- [Announcer] This is a production of PBS Charlotte.

(soft guitar music) - [Narrator] The buildings and structures that make up our environment, no matter the purpose, often form an important part of a community's identity.

Buildings often set the stage that tell the collective story of our neighborhoods, streets, states, and nation.

On this "Trail of History", we'll show you how Preservation North Carolina works across the state, saving endangered historic properties.

Meet property owners willing to do the work and spend their treasure to save historic homes and buildings.

Then learn how Preservation North Carolina helps and often partners with local organizations who share its vision.

All that and more on this episode of "Trail of History".

(upbeat music) Have you ever driven past an old dilapidated house and wondered who once lived there or what the backstory is?

Whether it's a business or a home, there's a story behind every building.

Who built it?

What purpose was it built for?

One North Carolina organization's mission preserves historical structures in the Old North State.

- We started out as the Society for the Preservation of North Carolina Antiquities, and that was in 1939, they were chartered.

- [Narrator] Western Office Regional Director Ted Alexander says the mission narrowed to primarily real estate in the 1970s.

- [Ted] We protect properties all the way from the fine and grand mansions to the small and some would call lowly millhouses.

- [Narrator] Over the past 80 plus years, Preservation North Carolina, or PNC, has helped protect around 900 properties.

- Our goal is to preserve and protect those very diverse and important historic properties all over North Carolina.

My boss, Mark Howard, he is often given the example of what we are doing is working with the the three-legged blind dog that nobody really wants at the animal shelter.

But we adopt it, we nurse it back to health, we rescue it.

- [Narrator] Alexander says, "Protecting a property comes down to using the right tools."

- There's national register designation.

That's important.

It's on honorific.

It gives you a little bit of protection from state or federal funded or licensed projects that might have an adverse effect on that property.

The second layer is a local designation, which is what the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Landmarks Commission does.

They can designate a local landmark and have some design control over the exterior and sometimes interior features.

But they can basically forestall a demolition for 365 days, according to statute, which is mainly there to give the opportunity and time for some solution perhaps to be worked out.

- [Narrator] PNC uses something a bit more permanent.

- The end run for us is to get protective covenants on a deed that owner voluntarily knows that this is gonna happen.

And whenever that property goes to sell, any buyer knows that covenant is on the deed.

Now, does that mean that a property owner can't make changes?

No, we're protecting the essential character defining and important features of that property.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] PNC gets involved with properties in different capacities.

Sometimes it helps an existing owner place the protections on their property deed.

Other times it works with a seller and a new buyer of a property to place those covenants on the deed at closing.

PNC can also buy the property or accept a donated property, then place protective covenants on the property and start looking for the perfect buyer.

Sometimes though, that takes awhile.

(upbeat music) In Gastonia, the textile industry once provided thousands of jobs and an economic base for the city.

Here on the west side of town, you'll find one of the largest mills in the South.

Built in 1902, the mill produced textiles until the 1930s, when Firestone took over and used it to produce tire cord.

The history of the mill and its village, are intricately woven into the area's collective history.

Firestone closed the mill in the early 1990s.

Enter Preservation North Carolina.

- We felt the importance of a Loray Mill was so extremely important to telling the history and the story, and plus the square footage and what it could mean to Western Gastonia.

We accepted that donation property back in the early 90s and owned it for about 20 years.

- [Narrator] During that time period, PNC incurred the cost of security and basic maintenance on the building.

- There are developers out there who specifically like historic properties.

And those folks, we give them full credit and we love them because they understand sort of the inherent intrinsic value of the historic properties and what they mean.

But they also understand that these properties can be economically viable and they can be economic engines and economic tools.

If it didn't make economic sense, they wouldn't do it - [Narrator] At the time, West Gastonia was lagging behind economically - Gastonia would naturally, from the regional economic sense, grow towards Charlotte.

Over time, what you see is an abandonment of retail on the western side of the city, declining housing conditions, all of those things kind of working together to create both a development and a disinvestment pattern.

- [Narrator] PNC and the city of Gastonia saw the preservation and redevelopment of the mill as an opportunity.

According to the former city planning director, the project required some creativity.

- It was a huge project and we knew all along it would take a mixture of uses and a lot of complicated, layered kind of pancake-like financing to put it all together, including mortgage financing, tax credits, all of those things that make these difficult projects happen.

- [Narrator] The developer converted the mill into loft apartments and commercial space.

PNC also saw another opportunity in the neighborhood surrounding the mill, the Loray Mill Village.

- Preservation North Carolina said, "Well, you know, what's happened with the mill can't happen in a vacuum.

It can't sustain itself without the neighborhood surrounding being revitalized."

- [Narrator] Originally owned by the mill, these small homes served as a tool to owners, attracting workers who needed cheap housing.

Eventually though they were sold off and many were turned into rental properties.

Kiser says property values in the area suffered.

- You could buy a home in here, a house and lot, typically for around 20, $25,000 - [Narrator] PNC and the city developed a plan to kickstart investment in the village.

- We figured if we could create two impact areas that reinvestment would likely bred from those two points.

- [Narrator] The plan worked.

By buying several homes in the village and renovating them, PNC inspired individuals to invest into the village.

Kiser says some property values then quadrupled.

The transformation opened the door for more revitalization in West Gastonia.

(upbeat music) In 2013 the city opened the Gastonia Optimist Club Park on Vance Street across from the Loray Mill.

And the half mile down on West Franklin Boulevard you'll find another kind of park, a new baseball park, here in what's now called the Fuse District.

All of this redevelopment and investment in West Gastonia can be connected back to the preservation of the Loray Mill.

- All the things that we talked about are happening.

They're not done yet.

I mean, NoDa did not happen overnight, but this is a much bigger area than NoDa, and it's not 15 blocks from downtown Charlotte.

- [Narrator] Back in the village, one of those small houses offered by Preservation North Carolina caught the eye of Brian Miller.

- All my life I've wanted a Gastonia address.

And a friend of mine suggested that maybe one day I could buy a millhouse.

- So he worked with PNC and bought one.

- It was really quite simple, you sign a historical covenant because what they're trying to do here in the neighborhood is to really preserve the historic character.

- Now this small house serves as his weekend getaway.

- Most people don't have a vacation home in a mill village, do they?

But this is my heritage.

But my grandmother, Lily Bradshaw, worked at the first at Loray Mill and then of course it became Firestone in 1935, and several branches of my family had lived in this neighborhood and worked up in the mill.

Coming to Gastonia always meant visiting my grandparents.

I was so close to those grandparents, that to get to have an address in this city means the world to me.

- [Narrator] The house got a coat of paint, a new roof, and a lot of attention to the windows.

- Had to go through and replace every pane of glass that had been scratched or was not original or anything like that.

Very few of these panes were original and had to get new glass cut then you caulk them in.

Boy, I learned how to do that.

(chuckles) And it was a hot summer and I did all 111 panes of glass in that whole summer and it was hot work.

Preservation North Carolina would call this thing a style B house.

It's a two by two house, two rooms on the front, the kitchen and a room on the back - [Narrator] The protective covenants on the house guided Brian during the restoration process.

- I was given the right to do whatever I wanted to on the inside, except for change the beadboard on the walls.

Well, I took that a step further.

I had no intention of modernizing anything.

I wanted to take it back to what the house looked like in the twenties when it got electricity and plumbing the first time.

So working with Preservation North Carolina was no struggle at all.

- [Narrator] He's worked hard to make his small millhouse feel just like visiting his grandparents - [Brian] Amazing stuff you can find at thrift stores, antique malls, flea markets, that kind of thing.

- [Narrator] And what house would not be complete with not one, but two antique organs which Brian plays whenever he gets a chance to enjoy his vacation home right here in the Loray Mill Village.

(upbeat music) Let's fast forward now about five decades to post-World War II America and a nation full of optimism for the future.

During this time, architects designed homes with an emphasis on lifestyle and nature.

In the case of this mid-century home, PNC partnered with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission.

- The Cohen-Fumero House is a fabulous mid-century home here in town that we worked very closely with Preservation North Carolina on.

Permanently protected by deed restrictions held by Preservation North Carolina today.

That mid-century masterpiece is going to be with us, arguably, permanently.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Preservation North Carolina found a buyer willing to take on preserving this mid-century beauty.

Meet Charlie Miller.

- It is a 1961 high style mid-century modern home.

It is one of the few remaining homes of that style and significance in the region.

It has a lot of history.

A lot of fun things happened here.

Herb and Jose were prominent artists in Charlotte in their time.

I've actually had the opportunity to meet Herb and talk with him at length.

And he told me people would just stop by.

Garden parties and dinner parties, and he was telling me that they would have prominent artists, not just locally, but regionally, nationally, and internationally come through.

- [Narrator] Miller, who owns a real estate company called The Home Renovation Bug, while helping his parents renovate a house.

This background gave him the confidence to buy the house along with all of its problems.

- [Charlie] You know, there were pretty significant holes in the roof, leaks, things that were going to take this house and make it unsalvageable.

The first thing we had to do is come up with a comprehensive plan to refurbish this home.

I don't wanna say renovate because that's not what we did here.

It was a preservation effort.

One of the larger items on this home was the flat roof.

Two thirds of the roof sheeting was rotten and needed to be replaced.

- [Narrator] With a roof repair underway, work on the inside commenced.

- We took this wall and then basically redesigned the kitchen to make it more functional and flowing for modern day living.

These are the original wood floors.

There's only a few repairs I had to make in certain places.

It's the narrow plank white oak, and they cleaned up really well.

The walls are Philippine mahogany tiger stripe.

They're all original.

They weren't in great shape.

They were kind of dried out, but we were able to bring those back to life - [Narrator] Today the house represents an era of American architectural history, decorated with mid-century modern furniture.

But when it comes to the furnishings, Miller makes it a point to feel like home.

- I have two small kids, so spending the big money on some original pieces right now might not be the wise investment.

This house isn't a museum, it's lived in and we enjoy it.

So it's important to me that my kids don't have to tip toe around really anything.

They get to exist in this space and grow up here and enjoy it, and hopefully take the appreciation and love I have for this with them as they get older.

This has been a incredible place to live in a very crazy time in the world.

This house really feels like it has a soul.

And for me, I feel good being here.

Now I get to be a part of the history of this house, which has such a rich history to begin with.

There were headaches, there were issues we ran into that we couldn't think of in advance in the construction process.

It wasn't easy.

I own a building company and it wasn't easy for me to do.

But we figured it out.

Short answer, yes, totally worth it and I would do it again.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Welcome to the Historic Square in Dallas.

No, not the big D in Texas, but Dallas, North Carolina.

At the square center sits the old Gaston County Courthouse.

And across the street, the 1850s Hoffman Hotel, now home to the Gaston County Museum.

But in the other direction, you'll spot what looks like a historic brick home.

Look closer and you might get a sense of this building's true nature.

- We are at the historic Dallas Jail.

This building was built in 1848.

Downstairs is actually super interesting.

The sheriff and his family lived here, so their house was down here.

They used the basement and the first floor, and then upstairs was the main cell block.

So it's not what you think about for traditional jails, like little boxes.

They just had one big room and they threw everyone in it together.

Supposedly there was two jail breaks.

Not super sure if they're true or not, but we're gonna be looking for some evidence.

- [Narrator] Victoria Melvin-Propert knows a bit about the old jail.

She and her husband, Blair, bought it through Preservation North Carolina.

Victoria's passion for renovation projects started at a very young age.

- We are a family business, and we always have been, we always work together.

I grew up working with my mom.

She's an event planner, I followed in her footsteps.

My dad, it's his fault that I love old houses.

We didn't watch Saturday morning cartoons.

We turned on PBS and watched "This Old House" and watched Norm fix something.

- [Narrator] Victoria says the work to save the building boils down to dreams and economics.

- It has always been a dream of me and my family to own and operate an event venue.

Not just weddings, signature events, birthday parties, showers, anything you can think of.

We wanna help celebrate it.

- [Narrator] Victoria is also getting help from her dad.

Meet James Melvin.

- It'll be awesome, I think.

We're gonna bring a lot of business downtown.

Dallas is booming.

A lot of businesses coming.

There's new manufacturing coming into the Gaston county area.

So it's grow rapidly.

- [Narrator] The old jail served the community until 1911.

In the decades after it closed, others tried to repurpose the building.

There was a restaurant with a basement bar and even a store.

Eventually though the Gaston County Museum acquired the building with the intent of giving tours.

But with expensive repairs and other improvements needed to open building to the public, museum officials instead decided to put it up for sale.

- And Preservation stepped in to help find the perfect buyer for them.

- [Narrator] Perfect buyers with a sense of adventure blended with a respect for the history.

- This building is definitely full of projects, but nothing that's not fixable.

We really can't wait to comb through the building inch by inch and make every little correction perfect and historically accurate with lime plasters, all the lath is gonna stay, all the exposed brick is staying.

We're gonna have the moldings redone to be exactly what they should be and what they were originally.

- [Narrator] She says, PNC placed several layers of protection on the roughly 5,000 square foot jail.

- It does come with some covenants that are things that we cannot change, but they are absolutely things that you would not want to change about this building.

The bars on the windows, the original granite foundation, the fireplaces, all absolutely pieces that are so important to the history of this building that need to remain in place.

The ceilings are protected by preservation.

That's one of the things that we cannot cover or change and why you absolutely would not want to.

It's been a ton of behind the scenes work.

It's really been an eight month process working with architects, and structural engineers, and interviewing contractors and getting our team in place.

- There's some structural issues with the side of the building pulling apart.

So we have to put in some tie rods to pull it back together.

The structural supports in the basement to make it compatible with the number of people we're planning on having in-house.

And of course, adding all the HVAC, electrical, plumbing, which none of it exists right now.

- [Narrator] Beyond the business plans and saving an important historic building once used to house prisoners, there's more at work here.

- There's pride there and at first I thought she was crazy.

She called us told us she was buying the jail.

And I said, "Okay, sure, we'll see how that goes."

But when she puts her mind to something she goes to do it, she's not afraid to take on something she's never done, which is something I wish I could do.

- For me, the most important thing about this building is just that the community can come in and enjoy it.

And I want them to have good memories.

If anything we've learned the last couple years it's that we need to celebrate everything and we need to be together and enjoy.

So if we open these doors and we're here to help with anything you need to celebrate as big or as little, we wanna make sure you have a great time and good memories.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] One thing about historic preservation that's clear, it takes partnerships.

As a statewide organization, Preservation North Carolina highly values collaboration.

- We try to empower those local groups to be able to do the same kinds of things that we do, 'cause there's plenty of preservation to go around all over North Carolina.

- And we at the Historic Landmarks Commission work with them routinely.

In some cases, we work to align strategies to come up with solutions on how to preserve a place.

The Landmarks Commission is a department of Mecklenburg County government, and it is our job to identify and designate historic places throughout Mecklenburg County.

- [Narrator] Thompson recognizes the challenges facing preservation in and around the Queen City.

It's often a balancing act between the history and the future.

- [Jack] Charlotte it's often been called a a city in love with the future, right?

And so bigger and faster and brighter and taller and shinier.

We don't wanna save everything, we wanna wanna save the places that are important to our community.

And that means places that were important from the Colonial Period to places that are important today for the Civil Rights Movement, modernism, and that movement from the mid-century.

- [Narrator] The commission stays busy with a well established, but growing portfolio.

- We have some 360 designated landmarks across Mecklenburg County.

That's the largest inventory of any county in the state.

- [Narrator] While the Historical Landmarks Commission works in Mecklenburg County, a new group recently formed here in Lincoln County.

Longtime resident, Beth Yarbrough.

- Lincoln Landmarks was formed out of a need that existed here in Lincoln County.

- [Narrator] And helping Yarbrough, a recent transplant to Lincoln County, Darryl Saunders, along with his family, moved up from Louisiana and purchased the historic Ingleside House with help from PNC.

- I got involved with Lincoln Landmarks through our vice president Beth Yarbrough, who sort of brought me in and helped integrate what we were doing with Ingleside into the larger picture of what's going on in terms of preservation here in Lincoln County.

- [Narrator] The group's first endeavor working with Preservation North Carolina to purchase the historic Pleasant Retreat Academy in Lincolnton.

Saunders says there's somehow challenges ahead of them.

- For us as a new group, I mean, fundraising is always a challenge.

You know, being able to find qualified people that can carry out some of the restoration work on the building is something that we're definitely focused on as well.

We'd eventually like to turn it into an event and educational space.

Also plan on having the offices of Lincoln Landmarks on the second floor.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] The building originally served as a private school for boys.

- Pleasant Retreat Academy was built around 1817.

The structure itself is a very simple federal structure, very understated.

It was built for the purposes of education.

- [Narrator] During the academy's six decades of operation, several notable students emerged, including North Carolina Governor William Graham, Georgia Governor Hoke Smith, and the first governor of Texas, James Henderson.

While the school closed its doors in the 1870s, the community found other uses for the building including a public library.

Lincoln Landmarks recognizes the 200 plus year old building needs some work.

- There are some issues.

There's some peeling plaster on the interior.

The front door, surround, and door itself need to be replaced.

There are windows that need to be completely rebuilt.

There are others that just some minor repair.

- [Darryl] I think it's probably the only remaining non-residential, early 19th century building in Lincolnton.

- [Narrator] When local groups work collaboratively with Preservation North Carolina, it multiplies the number of historically significant buildings saved.

- We believe as historic preservationists, that our work is important for our culture and society because historic places serve as this tangible connection to the past.

In other words, it's not a story written down on paper in a book or told by a storyteller verbally, but it is the physical carnation of history.

- [Narrator] Alexander with Preservation North Carolina says, "When a building avoids the wrecking ball and gets a new lease of life, that's the real payoff."

- When we see houses and buildings and other properties that are kind of brought back to their former glory, that are able to now withstand again the test of time, that really is what makes it all worthwhile.

- [Narrator] So next time you come across a vacant building that might need little TLC, think about the stories told if walls could talk and the work preservation groups around the state do to protect North Carolina's history.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] A production of PBS Charlotte.

(gentle music)