[MSN] Smyth County . Museum gets official eviction notice. Building scheduled for demolition to provide parking for the courthouse expansion.

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Museum gets official eviction notice
Smyth County News Staff
Smyth County News: News >
10:26 AM


By DAN KEGLEY/Staff 

Homelessness looms as early as the coming new year for part of the Smyth
County Museum and Historical Society's collections of local artifacts, and
museum officials have not found a solution. 
The situation has been tentative for months as the county began looking at
the 1908 school building property on Strother Street as part of its answer
to State Supreme Court's demands for increased parking availability near the
courthouse. 
But in late September, tentative took on the finality of having a deadline
attached when the county mailed the society a notice of eviction effective
Jan. 1, 2008. 
"I have been instructed to notify the Smyth County Historical Society that
the building, commonly referred to as the "old school house" located at 105
East Strother St., which houses your museum, is currently scheduled for
demolition to provide parking for the courthouse expansion," County
Administrator Ed Whitmore wrote in the letter. "By the letter, we are
notifying you that the museum needs to vacate the building by January 1,
2008. Although final plans have not been approved for the project, we need
to begin taking steps to prepare for the courthouse renovation. We are
facing an immediate deadline from the court to proceed on this project and
we must move forward to comply with their directives." 
The court mentioned is the Virginia Supreme Court that has final approval
over plans to enlarge the courthouse and improve its security and access.
Among the court's requirements is a demand that almost 250 parking spaces be
made available within a short distance of the courthouse. 
Brenda Gwyn, past society president, said that with such short notice, the
society may not be able to find a place for all of its collections. "It is
not possible for them all to be stored at the Staley-Collins house," said
Gwyn, referring to nearby society property. 
"We don't need to be tearing down our history," she said. "When it's gone,
it's gone. I've traveled in Europe and stayed in 500-year-old hotels." 
Society President Ronnie Harrington does not have a solution. "I do not know
what the answer is," he said. 
The Virginia Department of Corrections operates an office in the building
and received an eviction notice as well, according to Gwyn and Harrington. 
The eviction notice came as the county and the Town of Marion heard appeals
from architect Bill Huber for the preservation of the county's first high
school. 
Huber proposed a three-level parking structure between Court and Strother
streets where sloping terrain lends itself to a multi-level building without
internal ramps between levels. Ingress and egress would be available from
both streets and a ramp from Strother leading to the middle level. 
The three decks would accommodate 186 cars, a big step toward fulfilling the
Virginia Supreme Court's demand for almost 250 parking spaces within a short
distance of the courthouse. The court is stipulating most of the parameters
of the courthouse renovation that arose from security concerns in the wake
of 9/11 and courthouse violence in other communities. 
Huber said his design for the parking decks could be constructed for just
over $1.1 million. It would eliminate the costs associated with the purchase
and razing of several historical properties and grading out new parking
areas. It would save the annual cost of one proposal to rent parking spaces
from First United Methodist Church for weekday use. 
Under Huber's plan the county would not need to follow up on its own
proposal to build a new perhaps brick-veneered metal building west of the
corporate limits at Exit 44. 
The county has suggested moving the administrative offices from the Morison
Building to the new facility and moving three of the county constitutional
offices-treasurer, commissioner of revenue and sheriff-to the Morison
Building, opening up space in the courthouse. The circuit court clerk would
remain at the courthouse. 
Huber suggests the former Appalachian Power Co. building on Broad Street
"would be just right" for the sheriff's office, renovated at a cost of
$695,000. The former Heilig-Meyers building, owned by Joe and Susie Ellis,
could hold the three constitutional officers on its first floor, he said,
leaving the upper level for rent to businesses. 
Huber's plan, he said, saves the old school building and the 1905
Victorian-style Culbert house where Mount Rogers Community Services operates
an addiction recovery center. 
In September, Marion Town Council passed a resolution urging the county to
consider all alternatives to the destruction of the school building that
many see as a unique historical and architectural treasure. That move
followed MDRA's earlier passage of a similar resolution. 
A second part of Huber's proposal to save the school building involves a $2
million restoration to house what Joe Ellis has envisioned as the non-profit
Appalachian School of Music and Art, inspired by the non-profit John C.
Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, N.C. 
The new use of the old school could still accommodate the historical
society's museum collections, displayed in public spaces throughout the
building, Huber said. 
The historical society for years has tried to get ownership of the building
they currently lease from the county for $1 annually. In April 2006, the
society again asked the county to donate the building to the society. 
Then president of the society, Gwyn asked that the society "be given Smyth
County's first high school building and to allow the Smyth County Museum to
remain in its present location serving the people of Smyth County." 
That April meeting followed the first presentation of the music school
proposal in March when Ellis asked for the building, setting up a kind of
competition between the groups for a favorable decision from the
supervisors. 
Ellis said he did not want to compete with the museum, and proposed turning
the former Harwood plant in Marion into an artisan center, a smaller version
of West Virginia's Tamarack center. It could also house the county museum,
he suggested. 
Two years earlier, the supervisors considered improvements to the building, 
In September 2004, as glass fell from windows and plaster from ceilings in
the old school, the supervisors mulled renovating the building as well as
clearing the lot for parking. Marvin Perry, then chairman of the
supervisors, said the society had agreed that if the county fixes the
outside of the building, the non-profit group would "take it over and
maintain it." 
The supervisors based their $200,000 estimate for improving the museum on
figures Architect Cameron Wolfe developed for exterior repairs on the
building. In January of that year, Wolfe recommended a minimum budget of
$300,000. 
Supervisor Darlene Neitch opposed spending for exterior repairs on the
building. 
"I really don't think the building's worth fixing," she said. She cited
Wolfe's estimate, which includes $75,000 for repairing the roof; about
$230,000 for replacing the building's 112 windows; and another $20,000 for
replacing exterior doors at the main entrance and at the fire escape, as
well as pressure washing the building and repairing seals and masonry. 
"This does not address the fire escapes and the hazard they pose," Wolfe
wrote in his estimate report. "It would be good if they could be removed and
the three doors put back to windows as was originally in the building. For
the fixing of the exterior of this building only to a good state of repair,
I would estimate a budget of $300,000 to $325,000." 
Neitch said since "$200,000's not going to do it. it might be worth more to
us as parking." 
"Once we get the exterior done, they [the society] can get grants to do the
rest," Supervisors Harold Slemp said. "You've got two choices: fix it or
tear it down." 
"It's falling down," Neitch said. "You can put $1 million in it and it'll
have a new exterior but the inside's going to be falling out from under it. 
Gwyn said at the time, "We've been told by an architect that it's
structurally sound." 
Since then, the school building decision has loomed over the supervisors, a
reminder of it standing on their monthly agenda as an item under old
business awaiting action that ultimately favored courthouse parking. 

dkegley at wythenews.com 

http://www.swvatoday.com/