Fulton Heights, Salisbury’s original streetcar suburb, has been been officially added
to the National Register of Historic Places.The city of Salisbury received word this week from the U.S. Department of
Interior through the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources.
The neighborhood, which includes
387 properties, becomes the city’s largest of 10 historic districts included in the
National Register. Street signs identifying the district have been printed and will be
installed in the area in the near future.
The National Register of Historic
Places is the country’s official list of historic buildings, districts,
archaeological sites and other resources deemed worthy of preservation. More than 2,000
North Carolina properties are now listed in the National Register.
A property’s listing in the
National Register does not affect the rights of a private property owner in any manner. On
the surface, designation is merely an honor, but it also qualifies owners of
“non-income producing” properties for 30 percent state tax credits, if they make
improvements to their homes.
The district is roughly bounded by
South Fulton Street, Heilig Avenue, Ridge Avenue and Boyden Street with Mitchell Avenue
serving as its spine. In historical terms, its period of significance is considered 1903
to 1948.
Today’s Mitchell Avenue
median covers the streetcar tracks that were central to the neighborhood’s
development in the early 20th century.
Kaye Graybeal of DS Atlantic of
Winston-Salem prepared the Fulton Heights nomination in 1998.
Rows of early 20th-century homes
along grid-patterned streets form the physical character of the neighborhood. Houses that
are oriented toward the main avenues have deep, narrow lots, and a network of alleys
serving the rear of the properties remains today.
Fulton Heights qualified for the
National Register based on its wide range of architecture and its significance in a
“community planning and development’’ category.
The new district’s
architecture includes examples of Queen Anne and late Victorian cottages, Colonial
Revival, Tudor Revival, Dutch Colonial Revival, Spanish Colonial Revival and
craftsman-bungalow houses.
The former Wiley School, now
apartments for seniors, the Second Reformed Presbyterian Church at 117 Ridge Ave. and the
First Associated Reform (Maupin Avenue) Presbyterian Church at 1330 S. Fulton St. are part
of the district.
Stone retailing walls, a network
of which separate lawns from the sidewalk or street in various locations, also are
considered important to the district.
Historians say Fulton Heights is
one of several suburbs in North Carolina that emerged as an outgrowth of nationwide
planning efforts such as the City Beautiful Movement, a concept promoted heavily at the
1893 Chicago World’s Fair.
More significantly, Fulton Heights
is among several neighborhoods from the early 20th century period that had a streetcar
system and large park as part of its amenities.
“Several streetcar suburbs
emerged around the turn of the century in North Carolina’s larger cities,”
Graybeal’s nomination document said, “but the streetcar line that serviced
Fulton Heights in the town of Salisbury was distinguished in that it provided direct
transportation for workers commuting to the nearby Southern Railway Spencer Shops.”
The Fulton Heights neighborhood,
Salisbury’s first planned subdivision, also reflected Salisbury’s strong growth
into the 1930s. The city almost doubled in population between 1910 and 1920, when its
population of 13,884 ranked it as the state’s ninth largest city. By 1922, the city
had 15,000 people.
Because of the growth, a
substantial service industry developed here, and the vocations of Fulton Heights residents
included plumbers, grocers, teachers, mechanical contractors, merchants, pharmacists,
barbers, auto mechanics and builders.
Fulton Heights began as a
residential suburb in 1902 when the Southern Development Co. organized. Its investors
included J.M. Maupin, H.B. Crosby, William Murdoch Wiley, William A. Blair and W.E.
Mitchell.
Southern Development Co. named the
main streets in its subdivision for the investors, who purchased several tracts of land
and subdivided it for sale beginning in 1902. By 1904, the track for the streetcar ran an
additional 340 feet west down Mitchell Avenue from the Chestnut Hill Cemetery.
The streetcar line ceased
operation in 1938. Original homes in the neighborhood generally were considered upper and
middle class.
Fulton Heights Park, an amusement
facility created in 1906 as an amenity to attract buyers and streetcar patrons, continued
operating until the end of World War I in 1918. Graybeal says the building boom of the
1920s put pressure on the development company to use the park land for new houses.
Other streetcar neighborhoods in
North Carolina at this time included Dilworth in Charlotte (1891), West End and Washington
Park in Winston-Salem (1895), Trinity Heights and Lakewood in Durham (1901) and Fisher
Park in Greensboro (1902).
“These neighborhoods
reflected the nationwide aspiration of cities to provide idyllic suburban neighborhoods as
middle-class, working-class and black suburbs followed their lead,” Graybeal said in
her nomination. “For all classes of people, the suburban neighborhood offered a
refuge from the incivilities of urban life.” |
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