HomeMy WebLinkAboutHPC Meeting Summary 01292025 Orange County
HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION
Approved Meeting Summary
January 2gth, 2025
Bonnie Davis Center, 1020 US 70 West, Hillsborough
MEMBERS PRESENT: Eric Deetz, Todd Dickinson, Rob Golan, Carol Ann Lewald, Art Menius; Cecelia
Moore; Anne Whisnant
MEMBERS ABSENT: None
STAFF PRESENT: Peter Sandbeck, Cultural Resources Coordinator
GUESTS: J. P. McKelvey
ITEM #1: CALL TO ORDER: Chair Menius called the meeting to order at 6:31 pm. Mr. McKelvey
introduced himself and shared his interest in the study and documentation of Indian sites.
ITEM #2: CHANGES OR ADDITIONS TO AGENDA: Staff wished to add two items: a brief review
of members with terms up for renewal, and an informal update on the America 250 effort
ITEM #3: APPROVAL OF MINUTES for December 11th, 2024, meeting:
Dickinson moved to approve, seconded by Deetz; motion carried.
ITEM #4: ITEMS FOR DECISION: None
ITEM #5: DISCUSSION ITEMS
a. Landmark evaluation form: Staff handed out a new draft of a revised form for members
to review and consider. This effort has arisen out of our past experience with using the old
form, which tended to have strong biases in favor of properties and sites that were very
old and listed on the National Register. Staff assessed the significance criteria used by
other HPCs and gathered up the most relevant that were compatible with our traditional
approach. Some commissions, like those for Charlotte/Mecklenburg and for
Forsyth/Winston-Salem, are joint commissions that govern those municipalities as well as
the rural parts of those counties. Discussion followed. A goal is to designate landmarks
within the ETJ areas of the municipalities, starting with Hillsborough. Members agreed to
look over the new draft and bring their thoughts back to our next meeting.
b. HPC website content enhancement: Staff provided an overview of a proposed project
to create a new HPC website that can be hosted within the Orange County website. For a
variety of reasons, our old content is no longer visible, so this provides us with a good
incentive to update our website and add worthwhile content. Staff asked for a motion
directing staff to request assistance from the county webmaster team to get this started..
Moore made a motion, seconded by Whisnant; motion carried. Staff can generate new
content, perhaps with some assistance that can be hired with some of our county funds.
c. Future projects to identify, map and protect historic Black cemeteries and Indian
stone mounds: Members discussed the general challenges associated with locating and
mapping these resources. LIDAR offers a lot of promise as a new tool and has been used
with great success to locate the stone mounds up in Virginia and elsewhere. Staff has
been getting an increasing number of requests from property owners to make site visits to
view these and make sure they're mapped. Staff presented a PowerPoint program on
these resources, highlighting a recent visit to a cemetery on one of the Hester plantations
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arranged by a descendant of family members buried there. There is one carved
gravestone for Hester Iveson (born 1847-died 1934) along with numerous field stone
grave markers. At least 11 rows with approximately 15 burials in each row were visible. It
shares similarities with our own Strayhorn-Blackwood burial ground; both of these
remained in active use well into the 20th century. Staff at the Office of State Archaeology
encouraged us to apply for a federal grant to undertake a survey of these sites and map
them. This should include the stone mounds associated with local Indian tribes. The
county's Human Relations Commission met with staff at Blackwood to initiate a project
with the HPC to install a stone marker there as a memorial. This joint effort could provide
markers for other such burial grounds. Members agreed that staff should move forward in
the process to seek grant funding for this effort.
d. County Justice Facility expansion planning: The county and the courts launched a
project to develop long-range plans for the expansion of the Justice Facility, looking the
various buildings and sites along Margaret Lane near the courthouse. Staff showed
preliminary scenarios presented by the planning firm; these will be revised and shared
with the Town and other stakeholders. Discussion followed, with members expressing
concerns about the scale of the buildings and the future of the old jail. The Norwood-
Jones office will stay in its current position. The HPC will be involved, especially regarding
impacts on the old courthouse and square. The future use of the Old Courthouse is
uncertain due to modern court security and accessibility requirements.
e. Historical Marker project: next steps: This is something that we've discussed in the
past. In the past, several members volunteered to form a committee but some of those
volunteers have rotated off now, so now is a good time to re-activate this effort. This has
been a topic of interest among some of the BOCC. Several members volunteered to serve
on this subcommittee: Deetz, Menius, Moore and Whisnant. Staff will schedule a meeting.
ITEM #6: UPDATES AND INFORMATION ITEMS
a. Old Courthouse Preservation Project architect selection: The committee selected Joe
Oppermann to be the project architect. The next step will be to develop a scope of work
for the first phase, which will be the full assessment of the building in order to develop an
accurate working budget. We should get the cost for that within a couple of weeks. Of
course, one key issue will be whether the building will end up being an active court facility
or some community use such as a museum or cultural center.
b. Lynching Memorial marker on Courthouse Square: Members have seen the flyer for
the event, coming up soon on February 16t" at 1 pm. The program includes some excellent
speakers along with the choir of the Jones Grove Baptist Church, which is the church that
owns the Ridge Road School that we recently placed on the National Register.
c. Andrews House National Register Nomination: Staff obtained on bid from our former
consultant who did our countywide historic resources survey, but it greatly exceeds the
available budget. Staff will ask for additional pricing from other qualified consultants.
Funding will be provided by the Lands Legacy program budget as the owners have place
about 150 acres of their property in a conservation easement.
d. Book Project update: Dan Pezzoni continues to make refinements and edits to reduce
the length of the text. Staff showed an example of how photos are being organized, with
work now underway on the last chapter. Captions are the next step. Photography will
continue up into the spring. Moore will help with getting photo permissions from UNC.
e. America's 250 initiative: The January organizational meeting was cancelled due to the
snowstorm that came the day before. It will be rescheduled for a later date.
f. Membership update: The first terms of current members Menius, Dickinson and
Whisnant will expire on March 31 st. All agreed to serve second terms.
g. Open air time: No topics were presented.
ITEM #7: ADJOURNMENT: Golan moved to adjourn; meeting adjourned at 8:03 pm.
Meeting summary by Peter Sandbeck, DEAPR staff
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