New path planned for Hall House, touring season delayed

Published 12:10 am Friday, March 1, 2024

SALISBURY — The Hall House Museum, a Rowan County gem nestled in Salisbury’s historic district, is getting a polish.

During the next few weeks, improvements to the property are scheduled which will delay the museum’s touring season.

The first of those improvements involves the walkway up to the building.

Historic Salisbury Foundation Executive Director Kimberly Stieg said that a new brick path would be constructed to replace the current path, which is made of pebbles.

A statement from the HSF indicated that “one of the challenges our guests have had over the years is entering the property with the current pebble path.”

Thanks to donations received through an end-of-year drive, the Historic Salisbury Foundation is able to move forward with the brick path.

“We are actually having the bricks produced specifically for this purpose, so they are currently in production, and they should be finished in about two weeks,” Stieg said.

The brick walkway is going to be five feet wide to allow safer travel to and from the front door to Jackson Street. Those bricks are being created by Taylor Clay in Salisbury. The installation is expected to take about a week.

The pathway is not the only change to be expected.

Stieg said that the Historic Salisbury Foundation had numerous professionals look at the boxwoods and that they have determined several of the plants to be diseased.

“They have taken samples of the roots to determine that they are diseased,” Stieg said. “We are following their guidance to make sure that the disease does not spread to the others.”

The healthy boxwoods will be saved and replanted on Hall House grounds.

“It is important to us that we handle this project in a delicate manner,” Stieg said. “These are historic boxwoods, so it matters how we proceed with this project.”

Meanwhile, those nonsalvageable boxwoods will be converted into a keepsake for Hall House visitors and Historic Salisbury Foundation guests. Stieg said that Master Gardener Darrell Blackwelder plans to make pens out of material from the boxwoods that cannot be saved.

Historic Salisbury Foundation’s statement indicated that the work would delay the Hall House 2024 tour season.

“There will not be a safe way to enter the property from the front until the work has been completed,” the statement read. “We anticipate that tours will begin Saturday, March 30, from 1-4 p.m. The Hall House will open every Saturday from March 30 through the end of the year unless otherwise posted.”

The Hall house is located at 226 S Jackson Street in Salisbury.