Volunteer Day in NOMA a Huge Success!

We had plenty of work to do this Saturday during our NOMA Volunteer Work Day, and the morning rain and cold might have tried, but did little to slow us down!

Historic Salisbury Foundation, through their revolving fund, is working on... not one...not two...but THREE endangered homes along North Main Street in the historic district here. We called on volunteers to help with interior and exterior cleanup ~ and boy! Did they come! Volunteers could be seen up and down the north section of the neighborhood with rakes, pruners, loppers, chainsaws, and more ~ working at 1428, 1600, and 1623 North Main ~ all wanting to be a part of this awesome neighborhood revitalization!

1428 North Main Street

1428 North Main Street, built in 1900 (some think 1898), has been known as the neighborhood's 'Scaffolding House' for far too long.  This grand home had become an unfortunate landmark along the North Main corridor into the City of Salisbury, so you can imagine the neighborhood's delight when Historic Salisbury Foundation retained ownership of the home and began restoration efforts in earnest!  When Elaine Myers-Hillard, who was born and raised in this home, heard of the preservation effort of her family home, she contacted NOMA with donations and stories, expressing a deep gratitude for these restorative efforts!  This home has already gone through dramatic change, and volunteers today cleared vast piles of overgrown brush from the surrounding landscape...rain and all!

Volunteers are finishing the last of the window repairs upstairs at 1428 North Main Street and beginning work on the ones at ground level. Faust Historic Restorations is replacing damaged wood on the exterior, in preparation for new paint. A brick sidewalk was also uncovered this week.

The circa 1900 Myers-Morris Home at 1428 will be a masterpiece when finally restored. A huge home with 5 bedrooms upstairs, it will charm your socks off with its vintage beadboard walls, arched entry to the parlor, and original mantels! Much more work will go into this home, but it is FOR SALE through the Historic Salisbury Foundation.

Be sure to contact HSF at (704) 636-0103 to learn more about this great opportunity!

1600 North Main Street

1600 North Main Street is another circa 1900 home that HSF is helping to restore! This once-gorgeous Folk Victorian cottage with its pebble-dash exterior has more glory days in its future ~ thanks to the efforts of HSF and the many volunteers that descended upon the property today...cleaning inside and out!   This home is a wonderful example of the late Victorian character of the North Main Neighborhood with steeply sloped hipped roofs with projecting gables and dormers, its asymmetrical facade featuring recessed entry on one side, and its wrap-around porch with turned posts.  Speaking of porch ~ just look at that sweep of veranda!  You can see yourself enjoying a summer evening there, for sure! 

1623 North Main Street
 

1623 North Main Street, although cute as a button, is another endangered home in the area. Set above the street level on a terraced lot, this interesting Victorian frame cottage with its gabled roof is strongly influenced by the Colonial Revival style with its pedimented porch, supported by tall columns with a simple balustrade, which wraps around its projecting front parlor section. Neighborhood tradition states that it was built about 1910 by southern Railway clerk, J.D. Barber, and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the J.D. Barber House. Volunteers worked tirelessly to clear the interior to make way for restoration efforts, and clipped and raked exterior landscaping until you might not recognize that it's the same abode!

Our fantastic team of volunteers worked for hours clearing heavy brush and overgrowth from the landscape. This 2-bedroom cottage with its own wrap-around porch and large yard will make a very fine home for its new owner in the near future!

If you couldn't make it out today, but you wish you could be a part of this revitalization and restoration effort...it's not too late!  The Historic Salisbury Foundation has a Go Fund Me Campaign in effect to help raise the many thousands of dollars to  implement the necessary repairs to stabilize these homes!  You can help by donating...even just a little bit!  Every dollar helps!

Neighborhoods Unite!

We'd like to give a shout-out to Salisbury's Brooklyn South Square, West Square, and Park Avenue Neighborhoods for joining our efforts today!  What a great vibe this creates in our downtown neighborhoods!  Thanks, all!

And . . . Koco Java!

We have one last shout-out...

Koco Java!

Thanks for the donation of much-needed and appreciated COFFEE today!  THANKS SO MUCH!








So...to all our wonderful volunteers today ~ Historic Salisbury Foundation ~ donors to Go Fund Me ~ and to Koco Java  ~ Thank you, thank you, thank you!  You are FABULOUS!

The North Main Neighborhood
northmainneighborhood@gmail.com  

Photo credits to Brian Davis and Doug Black at Historic Salisbury Foundation

N Main & 11th Street Intersection Improvements ~ Coming Soon!!

A small pilot project has been taking off behind the scenes. Earlier in the year, Sue McHugh, Sean Meyers, Tim & Laurie Klaus, Andrew Waters, and Jenni & Brian Pfaff, met with city staff, Historic Salisbury Foundation director Brian Davis, and representatives from the Community Appearance Commission to kick off a small NOMA Main Street beautification project. Here’s where we stand: 

Lynn Raker, Senior Planner with the City of Salisbury, has been working with other city staff and DOT to get streetscape prep work completed so we can “beautify” our 11th St intersection. Lynn has preliminary approval for 2 raised corner planters on commercial properties south of 11th St. We’re looking into the possibility of taking down the empty building across from the market at 11th street, the old A.T.I.C structure. The quote for the A.T.I.C. demolition is $10,000 including finish grade, seed and straw, and Lynn is working with DOT on replacement of collapsed storm drain at curb line. She has not yet talked with property owner, Mr. Helderman, about his desire to proceed with the demo, but that’s next. Long story short, improvements at this intersection are step-by-step, abut we’re moving forward and Lynn will keep us posted on progress. 

A proposed part of this project was to perhaps paint a house along the N. Main Street corridor. If there are owner-occupied properties on N. Main in need of repair/paint, where owner qualifies as low-moderate income and is willing to sign lien, the Community Development Corp (CDC) has funds to make the repairs. It’s a bid process, so volunteer labor would not be needed unless we just want to participate as community building event. Do you know any likely candidates? 2-3 of these could make a big difference to our Main Street corridor. We were originally looking at only 1-story houses, but we’re now told that a 2-story house is no problem. The CDC can bid out the work as specified, so if painting is to be done by volunteers, that would not be in the bid. 

We’ll need to gather up volunteers to focus on the streetscape work at 11th Street. We don’t have a date yet, but we’ll post as soon as we know!

https://nomanorthmain.nextdoor.com 

themainneighborhood@gmail.com

Successful 'Urban Forest' Clean~Up Today!!

The North Main Neighborhood hosted a clean~up for our "Urban Forest" at the corner of E. Steele Street and Railroad Street this morning.  Historic Salisbury Foundation, who owns the large wooded lot, petitioned volunteers from all over the community to help us clear this neglected and overgrown lot.  WOW!  Take a drive by and you'll see the difference!!!  

Our neighbors to the north and west may not have realized what a problem this area has been, but there have been homeless folks camping in there, and free enterprise has been thriving in this little hidden forest!  With much of the underbrush removed (we still have a ways to go!), the hiding places are now being eliminated.

Folks gathered at 9am this morning with chain saws, loppers, rakes, and other implements of destruction to take on the brambles, brush, campsites, and garbage that have been accumulating here for years.  The woods is much larger than we originally thought ~ it's about 45,000 square feet or just over an acre. The easiest way to visualize the size of this lot is to picture a standard American football field from sideline to sideline ~ an area of 90.75 yards.  A typical residential lot might measure 0.15 - 0.50 acres.  So you can imagine the breadth of this project!

More volunteers from the Historic Salisbury Foundation are scheduled to return to our 'Urban Forest' this week to do some weed control spraying (sorry purists, but the brambles were FIERCE and they'll be back all to soon without some control!), and to chop some more vines and dead trees.  We will be gathering our own volunteers out there again very soon to try to complete more of the work and make this an attractive part of our neighborhood.  We can't do it without your support!

Speaking of support....can each of you ask your neighbors if they are on this mailing list?  It would be nice to be reaching as many people as we can in our 40 block neighborhood with its over 400 households.  We know we are just reaching the tip of the iceberg and we're confident that many more would love to support this neighborhood if they were just in the communication loop!  Can we get you to forward more neighborhood contacts to us?  THANKS!!!