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Restoration work began last month, expected to be complete later this year

 

TRYON—The preservation of Nina Simone’s Childhood Home has reached a new milestone with the announcement that Every Angle, Inc. has been selected as the general contractor for this historic project. 

Carried out as part of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, a program of the National Historic Trust for Preservation, the restoration aims to transform the home into an interpretative historic site dedicated to recounting the story of the iconic singer’s formative years.

The restoration work, which began this month, is estimated to be completed by the fall of 2024. Local community involvement is integral to the project, organizers say, ensuring a close partnership with the residents of Tryon. Every Angle, Inc. brings its expertise in historic preservation, restoration, and accessibility to the forefront and is committed to presenting the home authentically.

The initial phase of the project will see the installation of an exterior ADA ramp, a geothermal heating and cooling system, and interpretative landscape elements. To protect the nearly century-old magnolia tree at the rear of the home, Every Angle, Inc. will collaborate with a project arborist to carefully determine the optimal location for the ramp’s footings. Additionally, the interpretive landscape will feature a replicated swept dirt yard and the preservation of workshed foundations uncovered during an archaeological survey.

Nina Simone, born Eunice Waymon in 1933, spent her childhood in this historic three-room, 660-square-foot clapboard house on East Livingston Street, where she was raised as the sixth of eight children to parents Rev. Mary Kate Waymon and Rev. John Devan Waymon. Designated a “National Treasure” in 2018, the now 90-year-old home was described by the National Trust as “deteriorating yet nationally significant.”