (board and batten) houses the gin machinery; sheds are later. Ads .s` Photo 2: Dads Farm : cotton gin barn, west end, where cotton press is located. View looking southeast. (Vote location of the large wood box for the cotton press. 1 1 _ r r _ I I , r 1 a - L 1 Y •rR � 'fir L�t � rf'` �♦ r/ _ `.' `.�� �.` �,L�I1l,•' ' Photo 3: Davis Farm : cotton press overall view; note vertical wood timbers used as push poles for the press (blue arrows). Lower door that looks like a fence section could be opened to remove the pressed bales Photo 4: Davis Farm : cotton press, overall view; vertical wood construction in center is the chamber where cotton was # laced to be pressed into bales. � p Cotton was pressed b pushing p Yp g two wood } poles (blue arrow on p { opposite sides of the press, that turned a large iron screw press to push downward on the loose = cotton . The pressed bales were removed through door panels at .f bottom ( red arrows) M• 8a Photo 5: Dads Farm : view showing tall iron screw exposed at top of press chamber; wood cross-member (blue arrows) is attached to the vertical push poles which turned the screw to compress the cotton i Cotton fed otton exits r. into gin here gin here S" lit- sib's•,. „= k - - i` Leather drive belt came through floor here to connect to pully that TIP, poked machinery Photo 6: Dads Farm : cotton gin, north side: cotton was fed into hopper at left and discharged at right, where it was then fed by hand into the hole in the top of the press chamber (out of photo at right) . `r r' 1 Y . 1 1 1 77 • Photo 7: Davis Farm : cotton gin, overall view looking west: cotton was moved from the storage/sorting area in upper part of log barn (where the photographer is standing) then fed into hopper (red arrow) . W 64 OW TIP0.- Alt- So Photo 8: Davis Farm : cotton gin, view of manufacturer's name stenciled on south side panel : "Dan ] Pratt Gin Co Patent June 19, 1877" Davis Cotton Gin and Barn, Orange County �!r 47C- 7275 ,r .F January 27, 2023 This map contains parcels prepared for the inventory of real property within Orange County,and is compiled from recorded deed, plats,and other public records and data. Users of this map are hereby notified that the aforementioned public primary information sources should be consulted for verification of the information contained on this map. PIN: 9862611999 The county and its mapping companies assume no legal responsibility forthe information on this map. OWNER 1-. ROSE GLENN WESTON SIZE: 19.51 A BUILDING COUNT: 2 1-4,800 OWNER 2: ROSE PAYTON ALEXIS DEED REF: 6657/2086 LAND VALUE: 0 0.04 0.08 0.16 mi ADDRESS 1: 421 C D FARMS RD RATECODE: 10 BLDG VALUE: ADDRESS 2: TOWNSHIP CHAPEL HILL USE VALUE: 0 0.05 0.1 0.2 km CITY: HILLSBOROUGH BLDG SQFT: 3349 TOTAL VALUE: * r1 STATE, ZIP: NC 27278 YEAR BUILT: 1921 DATE SOLD: 05/11/2020 ORANGE COUNTY LEGAL DESC: 5 REV ELLEN M DAVIS HEIRS P121/133 TAX STAMPS: 658 NORTH CAROLT A Davis Farm Cotton Gin and Press : proposed parcel of approx. 1 . 5 acres for landmark designation •' � ",•irai,gip:fL>c s, North ,� ♦ems * � jP 4 ..+ _ : - s r .fit 1 r : s +a • • • r • . s • 28 Attachment 2 Orange County HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION Approved Meeting Summary November 2"d, 2022 Bonnie Davis Center, 1020 US 70 West, Hillsborough MEMBERS PRESENT: Tom Loter, Cecelia Moore, Paul Noe, Steve Peck MEMBERS ABSENT: None STAFF PRESENT: Peter Sandbeck GUESTS: Todd Dickinson, Art Menius ITEM #1: CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order at 6:34 pm. ITEM #2: CHANGES OR ADDITIONS TO AGENDA None. ITEM #3: APPROVAL OF MINUTES for August 24, 2022: Loter moved to approve the minutes; seconded by Peck; it was noted that there was a misspelling in item 4; motion approved with correction. ITEM #4: TEMS FOR DECISION: a. Motion to proceed to propose four new properties to the BOCC for Landmark Designation: Staff provided a brief overview presentation to highlight the four landmarks now ready to move forward to the BOCC for designation, pending the completion of the mandatory review of our applications and reports by the State Historic Preservation Office as dictated by our ordinance. These properties are: Harvey's Chapel AME Church/site of former church and cemetery; Eno Quaker Burying Ground; the David Faucette House; and the Davis Cotton Gin and Barn. The goal is to get these ready to be scheduled for the BOCC joint public hearing in April or May of this coming year. This process involves holding a joint public hearing with the BOCC to hear any possible public comment. The actual landmark designation ordinances will be considered and adopted by the BOCC at the next meeting following the public hearing. Staff will notify members once we get a better idea of the schedule for this. Loter moved that: 1) the HPC finds that all four properties possess special historical, architectural, and cultural significance, and also possess integrity of design, setting, workmanship, materials, feeling, and/or association as required to be eligible for landmark designation; and 2) the HPC directs staff to present all four properties to the BOCC for the public hearing and subsequent landmark designation, pending state approval of the applications and reports. Motion seconded by Peck; motion approved. ITEM #5: DISCUSSION ITEMS a. Date for December meeting: Staff proposed a possible meeting date of Dec. 14th, as is usual for the HPC to avoid trying to hold a meeting too close to the Christmas holiday. This was acceptable to all present. 1 29 b. New Discoveries in the Woods: Staff presented a PowerPoint to share highlights of a recent tour he took with Judge Beverly Scarlett, where she showed him a cemetery containing burials of the enslaved workers associated with Hardscrabble Plantation, the seat of the prominent Cain family, who also built the fine house Sans Souci in Hillsborough. Members viewed photos of the house, then views of the cemetery, which was identified during a property survey. The owner, Jim Parlsey, agreed to donate the cemetery to a new non-profit group called Indigenous Memories, formed by Judge Scarlett and her sister. More research is needed on the enslaved population there. From preliminary assessments, there are at least 50-75 burials there. Staff then went on a tour with Judge Scarlet to view several very interesting rock piles or mounds located on her farm nearby off of Terry Road. One site exhibited five piles or mounds of rocks arranged in a rough circle, while another is freestanding and high, perhaps six feet. The theory is that these may be associated with Indian ceremonial activities or perhaps burials, although there is no definite proof. This area of the county has traditionally been the home of the Maroons, a term used to describe the mixed race Indian and Black people who lived in their own community here. Judge Scarlett hired Shawn Patch, a respected professional archaeologist with New South Associates in Greensboro, who came to assess the rock piles. He is doing research and will present his findings or opinions at a later date. Staff also toured the Ray slave cemetery, located nearby off the driveway of the gravel road leading to the late Peter Kramer's farm, on the north side of Lipscomb Grove Church Rd. Peck noted that there is now a much greater interest within the Black community to search for their enslaved ancestors, leading to a growing number of new discoveries of just such sites as these. We should expect to see many more cemeteries being discovered or perhaps just revealed as they were never lost, just not discussed. Judge Scarlett's leadership and willingness to take action and talk about these sites will be a great asset to this effort. Staff noted that he has received multiple inquiries from county residents who are discovering such cemeteries or are interested in their preservation. All agreed that the HPC can certainly take on an important role in this effort. c. Strayhorn House in Carrboro• potential for HPC involvement in a National Register nomination: Staff reviewed the recent history of this important historic property built by formerly enslaved members of the Strayhorn family, located in Carrboro. Preservation Chapel Hill received a recent Covington Foundation grant to help with some needed restoration work to the floor system. They are hoping to raise funds to help match the grant. The house is protected by a Preservation Easement held by Preservation Chapel Hill, implemented while Ernie Dollar was the director there. There has been an interest in placing this on the National Register for some years, and it is already on the State Study List as being eligible. Staff would like to get a general sense of the pleasure of the group to see if there is interest in having the HPC help with this effort, perhaps with funding assistance or administration of the effort. Members were in favor and agreed that this is a good project to pursue if needed. d. Updating our HPC ordinance to reflect changes made by the General Assembly: Staff just wanted to note that this is a project that will be in the works this coming year, to review and fine-tune our ordinance, working with the county attorney's staff. Our last update was in 2013. e. News and updates from the Preservation NC Annual Meeting: Staff provided an overview of the various programs and topics covered at the meeting held in Winston- Salem last week, including sessions on the preservation of the burial grounds of the enslaved in Forsyth County, and a very impressive and informative panel about preserving and revitalizing Black neighborhoods that were destroyed or impacted by highways and urban renewal, with panelists including city council members and local preservation leaders, discussing the long-term damage these projects caused and are still causing, through the destruction of close-knot communities. 2 30 f. Membership/election of officers: This was deferred to the next meeting in the interest of time. ITEM #6: UPDATES AND INFORMATION ITEMS a. Blackwood Farmhouse Restoration Project: Work continues to progress on the exterior restoration. Wayne Thompson is on site now working on repointing the stone chimneys. Carpenter Jeff Bergman has completed the window restoration and is working on the siding. Work on the other park improvements continues to progress. b. Ridge Road School National Register Nomination progress report: Our consultant for the project, Heather Fearnbach, has scheduled a site visit for mid-November to start work on the Study List application for this historic c. 1932 Black school north of Hillsborough, to be submitted to the State Historic Preservation Office before Dec. 31. c. Troy and Roberta Andrews House National Register Nomination Project: Staff met with Jean Earnhardt, owner of the house and daughter of Troy and Roberta Andrews, to promote the idea of placing the house on the National Register. Some members will recall the fascinating story of how this remarkable Modernist house was designed by a Swiss architecture student while studying under Frank Lloyd Wright at the original Taliesin in Wisconsin. This meeting was arranged with help from local community member Bonnie Hauser. Ms. Earnhardt has carefully preserved the original architect's plans and photos of the house and the talented Black stonemasons who built the house, Alf and Willis Barbee from Carrboro. She is interested in having this listed on the Register and will be talking with her children about the idea to get their approval. Peck was interested about where stones were quarried in that area. Staff noted that the owner explained that the stones for this house are all rough field stones that were gathered from the immediate site and not quarried. The owner and Ms. Hauser are reaching out to descendants or relatives of the Alf and Willis Barbee to invite them to view the house and to admire the fine stonework. d. Historic Architecture Book Proiect: The author for our Historic Architecture Book, Laura Phillips, has finished all the property entries following the advice of our editorial consultant, Catherine Bishir. This marks the completion of all her work. Staff will have to review all of this and work in cooperation with Bishir to resolve any outstanding editorial issues. Staff recently met with Julie Allred, our book designer with BW&A Books. They are eager to get started on this once we finish the editorial and other text work, like captions and front matter. She will obtain new printing prices for us now in case there have been changes due to supply chain issues. The essay chapters will be available for HPC members to read and edit; several members indicated interest. e. Open air time: Peck discussed a property called the Chapel Carriage House, that has an old cabin on the property; the old owner name is Lindsay or Lindley. It is a wedding venue now. They have what they believe is an old slave cemetery on the site. He will do some checking and share information with staff about the cemetery. ITEM #7: ADJOURNMENT: The meeting was adjourned at 8:09 pm. Meeting summary by Peter Sandbeck, DEAPR staff 3 31 ME STAT£cp North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources State Historic Preservation Office Ramona M.Bartos,Administrator Governor Roy Cooper Office of Archives and History Secretary D.Reid Wilson Deputy Secretary Darin J.Waters,Ph.D. May 24, 2023 Peter Sandbeck Cultural Resources Coordinator P.O. Box 8181 Hillsborough,NC 27278 RE: Proposed Designation of the Davis Farm Cotton Gin and Press, 421 C D Farms Rd., Hillsborough, Orange County. Dear Mr. Sandbeck: Thank you for the report we received on the proposed designation of the Davis Farm Cotton Gin and Press, 421 C D Farms Rd., Hillsborough, Orange County. We have reviewed the report and offer the following comments in accordance with North Carolina General Statute 160D-946. The report states that"the Davis Cotton Gin and Press is architecturally significant in Orange County because the log and frame building along with its gin and press machinery displays the distinct characteristics of a small-scale cotton gin facility from the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries . . . It is highly significant in Orange County as the only known surviving example of this small-scale agricultural industry that assisted farmers during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries." The report is thorough, complete, and engaging with very good architectural and historic contexts. We have no suggestions for improvement or strengthening, and we believe the report provides the information that the commission and the local governing body will need to make an informed judgement regarding the worthiness for local designation. Landmark designation means the community recognizes the property is worthy of preservation because of its special significance to the local community. Any substantial changes in design, materials, and appearance to the property is subject to the design review procedures of the preservation commission. The owner may receive an annual deferral of up to fifty percent of the property taxes for as long as the property is designated and retains significance and integrity. (N.C.G.S. 105-278 et seq.). Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the report. Please note, our comments are advisory only and therefore nonbinding. Once the governing board has received a recommendation from the Orange County Location:109 East Jones Street,Raleigh NC 27601 Mailing Address:4617 Mail Service Center,Raleigh NC 27699-4617 Telephone/Fax:(919)814-6570/814-6898 32 Historic Preservation Commission, it should proceed in the same manner as would otherwise be required for an amendment to the zoning ordinance. Once the decision has been made,please return a completed copy of the enclosed form to our office. This letter serves as our comments on the proposed designation of the Davis Farm Cotton Gin and Press. Please contact me at Kristi.brantley( ,ncdcr.gov (preferred) or 919-814-6576 should you have any questions about our comments. Sincerely, Kristi Brantley Local Preservation Commissions/CLG Coordinator CC: Commission Chair Enclosure