It’s the first day of National Preservation Month and I’m writing this month’s letter from Asheville where I’ve been representing Preservation Durham at the National Preservation Partners Network retreat. This convening is held annually to bring together those working in the nonprofit side of historic preservation to share collective struggles and build strategies that can be applied nationally.
It’s been a heavy week hearing stories from Hurricane Helene’s impact on Western NC and wildfires in Los Angeles. Add to that the disorientating changes taking place at the Federal level that are impacting funding and regulations. Two things are clear: the impact of climate change is arguably the single biggest threat to our historic resources and we cannot rely on the Federal government to help with that anytime soon.
While this reality is heavy, it also illustrates and amplifies the importance of local nonprofit work in preservation. Organizations like Preservation Durham are critical in times like these to stay focused on our mission and find creatives ways to keep doing the work we know is important. Our partners at other local organizations like the Preservation Society of Asheville and Buncombe County and LA Conservancy showed just how impactful that work can be. In the face of disaster (which was personal for staff and board members at both organizations), both of those organizations responded quickly and helped dry out buildings, document what remained, and build networks and resources to help move forward in recovery. Both organizations emphasized the value of people in preservation and the the need for flexibility in approaching our work and standards of preservation.
Another purpose of this retreat has been on building a national advocacy agenda to respond to the ongoing threat to funding, incentives, and loosening of regulations at the Federal level. The voice of Preservation Durham’s membership is louder when we are able to join with partners across the country and so important these days. In recognition of National Preservation Month and the vital role local organizations like Preservation Durham play in these times of disorienting changes, I’d like to invite you to join or renew your membership this month to help our growing roster of supporters at the local level and validate that the work we do to advocate for historic buildings and their stories matters. If your membership is current, thank you, consider making an additional donation in honor of Preservation Month.
And if you get this newsletter but are not quite sure yet what we do and it’s worth, I encourage you to check us out this month. Come to our FREE annual meeting and home tour lecture May 13th at the Carolina Theatre where we’ll share more about our work over the last year and announce our “Preservation Priorities” for the next year. We’ve had a full and exciting year of growth and can’t wait to share updates with you!
The home tour and lecture this year centers on our Plaque Program - one of the many programs Preservation Durham uses to highlight and elevate the stories of Durham and ways we hope to make that work more equitable going forward.
In February, reference to the history of local activist Pauli Murray’s Queer identities was stripped from the official National Park Service page for the Pauli Murray Family House National Historic Landmark page. A second, biographical page connecting Murray’s history to the Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site was completed removed.
Last month, the center was notified that a multi-year grant worth $330,800 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), a federal organization, was terminated. This money was dedicated to fund a staff position and educational programs to help curate the first exhibit at the home, “Pauli Murray: Coming Home.” The justification behind the removal of this Grant was, “[the] Grant is no longer consistent with the [IMLS’s] priorities and no longer serves the interest of the United States and the IMLS Program.” This reasoning is due to a March 14, 2025 Executive Order 14238, “Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy,” and increasing attacks on any history aligned with diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Preservation Durham adamantly denounces the federal government’s abuse of power and attempts at erasing our nation’s history. It is important, now more than ever, to support our local partners like the Pauli Murray Center who continue to advocate for all-encompassing histories. An attack on our collective work as cultural historians to expand and include diverse, equitable and inclusive stories, is an attack on history and a means to quiet those who have been most negatively affected by our government and society throughout our nations history.
If you want to support the Pauli Murray Center, you can sign this letter to send to your representatives, donate to, and visit the Pauli Murray Center.
2025 Preservation Awards
Nominations Open May 13th!
We are so excited for our annual awards following the success of last year’s ceremony! Nominations will open online last this month on May 13 so start thinking about that person or project that you believe is worthy of recognition.
Preservation Durham Awards are awarded to those who have engaged in remarkable acts of preservation and public history across Durham County. The awards recognize those who have taken significant care in preserving Durham’s built environment and those who have creatively and innovatively engaged with, transformed, and disseminated Durham’s rich history. The awards seek to broaden our preservation community by celebrating what preservation looks like across Durham County.
For examples of the kinds of nominations we look for, look no further than last year’s recipients: Carie Chesarino for her dedication to creating an archival record of Durham’s modernist architecture; Indigenous Memories for their preservation advocacy and educational programs to highlight the experiences of Indigenous peoples, Maroons, enslaved individuals, and free people of color who lived along the Historic Indian Trading Path; Carl Webb and Peter Cvelich for Provident1898 as an exceptional example of an innovative use of a landmark historic building and creative way to share stories about Durham’s history; Historic Durham Sun Building partners and tenants (pictured above!) for the successful adaptive reuse into a vibrant community hub; John Warasila and Alliance Architecture in recognition of more than 30 years of visionary leadership in historic preservation and adaptive reuse; John Hykes and Craven Miller for Design Bank; and the Pauli Murray Center for the rehabilitation of Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray’s Childhood Home.
Learn more and submit a nomination beginning May 13 by visiting our website!
Get your tickets today for the 2025 tour
May 17-18, 12-4pm!
As we round off the end of our 50th anniversary, we wanted to continue the celebration of Durham’s history and Preservation Durham’s impact in helping share that history by highlighting our plaque program as this year’s home tour theme. It was a difficult decision to choose only nine houses from nearly 300 plaques but we are so excited to highlight these home and share their history with you. Each home has a unique story, represented through the history of each individual that lived in them. Each property’s history is recognized with a plaque, paying homage to those who came before, while celebrating the evolution of the homes by the current home owners.
Our roster is unique in that it spans across multiple neighborhoods, including Forest Hills, Morehead Hill, Old North Durham, Holloway Street, Duke Forest, and Old West Durham. These houses also span across numerous decades, and styles. We have been including sneak peeks of the homes in our plaque section in this newsletter, as well as on our Instagram account @preservationdurham.
We are so excited to be entering May in anticipation of this event! You can get your tickets on our website www.preservationdurham.org/hometour.
Do you love history, architecture, and seeing how people make a house a home? Do you like meeting new people? If the answer to either or both of those questions is yes, then you should volunteer as a docent for our home tour this year! We’re in need volunteers for both days of the home tour. The minimum commitment is 2 hours and you can sign up for one or both days of the tour. We’ll give you all the information you need and you’ll never be alone. Volunteers get to attend the home tour FOR FREE on either day and join us for the after-party. Sign-up with a friend and make it a date!
Walking tours are back this spring and summer! After the successful launch of the Cocktails and Cornices tour last year, we’re offering six dates for you to check out the tour yourself this year. The tour will be held (weather pending) throughout April-September from 5:30-7pm. The tour is free for Preservation Durham members and $12 for general admission. Check out the tour page for more information and to register for what are sure to be sold out tours.
Our April and May tours sold out so get your tickets now for June-September before they are gone!
Preservation Durham is switching it up this year! We are excited to host both our annual meeting and our home tour lecture on May 13th at The Carolina Theatre. Both of these events are free and open to the public, and we are so excited to share more information about our organization and our annual home tour.
The annual meeting is a time for us to share our accomplishments from the past year, discuss our plans for the current year, nominate new board members (which Preservation Durham members are welcome to vote for), and give attendees the opportunity to become a Preservation Durham member. We have been able to take on many new projects and programming in the past year, and we look forward to discussing how we plan to continue to expand our efforts in preserving historic Durham.
Following our annual meeting, we will proceed with our home tour lecture; a moderated conversation about the ins and outs of our plaque program. We will be joined by moderator, Alicia Hylton-Daniel of Hylton Daniel Design/Build, along with local researchers, historians, and homeowners of some of the homes on the tour. We will cover numerous topics related to Preservation Durham's plaque program including: the ins and outs of the research process, what having a historic plaque means, and fun anecdotes that our speakers have learned about their own sites and other sites they have conducted research on.
The Panelists: Our panelists include two homeowners whose homes will be on the tour; Alicia Hylton-Daniel, owner of the James W. and Lola R. Weatherly House, and Ryan Gray, owner of the Manning House famously featured in "Bull Durham." We will also have multiple researchers and historians, including plaque researchers Rob Emerson and Shelley Dekker, and local historian Dr. Andre' Vann.
Living Historian, Jerome Bias, is partnering with Preservation Burlington to host a cooking experience, making traditional early Southern dishes in historic cooking styles. This event is a fundraiser to support preservation work for historic properties in Alamance County. The menu for this is event includes Bavarian pork roast, cornbread kush, and apple brandy cornmeal poundcake, along with vegetarian options. Learn about the process of historic cooking and reflect on the process during the dinner at this exciting event! Learn more at https://www.presburlington.org/current-events
The Manning House Today
The Manning House-1984
The Manning House-1996 after considerable preservation work
Psst… If you made it this far in the newsletter, lucky you! You’re getting a sneak peak of one of the houses highlighted on this year’s annual home tour.
Originally owned by James Manning of the high-profile Manning family, the Manning House is likely more well known for its starring role in the Durham-set classic, “Bull Durham.” Manning would live in the house with his family until he moved to Raleigh when he became North Carolina’s Attorney General. The house was also home to the fictional Annie Savoy, avid baseball fan, in the Durham cult-classic, “Bull Durham,” placating the house into an iconic symbol of Durham baseball and film history.The Manning House is one of the oldest, still standing houses in Durham, at 125 years old. The Manning House has stood the test of time, in large part because of preservation-minded home owners from the 1990s until today.
The Manning House holds one of our earliest plaques, as Preservation Durham identified it and 20 other notable historic buildings to introduce our plaque program. The Manning House is a Durham staple and we are so excited to have it on our 2025 Home Tour: The Golden Anniversary, where we are celebrating the connection between history and preservation by highlighting numerous homes from our almost plaque program! We are also delighted that one of the current homeowners, Ryan Gray, will be a panelist during our upcoming home tour lecture on May 13th. Learn more about the history of the house at the home tour lecture, then come see it for yourself during our home tour that weekend, May 17th-18th.
The Durham Armory- 1950
Ernie Barnes, “the Sugar Shack,” 1976, inspired by the Black Dance Nights at the Durham Armory
A Works Progress Administration product during Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency, the Durham Armory is a great example of the way historic buildings can be adapted throughout time. Originally home to the local National Guard Headquarters, the Durham Armory now is an event space. It became the Civic Center in the 1950s, where many dances were held, including the dance that inspired Ernie Barnes’ prominent painting, “the Sugar Shack,” mentioned in the Beadboard a few months back. These dances were segregated and this piece was inspired by one of the ‘Black Nights'. “The Sugar Shack” painting was used by Marvin Gaye as the artwork for his single, “I Want You,” and in the end credits of the sitcom “Good Times,” bringing the unique history of the Armory and its connection to Black History and culture to the American public.
The Armory is an included stop on our current walking tour program, ‘Cocktails and Cornices,’ hosted every month from now until September. You can learn more about this site on our tour or at Open Durham!
Local events and news from us and our partners in preservation you may be interested in.
- Durham Planning Academy Sessions. May 2 and 3. Registration due March 14th.
- Pauli Murray Center Whistle Stop Tour. May 3. 10 am-11:30 am. A deep-dive into the life and legacy of Pauli Murray and their family, the Fitzgeralds, throughout the West End Neighborhood. Register here.
- Preservation Durham Cocktails and Cornices. April-September. We’re bringing our Cocktail and Cornices program back, with a monthly tour from April-September! This is a free event for Preservation Durham members and $12 per ticket for the general public. Buy tickets here.
- Preservation Durham 2025 Annual Meeting and Home Tour Lecture. May 13th, 5:30-7:00 pm. The Carolina Theatre. Free! Our annual meeting will be coupled with our home tour lecture, moderated by Alicia Hylton-Daniel. The first half of the event will be our annual meeting where we will discuss what we have accomplished in the past year and what we have coming up this year. Our home tour lecture will follow, as local historians, researchers, and homeowners on the home tour discuss Preservation Durham’s plaque program and what they have learned about historic properties in Durham. Register here.
- Preservation Durham 2025 Home Tour: The Golden Anniversary. May 17th and 18th, 12 pm to 4 pm each day. $50 general public and $40 for Preservation Durham members. Join us as we celebrate our plaque program with nine houses varying in architectural style, date built, and histories! Buy tickets here.
- Preservation Burlington Open Hearth. May 31st, 4-7pm. Join Living Historian Jerome Bias as he prepares a traditional Southern meal cooked on an open Hearth, then reflect on the historic process and the communal value of it during the dinner. Buy tickets here.
- Museum of Durham History: Unearthing Stories of Geer Cemetery: Using Archaeology to Reclaim, Restore, and Respect Sacred Space Exhibit, now through Fall 2025. Check out this fantastic exhibit at the Museum of Durham History, in collaboration with the Friends of Geer organization. This exhibit includes artifacts found in the preservation process at the Geer Cemetery, one of the first African American cemeteries in Durham. More information here.
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