The Governor Charles B. Aycock Birthplace State Historic Site will hold a celebration on Sunday, Nov. 1, from 1-5 p.m. to mark the re-opening of the former Governor’s boyhood home for tours.
The historic house suffered significant damage in a fire on Jan. 24, 2008, and has been closed to the public since then. On Nov. 1 the site will also celebrate its 50th anniversary and the 150th anniversary of Aycock’s birth.
The Charles B. Aycock High School marching band will kick off the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the historic house. Visitors can meet “Governor Aycock” as he arrives in a horse-drawn wagon to welcome them to his newly restored home. Keith Hardison, Director of the N.C. Division of State Historic Sites and Properties, will speak at the opening event. Aycock family members, as well as retired site employees, will also be in attendance.
Costumed interpreters will give living history demonstrations in blacksmithing, open-hearth cooking, spinning and apple-cider making. Music will be provided by the bluegrass group Sapony Creek.
At 3 p.m. in the Ida H. Williams Auditorium visitors can learn about the “Legacy of Segregated Education” from a three-person panel who will discuss private African-American education at the Palmer Memorial Institute and an East Carolina University Museums Studies project on the integration of public schools. Special guest speaker George Holding, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, will talk in the auditorium from 3:30-4 p.m. about his office and how the position has changed since Aycock held that post (1893-1897) before serving as governor (1901-1905).
This program is being sponsored by Goldsboro Wayne County Travel & Tourism, Tri-County Electric Membership Corp., Fremont High School Class of 1958, James B. Ballance and the Governor Charles B. Aycock Birthplace Advisory Committee.
For more information on the event contact the Aycock Birthplace at (919) 242-5581 or aycock@ncdcr.gov.
Administered by the Division of State Historic Sites, the Aycock Birthplace is part of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources, the state agency dedicated to the promotion and protection of North Carolina’s arts, history and culture. Join the Cultural Resources 2009 theme observance of “Treasure N.C. Culture.” For more information, visit www.ncculture.com.