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00 Attachment 2 <br /> North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources <br /> James B. Hunt Jr,, Governor Division of Archives and History <br /> Betty Ray McCain, Secretary Jeffrey J, Crow, Director <br /> July 12; 1999 <br /> Donald Belk ' <br /> Preservation Planner, Orange County <br /> P . O . Box 8181 <br /> Hillsborough, NC 27278 <br /> RE : White Oak Grove School, Orange County - <br /> Dear Don: <br /> When consultant Rick Mattson visited our office last week, I happened to talk to him about his <br /> current projects, including preparation of a National Register nomination for the former White <br /> Oak Grove School,. Rick mentioned that he had questions about the property' s eligibility for <br /> listing 'n the National Register due to extensive alterations made when the building was <br /> converted to a residence in the 1950s . Consequently, I pulled our survey file on the former <br /> school, which the North Carolina National Register Advisory Committee placed on the National <br /> Register Study List last October in response to an application submitted by the Orange County <br /> Historic Preservation Commission. <br /> In reviewing the survey file and Study List application, I discovered that we had 'virtually no <br /> information on the interior of the building last October, when we presented the application to the <br /> National Register ,Advisory Committee. yWe knew that the 1950s conversion entailed <br /> construction of porches, but we did not know that interior alterations included a complete <br /> reworking of the plan, with installation of a second floor. The construction of the second floor <br /> apparently also necessitated the addition of the prominent wall dormers and other upper-level <br /> windows , <br /> Placement of a property on the Study List means that the property appears to be potentially <br /> eligible for the National Register based upon the information gathered to date. In' order to meet <br /> the National Register Criteria for Evaluation, a property must meet standards of historical <br /> significance and must be largely intact. While a certain degree of change to historic properties is <br /> to be expected, extensive loss of historic physical integrity- in this case, alterations to identifying <br /> features of roofline and interior plan.-renders them ineligible under the criteria. Had all of the <br /> too <br /> changes been known last October, I believe that the former school would not -have been placed <br /> on the Study List, ' <br /> set <br /> Survey and Planning Branch State Historic Preservation Office <br /> 4618 CMS Center • Raleigh North Carolina 276994618 <br />