The Carroll County Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing March 8 to transfer ownership of Hillsville’s Historic Carter Home to the Hale-Wilkinson-Carter Home Foundation.

Carroll County Administrator Gary Larrowe said the Carter Home Foundation has been interested in taking ownership of the property, which it currently leases from the county, for some time. He said the county and the foundation both feel transfer of ownership would benefit both parties.

“They have grown to the point that they feel they can be self-sustaining. Also, one of the thought processes is the Hale-Wilkinson-Carter Home Foundation will be more grant eligible as an entity that has ownership and control than the county could be or as a group that is operating on leased property of the county,” Larrowe said. “We’ve been working with the Carter Home Foundation to have an arrangement of the details of who’s responsible for the different aspects of the transfer and the Carter Home Foundation has agreed with a recent vote of 100 percent of membership present to accept the Carter Home under those conditions if presented with that opportunity.”

Elizabeth Huff, Vice President of the Hale-Wilkinson-Carter Home Foundation, said the foundation hopes to take ownership of the building to continue with ongoing renovations on the massive antebellum structure originally built in the 1840s. Renovations to the bottom two floors of the five-story home, named after local coal baron George L. Carter, were finished enough by late 2009 for the foundation to open it for tours, meetings, and other events. The foundation hopes to gain ownership of the building, however, in part to keep renovations moving forward.

“We’re hoping we would be more eligible for grants, that has been our problem for the past year. If we own the building it should make it much easier to obtain grants,” Huff said. “We have the third, fourth and fifth floors yet to do. And we need to work on the porches, the tile on the porches and also the ceilings. And of course there is some work in the kitchen we need to have done.”

And while renovations to the bottom two floors were nearly completed recently after nearly a decade of work, an extreme winter has limited the number of events and fundraisers the foundation has been able to host over the past couple of months.

“The weather has really put a damper on so many things we have been trying to do. It has definitely slowed down tours and those type of things,” Huff said. “We are trying to start with some activities. We have planned three for February, and we have been able to book some events for March, too. We booked some anniversaries and various meetings have been held there with different organizations. We are growing much stronger, but the weather has really hurt us.”

Events for February at the Hale-Wilkinson-Carter Home include a casserole sale on Thurs., Feb. 18, an open house on Sun., Feb. 21, and a barbecue dinner on Fri., Feb. 26.

Upon Sulphur Springs District Supervisor David Hutchins’ motion, the Carroll County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a public hearing on the transfer of the home to the foundation. The public hearing is set for March 8 in the board meeting room of the Carroll County Government Center at 5:30 p.m.

The oldest structure in Hillsville, the Carter Home was originally built as a two-story brick home in the 1840s by Fielden Hale. Hale sold the home in the 1860s to James Wilkinson, who paid for it in Confederate currency. At the end of the war, Mr. Hale unsuccessfully sued to get the house back. Wilkinson’s daughter, Mayetta, married George L. Carter, who came into possession of the house in 1909 when Wilkinson died. In the 1920s, Carter added the top three floors to the home and added wrap-around porches and the stucco exterior.