By Mark Wineka
mwineka@salisburypost.com
Bill and Nancy Stanback received Historic Salisbury Foundation’s highest award, the Clement Cup, at the 20th Andrew Jackson Society dinner Thursday night.
The Stanbacks have strongly supported the foundation and its preservation efforts through the years. They also purchased the historic Knox House on West Bank Street and transformed it from a four-unit apartment house into their residence.
The home was on the foundation’s 2002 OctoberTour.
The Stanbacks gave the lead gift for the most recent fundraising campaign for the Hall House.
Nancy Stanback said the couple probably would not be living in the Knox House if not for Ed Clement, the man for whom the preservation award is named.
Clement walked them around the West Square Historic District and suggested the couple inquire about the Knox House, even though it wasn’t listed for sale at the time.
Nancy Stanback took his advice, and the owner was willing to sell.
Nancy Stanback said she learned the home had been in the Knox family for almost 100 years, from 1872 into the 1960s, when the last of three Knox daughters died.
Ed Clement won the first Clement Cup in 1985. The 2007 winner was Elizabeth “Lib” Taylor, who also was recognized during the dinner with Foster and Jean Owen, long-time preservation leaders in Salisbury, and Sonny Allen, the 2008 Volunteer of the Year.
Rosalie Laughlin recognized the charter members of the Andrew Jackson Society, which had its first event ever, a gala dinner, at the Graylyn Estate in Winston-Salem in 1988.
Guest speaker for Thursday night’s dinner at the Salisbury Station was Katharine S. Robinson, executive director of Historic Charleston Foundation Inc.
She spoke on the architecture, history and culture of Historic Charleston and invited Salisburians to her foundation’s Charleston International Antiques Show (March 20-22) and the 62nd Annual Festival of Houses and Gardens (March 19-April 18).
Historic Charleston Foundation launched the first historic preservation revolving fund in 1957 with the Ansonborough Rehabilitation Project, pioneering the way for conservation easements.
The Charleston foundation holds easements and covenants on more than 400 properties.
The city of Charleston passed the first zoning ordinance outlining a historic district in 1931 and set up its still important Board of Architectural Review.
Founded in 1947, Historic Charleston Foundation owns and operates four key properties: the 1808 Nathaniel Russell House, the most visited house museum in the city; the 1820 Aiken-Rhett House; The Shops of Historic Charleston Foundation, which includes the largest collection of books for sale about Charleston and the Lowcountry; and the 1808 Capt. James Missroon House, which serves as the Historic Charleston Foundation headquarters.
The non-profit Charleston foundation has 35 full-time staff members and 65 part-time employees, who are mostly museum docents and sales associates.