RALEIGH (Sept. 5, 2008)—Eighteen State Historic Sites will be closed Saturday, Sept 6, including the State Capitol. All nine State Historic Sites east of Interstate 95 will be closed: Governor Aycock, Historic Bath, Bentonville Battlefield, Brunswick Town, CSS Neuse, Fort Fisher, Historic Edenton, Historic Halifax, Somerset Place and Roanoke Island Festival Park.
Sites in the Piedmont that will be closed include Duke Homestead, Historic Stagville, Alamance Battlefield, Bennett Place, Charlotte Hawkins Brown, Town Creek Indian Mound and House in the Horseshoe.
All are in either tropical storm warning areas or high wind watch areas. These sites will assess the situation after Tropical Storm Hanna passes through and will make decisions regarding reopening at that time.
The State Archives building genealogy search room will be also be closed.
The Maritime Museums in Beaufort and Southport, and the Graveyard of the Atlantic in Hatteras are open unless conditions change.
Gov. Mike Easley has declared a State of Emergency due to the approach of Tropical Storm Hanna that will hit North Carolina this weekend and Hurricane Ike which may affect the start of next week. He has asked that all citizens get their emergency plan and supply kit ready for the storms. As residents are preparing, the Department of Cultural Resources State Archives recommends that citizens make copies of important documents to take with them if they are evacuating, move documents from ground level, and pack them in sealed, watertight containers.
Regular hours will be observed at the N.C. Maritime Museum in Beaufort, unless the electricity is lost. The boatbuilding class scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 6-7, is cancelled.
The Division of State Historic Sites and Division of History Museums are part of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources, a state agency dedicated to the promotion and protection of North Carolina’s arts, history and culture. Join the Cultural Resources 2008 theme observance of “Telling Our Stories”. For more information, visit www.ncculture.com.