The Pines Preservation Guild has honored two local projects with its 2025 Historic Preservation Merit Award in recognition of what it calls “extraordinary examples of projects preserving the historic buildings in Moore County.”
The nonprofit serves all of Moore County and works to protect historic structures while encouraging thoughtful growth. On its website, the guild describes its mission as saving the county’s heritage buildings and promoting sustainable community development around those sites.
“Those of us who live in the Sandhills know how lucky we are to call this place home, and its historic properties are part of the charm that brought us here,” the organization states. “Let’s celebrate and protect them for future generations to enjoy.”
In the commercial category, the guild honored the Friends of the Aberdeen Library and the Town of Aberdeen for rehabilitating the circa 1912 Wholesale Grocery Building in Aberdeen.
The brick structure first served as a warehouse for a wholesale food distribution center. Rail cars delivered goods to the site, where workers unloaded products onto a loading dock and distributed them to grocery stores across Moore County.
In late 2022, town officials approached the Friends of the Aberdeen Library with the idea of converting the building into a new public library. After an extensive fundraising effort, rehabilitation work began.
The Aberdeen Library during renovations.
Crews cleaned and repointed the building’s 17-inch-thick brick walls and restored all original windows. Workers preserved and cleaned about 30% of the original ceiling. The team reconfigured the interior to create new rooms suited for library use.
Contractors transformed the former loading dock into a patio-style deck with a railing. They also installed a walkway entrance and a short path from the handicap parking area that meet ADA requirements.
The project wrapped up in November 2025. The new Aberdeen library opened to the public in late January 2026, giving new life to a century-old industrial building while preserving its historic character.
In the residential category, the guild recognized Friends of Weymouth for rehabilitating the circa 1916 Lamont Cottage in Southern Pines.
The group updated the home while preserving its historic character. Contractors remodeled the downstairs rear bathroom to meet Americans with Disabilities Act requirements and built railings and banisters for a new ADA-accessible ramp at the front of the house. Workers also removed flooring in the kitchen and hallway and installed hardwood floors without transitions to improve accessibility.
Crews restored both the downstairs and upstairs screened-in porches, installing new roofing on each. They added new flooring and screening to the upstairs porch, built new steps and railings on the downstairs porch, and painted both spaces.
The newly renovated Lamont Cottage.
Upstairs, workers replaced tile on the bathroom floor and wainscoting to better reflect the home’s early 20th-century era and to match other recently renovated bathrooms. They also replaced plumbing fixtures.
Additional work included reconfiguring kitchen cabinetry, installing new countertops, and creating a storage area in the hallway leading to the ADA bedroom. The team created a dedicated laundry room enclosed with a repurposed door original to the house. Craftsmen fashioned and installed period-appropriate weatherstripping on doors in the living room and on the upstairs bedroom door leading to the porch.
The project also included interior and exterior painting, as well as landscaping and hardscaping improvements. Workers added a new parking pad designed to assist visitors with accessibility needs.
Photos via Pines Preservation Guild.
Abegail Murphy | Assistant Editor
Written by Sandhills Sentinel assistant editor Abegail Murphy. Abegail has been writing for Sandhills Sentinel since 2021.
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