Work continues on the architectural survey for Vance County, and the 2-person team responsible for checking on already-identified properties will be back in 2022 to collect information on new places in the county that will be included in the completed survey.

That work will continue until October 2023, said Elizabeth King, architectural survey coordinator for the state’s historic preservation office.

Bill Harris and Mark Pace, of the North Carolina Room at Richard Thornton Library in Oxford, checked in with King today on the tri-weekly history segment of Town Talk.

The consultants who are doing the field work have updated about 360 files that already existed in the state’s files. The files are in the review process now, she said. “After the new year, they will do some more field work on new properties that we don’t have files on.”

That could take another six months, she predicted, and then the team will move to the city of Henderson to do the same thing.

King said that, so far, about 80 of the state’s 100 counties have been surveyed. Vance County’s was long overdue, and King said she was glad to be able to have the work started. Once Vance and Person counties and a few others are completed, that number will rise to 86.

Most of the architectural surveys have resulted in publication of a book, and King said she usually works with a local historical society, nonprofit or local government to collaborate with.

So far, she hasn’t heard from anyone in Vance County about a collaboration.

“I’d be very happy to talk to anyone interested in sponsoring that type of project,” she said, adding that, in her experience, “the cost is almost immediately offset – and surpassed – with book sales.”

The survey is not just about capturing information about those old family homes that have been a part of the county’s landscape for generations, King noted. Her team uses the Fifty-Year Rule, which basically means that if a building or structure has been around for 50 years, then it may have architectural significance.

Using that rule, there are structures today that may not have met that requirement when the last survey was completed, but they do now. Whether it’s a church, a school, a post-World War II subdivision or a prison unit, there are many properties that warrant attention by the surveyors.

It is vitally important to the survey to be able to talk with people in the community about the different types of buildings to provide a living memory, she said. The survey “gives us a chance to talk to people about how a building was used, how it was contructed,” King said. But they also want to hear comments like “Oh, we thought it was hideous,” or “Well, my granddaddy told me…” King said.

“We can collect stories from people who can remember those early impressions,” she said, which provides valuable information for future generations who will read the documents that are created today.

Tobacco buildings like curing barns are well-documented because tobacco was such an important cash crop for this area, but King wonders whether there is information about other important crops in the area that also may have special outbuildings associated with them.

King said she has known about the rich history in Vance County for a long time, and she is pleased that, as this project continues, “more and more people I work with have realized it, too.”

There’s a growing awareness in the preservation community about the treasures in Vance County.

The project will continue to see the public’s input to learn about prospective new listings for the survey.

“We’d be so pleased to hear from whoever is interested in this project,” King said.

Contact King at elizabeth.king@ncdcr.gov or 919.814.6580 or survey team member Heather Slane at heather@hmwpreservation.com.