[piano intro] - Next on "North Carolina Weekend," join us from the Museum of the Cape Fear in Fayetteville as we explore historical treasures around the state.

We'll learn about Thomas Day's furniture.

Visit the Carolina Arcade Museum, and explore Oberlin Rising.

Coming up next.

- [Narrator] Funding for "North Carolina Weekend" is provided in part by, Visit NC.

Dedicated to highlighting our state's natural scenic beauty, unique history, and diverse cultural attractions.

From the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains across the Piedmont to 300 miles of barrier island beaches, you're invited to experience all the adventure, and charm our state has to offer.

[upbeat instrumental music] ♪ - Welcome to "North Carolina Weekend" everyone.

I'm Deborah Holt Noel.

And this week, we are exploring historic treasures around our state.

Right now I'm at the Museum of the Cape Fear Historical Complex.

This site in Fayetteville has more than 400 years of history within its exhibits, from Native American artifacts to Civil War relics to the region's textile heritage, it's all on display at this museum.

We'll explore it more throughout the show, but first, let's head to Milton where a small museum dedicated to furniture maker, Thomas Day has been upgraded to a state historic site.

[upbeat instrumental music] - Good, morning.

[audience laughs] - [Audience Members] Good morning.

- This is the youngest Thomas Day descendant.

Say hello.

- Hello.

[audience applauding] - Good morning.

I am Michelle Lanier and I am Division Director of North Carolina Historic Sites and we are celebrating the birth of our newest state historic site, Thomas Day State Historic Side.

[audience applauding] We want to tell the story of his artisanship.

We want to tell the story of his life in context with the land.

Three, two, one.

Thomas Day.

[audience applauding] - [Earl] Born circa 1801, Thomas Day was a free man of color and in antebellum terms, free issue, meaning neither of his parents were ever enslaved.

Day was an extraordinarily successful business person building cabinetry and furniture in the shop he started in Milton, North Carolina.

Day's innovative use of esteem powered sawmill beginning in the 1850s, and his assembly line process helped establish the large and productive shop as one of the most prosperous in the south.

Hi, I'm Earl Ijames.

here in Milton, North Carolina at the Thomas Day Museum with "North Carolina Weekend," and it's now an official state museum.

I can't wait to see it.

Come and join us.

You see, they actually recruited him.

The old tobacco planners recruited him to come here and set up shop.

Cabinet maker, Jerome Bias has studied the history of Thomas Day's traditional woodworking techniques.

- Hey, Jerome.

- Hello, my man.

- Good to see you.

- Here at the new Thomas Day Historic Site of Milton.

- It's quite the event.

I'm so proud of this.

We've been working this for many, many years.

- You know, we can't have a better be reenactment man than to do what Thomas Day did.

- I love doing eight period woodworking, and this is a great place to do that.

- Well, you know, - Speaking about this space, with a space that has such a revolutionary impact on society and economy in North Carolina, and throughout the country with a steam powered sawmill.

And tell us about some of the techniques of this latest technology down in the South.

[upbeat instrumental music] - [Jerome] Often people think of Thomas Day working alone in a shop, and in this case he wasn't working alone in a shop, but he is got a building attached to this building that's 25 feet wide, 75 feet long.

And in that building he's got table stalls, he's got lays, he's got shaper tables, he's got many of the power tools that we have in our shops today.

He's got right there and then.

It's really interesting when you look at the bills of sale.

He's making, he's selling things to everyone of various pocketbook amounts.

If you have a little bit of money, he's got something to sell.

You got a lot of money, he's got something else to sell you.

And he is gonna have, he's working a large enough scale that he's got this space here would've been one of his wear room.

He's the emerging furniture talent, and furniture maker in this part of the state.

He's doing a really amazing job in that the people in this area can get any kind of furniture they want.

The railroad is not far away.

The river is not far away.

So they can get anything from Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York City.

And so he's competing against those furniture makers, and what he's producing here.

And the amazing thing is that here in the back, back country, North Carolina, this man has got this wonderful furniture factory that is competing for price, quality and design with the latest designer furniture makers out of Philadelphia, New York and Boston.

- [Earl] Historic.

Milton, North Carolina has other links to Thomas Day's ties here.

And just up the street from the Thomas Day Museum in Milton, North Carolina is the Milton Presbyterian Church established 1826, where Thomas Day built the pews, and sat on the front row every Sunday morning.

- We expect that we will have many people following our journey as we develop the site.

It will have multiple buildings where people will be able to see his workshop.

We also have a visitor center.

All of it's in development.

And so if people wanna know how to stay involved, we invite you to follow the Thomas Day Site on social media.

- [Deborah] The Thomas Day State Historic Site is at 148 Broad Street in Milton.

The site is not officially open, but they do allow private tours.

To visit, just book a volunteer at [336] 234-0030.

I'm here with Megan Maxwell, Curator of Education at the Museum of the Cape Fear.

Megan, you actually have a house on this property, and that's not really usual for a museum.

Who owns this house?

Or who did own the house?

- Right.

So it is part of our museum complex.

We have the museum and then this is a historic house museum.

It was owned by a gentleman called E.A.

Poe, and that does stand for Edgar Allan Poe, but it is not the famous writer.

Our Mr. Poe owned a brick company in town.

He was a local businessman, politician.

And this is the area of Fayetteville called Haymount, where a lot of the local businessmen were building homes right around the turn of the 20th century here in Fayetteville.

So this house basically represents what life was like right around 1900 for an upper class family here in Fayetteville.

- Well, I'd love to take a tour.

- Yeah, sure.

We can go on inside.

- Okay.

- [Megan] So this is the parlor.

This is the formal living room of the house.

This is where special events took place.

If any of the daughters had a gentleman caller, this is where they would be hosted.

Weddings took place in here.

The three oldest daughters got married in here.

Anytime somebody died, this is where you would be laid out.

So funerals took place in here as well.

And Deb, another interesting thing about the house is the lighting.

The light fixture in here is actually original to the home.

So this was purchased by E.A.

Poe when the house was constructed.

It's a gas/electric combination fixture.

So originally additional brass arms would've come up out of it this way, and a globe would've been here, and the gaslight would've shined through that.

He knew electricity was coming soon, but they didn't have it just yet.

So he was definitely forward thinking when he installed the combination fixtures in the house.

- That's just beautiful.

- [Megan] So this is the dining room.

The table and chairs did belong to the Poe family, so they would've eaten all their meals in here together.

The most important meal of the day at the time would have been lunch, which we here in the South called dinner.

And Mr. Poe would come home from the brick company, and they would all have their family dinner together.

The Poe were a wealthy family, so they did have domestic servants, and one of those servants was a cook named Nancy Graham, and she would've prepared all of the meals for the family in the kitchen.

So Deb, this is the nurse's room, and the Poe were a wealthy family, so they did have domestic servants and in the South, domestic servants are primarily going to be black.

In this case, Jenny, who was a nurse or what we would call a nanny for the family, was a young black woman.

This would've been her room.

So she had a separate room, and lived with the family right next to the nursery.

So her primary job would've been to take care of the children in the nursery.

And we know about Jenny because we have a copy of Lily's diary from when she was a child growing up in the house and she does mention Jenny a lot.

And we found this photo in one of the family photo albums.

So it is a picture of Jenny here, and then this is Nancy, the Cook, who I mentioned in the dining room.

- We've been able to preserve so much, and capture so much of their story in the history.

It's really fascinating.

[soft instrumental music] - So Deb, this is our temporary exhibit gallery.

Right now we have a special exhibit.

It's called "17 Men.

Portraits of the 25th U.S.

Colored Troops."

And the significance of this exhibit, these portraits were done by Shayne Davidson.

She is a Genealogist and Illustrator.

She discovered a photo album when she was doing a family tree for a friend.

The photo album was only about this big, and it had these portraits in it.

10 types and ambrose types of these 17 men who served with the 25th U.S.

Colored Troops.

To honor them, she created biographies, and also these life-size portraits that you see here in the gallery.

- [Deborah] These are so powerful.

The Museum of the Cape Fear Historical Complex is at 801 Arsenal Avenue in Fayetteville, and they're open Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and Sunday from one to five.

To find out more, give them a call at [910] 500-4240.

Or visit them online at MuseumoftheCapeFear.ncdcr.gov.

If you've ever driven along busy Oberlin Road in Raleigh, you may have noticed five enormous structures seemingly rising out of the earth.

Well, those sculptures actually represent a historically black neighborhood that was established back in the late 1800s, and some of the special people who emerged from it.

One of them is actually my own father.

Join me on a visit to Oberlin Rising.

- [Howard] Black makers fired the flame that fashioned this place.

$50 for a parcel of dream measured out by the acre.

Hear the hammer.

Boards banged into place.

Bricks slapped with mortar.

The Draymond's horse.

Clap, clap, clapping and pulling cart.

With supplies for 750 pioneers of the possible.

- [Smedes] I grew up in Raleigh, pretty much on Craig Street where I live now.

Cameron Village was developed by my father, and so Oberlin is right between my home and Cameron Village.

I really felt a kindred to that section of Oberlin my entire life.

I always thought we need to have a sculpture there.

- [Deborah] It's here on Oberlin Road in Raleigh, where Developer, Smedes York wanted a reason for passersby to stop and reflect on a special community whose homes once stood where his business now stands.

The community that came to be called Oberlin began as 16 acres of land purchased in 1858 by a free black man named, Jesse Pettiford.

Many formerly enslaved people purchased lots from surrounding property as well, and the community grew.

This beginning Marks Oberlin as the only freedman's village in North Carolina with roots as a free black settlement.

To develop the idea of a sculpture park honoring the memory of Oberlin Village, York gathered input from Oberlin residents, and enlisted the talents of his dear friend, Thomas Sayre.

A visionary North Carolina artist renowned for crafting monumental captivating sculptures.

- Oberlin Rising is primarily a sacred space.

It's the place where a vibrant community was for a number of years and it still is.

The goal was to hold the history of that place, and the spirit of that place up for people to come to now, and remember it and not forget it.

- [Deborah] For inspiration, Sayre attended listening sessions with the Oberlin residents, and considered their recollections of a home that produced a black middle class who treasured education, family and progress.

Oberlin was home to Latta University, founded by Reverend M.L.

Latta in 1892, but whose final remnant was destroyed by fire in 2007.

From Oberlin, also arose some prominent people.

- Dr. James E. Shepherd, who founded What we now know as North Carolina Central University is a product of Oberlin.

John H. Baker, Jr.

I think he served more consecutive terms as Sheriff of Wake County than anyone else.

Dr. William B. Pettiford.

Dr. Peter Roberts and Dr. Charles Haywood who was a dentist.

And I guess there must have been about 20 healthcare professionals who were nurses in the life.

- [Deborah] Joe Holt himself emerged as a pioneer in civil rights as the central figure in the first effort to integrate Raleigh public schools.

Sayre design would inspire curiosity, and figuratively reference the story of Oberlin.

- There's the shadow of three structures that people lived in, and then the up surface is a trial surface that we could imprint.

And so I made tools that express the different kinds of skills that the community was known for.

Masons.

And so there's a trow shape.

There's a gavel that refers to the professionals seamstresses, and shirt launderers.

And so there's a kind of a weaving pattern about cloth.

- [Howard] Masons, carpenters, seamstresses, schoolteachers, transformed, peck's place and save rent into a mighty village.

Rising.

- [Deborah] The park would communicate the work of those laborers who made Oberlin and left legacy.

A return wall would carry the message through the depiction of many hands cast from the hands of Oberlin's descendants.

One of them the hands of Joe Holt's granddaughter, who is my daughter.

Local Poet, Howard Craft, would capture Oberlin's spirit in prose.

- Take the time to read the plaques that are there.

Howard Craft did a very good job of composing some poetry that tells about the community.

- [Deborah] And the flora of Oberlin would not be forgotten.

- A lot of the plants that were chosen were chosen because they are plants that people remember having on the street, and having in their yards.

I really wanted to have plants that are bold and resilient.

And so we have, you know, of 10 or 12 plum trees out there that have been providing fruit for years now.

- [Howard] As you stand here or sit and gaze, and breathe in the history of this place, know it was born of sacrifice and struggle, and it was made and is made from the lives of people who loved and lived and still do.

- [Thomas] Oberlin Rising is one of the more important projects I've ever done.

I'm not sure the City of Raleigh knew how important it was at first, but I think it does now.

- [Deborah] Oberlin Rising Sculpture Park is located at 809 Oberlin Road in Raleigh, and it's open to visitors year round.

For more information about the history of Oberlin, visit the Friends of Oberlin website at FriendsofOberlinVillage.org.

Check out this exhibit featuring early settlers of the Cape Fear region.

A lot of them came from Scotland, and Scottish heritage runs deep here.

In fact, this area was called Campbelton, and only became Fayetteville after the Revolutionary War.

Now farther west from here as settlers were exploring the Yadkin Valley, a man named William Lenoir fought several battles during the Revolutionary War and he called his home Fort Defiance.

Today, it's a popular historic site in Caldwell County.

- [Narrator] There's no better way to experience, and learn about North Carolina history than by touring Fort Defiance.

It was the home of General William Lenoir, a Revolutionary War Hero.

- [Ike] He began construction of this house in 1788.

It was finished in 1792, and it's been completely restored to its original condition.

- [Sandra] Fort Defiance is a great opportunity to teach people about history.

It was like being as close to 1792 as you possibly be.

[upbeat instrumental music] - So this is gonna be General William Lenoir's study.

Here is his secretary.

It does date prior to William Lenoir... - [Narrator] This house was named after a nearby fort built by Lenoir.

Its purpose was to protect early settlers against attacks from the Cherokee.

Over six generations lived there until it was purchased by a non-profit in 1965.

- The house is gonna have over 300 original furnishings.

Things from his original dining room table to his trunk up his master room where he kept all of his letters, which are now on display.

- [Narrator] The fort's other objective is to serve as a learning center for students from across the region.

- We have a lot of school kids come through here regularly, and they don't get a chance very often to actually visit, and step back into the 1700s.

- So during our school history days, we have demonstrations like surveying, musket demonstrations.

We also have military.

Having the kids be military for the short period of time.

Basket weaving and different things like that.

- What does rope making have to do with the Revolutionary War?

- [R.G.]

Sites like Fort Defiance are so important, and we have students here today, they're learning about North Carolina history, and they're able to connect with that history and understand that those that went before them had some experiences that helped them carve a niche in working with the land.

- It gives me joy to see people learn, and when the kids come and the things that we're able to teach them about history.

So it's just a special place to be.

- [Ike] Well, the importance of a site like this, as I've said is, is just to stay in touch with our past.

If we don't have places like this that stay open that we can actually go see and touch and feel, and get the sense of how life was.

- It's important that we don't lose these type of historic places so that we don't lose the history of what these people did, and what kind of foundation they laid for us, and what we have had to build on for today.

[soft instrumental music] - [Deborah] Fort Defiance is at 1792 Fort Defiance Drive in Lenoir, and it's open Thursday through Saturday from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, and Sunday from 1:00 PM to 4:00PM.

For more information, give them a call at [828] 758-1671.

Or visit their website at HistoricFortDefianceNC.org.

This is a country store exhibit here at the Museum of the Cape Fear.

You know, they're all kinds of historical treasures around the state.

Some of them are just fun like a museum that producer Clay Johnson, and his videographer Eric Olson discovered in Forest City that takes you back to a time when it was popular to just hang out and play video games.

- [Dave] We're a very positive, and friendly family atmosphere.

It it's a place for everyone to go.

[game chimes] Hey.

How you doing?

- Good.

Yep.

Good to see you man.

- [Narrator] Preston and Ruth Holland are regulars at the Carolina Arcade Museum in downtown Forest City.

- [Preston] A lot of this stuff I remember as a kid, and so getting to come by and see this stuff, it just brings back a lot of good memories.

This is "Smash TV," so it's a two player, shoot 'em up and you're just, it's kinda like from the movie "Running man."

It's got these guys that come in attacking you, and your whole goal is to stay away from 'em while you shoot.

One controller runs, one shoots, so you're trying to take out each enemy, and go through the maze to get to the boss.

A lot of my birthday parties were at a local arcade place and I'd come here with all my friends.

So it's kind of a way getting to relive some of my childhood.

- Back in the day you went to the arcade to hang out with your friends.

It was a meetup, a hangout and a good time.

- [Narrator] Dave Walker and a friend of his wanted to bring that experience back.

They also wanted to leave their full-time jobs, and start their own business.

They decided on an arcade, and began searching for pinball, and other arcade machines.

- [Dave] We did a lot of searching on Craigslist.

OfferUp.

Letgo.

all those selling apps.

Facebook Marketplace.

Got a ton of games from there, and there's auctions you can go to.

Coin-Op auctions where they sell anything coin operated.

- [Narrator] Walker and his friend opened the Carolina Arcade Museum in an old store building in August, 2018.

- [Dave] All the games are on free play.

Instead of tokens and quarters, you come in, get a wristband, you pay admission, play whatever you want.

I think we have about 105 on the floor.

I probably have another 80 or so at the house.

I have a problem.

There's always one I don't have.

So, you know, - [Interviewer] You have games that your house?

- Oh, yeah.

My garage, basement, storage units.

Yeah.

- [Narrator] Most of the games are classics from the 80s.

Like Pacman and Donkey Kong.

[arcade cars revving] - [Dave] Our original demographic was 30 to 50 year olds.

We figured people like us would like these games.

We were very surprised, pleasantly surprised that even the young kids like this, we get the whole family.

I get teenagers come in two or three at a time just to hang out with their friends.

Right back to where we were in the 80s.

- [Narrator] While many teenagers today play games on their smartphones or tablets, Walker says, playing games in an arcade is a very different experience.

- [Dave] You have more feedback, and more fun when you're playing with somebody, and you're there physically.

It's more than just just a screen you're looking at.

- Sometimes I'll even play just like to walk through and just listen to sounds and watch the people, and it's just therapeutic.

Just really helps bring things down in just a simpler time.

[game chimes] - I enjoy sharing my love for the games, and it to keep that alive with younger generation.

A lot of them have heard about Donkey Kong, you know and Mario, but they don't know the origin of it, and they've never played the original game, and to keep that alive, and to keep the hobby going.

[upbeat instrumental music] - [Deborah] The Carolina Arcade Museum is at 145 East Main Street in Forest City.

And they're open Wednesday through Saturday.

For more information, give them a call at [828] 229-3089.

Or find them on Facebook.

Well, that's it for tonight's show.

We have had a fascinating time exploring the Museum of the Cape Fear here in Fayetteville.

So if you're ever in the area, it's definitely worth a visit.

And if you've missed anything in tonight's show, remember you can always watch us again online at PBSNC.org or find us on our YouTube channel.

Have a great "North Carolina Weekend" everyone.

[upbeat instrumental music] ♪ [upbeat instrumental music] ♪ [upbeat instrumental music] ♪ - [Announcer] Funding for "North Carolina Weekend" is provided in part by, Visit NC.

Dedicated to highlighting our state's natural scenic beauty, unique history and diverse cultural attractions.

From the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains across the Piedmont to 300 miles of barrier island beaches, you're invited to experience all the adventure and charm our state has to offer.

[upbeat instrumental music]