The North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources is pleased to announce that a district and five individual properties across the state have been added to the National Register of Historic Places. The following properties were reviewed by the North Carolina National Register Advisory Committee and subsequently nominated by the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Officer and forwarded to the Keeper of the National Register for consideration for listing in the National Register.
“The addition of these North Carolina historic properties on the National Register of Historic Places enriches the story of the people and culture in our state,” said Reid Wilson, secretary of the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. “North Carolina continues to be a leader in preserving historic places treasured by their communities. Each time we add new districts and properties to the register, we recognize and celebrate North Carolina’s rich and diverse history.”
The listing of a property in the National Register places no obligation or restriction on a private owner using private resources to maintain or alter the property. Over the years, various federal and state incentives have been introduced to assist private preservation initiatives, including tax credits for the rehabilitation of National Register properties. As of January 1, 2023, over 4,209 historic rehabilitation projects with an estimated private investment of over $3.5 billion have been completed.
In Central North Carolina
City Motor Company, Salisbury, Rowan County, listed 12/7/2022
Built in 1946, the City Motor Company in Salisbury is locally significant under National Register Criteria A and C for commerce and architecture. The two-story brick, steel, and glass building has a projecting Modernist style showroom and industrial rear service area along with four ancillary buildings for sales, body work, and storage. Influenced by Modernist design, the building features its glazed showroom,pedestrian entrances framed by curved glass block walls, commodious vehicular entrances, the Ford Motor Company’s blue and gray color scheme, and an expansive service department housed in an airy, glass-enclosed volume at the rear. The City Motor Company stands as one of the most intact and modern automobile dealerships in Salisbury from an era closely associated with the expansion of car culture in the United States. The period of significance begins with the construction of the first buildings on the site in 1946 and ends in 1958 with the completion of the exterior sales office.
Downtown Winston-Salem Historic District, Winston-Salem, Forsyth County, listed 12/19/2022
The Downtown Winston-Salem Historic District is locally significant under Criterion A in the area of commerce as the historic commercial core that supported the city’s tobacco, textile, and furniture industries, and it served as the financial, institutional, and retail center of Winston-Salem. It is also locally significant in the areas of social history for Civil Rights, government, and community planning and development. Additionally, the district is significant at the statewide level under Criterion C for architecture. Its collection of high-style commercial architecture represents nearly a century of architectural styles, craftsmanship, and design associated with prominent architecture firms. Several buildings in the district are among the most exceptional designs of their era in North Carolina. The Downtown Winston-Salem Historic District’s period of significance begins in 1882 when the first extant commercial buildings were constructed, and ends in 1976 when the government superblocks of the urban renewal period were complete.
Goldsboro Woman’s Club, Wayne County, listed 12/7/2022
The Goldsboro Woman's Club building is significant at the local level under Criterion A in the area of Social History/Women's History and under Criterion C in the area of Architecture. The building was constructed in 1927 as the headquarters for the Goldsboro Woman's Club, established in 1899. The club was one of dozens of such clubs across North Carolina and thousands across the nation created in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, providing women with an outlet for charitable outreach and companionship, and a vehicle to organize campaigns for social betterment. Architecturally, the building, designed by local architect Thomas Jones, is a good example of the Colonial Revival style, as well as an example of a purpose-built clubhouse constructed during a pre-Depression boom in woman's club clubhouse construction in North Carolina. The period of significance stretches from 1927, the date of the beginning of the construction, to 1972.
Stanley Mills, Stanley, Gaston County, listed 12/8/2022
The Stanley Mills is locally significant under National Register Criterion A in the area of industry. All of the companies whom operated at the mill made notable contributions to the growth of Stanley as the city's largest employer throughout the time that the mill was in operation. The complex consists of sixteen one-story and two-story brick buildings with a 1946 barrel roof warehouse and frame storage building built at the complex's southern boundary during the period of significance. It is the only textile mill in Stanley and is among the largest and best preserved textile mills in Gaston County. The period of significance is 1892, the approximate date the first mill building for Stanley Creek Cotton Mill was built, to 1972. The period includes the significant dates (1892, 1918, 1923, 1941, 1947, 1950, and 1962) that were associated with building additions. While the complex’s industrial function, expansion, and improvements continued after 1972, the period following 1972 is not of exceptional significance.
Nicholas and Lucretia Thompson House, Leasburg, Caswell County, listed 12/8/2022
The Nicholas and Lucretia Thompson House is significant under Criterion C as its architecture expresses the history of the county’s economic fortunes and the changes in taste and needs of the occupants. The oldest section of the house was built for the Thompsons around 1810 in the locally popular two-story, one-room-wide form that faced the tall, narrow elevation to the public and used a plan with no interior hallways. In the 1850s, the family added an I-house with a center hall to create a fashionably wide façade and a plan that allowed for greater control of people into and through the interior. Almost entirely unaltered since the mid-nineteenth century expansion, it is an intact example of typical architectural tastes from the early and mid-nineteenth century, showing the prevailing preference for a modest, yet fashionably appointed home. Of the notable number of surviving historic outbuildings, three are domestic in nature and only the corn crib may have had a direct association with agriculture. The period of significance begins at ca. 1810 with the construction of the earliest part of the house and ends ca. 1860.
In Western North Carolina
Shiloh AME Zion Church, Asheville, Buncombe County, listed 12/9/2022
Shiloh A.M.E. Zion Church is locally significant under National Register Criteria A and C as a reflection of the development of the traditionally African American community of Shiloh during the twentieth century, weaving together the areas of settlement, community development, African American ethnic heritage, and social history. The Shiloh community began in the period following Emancipation, making it one of the oldest free Black communities in Asheville. The earliest burials in the cemetery date from the nineteenth century, but the one-story gable-front brick church building was erected in 1928 to replace an earlier structure. The simple Gothic Revival style sanctuary features a pyramidal-roof corner bell tower, restrained brickwork and pilasters on the side elevations, and original six-over-six doublehung windows. Shiloh A.M.E. Zion Church is one of Asheville’s most intact examples of an African Methodist Episcopal Zion church building from the 1920s. Shiloh A.M.E. Zion Church meets Criteria Consideration A for religious properties and Criteria Consideration D for cemeteries. The property’s period of significance is 1889-1970.
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About the National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the nation's official list of buildings, structures, objects, sites, and districts worthy of preservation for their significance in American history, architecture, archaeology, and culture. The National Register was established by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 to ensure that as a matter of public policy, properties significant in national, state, and local history are considered in the planning of federal undertakings, and to encourage historic preservation initiatives by state and local governments and the private sector. The Act authorized the establishment of a State Historic Preservation Office in each state and territory to help administer federal historic preservation programs.
In North Carolina, the State Historic Preservation Office is a unit of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. Dr. Darin Waters, the Department's Deputy Secretary of Archives, History, and Parks, is North Carolina's State Historic Preservation Officer. The North Carolina National Register Advisory Committee, a board of professionals and citizens with expertise in history, architectural history, and archaeology, meets three times a year to advise Dr. Waters on the eligibility of properties for the National Register and the adequacy of nominations.
The National Register nominations for the recently listed properties may be read in their entirety by clicking on the National Register page of the State Historic Preservation Office website. For more information on the National Register, including the criteria for listing, see this page.
About the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources
The N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources (NCDNCR) is the state agency with a vision to be the leader in using the state's natural and cultural resources to build the social, cultural, educational and economic future of North Carolina. NCDNCR's mission is to improve the quality of life in our state by creating opportunities to experience excellence in the arts, history, libraries and nature in North Carolina by stimulating learning, inspiring creativity, preserving the state's history, conserving the state's natural heritage, encouraging recreation and cultural tourism, and promoting economic development.
NCDNCR includes 27 historic sites, seven history museums, two art museums, three science museums, three aquariums and Jennette's Pier, 41 state parks and recreation areas, the N.C. Zoo, the N.C. Symphony Orchestra, the State Library, the State Archives, the N.C. Arts Council, the African American Heritage Commission, State Preservation Office and the Office of State Archaeology, and the Division of Land and Water Stewardship. For more information, please visit www.ncdcr.gov.