ARCHAEOLOGY

With the support of a federal matching grant, the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office supervised archaeological investigations at Yates Mill in 1991-1992. In 1992, a senior archaeologist assisted the Wake County Sheriff's Office in the recovery of remains scattered by vandals in the Robertson Cemetery. Almost 1,500 prehistoric and historic archaeological sites are recorded in the Historic Preservation Office statewide inventory for Wake County.

ARCHITECTURAL SURVEY

The Historic Preservation Office has cosponsored comprehensive architectural surveys of Raleigh, Wake Forest, Wake County (including all of the other municipalities), Umstead State Park, and Raleigh's African American neighborhoods.

GRANTS

Since 1972, federal matching grants totaling $343,401 have supported architectural surveys, restoration projects, preservation planning projects, National Register nominations, and archaeology at the State Capitol. State appropriations in the amount of $945,050 have assisted restoration projects including Estey Hall, Haywood Hall, the Joel Lane House, the Page Walker Hotel, Spring Hill, the Leonidas L. Polk House, Sacred Heart Cathedral, Tucker Carriage House, Yates Mill, and the DuBois Center in Wake Forest.

NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES

Wake County has 124 listings in the National Register. In Raleigh, eighty-four listings include eleven historic districts, Umstead State Park, and three properties that also are National Historic Landmarks. Apex, Cary, Fuquay-Varina, Garner, Knightdale, Wake Forest, Wendell, and Zebulon, as well as rural areas of the county, have a total of thirty-eight listings.

LOCAL PRESERVATION COMMISSIONS

At the request of local governments, the Historic Preservation Office has provided consultation services to preservation commissions in Raleigh, Wake Forest, and Wake County. The Historic Preservation Office has reviewed reports for 145 local designations throughout the county, and has assisted the Raleigh Historic Districts Commission in the development of comprehensive design guidelines. In 1995, the Historic Preservation Office awarded a federal subgrant to the Wake County Historic Preservation Commission to develop design guidelines for rural properties and crossroads communities. The town of Wake Forest, the city of Raleigh, and Wake County, including eleven municipalities, are Certified Local Governments. A programmatic agreement drafted by the Historic Preservation Office is facilitating Raleigh's Housing and Urban Development-funded housing projects.

PRESERVATION TAX CREDITS

Third in the state in both the number of income-producing tax credit projects and total rehabilitation costs, Wake County has seen fifty-nine projects completed at a total construction investment of $26,219,300, including the City Market, the former Murphey School, the former Sir Walter Raleigh Hotel, and the Dodd-Hinsdale House, all in Raleigh, and the former Garner High School in Garner and the Falls of the Neuse Manufacturing Company in Falls. Fourteen additional income-producing tax credit projects, including the Pine State Creamery, Powerhouse Square, and Pilot Mill in Raleigh, are currently undergoing renovation. Six residential renovation projects have been completed utilizing the new state tax credit for non-income-producing historic structures, and thirty-seven similar projects are underway. The Historic Preservation Office reviews and provides restoration technical services for all of these tax credit projects.

PUBLIC EDUCATION AND PUBLICATIONS

Projects overseen by the Historic Preservation Office have yielded four survey publications: The Raleigh Historic Inventory (1978), Early Raleigh Neighborhoods and Buildings (1983), Culture Town, Life in Raleigh's African American Communities (1993), and The Historic Architecture of Wake County (1994). Staff has participated in workshops on a variety of historic preservation topics in the county, including tax credit workshops in Raleigh and Fuquay-Varina in between 1995 and 1998, a low-income housing workshop in Raleigh in 1995, and a masonry repair workshop, held at Leonard Hall on the campus of Shaw University in Raleigh in May, 1996.

RESTORATION

Since 1990 alone, the Historic Preservation Office has provided consultation services to thirty-nine projects that received federal or state money and dozens of privately-owned buildings. Among the properties that have received assistance are the Capitol, the Executive Mansion, the North Carolina Court of Appeals, the City Market, the Capital Club Building, Mordecai House, the Andrew Johnson Birthplace, Joel Lane House, Estey Hall and Leonard Hall at Shaw University, Yates Mill, the former Garner High School, East Davie St. Presbyterian Church, and many others.