December 17, 2014

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas ~ Thanks to You!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas ~ thanks to you and the Historic Salisbury Foundation!


Historic Salisbury Foundation (HSF) has never been afraid of a challenge when it comes to neighborhood revitalization.  HSF is increasing its commitment to support the North Main Street Neighborhood, focusing on several key properties in an effort to strengthen this gateway into Historic Salisbury, North Carolina.  The organization recently acquired two vacant and distressed houses in the North Main Neighborhood (NOMA) in the midst of the Historic District. And the work has steam-rolled into action!

Things are starting to look different at 1428 North Main Street. The windows have been rehabbed and missing or rotten siding is being replaced. The interior of 1428 N. Main has been cleaned! Window repair has started. Work has begun on repairing flashing at the chimneys.

This expansive two-story dwelling was probably constructed about 1900. Little information about the home known as the Myers-Morris House is available from city directories or other sources, but it was occupied by 1923 by D. R. Meyers, a rural postman. By 1928 it was occupied by Z. W. Morris, a Southern Railway clerk, as well as by Vincent Brown and E. T. Meyers, also Southern employees. Morris continued to occupy it, perhaps as owner, into the 1940s. 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. 

HSF also just acquired the house one block away, at 1600 North Main ~ The ca.1912 Hunter-Mowery House. L.F. Hunter constructed this handsome working class cottage about 1912. Hunter, a Southern Railway machinist occupied the home until 1925 when he sold it to J.L. Mowery, a railway blacksmith. It is the best preserved working class Victorian cottage in the district with its high hipped roof with projecting front gable, accentuated with a colonial lunette, and its asymmetrical stuccoed facade with recessed side entrance. Although not as elaborate or eclectic as its larger contemporaries in the southern part of the district, it does possess a handsome porch with turned posts and an interesting sawn dentil-like gallery.

The North Main district's late Victorian character was interpreted in a more modest tradition in the small working class cottages closer to Spencer. These smaller dwellings feature the steeply pitched hipped roofs and projecting gables of their larger and more elaborate contemporaries, but lack the rich exterior ornamentation of those structures. Typical of this modest late Victorian motif are the adjacent dwellings located at 1600 and 1604 N. Main Street. These similar dwellings have steeply sloped hipped roofs with projecting gables and dormers, as well as asymmetrical facades featuring recessed entryways on one side; found on several of the district's houses. They are both defined by wrap-around porches with turned posts, yet only 1600 N. Main Street, where a gable lunette alludes to a Colonial Revival influence, possesses an interesting sawn gallery typical of the exuberant ornamentation on the more elaborate Victorian dwellings to the south. 


The North Main Neighborhood of Salisbury, North Carolina lies between Lafayette Street and 17th Street, and between N. Railroad Street and N. Jackson Street.  In the center of the neighborhood lies the North Main Historic District. The district built up during the heyday of the trolley system in Salisbury in the early 1900s. The trolley tracks traversed the center of Main Street to the Spencer Shops. Rumor has it that the tracks are still there under the pavement.

Both 1428 N. Main and 1600 N. Main Street are homes that the Historic Salisbury Foundation is working to stabilize for future restoration! These homes will be on the market for sale and further restoration soon!  And who do you call? . . .

Realtor® Greg Rapp is known for being a part of the preservation movement in Salisbury, North Carolina, and one of the premiere agents for historic home sales.  Greg has properties listed in the North Main Neighborhood worth seeing.  And Greg believes in the process of revitalization, understanding that there is definitely strength in numbers!  

Please consider supporting HSF's revolving fund and the impact it has on neighborhood revitalization. A donation is quick and will be used to stabilize 1428 & 1600 North Main and other historic houses for years to come. 
CLICK: http://www.gofundme.com/heq7tg 

Make an investment in this community's history and watch the progress with us.


 
HSF and NOMA are planning a volunteer work day for these revolving fund properties on Saturday, January 24th, so if you'd like to pitch in and help, mark your calendars now. And if you are interested in selling or buying a historic home in Salisbury/Rowan County, North Carolina ~ Greg Rapp is the one to call!  704.213.6846

 











Greg Rapp 
Wallace Realty Co. 
704 213 6846 Mobile 
704 636 2021 Office 
www.realestatesalisbury.net 





1 comment:

  1. Here is a great article from the Salisbury Post about the revolving fund properties:

    http://www.salisburypost.com/2014/12/21/the-scaffolding-house-foundations-efforts-on-north-main-property-reflect-value-of-revolving-fund/

    ReplyDelete