THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 29, 1995 TAG: 9503280096
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY GREG GOLDFARB, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Long : 104 lines
Ask Jo Howren why she's so involved in trying to preserve the 170-year-old Ferry Plantation House and she answers by referencing the late Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Willa Cather.
Cather, a Winchester, Va., native, wrote about America's pioneering spirit as settlers headed west to seek their fortunes in the 1800s.
`` `There are all those early memories, one cannot get another set,' '' Howren quotes from one of Cather's works. ``We can't get another Ferry Plantation House. We've got to save this one.''
Three months ago, Howren quietly formed a loosely-knit coalition of city officials, attorneys and concerned citizens now known as the Friends of Ferry Plantation House Inc. They want to restore the deteriorating, two-story building, open it to the public as a museum and include it on the city's historic tour. But they have opposition.
``We've got to let some of this play out, but not turn the light out on the situation,'' said Howren, the group's chairman.
The brick house is historically significant because it served as one of Princess Anne County's first courthouses. It also was where Grace Sherwood was jailed for being a witch.
The five-bedroom house, appraised at $300,000, is located in the affluent Old Donation Farm neighborhood in Bayside.
What will become of the house is fiercely debated by several parties.
A Kempsville couple, for example, is appealing in Circuit Court a decision by the City Council last December that prevents them from taking up permanent residence in the house if they purchased it.
Homeowners living next to the boarded-up building have sided with the city. They don't want anyone living in it.
The whole matter will likely be settled this summer in court, Howren said.
That leaves Howren and her group with few options to protect the house from further damage brought on by weather, vandalism and neglect.
Howren, a Green Run resident, artist and businesswoman, became familiar with the house through her ex-husband, James Howren, whose mother lived in it until a few years before she died in 1983.
After her death, James Howren sold it and the rest of his mother's 33-acre estate to two developers for about $3.5 million, Jo Howren said. Ethel Howren had inherited it from her father after he died in the 1960s, Howren said.
Howren said she erroneously assumed that after Ethel Howren's passing, that her son, James, would move back here from Alexandria and live in the house. But that never happened.
``I had no idea. It was really a shock,'' said Howren, after finding out that James Howren sold the house. ``That's what got my attention. When I realized it was going to be developed, I was immediately concerned. I didn't know if the developer had an appreciation for the site and for the house.''
Howren said that she contacted the developers who bought the estate, F. Donald Reid and Jerry T. Womack, and was told by one of their spokesmen, ``that they weren't interested in the house. They'd just as soon tear it down.''
Howren became alarmed, but those fears subsided after learning of the conditions City Council imposed on the house to protect it.
``The conditions that council laid down weren't ideal, but they did the best they could,'' said Howren.
Howren said that she understood that the Virginia Beach Center for the Arts had assumed responsibility for the house - including restoring and maintaining it - for years to come. She said she was surprised to find out last summer that the arts center was no longer involved in the house, and that Reid and Womack had sold it to a local investment group for $50,000.
The situation is further clouded by questions over how the house's deed has been handled.
All of that led Howren to form the preservation group in January.
``I wish this had all gotten started sooner,'' said Howren. ``I'm not oblivious to the fact'' that some people think the group is spinning its wheels because it doesn't own the house.
Despite the group having held three meetings - including one last month that attracted the mayor, two council members, the city's museums director, the family that says it owns the house, the couple that wants to buy it, and about 30 other people - there have been no resolutions.
``Whatever happens, it's going to be catch-up,'' said Howren, who said she will not hold any more Friends meetings until the legal questions surrounding the house are settled. Until then, all she can do is hope for the best.
``There were so many differences and interests there (at the last meeting), it made it difficult to form an extended organization,'' said Howren. ``It's a matter of public promises and private reservations, and a lack of responsibility on several counts.''
Howren, 54, knows that when it comes to historic preservation, the parties involved had better be accountable for their decisions and actions. That's a lesson she learned as a little girl growing up in Portsmouth.
``I was raised that way,'' said Howren, a Churchland High School graduate who has a bachelor of arts in English from Duke University. ``People have a responsibility not just to themselves, but also to where they live.''
Howren, now divorced, has a son and a daughter.
Howren married at 21, moved to Alexandria and worked for six years in People's Drug Store's home office in advertising, she said. She later moved to Richmond and worked for Southern States in print production, while also serving for six years as a trustee for the Historic Richmond Foundation.
She moved to Virginia Beach in 1983.
Although Howren and her group are at a standstill now, she is not resting. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by CHARLIE MEADS
``. . . I'll continue to keep the light and the pressure on the
situation,'' says Jo Howren, who heads the Friends of Ferry
Plantation House Inc.
by CNB