Ernest Dollar preserves Chapel Hill’s historic landscape

Ernest Dollar is not your average community preservation director.

“Most people, when they think of preservation, think of a group of older ladies preserving the houses of the rich and the famous in the historic district,” Dollar said.

But Dollar said he has instead focused his four years as preservation director of the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill on areas that have traditionally been overlooked.

“We’re trying to serve the historic landscape in those places that are really endangered,” Dollar said. “And what we’re finding is that these are mostly African-American places — houses, cemeteries, neighborhoods.”

As part of his effort to honor the legacy of African-Americans in Chapel Hill, Dollar helped organize a Black History Month film series called “Birth and Death of Slavery.” The last film in the series will be shown Feb. 22 at the Horace Williams House.

He is also working to preserve the historic Lloyd-Rogers House in the Rogers Road neighborhood, which was originally owned by the Lloyds, some of the first white occupants of Orange County.

“At some point this antebellum home had been sold out of the family to African-Americans in the community,” said Dollar. “So there is sort of joint black and white history of the house.”

The Lloyd-Rogers House is slated to be demolished to accommodate the St. Paul’s African Methodist Episcopal Church, which will move to the property.

The Preservation Society is working to move the house so that it can be used as a community center for the Rogers Road area.

“We hope to have the house moved by the end of the year so that we can start working for it to get restored,” Dollar said.

As preservation director, Dollar has also helped restore the African-American section of the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery.

“It’s important for us to preserve these places and tell the story of these people who have been left out of the history books because it really tells us about our community,” Dollar said.

He said his interest in preserving the community stemmed from his upbringing in Durham.

He said even at a young age, he had a passion for history.

“When other little kids were drawing monsters, I was drawing stuff I saw on the news at night.”

He said that his first order of business as preservation director was to use this passion to get the community interested in preservation.

“His energy and focus and his passion for what he does is huge,” said Susan Lyons, co-president of the Preservation Society.

“I think that’s what gets people excited about the projects he comes up with.”

Beth Isenhour, second vice-president and a long-time volunteer with the Preservation Society, said Dollar has been instrumental in making the society more visible.

“Although we have been around now for 40 years, he gave us more of a face to the community,” she said.

“He’s given a better picture to the public of who we are.”

Dollar said that he hopes his work in the community will inspire people to care about preserving Chapel Hill’s diverse history.

“You couldn’t ask for a better job than to protect the place where you grew up,” he said.

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