Staff
Sep 9, 20222 min
Since March of 2016, the North Carolina Main Street Program has partnered with UNCG’s Interior Architecture Department and its Center for Community-Engaged Design to provide design assistance to designated Main Street and Small Town Main Street communities across the state. Undergraduate and graduate students are selected to become Main Street Fellows. The Main Street Fellows work with UNCG Interior Architecture Department Professors to complete facade rehabilitation designs and upper story apartment conversions in designated Main Street communities.
Friday Spotlight
243 North Center Street is located in downtown Statesville but is not within the Statesville Commercial Historic District. This single story CMU, stucco, & brick building was built in 1952 and was originally an Esso automotive service station. While there have been alterations, the mid-century “box-type” service station composition is still evident. The storefront entry display windows and a flat metal awning wrap the northeast “clipped” corner of the building. There are ghost marks from the two garage bays that originally adorned the east facade. There is also evidence of probable restrooms on the north facade where two doors and
windows have been filled in. Since the service station closed the facility has functioned as a variety of retail stores and is currently home to the Quick Shop Convenience Store.
Two sets of renderings are provided based on two phases of rehabilitation. Both pay homage to the building’s original occupant, the Fox Esso Service Center. For the first phase, a new color scheme has been selected that mimics the Esso Station’s signature stripes of color. A second phase illustrates what this building could look like in the future with more extensive rehabilitation and includes reinstalling the garage doors on the front facade. For information on the preservation and adaptive reuse of historic gas stations, see NPS
Preservation Brief #46.
All proposed facade enhancements are intended to be consistent with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation.
Design Form