Artists saved Nina Simone’s childhood home; it is now fully restored

A small three-room house in Tryon, North Carolina, once stood close to demolition. It was the childhood home of Nina Simone, the powerful singer, pianist and civil rights activist born Eunice Waymon. In 2016, the deteriorating clapboard house was placed on the market, prompting four artists to act. Adam Pendleton, Rashid Johnson, Ellen Gallagher and Julie Mehretu formed Daydream Therapy LLC and purchased the property for $95,000. The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund later became the lead partner in the restoration effort. Eight years after the artists’ intervention, the 650-square-foot home was fully rehabilitated in autumn 2025. The completed project preserves the place where Simone spent her early childhood and began learning piano, although the house is not yet open to the public.A modest home with a major historyNina Simone’s childhood home is a small, early-20th-century clapboard house in Tryon.