Buildings come down

Piece by piece, five vacant, dilapidated buildings on South Queen Street are being torn down.

Demolition began Wednesday morning in the 400 block as workers with Charles Hughes Construction of La Grange used an excavator to pull down the brick walls.

"This is not a demolition, it's a rebirth," said Adrian King, director of Pride of Kinston, as he and a handful of city and county leaders watched the machine pry the structures apart.

Company owner Charles Hughes said the work will take two weeks, and the metal and bricks will be recycled.

Pride is overseeing the work as part of a wider effort to create a beautified entrance to Maplewood Cemetery, which sits just behind the buildings.

The cemetery entrance is part of an even larger Pride plan to make over South Queen Street.

King said Pride, working with a number of community partners, highlighted an improved cemetery entrance as critical to South Queen's revitalization in plans put forth in 1991 and in 2000.

Pride intern Brooke Jones, who is creating updated revitalization schematics for South Queen, led a group of Erasing the Lines volunteers last week, planting shrubs and trees in sections of the cemetery.

"It's really exciting to see," Jones said of the demolition.

King said the owners of the five buildings sold their structures to Pride at tax value - the nonprofit, working with Mayor O.A. "Buddy" Ritch Jr., is still trying to purchase the sixth and final building from the estate of its recently-deceased owner.

The demolition was funded by a number of local businesses and private donors. Kenneth R. Blizzard of Kinston's Contract Flooring and Design took the asbestos out for free.

"It's all private money, there's no taxpayer dollars (used)," said Ritch, who conducted much of the fundraising.

"Tremendous," Ritch said when asked what he thought of the demolition. "Everybody's been dancing around it for 20 years, to clean up South Queen Street."

John Farris and a group of his neighborhood friends sat in a lot across Shine Street and watched the work.

Farris said the revitalization should be expanded.

"They ought to build up some apartments for the young (people) because you don't have too many places for them to live," he said.

David Anderson can be reached at (252) 559-1077 or danderson@freedomenc.com.

The following donors provided support to Pride's revitalization of South Queen Street:

 David Brody

 BB&T Foundation

 Wachovia Foundation

 Realo Discount Drugs

 Harvey McNairy Foundation

 Anonymous