RALEIGH -- The North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources announces that one district, one boundary expansion and additional documentation and six individual properties across the state have been added to the National Register of Historic Places.

The following properties were reviewed by the North Carolina National Register Advisory Committee and were subsequently approved by the N.C. State Historic Preservation Officer and forwarded to the Keeper of the National Register.

“With these new additions, the number of North Carolina’s listings in the National Register of Historic Places has surpassed 3,000,” said Secretary Susi Hamilton, N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. “A comprehensive count of buildings in the state contributing to listed historic districts yields an estimate of more than 75,000 National Register Properties. The National Register is a vital tool for preserving our state’s historic resources. These figures reaffirm North Carolina’s national leadership in the historic preservation movement.”

The listing of a property in the National Register places no obligation or restriction on a private owner using private resources to maintain or alter the property. Over the years, various federal and state incentives have been introduced to assist private preservation initiatives, including tax credits for the rehabilitation of National Register properties. As of Jan. 1, 2017, over 3,573 rehabilitation projects with an estimated private investment of over $2.398 billion have been completed.

In Central North Carolina

Berry O'Kelly Historic District, Raleigh, Wake County, listed 5/1/2017

The Berry O'Kelly Historic District is located in the Method community of Raleigh, a community established in the 1870s by freed African Americans. Named for Method’s most prominent businessmen and philanthropist, the Berry O’Kelly Historic District represents the institutional core of Method, containing educational and religious resources that O’Kelly was instrumental in developing. The school trained African American students in vocational and liberal arts skills on a campus that had as many as eight buildings at its peak. Today, only the 1927 Rosenwald Fund-assisted agricultural building and the 1958-1959 gymnasium remain. The district also includes the 1923 St. James African Methodist Episcopal Church, partially established by O’Kelly, and O’Kelly’s grave. The Berry O’Kelly Historic District is significant for African American heritage and education, for architecture and for its association with Berry O'Kelly.

Little River High School, Bahama, Durham County, listed 4/17/2017

Little River High School, constructed in several phases between 1939 and 1957, is significant for education, African American heritage and architecture. This highly intact brick school complex was constructed to serve rural African American children in grades one through 12. It was the second public high school on this site, built after the first school was destroyed by fire. It was a consolidation school that replaced one- and two-room frame schools, common throughout northern Durham County at the time. Modern-style brick additions and ancillary buildings erected in the decades following initial construction illustrated an ongoing commitment by the Durham County Board of Education to provide better educational facilities for the rural black population from the 1930s until the school became fully desegregated in 1969.

Rock Spring Camp Ground Additional Documentation Denver, Lincoln County, Listed 4/17/2017

Established by Methodists in 1830 as part of the evangelistic camp meeting movement, Rock Spring Camp Ground is the oldest and one of the largest camp meeting grounds in North Carolina. In 1972, the camp ground was listed in the National Register under the name “Rock Springs Camp Meeting Ground.” During preparation for a boundary increase nomination for the property in 2016, it became apparent that the camp ground has been called by a variety of similar names throughout its history, and therefore clarifying the camp ground’s historic name, for the record, became important. Further research yielded the conclusion that the camp was historically known as “Rock Spring” not “Rock Springs.” An update of the current appearance, condition and integrity of the Rock Spring Camp Ground also was necessary due to three fires that damaged or destroyed numerous tents in several sections of the property since the original listing. The camp ground has retained its historic appearance due to the new tents having been built according to the standard tent form.

Rock Spring Camp Ground Boundary Increase, Denver, Lincoln County, Listed 4/17/2017

Listed in the National Register as the “Rock Springs Camp Meeting Ground” in 1972, the now correctly named “Rock Spring Camp Ground” was established by Methodists in 1830 as part of the evangelistic camp meeting movement and is the oldest and one of the largest camp meeting grounds in North Carolina. A re-evaluation of the camp ground in 2016 determined that the National Register boundary should be amended to add approximately 25 acres surrounding the historic buildings at the core of the property. Historically, the additional acreage was required to provide for the operation and spatial needs of the camp meetings. The new boundary includes the Rock Spring and Mud Spring that supplied the camp ground with water, the areas where rows of over 200 frame privies stood, and the wooded areas where the carriages, wagons, horses, mules and later the motorized vehicles originally were kept during camp meeting week.

SS. Peter & Paul’s Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church, St. Helena, Pender County, listed 4/17/2017

SS. Peter & Paul’s Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church was built in 1932-1933 for residents of the small rural community of St. Helena. The community was one of several “colonies” developed in Pender, New Hanover and Columbus counties for settlement by European immigrants for farming. The church is a rare example in southeastern North Carolina of an Eastern Orthodox house of worship, which combines the traditional American church form, dark red brick walls and round-arched windows  with distinctly Russian Orthodox features of a gold metal onion dome and Orthodox crosses crowning the front and rear gables. The Orthodox character of the interior of the church is evident in its square central nave and apsidal eastern sanctuary containing the altar, separated from the nave by a three-door screen or Iconostasis raised above the nave floor. The church is architecturally significant for its traditional American forms combined with distinguishing Eastern or Russian Orthodox detailing.

In Western North Carolina

Elizabeth Wright Prince House, Highlands, Macon County, listed 4/17/2017

The oldest extant dwelling in Highlands, the Elizabeth Wright Prince House is locally significant in the area of entertainment/recreation. The 1877 frame dwelling experienced several changes in ownership prior to 1919, when it was acquired by James Wright. In 1935, Wright’s sister, schoolteacher and divorcee Elizabeth Wright Prince, moved into the house and undertook a series of alterations to facilitate conversion of the single-family dwelling to a boarding house to supplement her income. Prince lived in and operated the boarding house catering to tourists in the resort community of Highlands until 1967, when she moved to South Carolina. The building now serves as a house museum for the Highlands Historical Society.

Foster’s Log Cabin Court, Woodfin, Buncombe County, listed 5/1/2017

Foster’s Log Cabin Court is locally significant for its role in the tourism history of Woodfin and Buncombe County. The first seven cabins were built by Audrey and Zeb Foster in 1931, with additional lodging and support structures added to the three-acre property over the next 10 years. The 22 contributing resources include the Fosters’ 1917 Craftsman-style bungalow, 17 cabins, the original bathhouse, a laundry, a restaurant and a garage. The Fosters continued to operate the tourist court until 1970. The complex is also locally significant as an excellent and intact example of the Rustic Revival style of architecture, with the cabins, bathhouse and restaurant representative of this popular style. Foster’s Log Cabin Court continues to operate as tourist lodging and is now known as the Log Cabin Motor Court.

Otto King House, Hendersonville, Henderson County, listed 5/1/2017

Designed and built in 1950 by its namesake, the Otto King House is locally significant as an excellent and intact example of Craftsman-style architecture in Henderson County. Although a late expression of the style, the house displays such characteristic features as the irregular floor plan, randomly coursed river rock exterior, and projecting gable brackets. The house was constructed according to plans drawn by King, who worked with local stonemason Raymond Rolphy Davis to complete the interior and the exterior masonry, which retains its original painted grapevine mortar joints.

In Eastern North Carolina

Imperial Tobacco Company Office Building, Kinston, Lenoir County, listed 4/17/2017

The Imperial Tobacco Company Office Building, built ca. 1925 at the intersection of North Herritage and West Peyton Streets in Kinston’s central business district, was part of a larger tobacco processing facility constructed by the Imperial Tobacco Company on the north side of the tracks of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. The building’s massing and exterior details convey the Imperial Tobacco Company’s powerful design image that it wanted to project at the time of the company’s expansion into several North Carolina cities during the 1910s and 1920s. Retaining a high degree of architectural integrity, the Imperial Tobacco Company Office Building is the only surviving structure of the Imperial Tobacco Company’s early 20th-century manufacturing complex in Kinston and is significant as an exuberant example of early 20th-century, Medieval- and classical-inspired eclectic industrial architecture.