The Town of Princeville is a particularly unique area in North Carolina due to its history. Princeville is in a floodplain and has historically been impacted by several flooding events due to named storms and inclement weather. After extensive flooding during Hurricane Matthew in October of 2016, officials considered multiple ways to make the town more resilient while taking into consideration the history of the town and trying to preserve artifacts and priceless heirlooms.
One of the projects chosen was to elevate and renovate the Princeville Museum, which is in the former Princeville School and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Princeville School was built in the late 1930s to educate local students until the 1960s when the building was converted into a town hall, and later a community center and museum. Through provided guidance and consultations with the state’s historic preservation officer, the FEMA-funded elevation project was determined to result in an adverse effect to historic properties. Two treatment solutions were discussed to resolve these adverse effects: a digital photography package and a physical story board, also known as an interpretive panel, detailing the history of the building would be placed in the lobby of the museum once the elevation project is complete.
Outcome
In May of 2024, FEMA Environmental Planning and Historic Preservation (EHP) completed the review of a critical infrastructure project in Princeville, North Carolina using Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant program funds. Town officials considered elevating every building in the town or physically move the community, their homes, and critical services out of the floodplain.
After careful consideration, guidance, and support from EHP, the town decided the best solution for the health of the community and for future growth of the population was relocating the services and structures to a safer area versus elevating the properties within the existing floodplain. The proposed FEMA-funded project includes the installation of underground sewer and water lines, within a vacant 53-acre site, along with wet wells and existing culvert replacements. This project will relocate Princeville’s critical infrastructure out of a flood plain and flood-prone areas enabling the local government to better serve their citizens. It includes the infrastructure for the police and fire stations and city hall.
The redevelopment project includes working with our partners with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) since they will be funding the building construction. Due to the complexity of the project and tight timeline, this project was considered a priority. The project resulted in a determination of No Historic Properties Affected. EHP conditioned the projects for archaeological monitoring due to the depth of disturbance and the number of archaeological sites within a half mile radius of the area.
The success of this project is due to the strong partnership EHP built with the state’s office of archaeology, HUD, and officials representing the Town of Princeville and local tribal members.