Five area landmarks added to National Register

Nineteen properties and districts statewide, including five near the Triangle, have been added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Posted 6:59 p.m. May 26, 2009 — Updated 6:59 p.m. May 26, 2009

RALEIGH, N.C. — Nineteen properties and districts statewide, including five near the Triangle, have been added to the National Register of Historic Places.

"The National Register is a vital tool in the preservation of North Carolina’s historic resources," Jeffrey J. Crow, deputy secretary for the state Department of Cultural Resources, said in a statement. “When all of the individual buildings in historic districts are counted, it is estimated that North Carolina has approximately 50,000 National Register properties.”

The five latest from the Triangle area are as follows:

The Mary Elizabeth Hospital, built in 1920 at the intersection of Wake Forest Road and Glascock Street in Raleigh, is oldest, surviving, privately owned general hospital in Raleigh that remains substantially intact. Mary Elizabeth Hospital was notable for offering modern equipment, techniques and facilities for the provision of general medical services to the white citizens of Raleigh, including gynecology and obstetrics.

Raleigh established Mount Hope Cemetery around 1872 for its African-American population. Located in the 1100 block of Fayetteville Street, Mount Hope is one of the first municipal African-American cemeteries in North Carolina. A significant collection of 1,500 19th- and early 20th-century monuments commemorate Raleigh’s black citizens, including locally significant religious leaders, teachers, doctors, businessmen and artisans. The earliest portion of the cemetery features a picturesque garden design of driveways that divide the grounds into large curvilinear sections, each laid out into family plots. The north, west, and south expansions feature a more regular grid design.

The Paul and Ellen Welles House is a striking and well-preserved Modernist split-level house constructed in 1956 on Birnamwood Road in the Raleigh subdivision of Highland Gardens. The design by Durham architect Kenneth McCoy Scott was greatly influenced by the Modern design theory taught at the North Carolina State University's School of Design. Scott belonged to the first class of graduates who disseminated the Modernist aesthetic, characterized by the integration of the building with its site, the flowing organization of space and the interrelationship of interior space with the outdoors – all exemplified by the Welles House.

The Harrington-Dewar House is a rare surviving and largely intact example of a mid-19th century I-house in Harnett County. The house was originally located on River Road in the community of Cokesbury but was moved in 1977 to a site closer to Holly Springs to save it from demolition. The house originated as a one-room dwelling and, by 1875, had been enlarged to a two-story, one-room-deep form with a one-story rear wing.

Enfield Graded School, built in 1950 in Enfield, is notable as a largely intact example of a post-World War II urban school, built on a larger scale and offering a broader curriculum than earlier local schools. Prominent Raleigh architect Frank B. Simpson designed the two-story brick building with the assistance of Eugene Savage, also of Raleigh. A pedimented frontispiece with cast stone Doric pilasters and a tall cupola mark the entrance pavilion. In addition to the classroom building, which incorporates a cafeteria and auditorium, the historic school complex comprises a gymnasium, agricultural building, music/band building and athletic fields.

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