List Top 5 Endangered Houses

Hi Friends & Neighbors!

The Historic Salisbury Foundation may have the opportunity to help the Old North Salisbury Neighborhood preserve some of our historic architecture in our North Main St. area. HSF is pursuing a grant program that may allow them to purchase homes, have them repaired, refurbished, and restored, and subsequently offered for sale.


HSF has asked us to submit a list of our Top 5 Endangered Homes in the area. For example, the C.W. Isenhour House, the unique brick home at 926 N. Main St. with its dominating pentagonal central tower built in 1911 is one we might start our list off with. This home was one of our neighborhood's original homes. It was broken up into apartments in the 1930's and now has been sitting vacant and "For Sale By Owner" for a couple of years. The work needed to restore this truly unique and elegant home will be challenging. But to demolish it by neglect is criminal!

There are others homes such as this in our neighborhood. Take a drive through our streets, from Lafayette to 17th - from N. Jackson to Railroad, Lee, and Richard Streets, all the little avenues in between - jot down the address of the homes we should be actively working towards preserving.

You can email your list of Top 5 Endangered Homes to oldnorthsalisbury@gmail.com or to the Historic Salisbury Foundation at historicsal@historicsalisbury.org. Or you can stick your list in an envelope and mail it to:

Old North Salisbury Association
910 N Main Street, Salisbury NC 28144

or

Historic Salisbury Foundation
PO Box 4221 Salisbury, NC 28145

The more we invest in our neighborhood, the better it is for all of us and our community! Thanks for paying attention!

33rd Annual October Tour of Historic Homes!!!!

It's that time of year again! Salisbury's October Tour! The Historic Salisbury Foundation hold it's 33rd annual tour of some of Salisbury's finest preserved and restored architecture this weekend, October 11th and 12th. The tour not only includes some of our most beautiful historic homes but includes trolley rides, a Civil War enactment, musicians and artists! This is one of, if not THE, most celebrated weekends in Salisbury, North Carolina!!

This tour brings thousands to the streets of Salisbury. Remember friends and neighbors, this means that many will be coming right through our own North Salisbury area as they travel to the Tour sites. Although we do not (yet) have a home on the tour, we have a collection of Rowan County's most diverse historic architecture and a heritage to be proud of! Let's provide a welcoming gateway to our visitors!

The Historic Salisbury Foundation is a private non-profit organization that has saved over 100 properties through their neighborhood revitalization program. The proceeds from the October Tour will benefit the furthering of this work.

For October Tour ticket information, visit http://www.historicsalisbury.org/ or call 704.636.0103. We'll see you there!

Historic Home Plaques

Hello All!

Our Neighbors & Friends are asking: How can I get a Historic Plaque for my house?

The Old North Salisbury Association (ONSA) is committed to increasing awareness of the importance of preserving our North Main Street Neighborhood's heritage and its historic buildings and landmarks. We are always searching for new and innovative ways to enhance the historical awareness of members of our community. Historic buildings in our neighborhood are a lasting reminder of this rich history and of the people who lived here.

Some of the benefits of a Historic House Plaque program include:

• Education: Marking a substantial number of buildings in a given district or a neighborhood provides a graphic image of the history of that area. As such, the Old North Salisbury Association may be better able to bring history directly to those it was previously unable to reach - uninvolved residents, visitors, or tourists.
• Preservation and Rehabilitation: Although a plaque program itself does not necessarily imply the recognition of buildings as historic sites, the program may serve to encourage building owners to rehabilitate and maintain their historic structures.
• A plaque program of this sort can be used as a basis for a walking tour. This may tie in very nicely with the City's Fitness Program and our new sidewalks!

ONSA is in the process of developing a Historic House Plaque program to allow homeowners to show pride in owning their historic houses. The plaques will identify the original owner of the house and the date of construction. Our neighborhood has many many structures that were built over 75 years ago. The Historic House Plaque program can provide one of the most effective and least expensive ways of bringing history "to the streets."
To raise more awareness of the history of our neighborhood and the potential for this program, ONSA will embark on a direct mail campaign to homeowners that have houses which were built over 75 years ago. The material will include the historical importance of the house and the proposed Historic House Plaque appearance. Homeowners receiving the material can acknowledge the historical value of their house by requesting a handcrafted plaque from the Old North Salisbury Association. There will be a fee, yet to be determined, which will cover the costs of the plaque. In addition, we are considering raffling off one Historic House Plaque at our annual meeting and social. Under the proposed program, your home does not have to be listed on a historic registry. And, if you do not know your home's history, we can assist in obtaining that information.

If you would like to know more about this, respond to this blog entry below, or email us at oldnorthsalisbury@gmail.com for more information or to offer suggestions!