"The City Council recently approved a Historic Preservation Grant that will allow for a study to be conducted on a section of Randolph Street, between Colonial Drive and Carolina Avenue, as a potential historic district designation.

"I think cities, and Thomasville is no different, have a great interest in preserving our history and our heritage," City Manager Kelly Craver said. "It is a study, a planning grant, to find out whether another section of our downtown area meets the criteria of a historic district. This would be the sign to tell if this would qualify."

The Historic Preservation Commission asked the council for $2,600 in matching funds, since the state would only cover 40 percent of the $6,500 project cost.

The commission submitted the grant application in February and was awarded $3,900 on April 21."

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Greensboro News & Record (7/11/2011)

"Down N.C. 150 in Rockingham County is a 200-year-old house with gold buried in the backyard.

“That’s 'supposedly,’ ” Brianne McAlister, the sales and marketing director of High Rock Farm homestead, says with a twinkle in her eye.

If so, it hasn’t been found on the grounds of the Federal-styled house — built circa 1808 by Joseph McCain, the great-great-great grandfather of U.S. Sen. John McCain.

The McCain house, which doubled as a tavern, sat along a major stagecoach trail between Washington, D.C., and Georgia and a stone’s throw from skirmishes leading up to the Battle of Guilford Courthouse.

The Greensboro area is full of houses connected to American history, although years later, they sit without much fanfare in neighborhoods or along quiet country roads.

“If the walls could talk we’d know this wonderful history that’s mostly been lost,” said Rockingham County historian Bob Carter."

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Greensboro News & Record (7/10/2011)

"The two buildings went up in the 1920s - a new Gastonia hospital and a state-of-the-art apartment complex.

Time took its toll and the buildings became empty, decaying sentinels.

But a partnership between Gastonia, the buildings' owners, Preservation North Carolina, a Winston-Salem developer and Gaston County is about to transform the two properties.

The city recently announced the latest piece of financing for the project is in place. The N.C. Finance Agency has approved low-income tax credits to help developer The Landmark Group renovate an historic hospital building on North Highland Street.

The Highland Memorial Apartment complex will offer 75 affordable apartments for seniors and persons with disabilities.

In a separate project, the Armstrong Arms Apartment project will create 18 affordable, market-rate, townhome-style apartments in the former Armstrong/Marietta apartment building on the corner of Marietta and Second streets."

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Charlotte Observer (7/10/2011) 

"Repairs to part of Liberty Warehouse have been completed, the first step toward removal of some of the condemnation signs on the historic building, city officials said Wednesday.

Repairs at 613 Rigsbee Ave., the northern portion of the former tobacco warehouse, have been completed and are awaiting a final inspection from the city. After the Inspections Department makes its final approval, Greenfire Development, which owns the warehouse and rented space to artists and retailers, will be able to remove the condemnation signs on that part of the building, said Rick Hester, assistant director of Neighborhood Improvement Services."

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The Herald-Sun (8/25/2011)