In late 2011, a team of educators, teachers and community members brainstormed ways to put to use 30 acres of vacant public school land behind Eno Valley Elementary School. The team coalesced around the idea of an education farm that would serve as a "hub" to connect DPS students and the community. With the support of DPS’s Career and Technical Education program, the Hub Farm had its official vine-cutting launch in October 2012 at the site.
The land that the Hub Farm sits on is the ancestral land of the Shakori, Eno, Occoneechee, and Catawba people, and more generally, the Carolina Siouan. Many of these descendants live among the Catawba and Lumbee today. Before the land was owned by DPS, George Lunsford Carrington (1893–1972), was the proprietor. A generous donor to educational, medical and religious causes, Mr. Carrington donated the land to Durham County during the early 1900s. Mr. Carrington's interest in education was present throughout his life; during college he was the editor of The University of North Carolina Daily Tar Heel and published many research papers, and upon graduation he served as a principal in the Durham school system for a year before entering medical training
Our 2020 UNC APPLES intern, Freya, spent the summer researching this history of this land and the people who have come before us. This video is the first step in our journey of continuing to learn about, reckon with, and honor our past. Thank you to Durham County Cooperative Extension for help with the videography!
Fall of 2020, two more of our APPLES interns, Kimani Smith and Samantha Zielinski, put together a story map of our land history complete with land deeds and historic maps. Scroll through the exhibition style story below to learn more about who came before us!