"Historic Preservation Fund Grant
Awarded" May 2010
Alamance County will receive a federal Historic Preservation Fund grant of $14,400 to hire a consultant
to prepare a National Register nomination for two historic districts in the City of Mebane. Alamance County will provide
$11,052 in matching funds to help with the nomination. Mebane is a participating municipal Certified Local Government
(CLG) as a joint historic preservation commission with Alamance County.
The Mebane Commercial Historic District,
placed on the State Study list in 2007, encompasses approximately two city blocks in downtown Mebane and includes approximately
30 one- and two-story brick commercial buildings that were constructed in the early part of the 20th century. This core
area exemplifies traditional small town business districts once common in North Carolina.
The Old South Mebane
Historic District, placed on the State Study list in 2000, is a residential district that includes approximately 100 houses
and several churches, most of which were built between c. 1890 and c.1940. Located near the National Register-listed
White Furniture Company, the area served as housing for the managers, skilled artisans, and laborers of the factory as well
as other businesses in the town.
Mebane currently does not have any National Register-listed districts. The
community hopes that listing the districts in the National Register of Historic Places will bring recognition to the area’s
unique history and promote the preservation of the area’s architectural heritage. Listing in the National Register
will also enable property owners to become eligible to apply for state and federal historic preservation tax credits, which
have provided the incentive for the expenditure of over $1 billion since 1998 on the rehabilitation of historic buildings
and houses in older neighborhoods and commercial districts across North Carolina.
This federal Historic Preservation
Fund grant was awarded by the State Historic Preservation Office through the National Park Service’s Certified Local
Government Program, a preservation partnership between local, state and national governments focused on promoting historic
preservation at the grass roots level. The Historic Preservation Fund is a federal matching grant program administered jointly
by the National Park Service, United States Department of the Interior, and the State Historic Preservation Office.
Local Contact: Jessica Hill, Planner
Alamance County Planning Department
336-570-4054 jessica.hill@alamance-nc.comArticle courtesy of www.ncculture.com -- May 2010 Newsroom--North Carolina Department of
Cultural Resources
http://news.ncdcr.gov/2010/05/06/historic-preservation-grants-fund-nine-nc-projects
