HomeMy WebLinkAboutHPC Meeting Summary 01242024 Orange County
HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION
Approved Meeting Summary
January 24th, 2024
Bonnie Davis Center, 1020 US 70 West, Hillsborough
MEMBERS PRESENT: Todd Dickinson, Tom Loter, Art Menius, Cecelia Moore, Steve Peck, Anne
Whisnant
MEMBERS ABSENT: Paul Noe
STAFF PRESENT: Peter Sandbeck
GUESTS: None
ITEM #1: CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order at 6:34 pm.
ITEM #2: CHANGES OR ADDITIONS TO AGENDA
Staff asked to shift the showing of the historic movies until after the Moorefields
presentation, in case we run short of time.
ITEM #3: APPROVAL OF MINUTES for December 13th, 2023:
Peck moved to approve the minutes; seconded by Loter, motion approved.
ITEM #4: ITEMS FOR DECISION:
a. Potential donation of a historic preservation easement on the Henry Calvin Andrews
House in Bingham Township: Staff provided a PowerPoint overview of this property being
proposed for such an easement, which the HPC is allowed to accept by the ordinance and
state law. The owner has approached the county to offer an easement on the house and
the surrounding parcel of approximately 11 acres, located at 8218 Bright's Way, northwest
of Chapel Hill. The area is subject to intensive development for costly large lot houses.
The house began as a one-room log structure built c. 1850 for Andrews and his wife, Mary
Faucett. Andrews taught at his own private school, the Andrews Academy, once located
nearby. He's the namesake of the community of Calvander. The house was later enlarged
by a half story upper addition and a rear ell. The property includes several important log
outbuildings: a barn, corncrib and a 1930s cabin, along with several more recent
outbuildings dating from the mid-late 20th century. All the early structures would be
included under the preservation easement, which would be complemented by a
conservation easement to protect the full parcel. Taken as a whole, the house and
outbuildings provide an excellent example of a typical modest Orange County farmstead
in the 19th century. Discussion followed. A preservation easement would cover the house
and outbuildings, with a companion easement to protect the property and any significant
site features and plantings. Perhaps Preservation NC might be interested if the county
isn't. This might also be a landmark candidate. If we move forward, then staff will bring
back some sample language for the group to review. Members agreed that staff should
pursue this offer to see what can be done. Dickinson moved to ask staff to proceed given
the significance of the property and the rapid pace of development on the surrounding
parcels; seconded by Whisnant; motion passed. Staff will make a site visit and consult
with owner and Chris Hirni with the Lands Legacy program and report back.
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ITEM #5: DISCUSSION ITEMS
a. Investigation of stone mounds at Blackwood Farm: Recently Judge Scarlett toured
the burial ground for the enslaved at Blackwood Farm, and while there, noticed that there
were several large stone mounds in that general vicinity, similar to the stone mounds that
she's identified over the eastern part of the county that may be associated with the Indian
population—those that the HPC toured last fall. She has asked that the county take
positive steps to protect these. Staff plans to meet with her at the site to discuss her
concerns and develop some general guidelines for how the county takes care of these in
the future. Staff will arrange to meet her in the next week or two, with Noe joining. Some
members expressed interest in joining so staff will share the date and report back.
b. Screeninq of H. Lee Waters movies from 1930s: Staff explained that Waters was a
well-known itinerant film maker who traveled through many small towns in NC to make
movies of local people doing everyday tasks, and then showed these at local movie
houses to promote attendance, in return for some payment, as a business model during
the Depression. These focus on the communities around the Black high schools in both
Chapel Hill (old Orange Co Training Institute) and Hillsborough (Central High School) and
show a wealth of detail. His close-ups of typical people and students are warm and
engaging, and clearly reflect his talent for generating interest and increased attendance.
These are priceless documentaries now.
c. Old Courthouse tour dates: Staff and members discussed possible dates in the
upcoming two weeks. January 30th and February 7th looked promising but still one or two
conflicts. Staff will request some additional dates later in February, from the 121h to the
161h, and let everyone know, in the interest of finding a date that works for all.
ITEM #6: UPDATES AND INFORMATION ITEMS
a. Presentation of Annual Report and Work Plan to BOCC: The date has been set for
Feb. 15th for Menius to make our annual report presentation.
b. County Land Use Plan 2050 and HPC input: Staff reported on the county's current
process of holding public information meetings and soliciting public input from various
stakeholders. The HPC will have a chance to develop our own Historic Preservation
Component to become a supplement to this plan. The Planning staff hope that HPC
members will participate in some of these information sessions. Staff will share additional
updates as they become available.
c. Archaeological Project at Moorefields: Noe presented an informative PowerPoint
presentation to provide an overview of the process of the archaeological survey project at
the Moorefields property. The areas being covered include the cemetery and several high
probability zones around the house. There has been a geophysical phase including GIS
mapping, followed by an excavation phase. The consultants employed magnetometry and
ground penetrating radar to identify areas of potential interest where some limited
excavation might be employed. Mapping of these two techniques can create a composite
of the findings that provides more insight and help pinpoint areas for further investigation,
such as old trash deposits, foundations, roadbeds, utility lines etc. Then they can employ
shovel testing on grids that can let them zero in on features. They identified some features
that could be remains of early outbuildings, perhaps a kitchen or slave quarter. The
excavation work is limited due to the scope of this project so they probably won't be able
to reveal any substantive evidence of the outbuildings. Mr. Draper-Savage did demolish
several outbuildings during his ownership so some important evidence has been lost.
They also targeted an area near the old barn site where they found numerous nails, which
are being cataloged now. They encountered a strong chemical smell in the soil here in the
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area where there was lots of gravel, so they could not excavate. GPR was also done at
the old Moore cemetery to help identify burials; there wasn't time and money built into the
budget to look beyond the limits of this cemetery to search for other possible burials. They
have now put out an RFP for the update of the National Register nominations.
d. Book Project update: Staff noted that the book text is currently being reviewed by book
committee member and any other members who are interested. Moore volunteered to
help with this effort. In meantime staff is compiling somewhere around 650 digital photos
and organizing them in file folders for each of the 250 property entries and for each essay
chapter, which has proved to be time-consuming.
e. Open air time: No information was shared in the interest of time.
ITEM #7: ADJOURNMENT: Noe moved to adjourn, seconded by Peck; meeting adjourned at 8:37
pm.
Meeting summary by Peter Sandbeck, DEAPR staff
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