HomeMy WebLinkAboutHPC Meeting Summary 03262025 Attachment 1
Orange County
HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION
Approved Meeting Summary
March 26th, 2025
Bonnie Davis Center, 1020 US 70 West, Hillsborough
MEMBERS PRESENT: Eric Deetz, Rob Golan, Carol Ann Lewald, Art Menius
MEMBERS ABSENT: Todd Dickinson, Cecelia Moore, Anne Whisnant
STAFF PRESENT: Peter Sandbeck, Cultural Resources Coordinator
GUESTS: Rod Mullen
ITEM #1: CALL TO ORDER: Chair Menius called the meeting to order at 6:31 pm.
ITEM #2: CHANGES OR ADDITIONS TO AGENDA: Staff asked to defer discussion about the
landmark evaluation form, due to the absence of three members.
ITEM #3: APPROVAL OF MINUTES for January 29th, 2025, meeting:
Golan moved to approve, seconded by Deetz; motion carried.
ITEM #4: ITEMS FOR DECISION: None
ITEM #5: DISCUSSION ITEMS
a. Faucett Mill on the Eno: new discoveries and preservation opportunities: Staff
provided a PowerPoint presentation about the mill and its site. New research was recently
carried out by local historian Phil Mace. He'd like to give a program about this at our April
meeting. He has documented that it was constructed in 1823, on a site adjacent to the
Eno where the main road from Hillsborough to Greensboro crosses at a good ford.
Faucett obtained permission to build the dam on Dry Run in 1823, documented in court
records, giving us the start date for the mill complex that also include a dam on the Eno.
This was believed to have been built in the late 18th century based on outdated research.
The mill stayed in the Faucett family through much of the 19th century. It was converted
from a traditional 14' diam. water wheel to a turbine by the time of the 1870 industrial
census. Aerial photos and old maps illustrate the historic roads and location of the old
ford. The building was more than doubled in size, probably in the 1830s-1840s period. A
large amount of the early milling equipment still survives on the interior. The building was
stabilized and shored up in the 1990s. The dam on the Eno was intact until Hurricane
Fran blew it out in 1996. The mill and property were purchased by the grandparents of the
present owners, who are interested in the long-term preservation of the mill and its setting.
b. New developments in protect to identify, map and protect historic Black cemeteries
and stone burial mounds: Staff reviewed recent activities to document and locate
historic Black cemeteries. There is a start-up group interested in a larger effort to identify
and protect these sites. Some members recently located the old slave burial ground at the
former Poplar Hill plantation, later Julian Carr's farm, where the burial ground that had
been described in the 1970s was found again near the Vietri property and speedway.
Also, in March, some members of this group successfully located a similar burial ground
for the enslaved at the Holden family plantation, within the Eno River State Park property.
We continue to study the stone mounds that appear to be related to the Indian traditions
described by John Lawson and others, whereby any Indian who walked past a site of
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memorial (site of a battle/death of a warrior) placed another stone on a mound. Staff met
last night with the county's Human Relations Commission, to explore a partnership to
develop a project to formally map these sites and install permanent markers. We will work
with the Planning Department to craft language that directs property owners and/or
developers to protect these sites.
c. Landmark evaluation form: deferred to next meeting.
d. Historical marker project: deferred to next meeting.
e. Options for HPC field trip: Staff outlined some possible site visits for the group to
consider. This would be a great time for a tour of the Faucett Mill site. Staff will work with
the owners on dates and will get back up with membership with some options.
ITEM #6: UPDATES AND INFORMATION ITEMS
a. Report back from presentation of HPC Annual Report and Work Plan to BOCC:
Menius reported that his presentation of our plan was well received. The BOCC didn't
have any big questions.
b. Lynching Memorial marker on Courthouse Square: Menius reported on the moving
ceremony that included some excellent speakers along with the choir of the Jones Grove
Baptist Church, probably with approximately 150 in attendance.
c. Volunteer Appreciation event hosted by BOCC on April 1: Menius reminded members
that they're all invited to this appreciation reception at 6 pm on April 1, to thank all of the
various volunteer members of boards and commissions for their contributions.
d. Membership reappointments: The BOCC recently reappointed three of our members
who had terms that were expiring: Menius, Dickinson and Whisnant.
e. Andrews House National Register Nomination: Staff has gotten the consultant's
contract approved and that is now circulating for signature. The consultant is prepared to
start work in April, with an initial site visit and photography.
f. Proposed grant program to help preserve endangered historic resources: There are
some options for getting funding for this, with an initial focus on the Ridge Road School. A
logical source is the federal Certified Local Government grant program, via the NPS.
However, with all the federal government upheavals now going on, it's not clear which
grant programs will survive and how the eligibility criteria may be changed.
g. Old Courthouse Preservation Project architect selection: The committee selected Joe
Oppermann to be the project architect, out of Winston-Salem. The excellent project team
includes Peter Aaslestad, a national leader highly accurate photo-documentation; his work
should start in April. The county decided to divide the architectural/engineering contract
into two phases, starting with a full-scale assessment phase to generate accurate
scope/cost estimates.
h. HPC Website content project: Staff showed members the new Planning Dept. landing
page, created by the county webmaster to provide easy links for a wide range of content
with a graphic interface. Staff noted that while this isn't exactly what we want, it is a
concept that has promise, provided we use different graphics and/or images for the HPC
homepage. This is something that we can work on with the webmaster this summer.
L Book Project update: Progress continues. We had to add some text back into the essay
chapters that had been deleted to restore some of the essential content. Photography is a
priority now with the leaves starting to come out. The next step will be to craft the captions
and photo credits. Moore has assisted with guidance on obtaining photo permissions from
UNC. With over 600 photos in the book, this has been time consuming.
j. Open air time: Golan reported on a trip to the General Assembly last week, to view the
original 1663 Carolina Charter which was put on display in the Legislative Building;
however few legislators came to view this.
ITEM #7: ADJOURNMENT: Deetz moved to adjourn; meeting adjourned at 8:09 pm.
Meeting summary by Peter Sandbeck, DEAPR staff
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