13-05-2025
High Point Preservation Society looks to the city to help fund the restoration of John Coltrane's home
HIGH POINT, N.C. (WGHP) — The clock is ticking on a project years in the making.
The High Point Preservation Society is renewing its push to preserve the childhood home of renowned saxophone player John Coltrane.
They say grant money from 2022 has dried up, and there's still work to be done.
'He's very integral to the city of High Point. He was raised here. He learned to play music here. He attended high school here,' Treasurer of High Point Preservation Society Coralle Cowan said.
As you walk through the door of John Coltrane's boyhood home, the wooden bookcase and the fireplace take you back in time.
'I can hear a saxophone working upstairs. I can hear him talking to his grandfather in the living room with the fireplace going and learning stories that passed from one generation to the next. I'm getting chills talking about it,' Cowan said.
The famous saxophone player's roots are in High Point on Underhill Street.
'If you don't return it to what it felt like when it was first opened as a new place, you're not going to get the same passion,' Board Member of High Point Preservation Society John Conrad said.
In 2022, the High Point Preservation Society received a grant of $250,000, but it quickly ran out, and the preservation society is asking the city to help.
'We worked on a lot of the foundational aspects of it. We did literal foundation work. We did a lot of light demolition, repaired windows and did a lot of grading,' Cowan said.
The estimated cost of finishing the job is going to cost the city around $300,000 to $ 400,000 to finish the flooring, patch up the walls, and make it feel like the home it once was.
The goal is to let others experience where the magic all started.
The preservation society wants to do it right, and that requires more money.
'You're not here to …tear out that cabinets and then just drywall and paint … This is wood that John Coltrane actually probably touched or put things on or he interacted with on a daily basis,' Cowan said.
The public can't go inside Until the preservation society can get a Certificate of Occupancy, and there's a lot to do before that can happen.
That's why Conrad took his fight to City Hall and asked local leaders to allocate the money to help them finish the job.
'Jazz is American. No question about it. But jazz is truly not American when you consider the people who love that music. It's worldwide. And why can't we have them visit the city of High Point and be where John Coltrane generated his passion?' Conrad said.
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