Nina Simone's childhood home restored in North Carolina
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American singer, songwriter, pianist and civil rights activist Nina Simone (1933-2003) performs on a television show at BBC Television Centre in London in 1968. Photo: David Redfern/Redferns via Getty images
The North Carolina childhood home of the late musical legend Nina Simone has been restored after being saved from demolition, preservationists announced.
The big picture: The restoration is part of a nationwide movement to protect Black cultural heritage sites, backed by significant philanthropic investment.
Driving the news: The African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund announced in November that restoration work on Simone's childhood home in Tryon is complete, following a nearly decade-long fight to protect the site.
- The home will serve as a historic place to inspire visitors and artists, authentically showcasing where Simone grew up and grew into her artistic voice, though it's not yet open to the public, officials said.
- Initially built in the early 1900s, the 650-square-foot, three-room clapboard house is where Simone was born and lived from 1933 to 1937.
- Daydream Therapy, LLC — a collective of the artists Adam Pendleton, Ellen Gallagher, Julie Mehretu, and Rashid Johnson — bought the property in 2016.
What they're saying: "Preservation is an expression of what we choose to honor, and Nina Simone's childhood home is an essential landmark in our nation's artistic and cultural landscape," Brent Leggs, executive director of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, said in a statement.
- "The restoration of her home affirms her rightful place in the American story — one defined by brilliance, resilience, and the power of art to shape our collective conscience."
- Dr. Samuel Waymon, Simone's brother, said the restoration and preservation of Nina's birthplace are part of Black American history.
- "Preserving our home preserves the piano lessons, the joy, the discipline, and the discovery of her gifted talent all recorded in those walls."
Context: Simone was a classically trained pianist turned trailblazing singer whose music fused jazz, soul, blues and protest into a singular voice of defiance.
- In the 1960s, she became one of the most powerful artists of the civil rights movement, using songs such as "Mississippi Goddam," "To Be Young, Gifted and Black" and "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free" as anthems of racial justice.
- She died in 2003.
Zoom out: The Simone restoration comes as the Emmett Till Interpretive Center has bought a barn outside Drew, Mississippi, where 14-year-old Emmett Till was tortured and killed in 1955.
- The purchase of the barn, which has changed private ownership over decades, now secures one of the most significant sites in American civil rights history.
- Architectural firm Multistudio announced last year that it had undertaken the restoration of Negro League legend Satchel Paige's family home in Kansas City, which is in severe need of repair following a 2018 fire and decades of neglect.
What's next: The Action Fund and Daydream Therapy LLC are closely engaged with the Tryon community and its East Side neighborhood on the next phase of this project.
- Officials are determining a strategy for creative programming, ethical interpretation, and eventual cultural heritage tourism at the site.
Go deeper: New hope to save KC home of Negro League legend Satchel Paige
