Elon received the group's Carraway Award for preservation of the historic schoolhouse on the university's campus.
Founded in 1939, Preservation North Carolina promotes and protects the buildings and landscapes of the state’s diverse heritage. The Carraway Awards are presented annually to people and organizations demonstrating a genuine commitment to historic preservation through extraordinary leadership, research, philanthropy, promotion and/or significant participation in preservation.
Originally known as the Travis Creek School, the two-room schoolhouse was renamed the Cable School in the late 19th century. Records indicate the schoolhouse was built in the early 1850s, about a decade after the state legislature first authorized local communities to levy a tax for supporting public education and receive matching state funds. Suchfacilities were known as “common schools.” After serving residents of western Alamance County through the 19th century, the school closed and withstood the test of time until the building and a small tract of land were donated to Elon University by Kaye Cable Murray and her husband Joe. Elon now utilizes the historic property for educational purposes and celebrated the restoration of the schoolhouse at a dedication ceremony last May.
On hand to receive the award on Oct. 10 at Preservation North Carolina’s Annual Conference in Raleigh were President Leo M. Lambert, Kaye Cable Murray, Dr. Ron Murray, Professor Emeritus Carole Troxler, and Executive Vice President Gerry Francis.
Renovations of the Cable School were made possible with support from Glen Raven Inc. and Allen Gant Jr., the North Carolina company’s chief executive officer and a member of Elon’s board of trustees. At the university, Executive Vice President Gerry Francis, Professor of History Emeritus Carole Troxler, University Historian George Troxler and former archivist Katie Nash lent assistance to the effort.