The oldest building in Kinston will be the site for holiday festivities on Sunday.
Harmony Hall will have its annual Christmas open house event from 2-4 p.m. at the building, which was constructed in 1772 and is the only structure in the city to have made it through the 18th century.
The event is free to the public and refreshments will be served.
Judy White, the site manager at Harmony Hall, said the purpose of the event is to showcase the house and the colonial time period in which it was constructed, as well as to fund its regular maintenance.
“We will be having a bake sale and raffling off some great items that have been donated from the community,” White said. “People can win dinner tickets, a lamp, grill, a hotel stay and much, much more. The proceeds from the raffle tickets and bake sale will go to keeping the house in good working order.”
The Lenoir County cooperative extension’s master gardeners and members of the Dirt Diver gardening club have been decorating the house. Tammy Kelly, the Lenoir County Cooperative Extension director, said the county will do the inside foyer, staircase, exterior and the Christmas tree.
“We have a magnolia tree for the inside,” Kelly said. “After the holiday, we’ll take it back and add it to our landscape. We try to buy and cut everything local to decorate.”
Horticulture agent Peg Godwin said the cooperative extension has been decorating Harmony Hall for eight to 10 years and adorns the house from centuries past.
“We like to keep things traditional to colonial times and keep with the styles they would’ve done back then,” Godwin said. “It’s fun to get back to the same practices as our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents.”
Dirt Diver member Pat Bizzell, who is also a master gardener with the cooperative extension, said the gardening club is responsible for the bedrooms, living room and dining room.
“We’ve been doing this for about six or seven years,” Bizzell said. “We enjoy decorating and like to have a medium to do it in. We have some members who find materials in their yard to help decorate the interior and it’s just a fun thing to do.”
White is hoping for a good turnout.
“Since it will be cool and rainy, we would like everyone to come out and enjoy hot apple cider, cookies, the events and all the nice smells of greenery and cookies in a nice house,” White said.
Junious Smith III can be reached at 252-559-1077 and Junious.Smith@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JuniousSmithIII.