Orange County NC Website
Attachment 1 <br /> Orange County <br /> HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION <br /> Approved Meeting Summary <br /> March 26th, 2025 <br /> Bonnie Davis Center, 1020 US 70 West, Hillsborough <br /> MEMBERS PRESENT: Eric Deetz, Rob Golan, Carol Ann Lewald, Art Menius <br /> MEMBERS ABSENT: Todd Dickinson, Cecelia Moore, Anne Whisnant <br /> STAFF PRESENT: Peter Sandbeck, Cultural Resources Coordinator <br /> GUESTS: Rod Mullen <br /> ITEM #1: CALL TO ORDER: Chair Menius called the meeting to order at 6:31 pm. <br /> ITEM #2: CHANGES OR ADDITIONS TO AGENDA: Staff asked to defer discussion about the <br /> landmark evaluation form, due to the absence of three members. <br /> ITEM #3: APPROVAL OF MINUTES for January 29th, 2025, meeting: <br /> Golan moved to approve, seconded by Deetz; motion carried. <br /> ITEM #4: ITEMS FOR DECISION: None <br /> ITEM #5: DISCUSSION ITEMS <br /> a. Faucett Mill on the Eno: new discoveries and preservation opportunities: Staff <br /> provided a PowerPoint presentation about the mill and its site. New research was recently <br /> carried out by local historian Phil Mace. He'd like to give a program about this at our April <br /> meeting. He has documented that it was constructed in 1823, on a site adjacent to the <br /> Eno where the main road from Hillsborough to Greensboro crosses at a good ford. <br /> Faucett obtained permission to build the dam on Dry Run in 1823, documented in court <br /> records, giving us the start date for the mill complex that also include a dam on the Eno. <br /> This was believed to have been built in the late 18th century based on outdated research. <br /> The mill stayed in the Faucett family through much of the 19th century. It was converted <br /> from a traditional 14' diam. water wheel to a turbine by the time of the 1870 industrial <br /> census. Aerial photos and old maps illustrate the historic roads and location of the old <br /> ford. The building was more than doubled in size, probably in the 1830s-1840s period. A <br /> large amount of the early milling equipment still survives on the interior. The building was <br /> stabilized and shored up in the 1990s. The dam on the Eno was intact until Hurricane <br /> Fran blew it out in 1996. The mill and property were purchased by the grandparents of the <br /> present owners, who are interested in the long-term preservation of the mill and its setting. <br /> b. New developments in protect to identify, map and protect historic Black cemeteries <br /> and stone burial mounds: Staff reviewed recent activities to document and locate <br /> historic Black cemeteries. There is a start-up group interested in a larger effort to identify <br /> and protect these sites. Some members recently located the old slave burial ground at the <br /> former Poplar Hill plantation, later Julian Carr's farm, where the burial ground that had <br /> been described in the 1970s was found again near the Vietri property and speedway. <br /> Also, in March, some members of this group successfully located a similar burial ground <br /> for the enslaved at the Holden family plantation, within the Eno River State Park property. <br /> We continue to study the stone mounds that appear to be related to the Indian traditions <br /> described by John Lawson and others, whereby any Indian who walked past a site of <br /> 1 <br />