Portsmouth Village National Register Additional Documentation
I partnered in writing and editing a grant from the National Park Service’s Southeastern Office with Anne Whisnant and Lynn Harris (Eastern Carolina University). As part of the proposal I directed Appalachian State graduate students in completing fieldwork in Spring 2018. Portsmouth Village was listed on the National Register for Historic Places in 1978. The nomination emphasized the roles of Euro-American inhabitants in founding and sustaining the Ocracoke inlet community, which was a major transshipment point for cargo entering and leaving leaving North Carolina by sea.
The revised National Register documentation addresses the cultural resources and history associated with enslaved African Americans, free African Americans, and their descendants, so as to provide a crucial tool for interpretation, as well as to satisfy the park’s responsibilities under Section 110 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. My specific role in the project includes directing graduate students in documenting extant buildings and providing new architectural descriptions, rewriting the bulk of “section seven: narrative description” of the National Register form, and writing the architectural portion of the statement of significance. These drafts are underway.
Preserving and Sharing the Story of Lincoln Heights Rosenwald School
Working with the Lincoln Heights alumni association and Pamela Mitchem and Dea Rice (App State Library), I wrote an NEH Common Heritage grant that was funded. The main purpose of the grant was to host a digitization day and public program. On September 2, 2017, we gathered at the Lincoln Heights building to digitize memorabilia associated with the school. We also heard from alumni, former faculty, and nationally recognized Rosenwald School scholar, Mary Hoffscwelle. We also screened the documentary Rosenwald. One piece of local coverage of the event can be found here.
Below are some photos from the event:
