New Bern Condemns Large Number of Old Buildings, Gives Residents 60 Days to Tear Them Down, Dec. 7, 1922

Large Number of Old Buildings Condemned and Will be Destroyed. . . Inspection Made Yesterday and Many Structures in the Business Section of the City Are Found to Be Little More Than Fire Traps and a Menace to the City

The work of “cleaning up” New Bern in the way of condemning “fire traps” which are located in the business section of the city was started yesterday morning, and before night more than a score of these structures which have for a long while been in a dilapidated condition and nothing but serious menaces to the city were adorned with red tags conveying the information that these structures had been condemned and that they must be removed within 60 days.

And when local citizens saw these red tags adorning these buildings and learned that they were to be razed, there was a general expression of approval and relief. Many declared that it was little short of miraculous that the buildings had not been condemned and torn down before this and expressed the hope that the city officials would see to it that the law was carried out to the letter.

Many of these buildings are not only a menace to the surrounding property, but they have also marred the appearance of the sections in which they are located and then they are moved it will be a case of “good riddance of bad rubbish.”

From the front page of The New Bernian, Dec. 7, 1922