New in the collection: Sunbury High pennant

Pennant with image of rocket and words "Sunbury H.S. Rockets, Sunbury, N.C."

When students at Sunbury High School tacked these 8-inch felt pennants on their bedroom walls, they likely couldn’t imagine that just a decade later their tiny, rural alma mater would be merged into the new Gates County High in Gatesville.

The SHS building, circa 1937, became an elementary school, which survived until being abandoned in the late 1960s. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.

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New in the collection: Miniature rolling pin from Richfield

Wooden rolling pin with the words Richfield Milling Company, always use purity flour for better bread. Richfield, NC.

“The Richfield Milling Co., circa 1920, is the only remaining historic industrial building in Richfield, located in northern Stanly County.

“Built near the railroad, the mill served local farmers selling their grain crops for shipment to larger markets and for their own use and animal feed.

“The frame roller mill is architecturally important for its heavy-timber construction and mill grain handling system, in particular the tall grain bins on the upper floors.”

— From “Old Richfield mill added to National Register” in the Salisbury Post (Dec. 20, 2016)

According to its entry in the National Register of Historic Places, the mill actually operated as early as 1910. It closed in 1990.

 

Holiday link dump: Anarchists to preservationists

— The Asheville Citizen-Times offers a nicely done page of local historical photos. A 1943 shot raises the question: Might there also have been a Colored Transportation Co., or was that purpose adequately served by the back of the White Transportation bus?

— Also in the Citizen-Times: lots and lots of coverage of May Day vandalism. And here an anarchist calls for “Solidarity with the accused!”

— Preservationists set their sights on Edenton’s grand but neglected Pembroke Hall, circa 1850.

— Lincoln County Historical Association impatiently  bypasses state historical marker process to honor former Air Force chief of staff.

— Does Penderlea, the Pender County farm community created under the New Deal,  belong on the National Register of Historic Places?

— Archives and History publishes 25th anniversary update of  “Native Carolinians: The Indians of North Carolina.”

— High school teacher researches  “a non-fiction memoir of the 33 mills that were once in Richmond County and the people they affected.”

— The Woolworth’s lunch counter at the National Museum of American History is the setting for a half-hour play, in which an activist of the time briefs potential recruits in nonviolent resistance. (Scroll down.)