I can hardly believe it’s time to turn the calendar to August. More than a few people have remarked about what a weird (and wet) month July was. We started with the news that the FY2025 Federal Historic Preservation Funds our state Historic Preservation Office depends on were finally released. We’re still watching and advocating to see what will happen this year. Then Tropical Storm Chantal brought record levels of flooding to our area. If you have a historic property that suffered damage from the storm - please reach out so we can try to connect you with preservation resources.
The rest of the month was a mix of catching up with covenant-protected properties around the county and getting our summer intern, Amarii, up to speed on our work. Be sure to read all of the updates to our plaque program that Amarii is helping with this summer toward the end of this issue.
From political uncertainty to extreme weather, resilience has been on our minds a lot lately. It’s a bit of a buzzword these days, but for good reason. Our state preservation office has a great resource to aid in developing guidance for managing and adapting our historic resources in the face of climate change and other challenges. If you’ve never heard of it, I encourage you to check it out and share it with anyone that works with or values historic buildings and landscapes.
On the intangible heritage side of the resilience conversation, we’ve been thinking about how we can expand programs and tools like Open Durham to highlight and preserve stories at risk of being lost. Julia, our Membership and Programs Coordinator, has been hard at work this year developing a Durham Queer History Tour. We’re thrilled to announce that the tour will launch this fall, co-hosted with the Pauli Murray Center.
The tour will be a 1.5-hour bus experience that ends with a cocktail social at the Pauli Murray Center, a National Historic Landmark. It will explore how built spaces have served as sites of protection, celebration, and community building for Durham’s LGBTQ+ community, and make a case for their preservation. This project is a true collaboration with contributions from the Duke Human Rights Center, Kelsey Graywill of Hyperlocal Durham, and Meg Lentz. Together, we’re producing a zine about preserving Queer spaces in Durham as a compliment to the tour.
The inaugural tour will be a ticketed fundraiser supporting both PD and the Pauli Murray Center, but afterward, the route, stories, and zine will all be available to the public for free on Open Durham. We plan to offer it as a condensed walking tour and private tour option moving forward and we’re excited to partner with more groups interested in hosting it. Seeing this project come together and working with Durham creatives has been a highlight of our summer.
Amarii is a rising Sophomore at Duke University, studying Art History with an emphasis on Architecture. She joined Preservation Durham this summer to help us conduct our annual monitoring of protected properties and improve access to our plaque program by adding more information to Open Durham. You can learn more about her work with the plaque program in the plaque highlight later in the newsletter.
On her time with us so far, Amarii says: “My internship with Preservation Durham this summer has been an incredible learning experience. I’m very interested in classical architecture and architectural history, and it’s been amazing to see how critical a role preservation plays in those areas. At this point in my academic career, hands-on experience is crucial, and Preservation Durham has provided that and so much more!”
We are so grateful to Amarii for her incredible help this summer!
We're so excited to announce the date of our annual awards ceremony and preservation party! Join us for this free event on Tuesday, November 18th at ReCity Network where we will be recognizing our 2025 award winners.Registration will open Monday, September 1st! Look out for more updates as we announce winners and more information on the event.
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.
We received several strong nominations for the committee to review and plan to announce the winners next month. We hope you’ll come out and celebrate historic preservation in Durham with us on November 18th!
Saturday, September 27th. 10am-12pm.
$15 for General Public
Free for Preservation Durham and/or Friends of Geer Cemetery Members.
Join Friends of Geer Cemetery, Preservation Durham, and Museum of Durham History for a tour of Geer Cemetery as we continue to celebrate the Unearthing Stories of Geer Cemetery exhibit at the Museum of Durham History. Learn about the history of Geer Cemetery, a Black-owned Cemetery, created to address the lack of a city owned cemetery for Black residents in 1877. This tour will also help put the Unearthing Stories of Geer Cemetery exhibit at the Museum of Durham History into a greater historical context.
There will be two timed tours per hour for a total of four tours.
We have one spot available for August and seven spots left for September so get your tickets while you can! 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.
The Mabel and G. Frank Warner House ca. 1981
The Mabel and G. Frank Warner House is one of our earlier plaque properties at number 38. This home is also one of Durham’s local landmarks.
Mabel and G. Frank Warner’s son G. Frank Warner Jr. (here on Warner) played an integral role in reviving the folk-music scene in the South by collecting folk music throughout the eastern seaboard. Warner and his wife, Anne Locher Warner, shared this music, including “Tom Dooley,” originally written by Frank Proffitt. After sharing the original song with Alan Lomax, he then shared it with the Kingston Trio who popularized the song. “Tom Dooley” tells the story of Confederate soldier who was executed after murdering his lover.
They also collected the song “He’s Got the Whole World in his Hands” by Sue Thomas. Their collections were well-regarded and are now housed in the Duke
Frank Warner was a folk musician himself, a singer, guitarist, and banjoist. He belonged to many music organizations while attending Duke University during part of his stay in this house.
Anne Locher Warner wrote for scholarly publications and published Traditional American Folk Songs from her and Frank’s collection. The Warners were paramount in reviving the folk music scene and for collecting the music to remain protected in perpetuity.
To learn more check our our Open Durham page and the Library of Congress’ guide to their collections.
The Freedman House
Preservation Durham is Updating Open Durham with our Plaque Records
We are delighted to announce that with the help of our summer intern, Amarii Blair, we are updating all of our Open Durham plaque pages with information from the original plaque applications. Doing so allows us to share why we believe these homes are deserving of recognition. It also allows us to continue to make Durham’s history as accessible as possible.
The plaque application process includes detailed history, and sharing it allows us to share the incredible research done by our property owners and volunteer researchers alike.
Several plaque properties already had a page on Open Durham and just needed a few updates. Others though, had no page at all. Thanks to Amarii’s work this summer, homes like the Freedman House are now on Open Durham!
Home to Russian immigrant, Jacob Freedman, and New York native, May (nee) Leisbon, the Freedman House is a George Hackney design. May worked with Hackney to design their perfect house, and the home was built in 1938.
One of their children, Doris, actually helped the plaque researcher with the application!
Learn more about the Freedman House, now on Open Durham!
As we continue to update and improve our plaque property records, we realized we needed updated photographs for many properties. We asked for a volunteer to help with this project and found Sadie Stoneheart, a recent NCSU graduate, to photograph all of our plaque properties in Durham. If you are a property owner with a plaque, look out for a letter coming soon with the details about photographing your plaque. This process will require no work for the property owner, all photographs will be taken from the public right of way.
We will be adding these photographs to our records and to Open Durham. We appreciate your cooperation as we continue to update our records and make them more accessible through Open Durham.
North Carolina Revives the NC Conservation Tax Credit
After over a decade pause, North Carolina is reviving the NC Conservation Tax Credit. If you choose to donate an easement in perpetuity and for the protection and preservation of the land, you can earn up to 25% of the fair market value of the donated land. The state income tax credit covers up to $250,000 for individuals and up to $500,000 for C Corporations.
Want to learn more about the NC Conservation Tax Credit and how it works? Visit the NC National Heritage Program’s website. Preserving Durham County’s rural landscape and agricultural character is equally important as it’s downtown architecture and we’re excited to see this NC incentive back.
Visit the Conservation Trust of NC for more information.
The 2025-2034 State Historic Preservation Plan Official Release
The North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office has released the 2025-2034 State Historic Preservation Plan. This plan details the State Historic Preservation Office’s goals for the next decade, based on surveyors’ feedback. Future goals include expanding the public’s awareness of the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office’s resources, continuing to identify more historic sites for preservation, ensuring advocacy for North Carolina’s many historic sites, and much more.
You can read the State Historic Preservation Plan here.
Local events and news from us and our partners in preservation you may be interested in.
- 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.
- Preservation Durham Cocktails and Cornices Tour. August 12th, 5:30-7 pm. We still have a spot available for our Cocktails and Cornices tour on August 12th. Buy tickets here or register for free if you are a member!
- Carolina Theatre Historic Exhibits Tour. August 23rd, 12-2pm. Free. Visit the Carolina Theatre’s three historic exhibits: “A Century in Downtown Durham,” “Restoring Hope,” and “Confronting Change.”
- Geer Cemetery Timed Tours. September 27th, 10-12 pm. $15 for general public, Free for Preservation Durham and/or Friends of Geer Cemetery members. Learn more about Geer Cemetery, the first Black Cemetery in Durham in celebration of the Unearthing Stories of Geer Cemetery exhibit.
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