EAST SPENCER — The town of East Spencer has reached a long-awaited end in a battle over a property that has, in truth, been the center of the town for more than 100 years.

The former Dunbar High School property was sold to the town on April 16 in a foreclosure sale for $1. The town was the only prospective buyer to show for the sale.

While town leaders are excited about the potential future for the site now that the town owns it, they are not dismissive of the property’s importance in the town’s history.

“Everyone in the community who has been here for any length of time has a memory of that place,” said Mayor Barbara Mallett. “It really means a lot to the people of East Spencer, because there is so much history there. We need a center of town that means something to people, and for so long the Dunbar Center has been just that. But it also has been without life for 11 years, since the 2014 fire. Now we are at the crest of bringing some life back to the center of the town.”

The property initially housed a one-room school house called the East Spencer Negro School in 1900. In 1921, a growth spurt took the then eight rooms to a new, 11-classroom structure with an auditorium, library, office, cafeteria and even a basement.

In 1958, it was renamed Dunbar High School after Paul Laurence Dunbar, one of the first Black poets to gain national recognition and who was published by the age of 14. A decade later, the school was both integrated and renamed, this time as North Rowan Middle School.

By the 1990s, the school was falling into disuse and disrepair. A group of resident stepped in to stop demolition of a portion of the structure. In 1995, still owned by the school system, the facility returned to its honorary name and became the Paul Laurence Dunbar Center, housing both school and public offices and private entities.

At the end of December 2014, parts of the facility were destroyed by a five-alarm fire that required a massive response to contain. And some of the structure that was not damaged in the fire continued to be used until 2000, when it was clear more of the building had fallen into disrepair. The school system put the property on the market in 2004. The property has gone through several owners since then.

Despite multiple owners and numerous attempts at finding a new use for the site, any cleanup following the 2014 fire never happened. The damaged and empty property was also never fenced off and the parts destroyed by fire remained on site for almost eight years.

In the spring of 2023, the town paid almost $200,000 for a crew to remove the fire-damaged portions, and the town put a lien on the property to recover that cost.

In early spring of this year, Town Manager Michael Douglas and the town sought foreclosure from the courts, and a judge approved a foreclosure sale. Douglas had the town attorney make arrangements, and the sale was held on Wednesday, April 16. The town was the only bidder to show up, and with a bid of $1, became the new owner. Final paperwork will be complete in several weeks.

And Douglas says the town is more than ready to move forward to bring the property back to something that will benefit residents.

“The property is already zoned commercial and we will keep that,” he said. “But the town needs things. We need a grocery store or market, we need a pharmacy and a laundromat, the things that residents need here in their town. And that is our hope and our goal, to have that kind of development on this property.”

But he said the town does plan to use some of the bricks from the existing structure to create a memorial marker for the site. None of the rest of the existing structure is usable, and some still contains asbestos.

“We will be applying for federal grant money for Brownfield sites to do the remediation and removal of that part of the structure,” said Douglas, “so tax payers don’t have to pay that bill.”

“That area is the gateway to East Spencer,” said Alderman Shawn Rush. “But that property has been a torment to new residents who live there. To be able to tell them we are getting rid of that old building and with it, some of the sketchy behavior we have been told is happening there is wonderful. They are going to rejoice that new life is coming to that property.”

“This will be a removal of a blight for the residents of the town,” added Douglas. “The town tried to work with previous owners to have it at least cleaned up, but we were not successful. Now, this is going to be something residents can use and can feel good about.”