North Carolina preservationists fight for Historic Preservation Fund
(WGHP) — Inside the Trump administration’s fiscal year 2026 budget is the elimination of the Historic Preservation Fund with few exceptions.
The fund has provided money to states and tribes since 1976 and served as the primary way historic preservation programs are funded.
North Carolina receives about $1.3 million in federal support, which is 40 percent of the budget for the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office.
The funds for 2025 haven’t been released. Now, the funds for 2026 may never come.
Preservation North Carolina President and CEO Benjamin Briggs’s love of historic structures began in the Triad thanks to his parents.
He grew up looking at places in High Point like the John Hampton Adams Inn from the early 20th century with its grand staircases and elegant rooms. It’s now a boutique hotel perfect for furniture market guests.
Just down the road, Market Square, constructed in the 1900s as well, is on the registry of historic places because it was one of the first places to display furniture in a showroom, which is a trend that would fuel the furniture city.
“Historic preservation is as much about the future as it is the past,” Briggs said.
Preservation North Carolina is a nonprofit dedicated to helping acquire endangered historic properties, saving them and also repurposing them.
“Some of my favorite adaptive reuse projects like the Revolution Mill in Greensboro and some of the amazing laboratories that are in downtown Winston-Salem with Wake Forest in historic buildings,” he said.
Cuts to the Historic Preservation Fund could halt plans for future projects and take away opportunities for preservation efforts to rescue historic structures from demolition.
For example, the John Coltrane house in High Point. It was recognized as a landmark in 2021, and it still needs more funding for restoration and then to ideally become a tourist destination.
“Why throw something away that’s in perfectly reusable condition with some TLC?” Briggs said.
The TLC isn’t free, though, and organizations count on federal funding. The Trump administration released a statement saying most buildings listed on the historic registers are only of local significance, but Briggs disagrees.
Preservation societies nationally are asking people to contact their legislators and ask for the Historic Preservation Fund to stay intact.