About

Founded in 1939, The Historic Preservation Foundation of North Carolina Inc. (known as Preservation North Carolina or PNC) is North Carolina’s only private nonprofit statewide historic preservation organization. Its mission is saving historic places important to the diverse people of North Carolina. It enjoys a national reputation, having been cited by the National Park Service as “the premier statewide preservation organization of the South, if not the Nation” and the National Trust for Historic Preservation as “the model organization of its kind.”

Through its award-winning Endangered Properties Program, PNC acquires endangered historic properties and then finds purchasers willing and able to rehabilitate them. It has protected 900 historic properties through covenants or easements, representing at least $500,000,000 in private investment. Buyers have put these properties into a multitude of new uses, adding millions of dollars to local tax rolls and creating numerous jobs. Several of the larger properties have been adapted into affordable housing. More than 4,000 acres have been placed under PNC’s protective covenants, perpetually restricting their development. Most of the properties saved through the Endangered Properties Program have been in rural areas or small towns, the parts of North Carolina most in need of reinvestment

Preservation North Carolina’s direct work with challenging properties has also raised awareness about the value and promise of historic preservation to local communities. Through the decades, PNC has been a pioneer in finding solutions for troubled downtown buildings, abandoned historic schools, empty industrial factories and mill villages, and smaller (and more affordable) houses in urban working-class neighborhoods. Millions of dollars have been invested in places formerly plagued by disinvestment.

Preservation North Carolina’s other activities include the operation of the Bellamy Mansion Museum in Wilmington, awards, workshops, publications, legislative advocacy, and public education, including its current We Built This program about Black builders and architects in North Carolina. PNC provides support and assistance to numerous local preservation organizations across the state.

One of PNC’s greatest advocacy successes has been the creation and renewal of rehabilitation tax credits by the NC General Assembly in 1997. These credits have stimulated much reinvestment in downtown areas throughout North Carolina (including numerous affordable housing projects). In 2006, legislation for an additional incentive to rehabilitate historic mills and industrial buildings was enacted. The tax credits, now extended to 2030, have been used in over $3.25 billion (!) of historic rehabilitation projects statewide.

Preservation North Carolina is supported by a membership of about 4,000. Its members vary widely in age, race, income, and gender; approximately 90% of the members reside in North Carolina.