Developers Hope To Preserve History Of Old American Tobacco Campus

Capitol Broadcasting

, are laying the foundation to get the project off the ground.

The American Tobacco campus contains more than a million square feet of history. Developers are looking into the past as an inspiration for the future.

Local artists are getting a chance to take something old and make it new again. They are looking at old metal scraps, fire alarms, fans, even light fixtures, to see what they can salvage.

"I think it's more valuable because it's a piece of history that used to be here," project manager Tom Tingle said. "We want to preserve as much as we can."

In the old Fowler building, it is as if time has just stopped. There are traces of yesterday everywhere you look.

"It's a bygone era. It determines a point in time that you just don't see anymore," Tingle said.

There are plenty of artifacts that will never be catalogued or turned into art or displays. When the place shut down in the late '80s, a lot of workers took things with them as souvenirs.

If anyone has something they would like to return as a way of preserving the building's history, they can call Capitol Broadcasting at

919-890-6000

.