Two areas of Mount Airy have been added to the National Register of Historic Places, which will enable owners of historically valuable sites in those districts to receive federal and state tax credits to make property improvements.
That acceptance, long awaited by local preservationists, was announced this week by Hannah Beckman-Black of the N.C. National Register Advisory Committee, an entity within the state Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. The advisory committee reviews nominations for areas throughout North Carolina where historic district status is sought, and makes recommendations for those deemed worthy to be considered at the national level.
The two areas of Mount Airy achieving that status are the Lebanon Hill Historic District and Country Club Estates Historic District.
Lebanon Hill is the oldest of the two. It includes East and West Lebanon streets; North Main Street to Holy Angels Roman Catholic Church; and Byerly, Poplar, Taylor (west of Lebanon), Willow, Mitchell and Orchard streets from North Main to the Dairy Center dining establishment.
It is bounded by Howard, Mitchell, South and Woodruff streets, and the existing Mount Airy Historic District that covers areas in the downtown vicinity.
The Country Club Estates Historic District encompasses residential structures around the periphery of Mount Airy Country Club. It includes portions of Club View Drive, Country Club Road, Fairway Lane and Greenhill Road.
After receiving state-level approval in October, the nominated districts were reviewed by federal authorities, which led to the acceptance of both by the National Park Service (NPS), according to this week’s announcement. Along with overseeing parks, the NPS partners with state and other preservation offices to identify, nominate and list properties for the National Register of Historic Places.
“This has been a long and arduous process,” Mount Airy resident Carol Burke commented in reaction to the two city areas being added.
Burke, a preservation advocate and property owner in the Lebanon Hill Historic District who was among of group of local residents seeking the districts’ inclusion in the national listing, reminded Wednesday that it has been ongoing for several years.
She pointed out that the efforts directly leading to the designation began with Mount Airy becoming a CLG (certified local government). This was required in order for city officials to apply for grant funding from the State Historic Preservation Office to conduct a study of sites for possible inclusion on the national registry.
A survey subsequently was undertaken by a recognized expert in his field, Dan Pezzoni, an architectural historian with Landmark Preservation Associates in Lexington, Virginia. It was completed in 2018, laying the groundwork for the nomination process.
The national listing contains properties deemed worthy of preservation, which must be at least 50 years old to be included.
Before the most recent one by Pezzoni, the last such survey in Mount Airy had been conducted in 1985. Since then, more local structures became potential designees for national historic status due to meeting the 50-year-old minimum threshold.
Burke mentioned that the recent nomination process actually is rooted in efforts launched decades ago by late local historians Susan Ashby and Barbara Summerlin to identify and preserve historically valuable properties in the city. Their work was continued over the years by Gene Rees, Betty Wright, John Kidwell and others, Burke added.
While it will make historic tax credits available for eligible property-improvement projects, the inclusion of the local districts on the National Register of Historic Places also is being viewed as an economic-development tool for the city as a whole.
Owners of property will not be forced to make improvements, according to discussions during meetings of the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners in which that concern was raised.
The National Register of Historic Places now contains more than 95,000 entries encompassing 1.8 million-plus sites, buildings, structures and objects, which can be found in nearly every county in the nation.
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com