When Cora Lee Shuping stood on the front porch of Charity Gladden’s new home on North Long Street in East Spencer, her eyes traversed a 1,200
square foot ranch home with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and new
landscaping. In her mind, she saw the
home of her childhood – a bungalowstyle
frame house with a porch across the front.

Ms. Gladden was the first participant to
complete the East Spencer Home Literacy program, a partnership between
the town of East Spencer and Prosperity
Unlimited, Inc. At the ribbon cutting for the new house in late August, the memories of a family tied to the hill for
almost a century crossed with the family
whose life on the hill was just beginning.

Prosperity and the Town of East Spencer
partnered to bring a home buyer literacy
program as part of the community’s long-term revitalization plan. Prosperity provided the home buyer education and
construction management.

Rowan County, through the HOME Program, contributed $25,000 for gap
financing. Other partners included NC
Housing Finance Agency, Livingstone
College, First Bank, the NC Department
of Labor, Z. Smith Reynolds and the US
Department of Agriculture.

Ms. Shuping, who grew up on the site,
worked as a secretary and retired from
the East Spencer Post Office. She now
lives in Salisbury. Her parent’s home was always an ideal gathering place, even long after she was grown.

“Every Sunday we’d gather on the porch
and the children would come on after church. That was our life,” she said.

After the family sold the house, it became
rental property. The house burned several
years ago and was bulldozed leaving a vacant sloping lot with picturesque trees that became the ideal place for Gladden to build her new home.

Gladden and her five-year-old daughter will be making memories of their own in their house on the hill that features a

crawl space, hardwood floors, new appliances, and an Energy Star rating. The Energy Star rating guarantees a utility bill between $19 and $30 per month.

As excited as Gladden is about owning
her first home, Shuping and her family are just as thrilled. Shuping’s daughter and other grandchildren who have memories of the home have sent the newspaper story to all of their family members.

“We are so proud for them (the Gladdens),” Shuping said. “I know my
Mom would be tickled to death to know that house is up there on that hill.”

For Shuping, standing on the front porch
of Gladden’s new house and looking, for one last time, over a landscape that embodies so much of her life was,
she said, “the most wonderful moment in the world.”