Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 25, 1995 TAG: 9507250085
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD LENGTH: Long
Garden club members have set aside their trowels and taken up pens and petitions to defend their cause - a falling-down old house and a small patch of wildflowers.
The club has joined forces with the Bedford Historical Society in hopes of garnering enough public support to overpower the forces on City Council they think plan to raze the building and destroy the garden.
They've written letters to newspapers, talked to TV reporters and gathered a couple of hundred signatures on a petition to save the old Wharton House and adjacent garden, which are part of Bedford's historic district.
"City Council seems to feel we're a bunch of gripers and that we don't represent anybody," said Frank O. Smith, a member of the historical society. "But they've really stirred things up. They don't know what they've got themselves into."
Indeed, the preservationists aren't just sticking to polite protests. A couple of weeks back, they tipped off the state librarian to the controversy - the Wharton House was the city's old library - and he is temporarily withholding $178,000 in grant money.
And now Mayor Michael Shelton says the city, which was counting on that money to pay the contractor on the new library, may have to suspend some services.
When Louise Bibb Wharton, a descendant of Bedford's founding families, died in 1968, she left her home and garden on North Bridge Street to the city. The house, built in 1883, became the city's library, and the garden club took over care of the flowers and shrubs.
Concrete benches hidden among the rows of boxwood create the feel of an English garden. Hundred-year-old pecan trees shade the spots where rare plants grow, including painted trilliums, Virginia bluebells and shooting stars.
But the house took a turn for the worse, and the library outgrew the space.
In 1991, the city came up with plans for a new library to be built next door.
David Cole, president of the historical society, said it was generally understood that the house and garden would become part of the new library grounds. The group offered to take over the house under a long-term lease and fix it up, but never heard back from the council, he said.
They made the offer again this January, but again, got no response.
Then, last month, the rumors started that City Council planned to tear the house down. And without shade from the house, the preservationists believe, the garden surely would die.
Bonnie Worsham, president of the garden club, said that some council members have confirmed the rumor to her privately.
"Our City Council, I just don't think they're into flowers or something," said Worsham. "That's OK; not everybody is, but they don't know what they have here.
"What's it going to hurt to leave this building and have it preserved?"
Shelton is adamant that the council has not made a decision one way or another, and he's peeved at the Wharton House supporters' tactics.
"Council business is directed by council, and not by any group out there," he said. "I think this whole issue of the ... old Wharton House has gotten blown totally out of proportion."
Council recently asked its library committee to look at alternatives for the house, Shelton said. Those options include moving it, razing it, resurrecting it or renting it out to a high bidder, he said. The options also include turning it over to the historical society.
Councilman Ronnie Rice said he's heard from people on both sides of the issue, and some would rather see the old house demolished.
"It's in terrible shape, it was dangerous," Rice said. "It really obstructs the view of the new library, and that bothers me."
He's also bothered that many of the protesters seem to live in Bedford County, including one man from Smith Mountain Lake who called him recently. "I had to get out of the swimming pool, dry off, and he wanted to talk about this. I felt like saying 'Sir, you don't live in the damn city, you don't pay taxes here, you don't own property here.'
"I'm not going to talk to them [county residents]," Rice said.
The library committee is scheduled to meet tonight at 6, before the City Council meeting, but probably won't make any recommendations for several weeks.
Meanwhile, the state librarian holds a check for $178,000 written to the city.
"I don't want to get anyone upset over this, I just can't in good conscience sit here and release these funds," said Noland Yelich. He's been advised by the state Attorney General's office to await confirmation from Bedford that the city hasn't violated the state's historic preservation law.
"We're sort of caught in the middle of this thing," Yelich said.
The Wharton House was a "contributing building" to the district's historic designation on state and national registers in 1984. That means the city had to assure that the library project wouldn't adversely affect the house before it could apply for the federal grant.
Mary Harding Sadler, with the Department of Historic Resources, gave her approval a couple of years ago, on condition the old house not be disturbed.
"That was in the master site plan, that the Wharton House and garden would be preserved in the grand scheme," Sadler said.
Worsham, a city resident, concedes she's not the typical activist, and has never been involved in an issue like this before. But she and the others say they're prepared to continue their campaign to save the house, if it is indeed threatened.
"I'll even invite Dan Rather if I have to," said Smith. "I'd rather not have to."
Memo: ***CORRECTION***