A list of important historic sites in North Carolina.
Location: Along state routes 1008 and 1009, Newton Grove and Bentonville, Johnston County
Relevant issues: Civil War, military history
Web site: www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/sections/hs/bentonvi/bentonvi.htm
Statement of significance: The Battle of Bentonville, where two military titans of the Civil War–Generals William Tecumseh Sherman and Joseph E. Johnston–faced each other for the final time in a major battle, was the last occasion on which a Confederate army mounted an all-out offensive during the Civil War. The loss here was the Confederates’ death knell, for it fatally weakened their last mobile field army.
Location: 2147 Bethabara Road, Winston-Salem, Forsyth County
Relevant issues: Colonial America, European settlement
Statement of significance: Bethabara was the first colonial townsite established in the Carolina Piedmont. It was intended to be a temporary town from which the central Moravian town of Salem and outlying farming communities would be developed within the Moravian lands of Wachovia. However, Bethabara continued in operation as a Moravian community long after Salem was es-tablished. Bethabara was the only “House of Passage” built by the Moravians at any of their colonial settlements in the New World. Archaeological investigations have demonstrated that the Bethabara archaeological remains at the townsite are intact and this work has contributed to a significant understanding of the Moravian culture, in particular the manufacture of Moravian pottery.
Location: Biltmore Plaza, Asheville, Buncombe County
Relevant issues: Science and technology
Statement of significance: In 1888, George W. Vanderbilt (1862-1914) began the purchase of over 125,000 acres of farms, woodlands, and forested mountains. In 1892, Vanderbilt appointed as superintendent of his forest Gifford Pinchot (1865-1946), who proved for the first time that scientific forest management was profitable. In 1898, Vanderbilt established the Biltmore Forest School, the first of its kind. On the estate is Biltmore House, designed by Richard Morris Hunt (1827-1895) who was immensely popular among the wealthy families then building great estates in the manner of late Gothic French chateaux. It is now a house museum still owned by the original family.
Location: Durham, Durham County
Relevant issues: Business and industry
Statement of significance: From 1874 to 1957, this factory was the home of Bull Durham Smoking Tobacco, the first truly national tobacco brand. W. T. Blackwell and Company introduced production, packaging, and marketing techniques that made Bull Durham a part of American industrial history and folklore.
Location: Cape Hatteras, Buxton, North Carolina
Relevant issues: Naval history
Web site: www.nps.gov/caha/
Statement of significance: Cape Hatteras is a prominent projection on North Carolina’s famous Outer Banks–the long, low stretches of sandy beaches that protect the state’s mainland, but that have been the bane of existence for mariners for centuries. Protection was provided at the “Graveyard of the Atlantic,” as the cape has been known for years, in 1803, when the first lighthouse was built. In 1854, it was heightened to 150 feet, and in 1870, the current brick tower was erected. Its height of 208 feet makes it the tallest lighthouse in the nation, and its well-known black-and-white spiral bands, its daymark, make it a prominent landmark during daylight hours. In addition to the lighthouse, supporting structures–including the oil house and both the principal and assistant keeper’s dwellings–also survive. All are popular daytime visitor attractions at the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, but at night the lighthouse continues to serve its prime purpose, guiding navigators around the cape.
Location: Raleigh, Wake County
Relevant issues: Naval history
Statement of significance: This was the residence (1920-1948) of Josephus Daniels, secretary of the Navy (1913-1921) under President Woodrow Wilson. Daniels reformed policies by introducing schooling for illiterate sailors, instituting vocational training, opening the Naval Academy to enlisted men, and reforming the naval prison system.
Location: Durham, Durham County
Relevant issues: Business and industry
Statement of significance: In 1890, Washington Duke’s son, James B. Duke, organized the American Tobacco Company, preeminent in its time. The family’s frame house, reconstructed small tobacco factory of log construction, and frame third factory (c. 1852-1874) remain.
Location: Wilmington, New Hanover County
Relevant issues: Civil War, military history
Statement of significance: This earthen Confederate stronghold created an impassable barrier for the blockading Union fleet. Its fall, in January, 1865, helped spell the collapse of the Confederacy.
Location: Badin, Stanly County
Relevant issues: American Indian history
Statement of significance: During the Paleo-Indian to Early Archaic Periods (12,000-6,000
Location: Edenton, Chowan County
Relevant issues: Political history
Statement of significance: This plantation was built from 1790 to 1802 by Samuel Johnston, a major political leader of North Carolina during the War for Independence. He served as governor and then senator, as well as president of the North Carolina Convention which ratified the U.S. Constitution. He lived here until his death in 1816.
Location: Mocksville, Davie County
Relevant issues: Political history
Statement of significance: This was the residence (1829-1849) of Hinton Rowan Helper (1829-1909), author of The Impending Crisis of the South (1857), a book which condemned the institution of slavery for economic, though not moral, reasons. The publication was used for political purposes by the Republicans in the 1860 elections. Helper lived here for the first twenty years of his life, and returned in later years. The original log structure is now clapboarded and has modern frame additions.
Location: Cape Hatteras, Dare County
Relevant issues: Civil War, military history, naval history
Statement of significance: The USS Monitor (1862), famous for its Civil War battle with the CSS Merrimac (Virginia), was the prototype of a class of ironclad, turreted warships which significantly altered both naval technology and marine architecture in the nineteenth century. Designed by Swedish engineer John Ericsson, the vessel contained all the nascent innovations which helped to revolutionize warfare at sea.
Location: Wilmington, New Hanover County
Relevant issues: Military history, naval history, World War II
Statement of significance: First and namesake of a modern class of American battleships built just prior to World War II, USS North Carolina set a standard for new shipbuilding technology that combined high speeds with powerful armament. Its superior performance during the Battle of the Eastern Solomons in August, 1942, established the primary role of the fast battleship as the protector of the aircraft carrier. It has the best war record of any surviving American battleship serving in the Pacific during World War II, earning fifteen battle stars for its service.
Location: Durham, Durham County
Relevant issues: African American history, business and industry
Statement of significance: Built in 1921, this building was the second home office of the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, which was founded in 1898. This company evolved out of a tradition of mutual benefit societies and fraternal organizations which by the twentieth century had become the most important social institutions in African American life, with the exception of the church. From the beginning, the Mutual symbolized racial progress and is an institutional legacy of the ideas of racial solidarity and self-help.
Location: Chapel Hill, Orange County
Relevant issues: Education
Statement of significance: This was the first building constructed (1795) on the campus of the first state university in the United States to open its doors, the University of North Carolina, which was chartered in 1789.
Location: Pinehurst, Moore County
Relevant issues: Cultural history
Statement of significance: The Pinehurst Historic District, a planned recreational resort community, comprises a network of curvilinear roads embracing the village green; late Victorian, Colonial Revival and Bungalow-style hotels, cottages, stores, and churches; golf courses, tennis courts, bowling greens, and croquet courts; and horse stables and a racetrack. From its founding in 1895, the captains of American commerce, finance, and industry, and their families and friends, sought recreational pleasures at Pinehurst, which become the model for a subsequent generation of like resorts. Its creation and integrity today as a remarkably intact recreational resort reflect the genius of the Tufts family of Boston, the designers, and Donald James Ross, who designed and refined the resort’s golf courses.
Location: Concord, Cabarrus County
Relevant issues: Business and industry
Statement of significance: Nuggets found here in 1799 set off the first gold rush in the United States. North Carolina mines furnished much of the gold minted in Philadelphia before 1829. The mines were largely depleted by 1860.
Location: Winston-Salem, Forsyth County
Relevant issues: Cultural history, European settlement, religion
Statement of significance: The first brick building in Salem, erected in 1784 by the Moravian congregation that established the town. The Moravians, a devout Germanic people, set about to construct a planned, congregation town in which the church directed the economic as well as spiritual affairs of the residents. The tavern was considered a necessity for the town’s development as a trading center.
Location: Milton, Caswell County
Relevant issues: African American history, business and industry
Statement of significance: Workshop of Thomas Day, early nineteenth century free African American cabinetmaker who achieved recognition for the superior quality of his craftsmanship.
Location: Asheville, Buncombe County
Relevant issues: Literary history
Web site: www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/sections/hs/wolfe/Main.htm
Statement of significance: Thomas Wolfe (1900-1938), a major American novelist, used his boyhood experiences in this rambling frame house in his novels, the first of which was Look Homeward, Angel (1929). Wolfe’s mother bought the house in 1906, and he lived here until 1916.