Sunday, August 24, 2008
The Black House won't restore itself
Christian Trejbal
Recent columns
- Baptists might leave downtown Blacksburg
- A theater rises between town and campus
- Making sense of local elections
- Voters have only themselves to blame
From the RoundTable blog
When I moved to Southwest Virginia three years ago, the Alexander Black House in Blacksburg caught my eye. A monument to the town's founding family, the Queen Anne home seemed to float above the grass on Draper Road. It was run-down, sure, but the town promised that would soon change.
Three years later, it remains as run-down as ever. Is the town going to renovate this thing or not? Is it even worth it?
The house originally stood across Draper from its current location. Alexander Black, a descendent of the family that founded Blacksburg, built it in the 1890s. The family lived there until 1935.
After that, it became a commercial site, most notably as a funeral home for more than 60 years. The new owners added vinyl siding over the original exterior, enclosing a wraparound porch. They also tore down several interior walls to make room for services.
Then, in 2002, the town eyed the land for its Kent Square garage and shopping center. Rather than tear down the historic structure, Blacksburg bought it and moved it across the street for a total cost of $469,250. Officials planned to restore it quickly for the town museum and civic meeting space.
That was six years ago.
The town has gone through three architectural design rounds looking for a good plan at the right price. The current proposal would cost $3 million -- $1 million each from the town, fundraising and tax credits. So far, nonchalant fundraising has generated $36,407.
Recently, Deputy Town Manager Steve Ross, Town Councilman Tom Sherman and Museum Administrator Terry Nicholson showed me around the dead house.
We squinted at each other in the dim light at the base of the main stairs. Paint chips had fallen from the tin ceiling to the worn carpet. A stained-glass window looked into the darkness of a porch that later owners had enclosed. Other original touches -- carvings, latticework, the banister, mantles -- hinted at what the Black family must have once enjoyed every day. The rank smell of dead birds and a decaying furry mass on the second floor tainted the air.
I asked them why taxpayers should spend so much on a building that has not engaged the town's imagination enough to spark action.
"It's a commitment by the town to collect its history in these buildings that are publicly owned," Sherman said. "The idea is much grander than just this building."
The town has been buying historically important buildings for years. The Armory on Draper Road, the Thomas-Conner House next to the Black House, Five Chimneys around the corner, the Bennett House on Wilson Avenue and others. If the town did not own them, some no doubt would be lost. They sit on the sort of premium land that makes developers drool.
Together, they provide a vital link to the town's past and make walking around far more interesting. That's important in a community that welcomes thousands of new college students every year.
"The majority of people who live here weren't born here. They don't know the town's history," Sherman said. "This is a critical place in the history of Virginia moving west."
Inside the Black House, it sounded good. The town is not setting aside shrines to a mythologized history. It incorporates its past into its present and its future.
"These buildings aren't here for viewing but for use," Ross said. They host town departments and are places citizens can visit both for the history and to take care of business.
Other historic renovations are already under way. The former Doc Roberts Tire building will soon provide needed town office space, and the Saint Luke's and Odd Fellows Hall will mark the heart of the town's black community.
The Black House is right by downtown bars. Surely, over the years, drunken Virginia Tech students and interlopers from out of town have vandalized it, broken windows and painted graffiti.
"We haven't had any problems," Nicholson, the museum director, said.
Think about that. Somehow, this historic building is off limits. Could it be that students recognize its historic character, its importance to the character of the community? It's as good an explanation as any, and if that's the case, those millions will be well spent.
A community can be too hung up on its past. It can let preservation choke development and progress. I don't know where that line is in Blacksburg, but the Black House isn't over it.
Trejbal is an editorial writer for The Roanoke Times based in the New River Valley bureau in Christiansburg.
