NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1963 SESSION

 

 

CHAPTER 1059

HOUSE BILL 575

 

 

AN ACT TO APPROPRIATE FUNDS TO THE MUSEUM OF THE ALBEMARLE, INC. FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF AN ADDITION TO A BUILDING AND FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MUSEUM OF THE ALBEMARLE, ELIZABETH CITY, NORTH CAROLINA

.

WHEREAS, the first English settlement in America was in the Albemarle area of North Carolina in 1584, approximately twenty-three years before the founding of Jamestown and thirty-six years before the settlement of Plymouth Rock; and

WHEREAS, in this area, the first General Assembly was held in 1665 only ten miles from the place where Culpepper's Rebellion in 1667 struck the first blow for American Independence; and

WHEREAS, this area is teeming with artifacts and items of great historic significance which will be lost or destroyed if no protective steps are taken towards their preservation; and

WHEREAS, the establishment of a museum in this area would preserve the early culture of the history of the area and provide valuable information for childen and adults studying the early development of North Carolina and America; and

WHEREAS, the establishment of a museum would attract tens of thousands of people each year; and

WHEREAS, the purpose of such a museum would be to discover and collect historical material illustrative of life conditions and activities of the past and to preserve such material and make it accessible as far as feasible to all who wish to examine and study it; and

WHEREAS, the County Commissioners of Pasquotank County have already given for the establishment of such museum a certain piece of property and a building one mile from the city limits of Elizabeth City on U.S. Highway No. 17, the Ocean Highway, such property and building having an appraised value of thirteen thousand eight hundred fifty-two dollars ($13,852.00); and

WHEREAS, the museum division of the Department of Archives and History has approved the location and building as being ideally situated for a museum and recommends an additional "wrap-around" building to be constructed and added to the present building to serve as the exhibit and display area of said museum; and

WHEREAS, in order to complete the project and to enable visitors to grasp the significance of the early culture of North Carolina and the development of early America, it is necessary to establish such a museum: Now, therefore,

 

The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact:

 

Section 1.  There is hereby appropriated from the General Fund of the State to the Museum of the Albemarle, Inc. the sum of forty-three thousand six hundred dollars ($43,600.00), on condition that the Museum of the Albemarle be approved as a Historic Site by the Historic Sites Advisory Committee, to be used for the following purposes: construction, equipping and furnishing of a visitor-museum building and the payment of non-recurring expenses necessary to establish and begin operation of the Museum of the Albemarle, Inc. In the event that the said Museum of the Albemarle is not approved as a Historic Site by the Historic Sites Advisory Committee, the funds herein appropriated shall revert to the General Fund.

Sec. 2.  All laws and clauses of laws in conflict with this Act are hereby repealed.

Sec. 3.  This Act shall be in full force and effect from and after its ratification.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 20th day of June, 1963.