
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, June 18, 1990                   TAG: 9006180041
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MARK LAYMAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

COUNTY SEEKS GRANT TO SURVEY HISTORIC SITES

Roanoke County has applied for a $20,000 state grant to help pay for a survey documenting the location, condition and significance of possible historic sites.

The survey would be the first step toward preparation of a countywide historic preservation plan or zoning ordinance.

County Planning Director Terry Harrington said the survey is needed because old houses, barns, landscapes and even entire communities are being threatened by residential, commercial and industrial development.

The state Department of Historic Resources has $425,000 in grants available this year in its Threatened Properties Fund. Grants can be awarded for surveys, the preparation of historic district zoning ordinances or preservation plans, and the restoration or purchase of threatened sites. Only about $50,000 of the available money is being set aside for planning and survey grants, however.

The Board of Supervisors has approved a $20,000 local match for the state grant - $15,000 in cash and $5,000 in in-kind services.

Grants are to be awarded by Aug. 15.

In the grant application, Harrington noted that no comprehensive survey of the county's historic resources has ever been conducted. As of 1988, only 76 county properties had been recorded in the state's Historic Inventory. It's the lowest incidence of historic site recordation in any of the 10 counties served by the Roanoke regional office of the Department of Historic Resources.

The grant money would be used to hire an architectural historian. "The first thing he'd do, basically, is drive down every road in the county and look for historic buildings," Harrington said.

Among other things, the survey could be used as a teaching tool in county schools. After all, "You don't have to go to Mount Vernon or Colonial Williamsburg to learn about Virginia history," John Kern, director of the regional office.

The survey also would be an opportunity to test a new computer software program prepared by the National Park Service. The software is designed to assist with the coding of architectural survey data and the preparation of nominations for the National Register of Historic Places.

Only two sites in Roanoke County are listed on the National Register: the Denton tomb, which is in a cemetery on Plantation Road, and the Hollins College quadrangle.

by CNB