THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 20, 1995 TAG: 9501190182
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: By Greg Goldfarb, Correspondent
LENGTH: Long : 254 lines
Wilma House, an antiques dealer, and her husband, Gary, a claims manager, don't usually find themselves in the public spotlight.
But the Kempsville couple's efforts to acquire and restore a 19th-century farmhouse have thrust them into the heart of a larger community debate about the city's commitment to preserving historical structures.
The House family's personal struggle to fix up the Ferry Farm House in the Bayside neighborhood of Old Donation Farm even led to two threatening phone calls last August.
``They said that I'd better stay away from the Ferry Farm House,'' said Wilma House of the anonymous callers. ``We can understand some anger against the developer, but people shouldn't take it out on us.''
House says such threats have stopped, but she and her husband are now caught in what some describe as a political power play over the future of the deteriorating two-story brick structure on Cheswick Lane.
Last week, the Houses filed an appeal in Circuit Court asking a judge to overturn the City Council's December decision barring them from moving into the farmhouse.
Council meanwhile announced plans last week to apply for a federal grant to restore the house.
The Houses want to purchase the farmhouse, live in it and preserve it as one of the city's oldest and most historically significant icons. They say they would open it to the public at least four times a year if they're allowed to restore it.
Built between 1820 and 1850, the house served as one of Princess Anne County's first courthouses. Legend also records that in the 17th century Grace Sherwood was jailed and tried on the same site for allegedly being a witch.
Efforts by the Houses to move in, however, don't agree with their would-be neighbors.
Those residents, whose custom-built homes are valued from $200,000 to $700,000, say they don't want the farmhouse to be used as a private residence. They do support it being preserved as a museum, which they say they were promised about seven years ago.
They also admit that delays caused by all the debate have allowed the house to deteriorate and become a possible health hazard.
Windows have been boarded up and broken out, the porch has holes large enough to swallow small children and weeds are taking over the property, which is not fenced.
Meanwhile, others have questioned the city's level of commitment in preserving its historical sites, and about what it can do to encourage the private sector to get more involved.
Daniel Arris, a Virginia Beach Planning Commission member who supports the Houses' plan, said the city's historical consciousness is ``rather low'' but it could improve as public awareness increases.
The Houses, however, want action now and say it will take more than intimidation and politics to snuff their efforts to rescue the house from an unspoken city policy of ``demolition by neglect.''
``We're going to give it everything we can,'' said Wilma House. ``We're not giving up.''
On Jan. 10, the Houses' attorney, Moody E. Stallings Jr., filed an appeal in Circuit Court seeking to overturn the City Council's decision. The city has 21 days to respond.
Stallings expects the case to be argued before a judge in early summer. He alleges that the council acted ``arbitrarily and capriciously'' when it ``unlawfully'' prevented the Houses from occupying the farmhouse.
If the court chooses not to overrule council's decision on the Ferry Farm House and take no action, Stallings said, the judge could send the issue back to the council with instructions on how it erred in making its decision.
Wilma House said she's not ruling anything out, including taking it to the Supreme Court, if necessary.
``We have been wronged,'' she said. ``We're taking it all the way to the top. If it means suing the city, so be it.''
Before council's rejection Dec. 13, it looked like things were going in the Houses' favor.
Two City Council-appointed advisory bodies, the Planning Commission and the Historical Review Board, had both recommended that the best way for the Ferry Farm House to be preserved, and at no cost to the city, was to let the Houses move in.
Despite that, and after hearing arguments from Stallings and from Glenn R. Croshaw, representing the Old Donation Farm Homeowners' Association, City Council voted 10-1 against the plan.
Councilman Linwood Branch cast the lone vote in favor of the plan.
``We weren't really shocked, but, yes, we were shocked,'' said Wilma House.
Councilwoman Barbara Henley on Jan. 10 announced plans to apply to the Virginia Department of Transportation for $165,000 in federal funds to restore the house. The city doesn't have to own the house to apply for the funds, but the city would have to enlist the support of the house's owners before restoring it. Application is due in Richmond by Jan. 31.
Gary House, who said he will take out an additional mortgage on his $120,000 Ridglea home in Kempsville to buy the Ferry Farm, said the city's new initiative won't deter his and his wife's efforts to get the house.
``Not at all,'' he said. ``They (the city) don't own the property. If they want to offer us $165,000 to restore it, we'll take it.''
The house is currently owned by four private investors, although it has changed hands several times in recent years.
The Virginia Beach Center for the Arts, which formerly held the title to the house, said in 1989 that it would restore the house. One year later it backed out, returning the deed to the developers. Officials at the Arts Center declined several opportunities to explain why they let the house go.
Old Donation Farm homeowners say they are willing to help coordinate efforts to raise funds to preserve the house, but they don't intend to use their money to do it.
Besides, they say, they were promised in 1987 by the city that the house would be turned into a historical museum - like the Adam Thoroughgood House - and that it would not become a private residence.
The Ferry Farm House is one of more than 70 sites in the city identified as having historical significance, according to a new Historic Resources Management Plan being prepared by the Planning Department, and is expected to be presented for City Council's consideration soon, said Mark A. Reed, the city's historic resources coordinator.
This new plan is expected to help prevent problems like the ones now affecting the Houses. The plan also identifies seven points that the city should consider as it looks ahead in formulating an historic preservation plan:
Link the city's historic resources to tourism and economic initiatives.
Provide economic incentives to individuals for building preservations.
Develop greater public awareness and community support of the city's historic resources.
Enhance the review process for historical resources.
Find a more effective use for the old Princess Anne Courthouse.
Acknowledge Native American, African-American and other cultural influences on local history, and on sites.
Promote adaptive re-uses of historic buildings.
While that plan will help with future considerations, some say that it comes too late for many historical treasures that already have been lost to neglect.
Virginia Beach plowed under and bulldozed decades ago what many consider the city's true historical base - the village of Kemps Landing, which existed hundreds of years ago in what is now Kempsville, and served as the first permanent settlement in Princess Anne County.
All that remains now, experts say, are scattered remnants.
Virginia Beach businessmen Neal Kellum and Robert Lindstedt represent successful exceptions. Each has transformed an historic property into a successful business, and each invested more than $1 million to get under way.
Kellum opened Kellum Funeral Home inside Pleasant Hall in Kempsville in 1989. Since then, he said, he has spent about $1.3 million restoring the 1769 building, which stands near where the ``Skirmish of Kempsville'' took place.
The structure on Princess Anne Road, just west of Witchduck Road, is described as one of the state's finest examples of pre-Revolutionary, Georgian architecture.
Because the cost of restoring and operating historic houses usually is not commercially cost-effective, the city has not been aggressive in developing such properties. That's why the prospect of private citizens getting involved is a popular idea.
``There were several businesses that looked at buying it before I did,'' said Kellum. ``I thought it was a natural for a funeral home.''
The future looks bleak for other historic homes, Kellum said, unless the city offers tax breaks or other incentives.
``It's very sad, I hate to say it,'' Kellum said. ``I think it would behoove the city to recognize our past, and give real estate tax breaks. It's (an historic house) more expensive (to run) than a typical business that is bought new.''
Robert Lindstedt, managing director at the Church Point Manor House, said the house's owner, Jahn W. Summs, spent more than $1 million restoring what is said to be the site of the first court and first church in Princess Anne County.
Lindstedt said that the $185-a-night bed and breakfast, off Shore Drive and First Court Road, is the only one of its kind in the city, and was bought and restored as a result of Summs' sense of historic pride.
``It probably would have been a lot cheaper to tear it down,'' said Lindstedt. ``Jahn just couldn't sit by and see it deteriorate. It was breaking his heart.''
The city's policy on historic preservation is the responsibility of the Department of Museums, which has a $2.9 million annual operating budget. About $2.6 million of that total is spent on the Virginia Marine Science Museum on General Booth Boulevard, said Walt Kraemer, resource and management services administrator for the city's Department of Management and Budget.
Of the remaining $300,000, about $103,000 is spent on the Francis Land House, located off Virginia Beach Boulevard near Kings Grant. The house generates about $18,050 a year in tour fees and gift shop sales.
The rest of the department's money is spent on ``historic preservation and cultural activities,'' including funding for the Life-Saving Museum and DeWitt Cottage on the Oceanfront, Kraemer said.
Museums Director C. Mac Rawls declined several opportunities to explain his department's responsibility and philosophy relating to the city's policy on historic preservation.
Planning Commissioner Arris says the city's track record on historic preservations is not likely to improve soon.
He cites the Ferry Farm case as one in which City Council made a political, as opposed to a practical decision.
``I think it was a political vote more than a planning vote,'' said Arris. ``There was a whole bunch of hostile citizens and (City Council) didn't want to make them mad. There's no question that something is wrong here with the whole way it was done, and the city walked away from it; that was an incredibly bad decision.''
Arris said he ``understands the integrity'' of council's public position on the matter, but added that ``it's not going to happen. It's not going to be a museum.''
Pembroke resident C.W. Tazewell, founder and honorary president of the Norfolk Historical Society, said that the City Council's decision to ban the Houses from the Ferry Farm House is wrong.
``The only way I can see for the house to be saved is for the Houses to live in it,'' said Tazewell, adding that he's not confident that will happen.
``There's a lot of secret dealing, of a questionable nature,'' swirling around the Ferry Farm House, said Tazewell. ``Power politics is so important that the poor little house may get lost in the shuffle.'' MEMO: Who owns the Ferry Farm House?
Despite public confusion over the issue of who owns the Ferry Farm
House, developer F. Donald Reid says the answer is simple.
Since 1987 and until about six months ago, he says, the ``Old
Donation Farm Partnership'' owned the house and its immediate 15 feet of
surrounding property.
That is, except in 1990, when the partnership made more than $100,000
in improvements to the house and deeded it to the Virginia Beach Center
for the Arts, which was considering restoring and perhaps operating it
as a museum, Reid said.
About a year later, the arts center changed its mind and returned the
deed, and the responsibility for the house's welfare, to developer Jerry
Womack, said Reid. Last summer, Womack then sold it to a four-person
investment group.
Reid and Womack formed the partnership while building the affluent
Old Donation Farm subdivision around the Ferry Farm House.
Wilma and Gary House, who want to buy the house, restore it and live
in it, say the investors - Aaron H. Evans, Michael M. Evans, James S.
Conway and Robert L. Garretty - are prepared to sell the Ferry Farm
House to them for about $100,000.
Gary House said he would take out a second mortgage on his Kempsville
home to pay for the farmhouse, which, he said, has been assessed by the
city at almost $300,000.
The open space between the farmhouse and the surrounding neighbors is
a subject of continuing debate between the developers, the investors,
the Houses and property owners.
Before Reid and Womack bought it, the property was in the hands of
private citizens, according to the Houses.
- Greg Goldfarb
ILLUSTRATION: [Cover]
HOW MUCH IS HISTORY WORTH?
[Color Photo]
Gary and Wilma House want permission to move into and restore the
19th century Ferry Farmhouse
Staff photo by CHARLIE MEADS
The House family - Rachel, Gary, Melissa and Wilma - say they had an
agreement to buy the deteriorating 19th-century Ferry Farm House in
Bayside for $100,000.
Staff photos by CHARLIE MEADS
Robert Lindstedt is managing director of the Church Point Manor
House, now a $185-a-night bed and breakfast off Shore Drive and
First Court Road. It required more than $1 million in restoration.
Staff photo by MORT FRYMAN
Neal Kellum opened Kellum Funeral Home inside Pleasant Hall in 1989.
Since then, he said, he has spent about $1.3 million restoring the
1769 building, which stands near where the ``Skirmish of
Kempsville'' took place.
KEYWORDS: HISTORIC PRESERVATION by CNB