Photo by Nancy Pierce
Nina Simone’s childhood home in Tryon, N.C
After a three-year fight to save Nina Simone's childhood home in Tryon, North Carolina, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has announced that it secured a preservation easement that will permanently secure the three-room clapboard house that the singer grew up in.
Simone was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in 1933, later changing her name to Nina Simone, though she was also often referenced as the "High Priestess of Soul." Her music—longing, sultry, pained, powerful—helped to shape the Civil Rights Movement. In 2003, she died at the age of 73.
Last year, the INDY wrote about the wide-ranging preservation efforts to save the house; efforts that involved collaborations between numerous cultural organizations and artists across the state. The Triangle actress and singer Yolanda Rabun was one such artist: she'd previously starred as Simone in a Howard L. Craft play about the singer's life and, on Juneteenth of 2018, was invited to sing on the ramshackle steps of the Tryon house.
When she arrived, she found out what the occasion marked: the news that the house had been designated a National Treasure. It was a vivid, emotional experience for Rabun; over email, she told the INDY that she was particularly delighted by the larger implications of the news.
"I am very excited about this new development since it gives any newcomers to this project the clear understanding of the common goal to preserve Simone's home forever," Rabun says. "It is confirmation that the initial effort was not an "in the moment" or a yesteryear/ today's generation decision."
A preservation easement, according to a statement from the trust, is a "voluntary legal agreement where a property owner agrees to permanently protect a historic building’s authentic character." Future owners of the property will be held to the agreement, which states that the house can be renovated, but not demolished. There are 800 preservation easements in place across the state.
"Easements are one of the most important tools we have to save places and their stories," Preservation NC President, Myrick Howard, said in a press release. "We are beyond delighted and honored to be a part of preserving not just Nina Simone’s childhood home
Photo courtesy of the public domain
Nina Simone
, but the powerful story of her roots in North Carolina.”
The efforts to save Nina Simone's house date back to 2017, when four Black visual artists—Adam Pendleton, Rashid Johnson, Ellen Gallagher, Julie Mehretu—quietly purchased the house, then in disrepair and in danger of demolition, for $95,000.
It was a purchase with serendipitous timing: That same year, the National Trust for Historic Preservation launched a campaign to preserve African-American historical sites, and, in 2018, the house was able to secure National Treasure status, thus protecting it from demolition. Fewer than 100 homes in the United States are designed National Treasures. North Carolina has two: Simone's home in Tryon, and the home of the activist and author, Pauli Murray, in Durham.
And then, in 2019, came the year of music: Governor Roy Cooper even declared it so, with a wide-ranging celebration of the musicians that form the bedrock of North Carolina's cultural legacy. In August of 2019, as part of the ongoing fundraising and commemorative efforts, NCMA hosted Nina Simone Weekend, an event that included a performance by Simone's own daughter, Lisa. Across the Triangle, in Chapel Hill, the playwright Howard L. Craft staged an updated version of his play, No Fear and Blues Long Gone: Nina Simone, starring Rabun.
It's not the end of the road for the house: Tiffany Tolbert, senior field officer for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, told the INDY on Thursday that there's still rehabilitation to be done.
"Our work on this campaign is focused on rehabilitation, protection, use and ownership," Tolbert says. "We are working to continue exterior stabilization this fall, as it was postponed from this spring due to COVID. We are also wrapping up community engagement and outreach to inform possible use options for the home."
2020 hasn't offered much by way of good news, but the news that the icon's home will keep standing forever is a happy update to a winding preservation effort.
When she heard about the announcement, on Tuesday, Yolanda Rabun found herself picturing Nina Simone's reaction to news that her home would be saved forever.
"I pictured Nina Simone laughing," she says, "[And I pictured] her saying 'you got that right' when the easement was announced! 'Keep my memories alive forever!'"
Follow Deputy Arts & Culture Editor Sarah Edwards on Twitter or send an email to sedwards@indyweek.com.
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