A year of observances linked to N.C. Central University's 100th birthday come to a close this afternoon.

The university is throwing itself a birthday bash that starts at 3 p.m. and will include some words from dignitaries like Gov. Beverly Perdue.

Festivities today are on the Brant Street Plaza just off of Fayetteville Street. Among the highlights: the dedication of a new Centennial Garden and the re-christening of the old Holy Cross Catholic Church, relocated earlier this year from its original spot along Alston Avenue.

It will now be known as the Centennial Chapel.

Events today begin with the ringing of the NCCU Bell. A representative of the U.S. Postal Service will unveil the new NCCU Centennial Cancellation stamp.

And perhaps most importantly, there will be cake.

So come on out.

N.C. Central University will try once again Friday morning to complete the move of a historic church on its campus.

The Holy Cross Catholic Church was supposed to be moved last weekend from one edge of campus to another to make room for a nursing building.

But the move took longer than anticipated, and the church is sitting this week in the center of campus.

Friday, it goes again. Traffic will be re-routed around a four-block stretch of Fayetteville that morning.

The church now rests atop a platform on Nelson Street near the corner of Fayetteville Street. The two-block move up Fayetteville Street on Friday will begin about 6 a.m.

The complex operation will be supported by crews from Duke Energy, Verizon and Time Warner; they will lower and adjust power, telephone and cable lines to clear a path for the church.  

Utility services will be turned off for about two dozen homes in the neighborhood while the move takes place.  

Fayetteville Street traffic will be rerouted one block west to Concord Street between Nelson and Lawson streets.

NCCU police officers will be posted at the affected intersections to direct traffic.


Neighborhood residents have been advised that the detours and power interruptions could last till late afternoon, but university officials said they hoped to be finished before then. 



The church will eventually be placed on a new foundation next to the James E. Shepard House on Fayetteville Street near the Formosa Avenue intersection.

Think you had a busy weekend?

Try being the Holy Cross Catholic Church in Durham.

The small, aged church was supposed to be relocated from one edge of the N.C. Central University campus, where it has been since being built in 1942, to the other edge of campus to make room for a new nursing facility.

The project, chronicled exhaustively on these pages, started slow.  It was supposed to start Friday and finish Saturday. That didn't quite go according to plan.

Friday's move across campus to the edge of Fayetteville Street took far longer than anticipated, thanks to, in this order: a tire stuck in the mud, a faulty brake hose of some sort, and a tricky slope near the NCCU law school that slowed the project considerably.

As Jim Wise reports in today's News & Observer, the project hit some non-fatal glitches, delaying the final portion of the relocation until next weekend.

So this historic black catholic church will spend the week next to the student union on campus.

Stop by and say hi.

In Durham, the old Holy Cross Catholic Church is on the move today.

Slowly. Make that S...l...o...w...l...y.

You get the point. 

Workers with Blake Moving Company have started the arduous 2-day process after which the small church on Alston Avenue will be relocated to a new spot on Fayetteville Street.

Movers started early today, aligning the 96 wheels on 12 axles that are holding up the small, aged church. 

It is neither smooth nor speedy. At one point, a wheel in the back got stuck in the mud. Later, a delay due to a problem with a hose.

But workers still expect to get the church over to the Fayetteville Street end of campus today. Tomorrow, it will go down Fayetteville to its new home next to the Shepard House.

The church totals 240 tons when hoisted onto the massive beams and wheels that will slowly roll it through campus. 

The university is spending $2 million to move the historic facility less than a mile.

For more on the move, read this story from this week's Durham News.

An old stone church on N.C. Central University property is in the crosshairs of development - NCCU's new nursing school is slated for that site.

But rather than tear the place down, NCCU is going to pick it up and move it across campus.

The building is currently not in regular use.

In 2007, Holy Cross Catholic built a new church and moved headquarters a couple miles south down Alston Avenue. It is the only black catholic church under the Raleigh diocese, which covers most of easten North Carolina.

While moving a church is no easy feat, this particular facility has a few characteristics that will likely make the move easier.

For one, it can be lifted off its foundation. And it doesn't hurt that the steeple isn't all that tall.

  Here are the details.