THEN MEETS NOW

Rescued by a group of artists and restored with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Nina Simone's childhood home reemerges as a beacon of Black cultural memory

- CARLY OLSON

FROM LEFT: ELLEN GALLAGHER, BRENT LEGGS OF THE NATIONAL TRUST FOR HISTORIC PRESERVATION, ADAM PENDLETON, AND JULIE MEHRETU AT NINA SIMONE'S CHILDHOOD HOME IN TRYON, NORTH CAROLINA, WHICH WAS PURCHASED BY THE THREE ARTISTS WITH RASHID JOHNSON (NOT PICTURED) AND RESTORED IN COLLABORATION WITH THE NATIONAL TRUST.

From her birth in 1933, to 1937, Eunice Kathleen Waymon, the musician and civil rights activist known to the world as Nina Simone, lived in a three-room, 650-square-foot house in Tryon, North Carolina, nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

It was here that her prodigious talent as a pianist first emerged, a gift that would later carry her far beyond the town of 1,700, where a downtown mural and a bronze statue now immortalize her local ties. Yet few outside Tryon have known that the white clapboard structure, which had fallen into disrepair, was once her family home. Today, after years of planning, fundraising, and careful restoration, the house is entering its next chapter as a site of inspiration for artists, thinkers, and stewards of Black cultural memory, with plans to open to visitors in the future.

It was late 2016 when painter Adam Pendleton first heard that Simone's childhood home was on the market. The call to action was even more surprising: Would he consider buying it? Pendleton's friend, the curator Laura Hoptman, who owns a home in the area, reached out to him hoping she could find a steward of sorts. At risk of demolition, the property was up for sale, and its future hung in the balance.