In purchasing Nina Simone’s childhood home in Tryon, North Carolina in 2017, the new owners (conceptual artist Adam Pendleton, sculptor and painter Rashid Johnson, collagist and filmmaker Ellen Gallagher, and abstract artist Julie Mehretu) felt that buying and preserving the home was itself a political act amid the Black Lives Matter movement and the attempted erasure of Black history. The artists plan to apply a collective vision to reinterpret Simone’s home into something that reflects her dynamic, complex legacy, but they can’t do it alone.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation and the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund have rethought what preservation can be in the 21st century. In partnership with the home’s new owners, our work to restore and preserve the Nina Simone Childhood Home exemplifies the spirit and energy of that pursuit.

A New Future for Nina Simone’s Past

Nina Simone’s Childhood Home is a 560 square foot, 3 room clapboard house, with a front porch opening onto its tree-ringed .21-acre plot on 30 East Livingston Street in Tryon, North Carolina. Simone’s family lived in the home from 1933 to 1937, and over several decades it passed through the hands of other owners who made alterations to the building before it fell vacant and into severe disrepair in the 1990’s. Multiple stalled attempts to rehabilitate the house throughout the early 2000’s required the removal of structural additions or ahistorical materials, returning it to its original 1930’s footprint and getting it ready for a new start.

Located in an historically African American neighborhood, the house is up the street from St. Luke’s CME Church, where Simone’s mother, Mary Kate Waymon, was a preacher and Simone herself first began playing piano. The town cemetery, and a Masonic Lodge are also located nearby and are historical mainstays of the community.

Alongside the inherent historical significance of the house itself, interpretation of the surrounding landscape on the property is a key aspect of bringing the experiences of Simone’s childhood to life. Archaeological surveys of the land, old family photographs, and the common practices of Black people living in the rural South, suggest there would have been a swept yard around the perimeter of the house, a kitchen garden, and a workshed. Marking these features in the home’s landscape will offer opportunities for visitors to learn more about the resilience, self-sufficiency, and connection to nature Simone and her family shared.

Furthermore, Tryon itself, founded in 1879, is a key part of Simone’s life story. In addition to St. Luke’s CME Church, the Tryon Theater hosted one of her first performances while she was still in elementary school. Soon after, she began taking lessons with Mrs. Muriel Mazzanovich, a local piano teacher, who helped her raise funds for her to continue her musical education through high school.

Recognizing the influence these, and other historic places in Tryon, played in Simone’s early life, the Action Fund is partnering with local leaders and North Carolina historic preservation organizations to develop plans for a “cultural district” surrounding The Nina Simone Childhood Home to create a holistic, immersive, and educational experiences for visitors, and support tourism and small businesses in Tryon’s East Side neighborhood.

Site Revitalization and Interpretation

Since 2017, the Action Fund has engaged with the local Tryon community and fans of Nina Simone everywhere to better understand what her work means to them, and as a result, how her childhood home can be preserved and reactivated to honor her enduring legacy. This outreach informed the decision to work with Mathews Architecture, P.A. and Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects to begin the sensitive repair and restoration of the property.

The Nina Simone Childhood Home will be restored as an interpreted historic site and a place of inspiration for visitors, artists and advocates. To elevate the beauty of the home experienced by Nina Simone and the Waymon family, and create an authentic presentation as possible, the house will be reopened to the public without replicated furniture or the addition of modern interior amenities.

Instead, the restoration will focus on repairing and preserving the original structure to prevent any further damage and allow guests to experience the house through minimally invasive accessibility upgrades such as leveling floors, repairing walls and windows, and installing a ramp alongside the building to access the front porch. Other facilities such as remote restrooms, programmable spaces, and a garden are envisioned for future phases of development on the property.

Our mission is to protect the home in perpetuity, amplify the cultural legacy of the site, and ignite a national conversation around the important role of artists as activists and preservationists.

Concentrating on Simone’s home and its immediate context, key locations are highlighted and labeled in this map with potential use opportunities in and around the site. These locations remain conceptual in nature, but identify areas of opportunity for modes of transportation, connection to the site, and use of the property once it is fully restored.

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.