HomeMy WebLinkAboutHPC meeting summary 10232024 Orange County
HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION
Approved Meeting Summary
October 23rd, 2024
Bonnie Davis Center, 1020 US 70 West, Hillsborough
MEMBERS PRESENT: Eric Deetz, Rob Golan, Carol Ann Lewald, Art Menius, Anne Whisnant
MEMBERS ABSENT: Todd Dickinson, Cecelia Moore
STAFF PRESENT: Peter Sandbeck, Cultural Resources Coordinator
GUESTS: None
ITEM #1: CALL TO ORDER: Chair Menius called the meeting to order at 6:33 pm and welcomed
newly appointed members Carol Ann Lewald and Eric Deetz
ITEM #2: CHANGES OR ADDITIONS TO AGENDA: Staff wished to add the matter of approving
the HPC calendar for 2025 to the agenda. Discussion followed.
ITEM #3: APPROVAL OF MINUTES for August 28t", 2024, meeting:
Whisnant moved to approve, seconded by Golan; motion carried.
ITEM #4: ITEMS FOR DECISION:
a. Approval of HPC meeting calendar for 2025: Staff presented the draft calendar for
meetings in 2025. Discussion followed. Whisnant moved to approve, seconded by Deetz;
motion carried.
ITEM #5: DISCUSSION ITEMS
a. Landmark Evaluation Form revisions: review of preliminary staff suggestions: Staff
provided a brief overview of the landmark evaluation process for the benefit of the new
members, then handed out a newly revised version of the landmark evaluation form that
reflects the HPC's ongoing concerns that the existing form (ca. 2010) doesn't contain
criteria that address the significance of non-traditional and underrepresented properties.
The existing scoring system is heavily weighted to favor properties that are 100-plus years
old and that are listed on the National Register, and as a result, our landmark process
tends to disfavor other types of historic resources, often ones associated with
underrepresented communities. To start the conversation, staff suggested that we
eliminate the entire first two sections, which will remove the heavy emphasis on National
Register status and property/site age. Discussion followed, with a focus on ways to better
evaluate archaeological sites. The HPC is not bound to factor in National Register status.
Perhaps we can look at National Register as an additional bonus scoring category or just
assume that any property that is on the NR could qualify as a local landmark
automatically. This has been customary among most local preservation commissions,
where it's common to take an existing NR nomination and submit that as a landmark
report. We want to get away from just using old age as a criteria. Often more modern or
recent sites can be ephemeral due to their very nature. For example, in Hillsborough,
there was McPherson Field, which was a family-built, informal local baseball field with
stands, or the former Daniel Boone Village—both now gone but these were sites of major
importance to the town. There was general consensus in favor of eliminating the top two
categories, for NR status and age. There can be bonus points added under the mitigating
1
circumstances. For moved buildings, there are times that buildings get moved for
preservation purposes that might be worthy of landmark status, so moving alone shouldn't
count against it in that situation. Staff made suggested wording changes to the various
significance categories to broaden their applicability. This raised the question: is it
possible for a property or site that lacks a lot of historical or cultural significance get a high
enough score to be eligible? Should architectural significance be weighted as high as
historical/cultural? Environmental significance can include archaeological significance.
Maybe change the word "site" to "resource." Perhaps we need to weight the
environmental significance equally with the historical and architectural. There was a
consensus for making significance one big all-encompassing category with a wide range
of criteria listed under it. This will allow us to consider significance as a whole, rather than
try to divide significance up into these limiting categories. Let's try to create a long list of
criteria under the significance heading that address what we think are the key
characteristics, and eliminate the existing four big categories. Let's consider an additional
mitigation category to try to address underrepresented resources; that could be part of the
long list under a new general significance heading. Staff will structure a new draft that
incorporates this concept of a long list of criteria that determine significance and then will
share that back with members.
b. Proposal from Human Relations Commission for a memorial marker for the burial
-ground for the enslaved at Blackwood Farm Park: Staff provided a brief overview of
the cemetery and the Strayhorn family ownership of the property, and the archaeological
work the county did to survey the cemetery. This site is an important place of memory for
the descendants. The HRC wishes to partner with the HPC to install some type of
memorial marker or markers to permanently mark the site. Staff gave the HRC staff
members a tour of the site. Staff has been invited to share a PowerPoint about the
cemetery with HRC members to start a conversation about this project. Staff would like to
have a couple of HPC members. Moore and Deetz are willing to volunteer to be part of
this process. There is definitely a need for an educational checklist for best practices for
how to care for these cemeteries, to avoid well-intentioned cleanup projects that have
removed important cultural artifacts that should have been left there. There is a growing
interest in and awareness of the importance of these types of cemeteries, so we will be
looking at ways to landmark these or otherwise help ensure their protection.
c. Old Courthouse Preservation Project architect selection: Staff provided an overview
of the project, with an update on the county's process to review five qualified proposals we
received from architectural firms for our planned major project to do preservation work on
the courthouse and the courthouse square. Members viewed the various proposals. The
goal will be to try to select the most qualified team and get an initial contract signed this
fall, with research and planning to take place this winter and spring. Staff and HPC
member Todd Dickinson will be participating in the interviews on Nov. 21st and then in the
final selection process, along with representatives from the courts and other county staff.
d. Field trip: observations and ideas: Staff showed a PowerPoint for the benefit of the new
members, to give them a sense of the site at 752 Rex Drive as well as the railroad
bridges. It's a challenge to figure out how to assist the property owner and to help her with
the preservation of the important site features: the house, the stone foundations on the
adjacent property and the associated archaeological resources. The owner could use
some assistance in developing a functional concise narrative about her site. The
challenge of the bridges is that we have to recognize that they will ultimately be replaced
or altered by major safety and functional upgrades, so it may be necessary to create a
project to document these along the lines of the HABS/HAER program.
ITEM #6: UPDATES AND INFORMATION ITEMS
a. Preservation NC Annual Conference highlights: Staff gave a brief overview of some of
the sessions and the setting at the newly renovated Rocky Mounty Mills. One of the most
relevant sessions focused on the challenges presented by abandoned/overlooked Black
burial grounds.
2
b. Lynching Memorial marker on Courthouse Square: This remains a work in progress,
to erect a marker to commemorate the five documented lynchings that took place in the
county since 1869. The actual fabrication of the marker has been delayed and will not
take place by early November as initially planned. HPC members will be invited once a
date is set.
c. Loq restoration protect progress: We continue work on sourcing appropriate
historic/salvaged or new white oak logs to use for needed restoration of several important
historic log structures, including the barn that houses the Davis Cotton Gin. Staff and
Dickinson visited a dilapidated log house near White Cross that is slated for demolition,
where the owner has agreed to donate the logs for our project. A talented local carpenter,
Jeff Bergman, says he can salvage these logs for us.
d. America 250 NC: No new updates to share at this time. Laurie Paolicelli at the visitor's
bureau is hard at work trying to coordinate and promote activity on this effort, working with
the Alliance for Historic Hillsborough and the Town of Chapel Hill.
e. Book Project update: Staff provided a brief overview of the long history of the project for
the new members. Our book production consultant, Dan Pezzoni, is now hard at work
editing and arranging the manuscript and photos to prepare all materials for the upcoming
design phase. Pezzoni continues to accomplish a tremendous amount of work in a short
period of time and is on track to bring this long-overdue project to a successful conclusion.
f. Open air time: No topics were presented.
ITEM #7: ADJOURNMENT: Golan moved to adjourn, seconded by Whisnant; meeting adjourned at
8:23 pm.
Meeting summary by Peter Sandbeck, DEAPR staff
3