N.C. Central University has demolished the Rivera House.

The move ended years of local discussion over the fate of the aged, decrepit home on the corner of Lawson and Fayetteville streets. NCCU has long owned the property and wanted to destroy the house in order to build anew there. _{(That's the 'before' photo, below, Harry Lynch, N&O.)}

But local preservationists found value in the house because noted civil rights era photojournalist Alexander Rivera once lived there.

It was the subject of a town/gown squabble that culminated in February when the state Attorney General’s office concluded the house is not a historic property and the university could demolish it.

NCCU tore it down March 8. It had previously offered the house to any person or local group willing to pay to have it restored and moved. Though some local groups, like Preservation Durham, had fought the demolition, none volunteered to move it.

The cost would have been prohibitive. A July 2007 put the cost of renovating and restoring the ramshackle house at $445,000.

Built in 1920, the 2,100-square-foot home had a tax value of $83,342 when it was demolished, according to county property records.
Those looking to preserve the home pointed to the historic nature of Rivera’s work. Rivera covered the civil rights movement and later created the public relations office at NCCU. He died in October 2008 at age 95.

_{(Photo of the lot after demolition, Eric Ferreri, N&O)}

A staffer with The National Trust for Historic Preservation once pleaded with NCCU administrators to save the house, declaring it significant “of its association with the incredible and inspiring life of the journalist Alexander  Rivera."

But before he died, Rivera told the News & Observer the house had no particular significance and should be demolished.

He didn’t even own the house, he said in that 2008 interview. Rather, it was owned by his in-laws  and he just lived there for a long while. And he did his photography in a downtown studio.

"I didn't do anything important there but sleep," Rivera said in that interview. "Tear it down immediately! It's an eyesore."

In ruling that NCCU didn’t need to preserve the house, Special Deputy Attorney General Donald R. Teeter, Sr., wrote last month that demolition was a fair result because the house is “in a condition requiring very expensive renovation and had no historical significance.”

The house sat on a prime piece of real estate. That parcel, coupled with others, will be the eventual site of a new NCCU convocation center, a centerpiece of a planned campus expansion that has some neighbors concerned, others excited.

It isn’t yet clear when that project will begin.

N.C. Central University kicked off three big new construction projects this week, and as I write in Saturday's Durham News, the happiest guy on campus may be police chief Willie Williams.

That's because one of the projects is a big parking deck, which should go a long way towards relieving some of the town/gown stress that comes when students and workers flood the streets near campus looking for parking.

The residents don't, um, love it.

Here's the story.

It rained this morning, so N.C. Central University officials moved a ceremonial groundbreaking into the old Holy Cross Church on Alston Avenue.

It was likely one of the last gatherings for that church on that patch of earth. The aged stone church, the longtime home to one of North Carolina's oldest African-American catholic congregations, is being supplanted to make room for a new nursing building - one part of the three-project, $70 million construction boom being celebrated today.

But rather than just bulldozing the place, NCCU officials are spending $2 million to move it across campus to a new spot next to the Shepard House along Fayetteville Street.

"This could have gone up in dust," NCCU Chancellor Charlie Nelms said this morning. "But imagine a wrecking ball hitting something this historic. That would not have been fair."

For more on the ceremony and the three new construction projects on the NCCU campus, read Saturday's Durham News.

Today's a big shovel-and-hard-hat day over at N.C. Central University.

NCCU today ceremonially breaks ground on three big projects that begin an overhaul of that campus and start instituting elements of a recently-approved master plan.

The three projects, a nursing building, a parking deck and a dormitory, total about $70 million.

The nursing building will be along Alston Avenue on the current site of the old Holy Cross Church, which will be moved across campus to a new spot along Fayetteville Street.

The new Chidley North Residence Hall, a 125,000-square-foot, four-story dorm, will be built at the corner of Alston Avenue and Lawson Street, a $30 million biulding that will house 520 students.

And the Latham Parking Deck, a $15 million project, will provide parking, office, housing and retail space on the corner of Lawson and Lincoln streets. It will provide 750 parking spaces.

An attorney for the woman accused of killing N.C. Central University student Denita Smith has pointed the finger in another direction.

The attorney for Shannon Crawley suggested in court this week that the Greensboro police officer involved with both women kiilled Smith.

Read Jesse James DeConto's reporting here.

N.C. Central University has cancelled night classes tonight due to the weather.

And the university will operate on a two-hour delay Tuesday, with no classes starting before 10 a.m.

UNC Chapel Hill is on a two-hour delay Monday, with classes starting at 10 a.m.

At N.C. Central, a 4-hour delay with classes starting at noon.

Duke is holding classes on regular schedule.

And N.C. State, classes are cancelled until noon.

Meet Jorim Reid, NCCU's band director.

He's a quiet sort. He'd rather let the music do the talking, which is a fair strategy when you know music like he does.

When Reid took over as NCCU's band director in 2001, the marching band had all of 32 members. It is now 200 members strong and headed to the Rose Bowl parade next New Year's Day.

Reid is our Tar Heel of the Week. 

N.C. Central University will be testing its new emergency warning siren today.

NCCU, one of many universities to install the outdoors warning system following the 2007 Virginia Tech campus shooting tragedy, will test the sirens between noon and 3 p.m. today.

It is only a drill.

A siren will sound and then this recorded message will be broadcast on campus: "This is a test of the NCCU Emergency Alert System. This is only a test."

When the test is complete, a second siren will sound along with: All clear. Resume normal activities."

N.C. Central University officials are recommending a series of tuition and fee increases for the next academic year.

The executive committee of the NCCU board of trustees will review the proposals today. Campus officials want to raise tuition 5 percent for all students. That equates to a hike of $113.20, to $2,377, for in-state undergrads and an increase of $616.65, to $12,950, for out-of-state undergrads.

The university also hopes to raise mandatory fees to $1,547.36 next year, a 4.75 percent hike.

The tuition hikes would generate nearly $1 million for campus needs. Half would be used for student aid, and the rest would be spent on student development efforts, a professional development fund for faculty and staff, and other campus initiatives.

But the entire exercise may be moot. The legislature has already decided that in-state tuition next year will go up $200, so unless it changes that law, tuition hike plans at schools like NCCU and UNC-Chapel Hill, which recently approved one as well, will be trumped by that legislative mandate.

Click the attachment below to see the details of the NCCU proposal.

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