The postponement of the last meeting has brought us all together again on October 15, a meeting outside the normal agenda of the Hillsborough Historic Preservation Commission. Anxious, weary, or otherwise impatient, Duke Farms and the opposition (DORIS and the majority of the community) sat down in the courtroom again. The sense of urgency for genuine diplomacy from the farms radiated strongly through the air. In the last weeks, it was discovered that Duke Farms prohibits the Boy Scouts from the property, and that the supposed ‘cherry picking’ of information and other actions that are non-congruent with Miss Duke’s caliber of preservation have only been validated. The question of the mansion has erupted over into questions about the intentions of the Charitable Foundation and the Farms, the credibility of the overseers of the land, and even the legal appropriateness of the township for “not telling its residents enough about what’s going on until its too late”. So the question that Retro Revival is now asking: What now?
Unfortunately the decision of the historic commission was in agreement to allow the applicant its demolition permit, but the grassroots organization, DORIS, (whom the RetroRevival endorses) is still very active in the next stages of appeals and other community-rousing activities. What can you do? Check out DORIS’s sites online! Help us do the very best job we can in making history count!
https://www.change.org/p/duke-farms-foundaton-preserve-the-duke-mansion
https://www.gofundme.com/dorisdukemansion
This is a very feasible way to make a large difference. Thank you for your support!
In the meantime, for all my readers who were unable to make it to the fateful October 15th meeting, it was a whirlwind of events. The press swarmed the local courtroom… but so did local politicians, raising question in the grassroots organization and assorted residents as to whether or not this entire ordeal had political embers burning underneath it. The question of the integrity is still in question and is currently being investigated, but the information is limited at this time. The intentions of the DDCF, the mother-nonprofit of Duke Farms, is now also presenting itself after its president made himself appear as a speaker on behalf of the demolition on Thursday evening. The skepticism is still high, and steadily rising again after the vote to demolish was granted almost unanimously in the absence of documented evidence from the Farms.
Stay curious and stay active! This is a worthy cause!
Retro Curious Rebellious: The Revival 