Happy New Year Friends of HEARTS and the Hugh Torance House and Store,
We all know that history is more than just one story, and through our new nonprofit, HEARTS Collaborative Inc (aka HEARTS), this year we’ll be connecting even more stories in the communities that shape the place we call home. HEARTS has launched a new online platform to provide a comprehensive source of connectivity and collaboration for the community, linking history, nature, and the arts in the Catawba Valley region. The new site will always be green and growing as we continue to add more connections and thread our region’s incredible history, nature, and the arts in the Catawba River Valley region together in one place.
The Hugh Torance House and Store, North Carolina’s oldest standing store, continues to grow and thrive through HEARTS. Together we’re supporting ongoing repairs and maintenance, expanding research and archives, working towards future gardens and outdoor spaces, and much more.
2024 highlights for Hugh Torance House and Store included:
attracting 22% more guests in 2024
completing major repairs to the building’s wood-shingled roof
custom recreation of the historic first-floor window shutters
presentation of a comprehensive list of 143 names of enslaved people who once lived at the site through the HEARTS Reunion Project.
Through HEARTS, we can continue this success not only at the Hugh Torance House and Store, but also in other special places. While continuing HEARTS’ acclaimed programs at Cedar Grove and HTHS, in 2025 HEARTS will also bring its unique brand of place-based happenings to other historic sites in Mecklenburg, Iredell, and Lincoln counties. Inspired by local connections, HEARTS programming weaves past and present together in free community events featuring regional history and nature along with the best in homegrown art, music, and dance.
Check out our new website at www.heartscircle.org. Please note, we have many more places, people, and pieces, to add to this site. This is only the beginning!

We hope we’ll see you soon at our first HEARTS happening for 2025, HEARTSongs ‘25: Poetry of Freedom, on February 22, 2025. Please click here for all the details and tickets
If you have information to share on local history, nature, and the arts, please email us at info@heartscollaborative.com.
HEARTS Collaborative Inc. is a 501c3 non-profit organization supporting other non-profits, history, nature, and the arts in the Catawba Valley region, and providing ongoing stewardship of the Hugh Torance House and Store. HEARTS' mission is to weave the threads of local people, places, and pieces into a vibrant and interconnected tapestry for the Catawba Valley region.
Please join and/or renew your membership to HEARTS Circle to support preserving, restoring, and sharing the important history of our region. For more information, visit www.heartscircle.org, email info@heartscollaborative.org, or call (704) 920-9931.
Thank you for your support!
Mark Your Calendars for Upcoming HEARTS Happenings
We hope you can join us for these free community events featuring history, nature, and the arts.
2025 marks the 250th anniversary of Mecklenburg County’s declaration of independence from Great Britain, through the document known fondly as the Meck Dec. This milestone event is commemorated on our state flag, which bears the date May 20, 1775. To recognize this important year in American history, this year’s featured HEARTS events share connections to America’s earliest years, weaving the threads of freedom from the 18th century to the present.
March 22nd - HEARTS Irish Connections ‘25: Jane’s Famous Ride
Sharing the history of Mecklenburg County’s role in the Revolutionary War with a focus on the patriotic actions of Jane Parks McDowell and her role in the Revolutionary War. In 1780, the hope for liberty pushed this young woman with Scots-Irish roots to make a perilous ride to help the Continental Army.
May 3rd - HEARTS May Day at HTHS
Come enjoy spring in nature at our outdoor event featuring 1775 history, nature, fresh flowers, live demonstrations, live music, and a community Maypole dance on the grounds of Cedar Grove and the Hugh Torance House and Store.
May 24th - HEARTS Let Freedom Spring
Featuring Scott Syfert and David Fleming on land once part of Alexandriana, the massive plantation estate of John McKnitt Alexander. Presented at Pioneer Springs Community School, the program features the historic Freedom Spring, where a group of Princeton scholars met to discuss freedom from British Rule, prompting the creation of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence on May 20, 1775.
June 14th- HEARTS Junion ‘25: Revolutionary Descent
Our fourth anniversary of Junion, featuring Co-Chair of HEARTS Reunion Project, SAR (Son of the American Revolution) member Andre’ Kearns, a descendant of Charlotte Kerns who was enslaved at Cedar Grove. This year, Kearns will share his journey of discovering his Revolutionary War roots through Henry Johnston of Long Creek.
Hope we'll see you at an event soon!

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