Board to consider County Manager’s recommendation for Whitted Building

Second floor of building A of the Whitted Building

The County Board of Commissioners will consider endorsing County Manager Frank Clifton’s recommended reallocation of space within the Whitted Building.

The Whitted Building, which as of last year, housed the main branch of the Orange County library, is now vacant. The building is composed of two sub-buildings, A and B. Building A once served as Hillsborough High School, which, like most schools, had an auditorium. Wesley Woods, owner of Hillsborough’s Dual Supply hardware store, can remember when he used to see movies in the space, and photos exist of community theater performances held there. When the building was converted to a library, a drop ceiling was put in and the space was filled with bookshelves. The Cultural Center Committee has proposed that it makes the most sense to convert this space back to its original purpose.

On October 20 of last year, the committee made a presentation to the Orange County Commissioners, requesting that this building be considered for this reuse, or, at the very least, that a task force be formed to determine the best use of the building. The request for the reuse of the building was acknowledged by Mr. Clifton, and was “put on a list for further consideration when the County Commission determines its priorities with regards to the Whitted Building.” However, the Cultural Committee has not heard anything about the request to form the task force.

The manager has also received a request from the Orange County School System to use the proposed space to consolidate administrative staff, which will free up space for 14 classrooms, saving the county what it would cost to build those classrooms, about $3 million. The manager has accepted the school system’s proposal and recommended to the commissioners that they accept it as well. The Cultural Committee proposes that the historic building could better serve the community as a performance and cultural space than as sheer office space, albeit for the school system.

This building could be a place in the center of the county where 300-500 people could gather indoors to enjoy a theater performance by our local theater, perhaps even written by one of our county’s authors, a place where children could take after-school art classes, and a place where we could celebrate some of our area’s blues heritage. Just as we have preserved the Historic Occonneechee Speedway Track, shouldn’t we preserve this historic building? It has already served as a cultural meeting center in our community for generations. Our county should be big enough to meet the needs of both our educational and cultural communities, which are arguably, one in the same.

The commissioners will have this topic on their agenda for their next meeting if you care to listen in or make a comment.

Orange County Commissioners Regular Meeting

Thursday, January 21, 2010

7:00 p.m.

Central Orange Senior Center

103 Meadowlands Dr, Hillsborough, NC

Presentation to the Town Board

On December 14, 2009, a small group from the Cultural Center Committee (CCC) made a presentation before the Town Board, asking for a proclamation supporting the efforts of the CCC to establish a cultural center that would serve all of Orange County. The presentation was well received, and Mayor Tom Stevens said he would work with Margo Pinkerton, who delivered the presentation, in formulating just such a proclamation. It has been prepared and will come before the next Town Board meeting for a vote.

In the news

It’s been a busy couple of weeks with getting in the press about our need to have a cultural center here in Orange County.  First, Josh Katrinsky of the News of Orange published a print piece, then WCHL followed up with a radio interview.

Planned Bellevue Mill Presentation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date: April 7, 2009

Contact: Hillsborough Planning Director Margaret Hauth, 732-1270 Ext.
86 or margaret.hauth@hillsboroughnc.org

Planned Bellevue Mill Project in Hillsborough May See Changes

HILLSBOROUGH — The public is invited to a presentation Wednesday,
April 8, on the planned renovation of the former Flynt Fabrics mill
into apartments.

The meeting — at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the Cloth Building on Nash Street
— will include potential modifications to the special-use permit that
was approved in 2007 for the Bellevue Mill project.

That permit allows the renovation of the historic portion of the
former mill building. The approved plan calls for 85 apartments and a
2,000-square-foot leasing office.

The owners, who had the Nash Street property listed on the National
Register of Historic Places, are seeking a development partner to
complete the project. The approval is valid through Sept. 1 and may be
extended upon request. Applicants have two years from the date of
approval to secure construction permits or to seek an approval
extension from the Hillsborough Town Board.

The Town Board will discuss the developer’s proposed modifications
during its regular meeting at 7 p.m. April 13 in the Town Barn,
located on the Town Hall campus at 101 E. Orange St.

###

–
Catherine Wright
public information officer
Town of Hillsborough
Office: 919-732-1270 Ext. 82
Fax: 919-644-2390
catherine.wright@hillsboroughnc.org
www.ci.hillsborough.nc.us

Arts community model

Here’s an interesting video of an artist community bring built in Shepherdstown, WV. Might something like this work in the site of the old Bellevue Mill?

New property could incorporate train stop, cultural center

Last year, Hillsborough resident and UNC Associate Professor Tom Campanella had his Site Planning and Urban Design class envision a train stop that incorporated an arts center on 20 acres of land in the middle of town, which the town recently acquired.

Attached are the design sketches. The design was borrowed from Ramapo College’s Berrie Center for Performing and Visual Arts (using a SketchUp 3D Warehouse module).

The Cultural Center Committee recognizes this as a potential site for the Cultural Center.

Prizery trip successful

The Cultural Center Committee had an excellent fact-finding trip to the Prizery in South Boston, VA yesterday. Prizery Executive Director Chris Jones ran through the entire history of how the building came to be, how their foundation came up with financing, and how their community partners interact.

We stayed for an excellent dinner at Bistro 1888, then went on to see the Prizery’s staging of Greater Tuna. The committee was very impressed with both the quality of the performance space and the show. We can’t thank Chris enough for all of his time, and for helping to lead us down the path.

We got an exclusive tour of their Crossing of the Dan permanent exhibit. The exhibit recounts a key military event in the Revolutionary War that led to the American victory. This event is very interesting to us as Hillsborough residents, since Cornwallis passed through town during this campaign. We thought it would if we could set up a similar exhibit in Hillsborough. The grand opening for it is tomorrow, Saturday the 26th.

We will continue to be in touch with Chris as we continue our process.

P.S. There are two more shows of Greater Tuna this weekend, if you were thinking of driving to a great little town to take in dinner and a show.

Library tour

On Tuesday, July 22, members of the Cultural Center Committee toured the soon-to-be vacated Whitted building to see how it might work as a cultural center.  The Whitted building currently houses the Orange County central public library and the Department of Social Services.  We are thankful to Andrea Tullos, assistant to the Director of the library for the tour.

The committee took some of the preliminary measurements, and is seeking a more formal floor plan of the building.  The plans will be matched with the projected space needs for the center.

Trip to the Prizery-South Boston, VA

A group of 8 members of the Cultural Center Committee are heading to South Boston, Virginia tomorrow to learn about the Prizery.  The Prizery serves as a “welcome center, a performing arts theatre, an art gallery, classrooms and a large space for community functions.”  Renovated in 2002, the building is state-of-the art.

We will be speaking with Executive Director Chris Jones, who has seen the building of the Prizery from start to finish.  We go with a collection of questions, such as how they came to organize the Community Arts Center Foundation, which owns the Prizery.  The Foundation has several partner organizations, most of which have a seat on the board of the Foundation.