Stars and Artists Rally to Help Preserve Nina Simone’s Childhood Home
Venus Williams is one of the celebrities who has been part of the effort to preserve Nina Simone’s childhood house. Ms. Simone is considered a national treasure and now her home is, too.
Nina Simone was a famous American singer, songwriter, pianist, and civil rights activist. In 2018 she was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Her music was diverse, from gospel and blues to jazz and pop. One of her many famous songs was her reprisal of “I Loves You Porgy” from the play and movie Porgy and Bess. You can hear this song from a live performance on the Ed Sullivan Show.
She had a huge hit with this now-classic song, I Put a Spell on You.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has wonderful biographical information on Simone and the efforts to preserve her home.
Nina Simone was born Eunice Waymon in 1933 and she passed away in 2003. She came into the world in a “humble three-room clapboard” in Tryon, North Carolina. [1]
It is said that it is in this home, which was built in 1930, that she developed her deep love for the piano. Her Methodist preacher mom and her dad, a former entertainer, did not have a lot but they gave her encouragement and support to develop her musical talents and interests in her childhood home. She had an active life there and was involved in her mother’s church. Later in life, she came back to Tyron after touring France and Europe.
Simone’s life was shaped by racial discrimination and she addressed injustice in her music and activities. She built her career and also “a reputation for expressing her views on civil rights and the racial injustice experienced by African Americans through original songs and covers.” [2] She also “maintained personal friendships with noted Civil Rights leaders and activists such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.” She was an important part of the history of the turbulent 1960s.
The National Trust website describes her this way: “Throughout her career, Simone exhibited musical genius that couldn’t be denied or ignored. She spoke and sang about topics like standards of beauty for black women, oppression, and righteous anger motivated by hundreds of years of slavery and systemic racism. She traveled the world and performed for over four decades, often following momentous historic events like the Selma to Montgomery March and Dr. King’s assassination. She was, in short, a motivating figure for audiences around the world.”[3]
Attempts to Save the House
The house was empty for many years. Ms. Simone had been living overseas for part of her life and died in France. There were parties who tried to rehabilitate the house but this did not work out. After a while, public memory was fading and local people were even aware it was Simone’s house. Smithsonian Magazine reported on history regarding the house. “Kevin McIntyre, a former economic development director, had purchased the property in 2005 and poured $100,000 of his own funds into a preservation project, only to lose the home to ‘money troubles,’” they reported. [4] After he let go of the house it was in danger of being demolished. It did not have any official historical designation.
Then the house went up for sale again in 2017. Four prominent African American artists heard about it and jumped to the rescue. “The artists didn’t have an interest just in Simone’s art — they felt that buying, preserving, and restoring the home was itself a political act, particularly in the wake of prominent movements such as Black Lives Matter and the perpetuation of the racial divide in the United States,” says the National Trust website.
The New York Times explained it this way, “Genre-defying musical performer and civil rights activist Nina Simone” is considered a national treasure and a “towering ancestor.” That’s why these artists stepped in six years ago. Rashid Johnson partnered with conceptualist Adam Pendleton, the abstract painter Julie Mehretu and the painter, collagist, and filmmaker Ellen Gallagher to rescue the property and the history. “Simone’s childhood home, located in Tryon, N.C., a small town of 1,600 nestled at the base of the southern escarpment of the Blue Ridge Mountains, was at risk of succumbing to age and neglect,” writes Adam Bradley. “Once the artists were made aware of this, they bought the house, for $95,000, in 2017. The following year, the National Trust for Historic Preservation designated it a national treasure.”[5]
Recognition of Simone’s house as an important historic home came through the help of Brent Leggs, the executive director of the National Trust’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. This fund was launched in 2017 as an “action fund” to identify and preserve “nationally significant projects that express the Black experience.” Leggs has compassion and passion for honoring the heritage and legacy of historical sites related to black Americans, especially those that are vulnerable and precarious. Bragg is quoted as saying: “I was inspired by the simplicity of this unadorned vernacular structure that at first glance might appear to be missing history and meaning,” he says. “I believe deeply that places like the Nina Simone childhood home deserve the same stewardship and admiration as Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello or George Vanderbilt’s Biltmore estate.” [6]
These four artists have been the owners of the property but they are working with the National Trust. And the National Trust says they are also working with the Nina Simone Project, World Monuments Fund, and North Carolina African American Heritage Commission. The National Trust explains its current work on the house in this way: “The National Trust is developing a rehabilitation plan that aligns with the home’s potential future use; identifies future ownership and stewardship models for the site; and creates additional protections to ensure that this symbol of Simone’s early life and legacy will endure for generations to come.”
Back to Venus Williams and Raising Money
The National Trust began raising money in earnest in 2019 with a campaign called Restore Nina Simone’s Childhood Home and pitched it as a campaign to “Help save the place where the “High Priestess of Soul” discovered her love for music.” That campaign is now closed but it — along with other attempts — raised about $500,000, according to Smithsonian Magazine.
In 2023, it was announced that “tennis icon Venus William joined the cause.” She partnered with one of the owners of the house, Adam Pendleton, to curate a benefit auction. It ran from May 12 to 22, and culminated in a gala dinner at the Pace Gallery in New York City. The pair aimed to raise $5 million. [7]
The invitation read: “This momentous fundraiser brings to fruition an unprecedented collaboration across the worlds of art, philanthropy, and historic preservation. Pendleton and the project partners have joined forces with Williams and convened high-profile creative luminaries, thought leaders, and experts in cultural preservation to protect the childhood home of Nina Simone, whose cultural legacy is of great personal significance to all the artists donating work.” [8]
How Will the Home Be Preserved?
The National Trust said they will create a “rehabilitation plan” but this document is not yet available. They do have an initial preservation outline in place and have asked for public input. It includes these ideas:
Concept 1: Keep it Authentic
This concept is focused on fully restoring the Nina Simone Childhood Home and keeping it without any additions of modern amenities, providing an opportunity to preserve the authenticity of the home, space, and scale that was experienced by Nina Simone and her family. Visitors and artists could meditate and gain inspiration in offsite facilities. These could be located near the home or further out, creating an opportunity to connect with the wider community and the broader Nina Simone story.
Concept 2: Create an “And” instead of an “Either/Or”
This concept includes full rehabilitation of the historic structure and adding an expansion structure to accommodate modern amenities, such as upgraded electrical and an HVAC system. This would allow for year-round occupation by artists and activists and make the home and the overall site a daily community anchor. Artists in residence, visitors, and people from the community would be comfortable and able to fully utilize the house and site regardless of the weather or time of year.
Check out their diagrams here.
Preservation Protection Has Been a Priority
Putting in heritage protections has been an ongoing priority. This is from a September 8, 2020 announcement:
“The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, in partnership with World Monuments Fund (WMF) and Preservation North Carolina, recently secured protection of Nina Simone’s childhood home. The home, located in Tryon, North Carolina is now protected with a preservation easement held by Preservation North Carolina, a statewide historic preservation advocacy organization. A preservation easement is a voluntary legal agreement where a property owner agrees to permanently protect a historic building’s authentic character. With the easement in place, the home is now protected indefinitely, with the agreement carrying forward to all future owners. While protecting the home, the easement will not impede rehabilitation of the home, but ensure its historic character is maintained and prevent demolition.” [9]
“Preservation NC has long been in the business of saving the places that matter to the diverse communities of North Carolina — and equally important, we are committed to telling the stories of those places,” said Preservation NC President, Myrick Howard. “When the place disappears, frequently, the story does too. Easements are one of the most important tools we have to save places and their stories. We are beyond delighted and honored to be a part of preserving not just Nina Simone’s childhood home, but the powerful story of her roots in North Carolina.” [10]
Adam Bradley summed it up this way, reporting in the New York Times:
“The language of historical preservation — easements, adaptive reuse, stewardship planning — might not inspire much passion. But in the mouths of Leggs and the four artists, these words become incantations. Collectively, they understand that while Simone’s childhood home is a potent symbol, it is also a century-old structure in need of maintenance and basic upkeep. It’s a contrast worthy of Simone herself, a singer both of show tunes and knife-sharp indictments of racist duplicity, a loving freedom fighter and truculent aggressor, a figure who tests our capacity to contain the challenging but essential facets of our national history. Nearly two decades after her death, she is still bearing witness, living her life after life through the artists she inspires in the house where she was born.” [11]
-Laurie Sue Brockway, posted Mar 22, 2023
Sources
[1] Saving Places, “Nina Simone Childhood Home | National Trust for Historic Preservation,” savingplaces.org, accessed March 22, 2023.
[2] Saving Places
[3] Saving Places
[4] Brigit Katz, “Nina Simone’s Childhood Home Is under Threat. This Campaign Aims to Save It,” Smithsonian Magazine, July 15, 2019.
[5] Adam Bradley, “The Artists Turning Nina Simone’s Childhood Home into a Creative Destination,” The New York Times, March 16, 2022, sec. T Magazine.
[6] Adam Bradley
[7] Smithsonian Magazine and Ellen Wexler, “Venus Williams Is Joining a New Push to Restore Nina Simone’s Childhood Home,” Smithsonian Magazine, accessed March 23, 2023.
[8] Saving Places, “The African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, Adam Pendleton and Venus Williams Co-Host Gala and Online Auction to Benefit Nina Simone’s Childhood Home | National Trust for Historic Preservation,” savingplaces.org, accessed March 23, 2023.
[9] Saving Places, “Nina Simone Childhood Home Permanently Protected | National Trust for Historic Preservation,” savingplaces.org, September 8, 2020.
[10] Saving Places
[11] Adam Bradley
