NCCU birthday bash

What: Party celebrating the centennial of N.C. Central University

When: Thursday, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Where: Brant Street Plaza, across Fayetteville Street from the university's administration building

The party, which will feature birthday cake and music, is open to the public. Free parking will be available at NCCU lots on Lawson Street and Nelson Street and with shuttle service from St. Titus and St. Joseph's church lots.

For more information, call 530-6295.

By Neil Offen

noffen@heraldsun.com; 419-6646

DURHAM -- "It's going to be a wonderful party," said N.C. Central University Chancellor Charlie Nelms.

It should be. It's been 100 years in the making.

The university will hold an open-to-the-public birthday bash on Thursday, the culminating event of its year-long series of centennial festivities. The party will feature dedications of the newly installed Centennial Garden, the adjacent Centennial Chapel -- which had been the Holy Cross Church on Alston Avenue -- and a historic plaque commemorating the former site of Hillside High School.

There will be birthday cake, of course, and music, too.

On Tuesday, dozens of workers labored feverishly in the sweltering heat -- spreading mulch, laying paving stones, planting trees, sweeping brick walkways -- to get the area ready for the bash.

"We'll get everything done in time," Chuck Batten, the project engineer, promised. "We'll work here all night if we have to, and then come back [today] if there's anything we need to finish off. We have no choice. We've got to get it done in time."

The workers -- nearly 100 of them, including HVAC technicians, landscapers, plumbers, pavers and electricians -- have been on site long into the night for weeks now. "We had six weeks to do a six-month job," Batten said. "It's been tough, but we're getting it done."

The remaining work is focused mainly on the Centennial Garden, on Fayetteville Street between the Shepard House and the former church, which will feature a fountain and a swirling pattern of walkways and perennial plantings, with a mix of shrubs and hardwood and flowering trees.

The church itself, which was laboriously moved in April through the campus streets, has had air conditioning installed and been generally spiffed up, with repairs made to the cracks that appeared during the move. The building, now owned by the university, will be used mainly for meetings.

The celebration day will begin with NCCU alumni, in town for their national convention, volunteering in various departments on campus as part of a day of service. "This is an opportunity for alumni to give back to the departments, programs and offices that helped them attain their Eagle wings," Deborah Bailey, director of the Academic Community Service Learning Program. "We hope this will become a tradition at NCCU."

Also at the bash, the U.S. Postal Service will unveil a special commemorative stamp in honor of the NCCU centennial. Guests who arrive with a self-stamped envelope can have it cancelled with the stamp that marks the university's founding in 1910.

The Postal Service also will give away a large framed poster of its Malcolm X stamp, one in a series of Black Heritage postage stamps. Everyone who has an envelope cancelled will receive a ticket for the raffle.