The 40th Annual OctoberTour™ ~ Coming to the North Main Neighborhood!

 

OctoberTour™ - October 10th & 11th, 2015

In just one week, Historic Salisbury Foundation hosts its annual OctoberTour™ of historic homes! This October 10th & 11th is the 40th anniversary of this extremely popular tour that brings thousands of visitors to Salisbury, North Carolina.  And this year, the North Main Neighborhood is pleased and privileged to have (3) properties on the tour!

Ramsey-Voss House, ca. 1929: 927 North Main Street

Built in 1929 by Robert W. Ramsey, a worker for Southern Railway, this brick cottage has only had three owners - Ramsey, his daughter and son-in-law, T. E. Voss, and the current owners. Typical of the English influenced cottages built in the late 1920s and 1930s along the east side of North Main Street, the home occupies an elevated lot and is separated from the road and sidewalk by an attractive stone retaining wall, creating a sense of place.

Lombardy-John Steele House, 1799-1801: 1010 North Richard Street

Lombardy, a two-story with attic, side-hall plan frame house, was constructed for John Steele in 1799-1801. Steele (1765-1815) was one of the most prominent politicians from Rowan County and was elected to a number of local, state, and federal offices, receiving an appointment by President George Washington as Comptroller of the Treasury in 1796. This plantation home was Steele’s principal residence until his death in 1815.

The John Steele House is the oldest house in Salisbury, and is in the North Main Neighborhood!

Myers-Morris House, 1893: 1428 North Main Street 

Constructed for rural route postman, D.R. Myers and his wife, Mittie, this two-story framed house is offered on OctoberTour as a 'rehabilitation-in-progress'. The Myers’ daughter, Floise, married Zeb Morris, and their five children were born in the same room in this home. It was later an antique store and then sat vacant for many years before being stabilized by HSF’s Revolving Fund in 2014, and recently sold to new owners in the summer of 2015!

The North Main Neighborhood could not be more thrilled to have had Historic Salisbury Foundation stabilize this important house in our neighborhood, and one of the (5) Morris children has been writing one of our representatives with stories and photos of growing up in this beautiful house!  And to now have this wonderful home on the OctoberTour is just the icing on the cake!

With our fine array of late 1800-early 1900 residential architecture along the North Main Corridor, it's hard to imagine that much of this landscape was once part of a large plantation. Part of the many segments of OctoberTour is the annual tour luncheon, and this year's topic is the Plantations of Rowan County.

This year's luncheon, with a delicious meal and wine catered by Buttercup Café and Catering, features a discussion by noted historian, Gary Freeze, as he presents "Re-Discovering Rowan County's Plantation Heritage." the luncheon will be held at the Rowan Museum at 202 N Main Street (11:30-2:30).

Following this insightful talk, each participant will have the opportunity for a sneak preview of the newly renovated Peter Kern Home.

Tickets for the luncheon ($45.00 per person) are available at www.octobertour.com.

Meanwhile, up on North Main Street, the neighborhood is a-bustle with activity in preparation for bringing this wonderful event to our community!  The City of Salisbury installed lengths of new sidewalk and performed sidewalk repair, particularly in OctoberTour site proximity, along the eastern edge of North Main!  We love it!

AND . . .

We could just HUG the City of Salisbury for edging our beautiful granite curbing down the length of the Main Street corridor from the railroad tracks to the Spencer town line.

What a difference this investment to the NOMA neighborhood makes!

All in all...we can barely contain our excitement in this rare opportunity to have the Historic Salisbury Foundation bring OctoberTour to the North Main Neighborhood!  We thank the Foundation for the investment it has made in our neighborhood and our historic homes, and for recognizing the strength, history, and beauty in our neighborhood culture and architectural fabric that makes up our community!

Special NOMA thanks to Historic Salisbury Foundation Executive Director Brian Madison Davis for spear-heading this movement to NOMA, and to volunteer Doug Black for the absolute gazillions of hours invested in stabilizing some of our most strategic homes!


Please visit the North Main Neighborhood during the 40th Annual OctoberTour!  Share the joy!

* OctoberTour™ site photos courtesy of the Historic Salisbury Foundation.  www.historicsalisbury.com / www.octobertour.com

The North Main Neighborhood
Salisbury, North Carolina 28144
www.facebook.com/NOMAnorthmain
www.NextDoor.com / NOMA North Main

Join Us ~ Volunteer Work Day ~ January 24th

Please join NOMA in a Volunteer Work Day! 

Saturday January 24th 

8:00am ~ 12:00pm 

Three North Main Sites

♦  1131 N. Main Street / Tree Planting

NOMA joins the City of Salisbury and the Community Development Corporation in the continuation of the beautification project we've been doing at the corner of E. 11th Street and North Main Street.  The abandoned A.T.I.C. gas station has been demolished, new storm drains installed, and new gutters take the place of old driveway aprons (Thank you, NC DOT!).  The new green space has been graded and seeded.  Now we get to do the fun stuff!  Plant trees!  (If you'd like to try something fun, go to Google maps and type in 1131 N. Main Street, Salisbury NC ~ and go to 'Street View'.  When you first land on Main Street, it's a beautiful summer day, crepe myrtles in bloom, and as you travel north on Main Street, our A.T.I.C. gas station is there....but when you cross the 11th Street intersection, it becomes a wintery morning.  Turn around to the south again...and the gas station is gone!  You can see some of the work in progress!)

♦  1428 N. Main Street / General Exterior Clean Up

NOMA joins the Historic Salisbury Foundation in their efforts, via their Revolving Fund, to stabilize the circa 1900 home at 1428 N. Main Street.  Work has already begun in repairing windows and chimney flashings.  We can help too!

♦  1600 N. Main Street / General Exterior Clean Up

NOMA joins the Historic Salisbury Foundation in their efforts, via their Revolving Fund, to stabilize the circa 1912 home at 1600 N. Main Street.  We can help too!  We'll be doing general exterior clean up...clipping, pruning, weeding, and trimming!

Please plan to meet at 1600 N Main Street at 8:00 am or anytime you can make it between 8am and noon on January 24th.  Please bring rakes, gloves, and hand pruners, etc., and make sure your name is on all tools. 

This event is rain or shine!

Tell your friends, tell your neighbors!  

This is a come-one, come-all event!

The North Main Neighborhood Association
northmainneighborhood@gmail.com

Saving 1428 North Main Street, Salisbury NC!

Although the North Main neighborhood is filled with beautiful homes throughout, there is no question that we have some endangered homes amongst us, that we have, in the past, called our 'loose gems'.  Some of these homes have been left empty ~ abandoned to neglect.  

Run-down and abandoned homes can make an entire neighborhood look bad. Trash, overgrown grass and pest problems can spill over into neighboring properties. But abandoned houses can be more than just an eyesore -- they can be safety hazards and hotbeds for criminal activity.  It is an understatement to say that trying to get property owners to take responsibility for their home is a challenge!

Thankfully, our Historic Salisbury Foundation (HSF) has never been afraid of a challenge when it comes to neighborhood revitalization.  HSF is focusing on several key properties in the North Main Neighborhood, in an effort to strengthen this gateway into Historic Salisbury, North Carolina.  

Work has already begun ~ and you should start seeing progress immediately ~ on 1428 North Main Street.  This home, the circa 1905 (1910?) Morris-Myers House, has been empty for some time.  Dubbed 'The Scaffolding House', for the scaffold left in place for over a decade, this house has been a thorn in the neighborhood's side for what feels like an eternity.  The neighborhood has always hoped for a beautiful future for this house.  Well, the scaffolding is already gone!

The home is listed on the North Main Street Historic District Inventory in the National Register of Historic Places as follows:

"This expansive two-story dwelling was probably constructed about 1910.  Little information about it is available from the city directories or other sources. Its hipped roof and projecting front and side gables are characteristically Victorian, as is its asymmetrical composition and the rear porch, which features handsome turned posts and bold sawn brackets.  The front porch supported by tall, slender columns, may have replaced an original wrap-around porch featuring turned posts and sawn brackets similar to the rear porch."

Historic Salisbury Foundation uses its Revolving Fund to stabilize houses such as these.  In addition to the Myers House, the Foundation has also just signed papers to be able to stabilize the single story pebble-dash house at 1600 North Main Street - the circa 1912 Hunter-Mowery House.  The Register describes this home as "the best preserved working class Victorian cottage in the district."  NOMA is most grateful that the HSF has turned its attention to our important gateway community.   The North Main neighborhood is the last remaining residential corridor leading to Downtown Salisbury NC and has proceeds in an almost unbroken rhythm of  the most eclectic and wide variety of early twentieth century domestic architectural styles.  This variety provides an excellent picture of how this neighborhood and other twentieth century Salisbury neighborhoods, now destroyed by urban development, appeared during 1900-1930.

While HSF is focusing its revolving fund activities on several key distressed properties in the North Main area and recently acquired the Myers House at 1428 North Main, we hope that many will support these endeavors by considering donating to the Go Fund Me campaign (Click link below!) to revitalize this gateway to Salisbury. Your support will be kept in Historic Salisbury Foundation's revolving fund and used on many projects for years to come. Click this link to find the fundraising campaign for this home:

http://www.gofundme.com/heq7tg

Your donation will help stabilize the circa 1915 Myers House, strengthen the North Main Historic District and continue to support HSF's revolving fund for years to come. Proceeds from the sale of revolving fund properties goes into purchasing and stabilizing more historic houses in the community.  Stabilizing this home at 1428 N. Main Street and the home at 1600 N. Main will make a remarkable impact to the North Main Neighborhood!

Thank you for making a difference!