Milton Renaissance Foundation

05/31/2026

On the last day of May, National Preservation month, it’s worth mentioning how special it was to have a WEDDING in Milton, which certainly adds to community life, while allowing an 1890 structure to serve once more as the backdrop for a momentous occasion. Congratulations, Aiden and Amanda Cash Liberty! Just today, neighbor Katherine McGee spoke of how much she enjoyed seeing the wedding flurry at the little church on the corner.

05/31/2026

05/31/2026

Perfect weather yesterday for a cemetery restoration workshop. Thank you to Ivan Nielsen for another stellar time of mentoring and teaching. One attendee from Pittsboro, with an archaeological preservation background in Utah, heard about the event on a Raleigh radio station, and she expressed how she had wanted to attend such a workshop. Clueless as to how the event made it to radio, but yay!

05/29/2026

Tomorrow at 9, with special guest, Ivan Nielsen, with the Danville Historical Society.

05/24/2026

If you look closely, there is an ink check-mark over Jim's step-great-grandfather. This is Henry Clay Hatcher, the second husband of Caroline McLin Pittman. Henry Hatcher was a to***conist, acquiring a patent for a plug to***co device in 1891. In 1880, a factory belonging to Hatcher burned and was destroyed, opposite Liberty Warehouse. That same year, the MILTON CHRONICLE reported Mr. Hatcher was about ready to commence to***co manufacturing again, and he was "fixing up the old Watkins factory."

Is this photo of the Watkins factory? Another warehouse? In Milton? Danville? We don't believe there is any way to know where the structure in this photo was located. Surely typical of such structures of the era.

(...We have never asked for followers, choosing to build any following organically due to true interest, but with a program we are currently in, we are needing 5 more followers of the Milton Renaissance Foundation page. Thank you for considering!!)

05/24/2026

May is National Preservation Month. Milton's most known close-call with loss was when Bedford and Mary Pulliam's home caught fire in 1989- a restoration that yielded the organization of the Thomas Day House / Union Tavern. So many were involved over the years to make this happen, please give shout-outs in the comments. Preservation North Carolina played an initial significant role. Jim took these photos. He had picked up pieces of fanlight, when cool enough to do so, that had felled in rubble hoping it could one day be fitted back in place.

Many Miltonians have stories of watching the dreadful fire. I wasn't involved with Milton then, but by chance I did see the structure burning.

A particular badge of honor around here is who was born or lived in the "Tavern" over the years. Jim's grandparents, John Warner and Margaret Moore, owned the Tavern for a time, and Jim's mother, Carolyn Moore Upchurch Thomas (1915-2006), was born there. Katherine Haymes McGee was also born there, and Patsy Pulliam Yarbrough shares the honor of having grown up there, from age 4.

The photos showing the fire damage are from 1989. The ones showing the roof work are from 1991.

Today the property is the Thomas Day State Historic Site, open for tours.

05/24/2026

From THE BEE, Danville, Virginia, 5 May 1951. "Historic Milton Building Goes Up In Flames... This is a portion of the old Milton Hotel which burned late llast night. The 20 room building- partly brick and partly frame- had been in use as an apartment house. Caswell County authorities said that the fire was set by arsonists and suggested it was related to the Dan River Mills strike since workers lived there and two earlier attempts had been made on the structure in recent days."

05/23/2026

May is National Preservation Month.

Preservation isn't always a house.

Mary Bayard Morgan Wootten, 1875-1959, forged a brilliant career as a photographer following finding herself a single mother. From New Bern, her biography is fascinating, and she has her own NC Historical Marker.

Bayard Wootten provided the photographs for OLD HOMES AND GARDENS OF NORTH CAROLINA, published by The Garden Club of North Carolina. Four featured homes were in Caswell : Melrose, Rose Hill, Forest Home (Poteat House) and The Irvine-Lewis Place. The latter, today known as the Clay-Lewis-Irvine House, is in Milton.

In the book, the The Irvine-Lewis Place's garden with English boxwood, iris, tulips, heartsease, forget-me-nots, violets and roses was the star. The Lewis owner, Nicholas Meriwether Lewis, was a first cousin once removed of famous Louisiana Purchase explorer Meriwether Lewis. The account of the garden being laid out by the garden designer of Mount Vernon is not exactly documented, but there is a thought from a family account that the box may have been cuttings from those at Mount Vernon.

For many years, Jim has wanted to restore the garden to better represent the original design. Many watched the fence go up a couple summers ago, followed by last summer's chore of painting. (Well, solid staining...) Then Jim got busy planting, with an emphasis on roses. The space is still referred to as Aunt Lucy's Garden, though as of yet without a proper sign.

Before Jim's mother bought the Clay-Lewis-Irvine House and saved it, a Mr. Thomas Hunt of Durham, NC had purchased it with the intent of restoration. (A letter addressed to him by then Governor Robert Scott is included in the photo group.) Sadly, before Mr. Hunt could do very much, he received dire health news and the house was sold to Carolyn Thomas.

This dry spring has brought distress not only for the historical boxwood, but distress for us as we hope the more than a century old shrubs manage to fare well. While saving the house was indeed a win for preservation, sometimes, preservation means caring for a garden too.

05/21/2026

A photograph similar to this one was published in a local newspaper; Jim, however took this one. Seated in the window of the old Watkins, and later Thomas, Store is Sonny Lipscomb, 1936-2006. Jean Scott referred to him as "one of God's gentle people." (Jean Scott had a way with words.) Jim snapped the photo c. 1989, before the store was restored by Sally Thomas Wallace.

On the back of the photo, Jim quoted Sonny: "Things ain't like they used to be."

05/20/2026

May is National Preservation Month. Featured below is Jones Cottage. The before photo is from 2017. John and Carolee Keener transformed the circa 1905 property, built by Carolee's great-grandfather, F. B. Jones (1861-1931), into a lovely addition to the streetscape in 2020. Franklin Beauregard Jones is pictured as well.