{"nrhp_refnum":"11000294","name":"Ridgeview Public Library, (Former)","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"415 1st St., S.W.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Hickory","county":"Catawba County","state":"NC","lat":35.72692739900003,"lon":-81.33881856599999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2011-05-12","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Black"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-story brick veneer Colonial Revival library building at 415 First Street, SW, in Hickory, Catawba County, North Carolina, built in 1951 for the Ridgeview neighborhood. It was moved about one-tenth of a mile in 1998 and now stands on a lot on the east side of First Street, SW.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the building is one of the few surviving educational resources linked to Hickory's African American Ridgeview community during the Jim Crow era. It was erected through a combined effort of the white Hickory Altrusa Club and Ridgeview residents, and it served as a branch library and community meeting place.","narrative":"Built in 1951 as a one-story brick Colonial Revival library in Hickory's Ridgeview neighborhood, the building was funded by the Hickory Altrusa Club, a white women's service organization, together with fundraising from Ridgeview residents, and the City of Hickory. Its construction was supervised by an Altrusan committee, and the Crouch Lumber Company built it. The library served the African American community at a time when segregation limited access to public libraries, and it operated as a branch of the Ivey Memorial Library from 1966 to 1967. It also hosted neighborhood clubs in its basement meeting room. Residents twice resisted closure in the decades that followed. The building was moved about one-tenth of a mile in 1998 to make way for a larger library and was sold to a housing corporation. Its brick walls, knotty pine paneling, six-over-six windows, and original front door remain largely intact. It is regarded as one of the last links to the neighborhood's educational past.","period_of_significance":"1951-1961","architect_builder":"Landis, Bobbie - designer; Crouch Lumber Company - builder","architectural_style":"Colonial Revival","criteria":["A","B"],"status_note":"Vacant for about twelve years; the new owners have maintained it and hope to renovate it for community meeting space.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:40.736241-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/21/7195/47719521/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/11000294.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47719521","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ridgeview_Public_Library","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q18169262"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/catawba-county/ridgeview-public-library-former-11000294/"}