John and Patty Byrne settled in Fuquay-Varina in 1973. By the late 1970s, with the tobacco market moving out of Fuquay-Varina, nearly half of the storefronts in town were boarded up or just left empty; but, working at the Fidelity Bank, John came to cherish the community and its people and to know and appreciate its history and its potential. In 1992, John and Patty Byrne purchased and restored the Ben Wiley Hotel at 331 S. Main Street in Fuquay-Varina. Just two years later, the house was designated a Fuquay-Varina Historic Landmark. In 1996, John personally helped fund the nomination of the Fuquay Springs Historic District to the National Register. The Byrnes shortly thereafter purchased and restored the Wiley-Cozart House, now known as the Fuquay Mineral Spring Inn and Garden. In 2001, this too was designated a Fuquay-Varina Historic Landmark.
In 2000, John Byrne was elected to his first term as mayor, an event that would be repeated nine times. During his service as mayor, John placed an emphasis on the importance of historic preservation in the context of a growing town. One of his greatest accomplishments was the Town’s purchase of the whole block surrounding the National Register listed mineral spring to turn the space into a public park to be enjoyed by all much as people did in the first half of the 20th century. In 2014, under Mayor Byrne’s leadership, the Town worked with the Wake County Historic Preservation Commission to expand the boundaries of the Fuquay Springs NR Historic District.
In October 2006, Fuquay-Varina was named a North Carolina Main Street Community. Main Street, which began in 1980 in North Carolina with just five towns, is a downtown revitalization program for smaller towns based on economic development within the context of historic preservation. Mayor Byrne served as a board member of the Fuquay-Varina Revitalization Association and, in 2009, received a Main Street Champion Award at the North Carolina Main Street’s annual awards dinner. He was nominated for this special recognition by the Fuquay-Varina Revitalization Association in appreciation of his exceptional contributions to the downtown revitalization process. Mayor Byrne was instrumental in working to secure multiple grants and led Town Board efforts in winning a $2 million Bond Referendum which paid for further Streetscape Improvements. Mayor Byrne has championed and supported the Downtown Master Plan and the Downtown Center City Plan, both critical to guiding downtown’s future as Fuquay-Varina struggles to grow yet retain its character and hometown charm. Born in Wake Forest, John has been a longtime friend and donor to the Wake Forest Historical Museum, and even donated his father’s golf cart, the little Rolls Royce made for Mickey Mantle. He was also pivotal in the founding of the Fuquay-Varina Museums Complex, which opened to much acclaim in June 2009. The town served as a partner in the effort to save, relocate and rehabilitate local historic buildings to form the complex. The Museums Complex is a result of a unique public-private partnership, but that is not the first time that John Byrne had used this special model.
John served on the Board of Directors of Capital Area Preservation, Inc. (CAP) for several years, and, during his time on the board, was instrumental in establishing the partnership between CAP and the Wake County Government, which contracted CAP to serve as staff to the Wake County Historic Preservation Commission in 2003. Since this partnership began, the number of designated Historic Landmarks in Wake County has grown from 23 in 2003 to 85 in 2022. The number of designated Fuquay-Varina Historic Landmarks has also more than doubled to thirteen.
The Board of Directors of Capital Area Preservation, Inc. is pleased to present a 2022 Anthemion Award to John W. Byrne for Lifetime Achievement in Historic Preservation.