Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 3, 1991 TAG: 9103020026
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Elizabeth Obenshain
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Mayor Roger Hedgepeth has been quietly talking with Donald Irons about buying the historic Thomas Conner House, whose elegant 19th-century facade looks out from a small hilltop over downtown Blacksburg.
To pay the price, which could be in excess of $1 million, would certainly require a tax increase, the mayor says. The decision hinges on the town's proposed budget, which has no dollars to spare.
Tax increases are never popular, but Town Council at least has the comfort of knowing several hundred taxpayers have signed petitions to protect this gracious house. Some are even downright adamant about paying more taxes if that's what it takes.
The payback in dollars - and community confidence - from such an investment can be incalculable.
I once lived in one of the South's most historic cities - where a declaration of liberty was signed months before July 4, 1776; where LaFayette danced after the Revolutionary War; where elegant antebellum mansions once lined the streets. Yet no one stopped the gradual cannibalization of historic buildings until the name Fayetteville became synonymous in North Carolina with ugliness and sprawling growth.
My next home was a city only a tenth the size of Fayetteville. But the community's determined citizens had organized and somehow raised the money to buy old buildings along the main street and rescue them from demolition.
Today, Lexington is one of Virginia's most beautiful villages - its streetscape full of 18th and 19th century buildings complete with church spires and tin roofs.
For Lexington, the preservation of historic buildings has not stopped development. It has spurred it by encouraging a tourist industry that has added to the community's growth and prosperity. Even more, it has enhanced the sense of identity and community pride in this college town.
The New River Valley can boast several downtowns that still have architectural character and charm. In Radford, 1950s aluminum siding is giving way to reveal rows of old brick storefronts along Norwood Street as local business owners, such as the Bondurant family, invest in transforming old buildings into cafes, shops and offices.
Pulaski has a wealth of Victorian houses whose odd angles and fanciful detail add personality to the town.
And Blacksburg has the Thomas-Conner House.
Preservation is not just an aesthetic issue. Virginia Tech professor Tom Sherman, who initiated a petition drive to save the house, says it also is an economic issue. It's a question of preserving the unique character - and thereby the economic base - of downtown Blacksburg.
But preservation of significant buildings is neither automatic nor cheap.
Someone, either a local preservation group, a private investor or a government body, must often take considerable financial risk to save these structures.
Even in a city such as Lexington, where preservation has been so successful, turnover is high among downtown businesses and competition is always intense from malls springing up in the outskirts.
But someone in the community, either individually or collectively, has to make the commitment or the community's visible history will disappear.
Historic zoning, which is being studied for Blacksburg, can help a locality protect its significant streetscapes and buildings.
Governments can also step in, as the town may have to do with the Thomas-Conner House, when private remedies aren't possible.
But leadership from the private sector also is crucial in preserving a community's image. Preservation groups can lobby to protect and even buy significant buildings - but only if the community is willing to come up with hefty financial and political support.
Certainly, the core of support seems to be there in Blacksburg, where almost 800 people have signed petitions to protect the Thomas-Conner House. Sherman called the response "remarkable."
"The problem here is that it is not realistically possible that a foundation will magically be started within six months or less time to generate money to buy this property," he said.
Maybe in future years . . .
For now, the fate of the Thomas-Conner House rests with the council, the town budget and Irons.
Hedgepeth said he sees the council as a catalyst, trying to make something good come out of a threat to one of the town's most significant properties.
In this case, no other option seems possible. But in the future, the town's elected leaders may rightly look to private leadership in the community to share the burden.
by CNB