Pittsboro Community House Gets a Facelift
If you’ve travelled down Thompson Street lately you’ve probably noticed the flurry of activity at the Community House.
First, period arts and crafts lighting has been installed to match the 1930’s era in which the house was constructed. The existing ceiling fans have been patinated and their shades have been replaced to more closely match the new chandeliers. Forrest Greenslade, president of the Chatham Artist’s Guild, and his wife Carol Anne painted the fans.
Next, the brick semi-circular front steps have been replaced with a set more closely approximating the original. The beautiful masonry was done by Joseph Kenlan Stoneworks.
Finally, the grounds have been spruced up, including the rain garden around back.
This feature captures stormwater runnoff from the paved parking lot and releases it gradually into the ground. This improves the water quality downstream.
The recent improvements are a few of the short term items most highly sought by a Community House Task Force, convened by the Pittsboro Mayor and Board of Commissioners to study how best to use the building and how to most effectively implement needed improvements. This group was composed of two Commissioners, an historic preservationist, a representative of the Chatham County Historical Association, the Town Parks Planner, a representative of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, and other interested citizens. They produced a report which prioritized a number of improvements to the building that could be made in the short, mid, and long term.
I've gotten a lot positive feedback about the new life infused into this historic Pittsboro building.
Thanks to North Carolina State University and the Robeson Creek Watershed Council for installing the raingarden behind the Community House.
ReplyDeleteHear hear. Karen's being modest by crediting her organizations, but I suspect that the raingarden is there in large part due to her efforts. She's the Johnny Appleseed of Raingardens in Pittsboro. I'll do another blog post just about the rain garden at some point in the future.
ReplyDeleteAt any rate, look forward to more work on the rain garden this summer. Fred Royal, resident storm water engineer and rain garden expert is teaching a summer lab at CCCC which will feature a hands-on component focusing on the improvement of this rain garden. It works great now, but a few tweaks will improve it's overall efficiency. I'm sure we'll add a few more plants at the same time. I'll post a blog entry when the course is scheduled at the CCCC.