TRYON, N.C. -- Nina Simone’s childhood home in North Carolina was named a "national treasure" by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

• Nina Simone's childhood home in N.C. will be preserved.
• It has been named a "national treasure" by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
• Simone was born in 1933 in Tryon, N.C. 

The home is located in Tryon, North Carolina.

Simone was born Eunice Waymon in 1933 in Tryon.

When the property was put on the market, four African-American artists, Adam Pendleton, Rashid Johnson, Ellen Gallagher and Julie Mehretu, purchased the property.

The National Trust will “develop and implement a new use for this now-vacant and deteriorating yet nationally-significant property,” working with the property owners, the community, the NC African American Heritage Commission and the World Monuments Fund.

 “Last year, my fellow artists and I felt an urgent need to rescue Nina Simone’s childhood home — a need sprung from a place of political activism as well as civic duty. A figure like Nina Simone -- an African American woman from a small town in North Carolina who became the musical voice of the Civil Rights Movement -- is extraordinarily relevant to artists working today. She constantly expressed her commitment to the democratic values our country espouses by demanding that we live up to them. We are honored to partner with the National Trust to further protect her legacy,” said Pentelton in a statement.

This campaign is through the National Trust’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, which is in conjunction with the Ford Foundation and actress Phylicia Rashad to “uncover and uplift stories of African American achievement, activism, and community.”