Honoring the Past, Building a Future
Rocky Mount NC: Preservation of Historic Commercial and Residential Architecture
I'm in love again with another beautiful building under restoration. This time it’s 234 SW Main Street. The first thing that caught my eye was the color palette. The soft gray façade, the white trim, and the darker accents create an elegance that feels both modern and respectful of the building’s history. Whoever is guiding this restoration … Continue reading A Jewel Being Polished: 234 SW Main Street
When future historians look back on this era of preservation and renewal, they will find that, it is the stories they uncover that give this movement its heartbeat. The world of preservation in America emerged from a growing awareness that progress, unchecked, was erasing the very places that told our nation’s story. As postwar development … Continue reading Stories Give Preservation Its Heartbeat
109 S.E. Main Street (c. 1907) A two-story brick commercial building on S.E. Main, immediately south of the 1918 Rocky Mount National Bank. Historic forms describe a pilastered upper façade with round-arched second-story openings over a storefront, a look typical of Main Street construction just after 1900. Over time, alterations (a replacement storefront, bricked-in arches, … Continue reading The Steadfast Face of Main Street’s Historic Core-#3
Winstead Electronics at 126 N.W. Main, the Philips Building, also known as the Bulluck Phillips Building, has been part of Rocky Mount’s downtown streetscape since 1907. Designed by local architect John C. Stout, the two story brick building is an impressive example of Beaux Arts architecture. Four Corinthian pilasters frame the upper story, arched windows … Continue reading The Steadfast Face of Main Street’s Historic Core -#1
Friday afternoon, August 8 in Rocky Mount. I was downtown to photograph the building at 112 NW Main Street. In the stretch of street where I stood, I counted six cars. Six. The building I came to photograph, and the ones reflected in the glass across the tracks, looked like a patchwork quilt stitched by … Continue reading A ‘Raggedy Ass’ Friday In Rocky Mount, NC
On a recent post about Rueben Blackwell and the condition of Happy Hill, a reader left a comment that spoke directly to what many in Rocky Mount have quietly hoped for: "We need City Management to assemble a group of smart, hard working, caring, professional staff members who will look at every neighborhood in the … Continue reading Rocky Mount,NC: A Neighborhood, A Task Force, A Future
Main Street Rocky Mount 