The Preservation Alliance of West Virginia today announced during a press conference at the state capitol the addition of three resources to its list of more than 40 endangered historical properties in West Virginia. A farmhouse in Mount Nebo, a service station in Fayettevillle, and the entire national historic district in Beckley have been designated as endangered by the alliance, according to its executive director, Danielle LaPresta. Disclosed every February since 2009, the list has become one of the organization’s most useful tools and has allowed it to build interest in the rescue of threatened landmarks and landscapes. Properties that make the list qualify for assistance through the alliance. LaPresta said this year’s announcement is noteworthy in that it includes a multi-property national historic district.
LaPresta said the organization is considering how it will provide assistance to property owners in Beckley as the endangered resource is so large. Typically the resource is smaller, as is the case with the former Esso station at Fayetteville, in Fayette County, and a farm near Mount Nebo, in Nicholas County. The former service station on W.Va. 16 was built in 1945 and operated through the late 1990s. In 2014, the current owners purchased the station with the intent to renovate it and pursue a tenant to operate a shop or restaurant. During the period between the closing and sale, the station was neglected. Its leaky, failing roof could collapse from the weight of snow and water damage within has caused mold and white rot issues, LaPresta said. “The owners are passionate about rehabilitating this property, but they have little experience with preservation,” she said, “so we’ll help provide the guidance they need to save the site before it deteriorates beyond a point of salvage.” The Old White House, near Mount Nebo, is a two-story log structure covered in clapboard and built in about 1845 by Matthew McClung on land given to him by his grandfather William McClung, a settler who claimed nearly 100,000 acres on the Gauley River. The farm has been in the McClung and McMillion families since. For the past 30 years, it sat vacant and suffered from vandalism and from water damage from a leaking roof, LaPresta said. “The owners are in the process of passing ownership to their grandson, who is passionate about restoring the property and will implement a management policy so that it may serve as a community resource,” she said. After being nominated by individuals and organizations, properties which have been added to the alliance’s list are selected through a competitive application process based on imminent danger, on local support for their reuse, and on their eligibility for or listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
The organization’s field services representative, Lynn Stasick, works with local residents rallying to save and repurpose these endangered sites, providing advocacy, capacity building, and preservation assistance such as structural needs assessments. Endangered properties that are not immediately eligible for the list may be eligible for the alliance’s new Buildings-At-Risk Register program. These properties are not immediately eligible for technical services, but their listing may be used as a means to leverage support and may be added at any time of year. Inclusion on the register may also be the first step on the approach to the endangered properties list. Current endangered properties in West Virginia may be found of the Preservation Alliance’s website. Citizens who are interested in assisting with preservation projects may contact the alliance at info@pawv.org. Visit www.pawv.org for preservation updates, for more information about each of the endangered properties, or to download a nomination form for next year’s endangered properties list.
Alex McLaughlin, Chair of the Friends of the Blue Committee, said, “We are excited to use this high tech mechanism to raise money for this wonderful old treasure.”
Kickstarter is a crowdfunding mechanism which uses the reach of the internet to give donors a safe way to back a project. It is an all-or-nothing approach where the project receives no funds if the goal is not met. Donors “pledge” using their credit card and the amount is only deducted if the full amount of the goal is pledged. The fundraising goal for this effort is $25,000. This amount should complete the funds needed for Phase II of the stabilization and restoration process when matched with grants. Please join all the ‘friends of the Blue’ at the CVB on Sunday, March 1 from 4-6 pm for light refreshments, a rousing good time, and lots of pledges to the Kickstarter campaign. By Cynthia McCloud
Republished with permission from the State Journal, http://www.statejournal.com A project that would turn the historic Arthurdale High School, seen in a recent PBS documentary titled “The Roosevelts,” into 12 apartments has been flushed. The developer, AU Associates of Lexington, Kentucky, has discarded its plans after it couldn’t arrange a system to treat and discharge sewage. Holly Wiedemann, founder and president of AU Associates, said in 25 years of renovating old public buildings, she has never had a project awarded she didn’t complete. AU has completed other projects in West Virginia, including turning the historic First Ward School in Elkins into a low-income senior community apartment complex and turning Clendenin Middle School into 18 units of senior housing and a health care clinic. ‘A big financial hit’ “All we wanted to do was preserve what we felt was a remarkable icon,” Wiedemann said. “It just broke my heart, quite frankly, not to mention it was a very horrific blow to me financially. “We have lost a significant amount of money since we had to pay for architectural plans, engineering, extensive … testing … it has already passed six figures.” To pay for the renovation, AU had lined up HOME funds via the W.Va. Housing Development Fund that had to be expended by Nov. 25, 2015, plus federal and state historic tax credits purchased by Clear Mountain Bank, and construction lending from Clear Mountain. AU has since turned back the funds, Wiedemann said. Arthurdale is the first of 100 New Deal planned subsistence homestead communities founded by Eleanor Roosevelt during the Great Depression to improve the quality of life of impoverished Americans. Arthurdale Heritage Inc., the nonprofit organization charged with preserving and promoting the properties, had been counting on the $29,000 it would receive from selling the building to AU. “This was a big financial hit to us,” said Jeanne Goodman, AHI executive director. “We have been counting on this money since May, since the problems seemed to be temporary. We are always hard up for money since we have no steady income but plenty of steady bills. “This would have made getting through the winter easier and given us some needed breathing room and the ability to buy a few small needed items.” Goodman said AHI hooked up with AU after the Preservation Alliance of West Virginia added the schools to its endangered property list and she saw a newsletter item about AU’s interest in old schools. “I feel like my spirit’s been broken,” Weidemann said. “I can’t do anymore. I certainly can’t afford to spend any more in the hopes that this could come up with different answers than I’ve already turned up. I did everything I could.” Exhausting every possibility The school site is not served by a public sewer system, and a pure septic tank system wouldn’t handle the volume of discharge from 12 apartments. AU sought to treat its waste and discharge the treated water. “We were stunned to discover the area had zero ability to perc,” Wiedemann said. “It’s a clay soil that won’t percolate water. If you dig a hole, water will just stand there.” None of the surrounding land owned by Arthurdale Heritage Inc. and Preston County Schools would pass either. Even if the soil had passed, AU didn’t have enough land on its site to build a system large enough to accommodate all the gallons an apartment building produces in a day. V.J. Davis, registered sanitarian at the Preston County Health Department, said when considering a septic system application, he would calculate how many square feet of drain field would need to be installed to handle the discharge from a 12-unit apartment building — an estimated 3,360 gallons a day. Plus, he said, the state requires more land — at least as much as the original drain field takes up — to be available if the system fails and a new one has to be installed. He said there is not enough property where the old school sits on the plat to put in even one septic system large enough for 12 apartments. AU tried to find another way. The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection regulations don’t allow directly discharging treated water into a stream near the property because it is seasonal. Laws also prohibit building up the land with extra dirt because drip fields have to be installed in previously undisturbed soil. It was cost-prohibitive to pump treated water to an acceptable stream, Deckers Creek, a half-mile away, Wiedemann said. AU asked Community Presbyterian Church, which owns 14 acres across the road from the school site if they could perform a percolation test. The congregation assented and the land, which is higher in elevation, passed the test. The church asked AU to exhaust all other possibilities before asking to lease or buy its land again. “We only would’ve needed an acre and a half,” Wiedemann said. “It would’ve been in the woods and you wouldn’t have seen anything.” Wiedemann asked Preston County Schools if AU could pay to get its waste treated by Valley Elementary’s system or if AU could tap into Valley’s discharge pipe that leads to Deckers Creek. But Superintendent Richard Hicks said the school could not share facilities with private entities. “Plus, we’re not sure about future expansion of our own out there and what our needs would be,” Hicks said. David Sneed, executive director of the West Virginia School Building Authority, said his office advised Hicks not to chance the liability. “There have been situations where school systems have had other entities tied — legally or illegally — into their sewage pipes and treatment plants,” Sneed said. “When there tends to be problems someone else causes, the school system ends up inheriting the costs. “The county would be responsible for anything on their line if something would go wrong.” AU went back to Community Presbyterian and the congregation voted to not sell or lease any of its land at this time. “It is our opinion that the church was not notified soon enough to get all the information we needed to make a good decision as to how to approach the matter,” church member Lorraine Weaver said in the church’s October newsletter. “At first, AU said they would only need one acre of land, then they said they needed one and one-half acres for the drip field,” Weaver continued to quote. “One-and-a-half acres measures to be 312-by-312 square feet. This amount would take up a very large part of the wooded area, more than we thought.” The church contacted health department sanitarian Davis for information. “All I said was if you do lease the property to them, they would need to have a lifetime easement for maintenance and expansion of the system if expansion was needed and we would have to have a copy of the agreement filed with the deed for the property,” Davis said. “You are giving someone permission to put a very large septic system on your property. “A lot of people just sell the property and it’s not their headache to worry about if the system were to fail.” Big ideas, no budget Wiedemann pointed out that any future use of the property will encounter this septic problem. “I just don’t see any future for it at this juncture,” she said. Davis said the best hope for future development of the property would be if the public sewer system was extended. “I really think public sewer is the answer if they’re wanting to turn that into apartment buildings,” he said. “Sometimes large septic systems fail.” Reedsville Mayor James Wagner said there are no plans at this time to extend public sewer service farther into Arthurdale, about a mile away. The town is still working to complete an extension that took on 53 original customers of the old Arthurdale Sewage Association’s community septic system. The original school buildings, which were used by Valley Elementary and Valley Junior High, closed soon after the county’s high schools consolidated into one and the middle school students were moved to a different campus in the ’90s. AHI has owned them for about 10 years and uses them for storage. “The school district sold them to AHI for $1,” Goodman said. “Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.), I believe, got a $300,000 federal grant through Save America’s Treasures, which meant turning over ownership to Vandalia Heritage Foundation, who mothballed the buildings. “When they finished, they returned ownership to us and there was a 50-year easement so that we would have to return the money if we didn’t keep up the buildings and try to fix them up.” The board has had lots of ideas for the buildings over the years but no capital to make it happen. “AHI had idealized plans to make the high school a museum adjunct where the archives and a research library would be,” Goodman said. “Turn the cafeteria building into a rental space with kitchen, and then make the third building an artists’ rental space or something similar. “We got several small West Virginia University Brownfields grants to look for problems like asbestos and lead paint plus one to do a market study, which was pretty much what we thought for other ideas, maybe senior housing, day care, offices that draw their own traffic like insurance, etc.” Davis agreed a retail location, which would discharge far fewer gallons, might be able to manage a septic system at the site. But AHI has no money for renovations to move forward on its ideas. “It doesn’t make sense to have one building fixed up next to two that are derelict,” she said. “None of the buildings have a working HVAC system.” The First Ward School in Elkins was built in the early twentieth century. It served Randolph County students for almost the entire twentieth century. Eventually, it was turned into storage when new schools were built all over the county. In 2009, First Ward School was recognized on the revived WV Endangered Properties List. The school was deteriorating badly and in need of a new roof. This listing motivated partners to come together to revitalize this building. Partners included C-HOPE, the Randolph County Housing Authority, and AU Associates. In 2013, the First Ward School was preserved and converted into 16 affordable housing units for seniors. It is a preservation success story for Elkins and West Virginia. WBOY Channel 12 featured the First Ward School project recently, and PAWV awarded this project with the 2013 Best Use of Historic Preservation Tax Credits Award. Enjoy this video to learn more about the project. PAWV honors projects all over the state during the annual awards banquet. This year, the awards banquet will be held in Huntington at the Palms Reception Hall on Sept. 26, 2014, in conjunction with the historic preservation conference: From the Ground Up. Full details about the awards banquet and conference are available HERE. The banquet is open to everyone to attend. So even if you can’t make the conference, we encourage you to join us for a fun evening of drinks, dinner, and celebrating historic preservation partnerships like this one.
The Riverside African-American School in Elkins opened in 1906 as a simple one floor brick building. In 1925, a second floor was added. What makes this building highly significant is its history as the educational forum for the Black and Native American populations of Randolph County and surrounding areas for five decades. PAWV added the historic school to the WV Endangered Properties List in 2010 because of deterioration. Since this listing, the Riverside School Association has purchased the building and made tremendous headway in stabilizing the building and working to create the multi-cultural heritage center. The Association holds a special fundraiser, the Riverside Blues Fest, every July to raise money for the building preservation project. To learn more about the history of the school, watch the special WBOY Channel 12 segment. The Waldo Hotel is located in Clarksburg, WV. It was one of the grandest hotels in the region when it was built in the early 1900s. PAWV added it to the WV Endangered Properties List in 2009. Since its listing, there have been many ups and downs. Many local citizens wanted to demolish the building – seeing it as a safety hazard and an eyesore. However, a group of dedicated volunteers, the Waldo Hotel Preservation Society, have the vision to preserve and adapt this building for modern needs. The Waldo Hotel Preservation Society has been fundraising and working with developers to re-use this building. In May 2014, the Society announced that the property is currently under contract for eventual purchase by a capable party that is already working to repair and redevelop the building. Learn more about the property and the project in the WBOY Channel 12 video. The WV Endangered Properties List was revived in 2009 after PAWV received a three-year Partners in the Field grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. This grant ended in 2012, and PAWV has maintained this program, without additional grant funding. We rely on membership donations to keep this program alive. If you are interested in becoming a member of PAWV, visit our PayPal page HERE.
PAWV added the Arthurdale School Buildings to the West Virginia Endangered Properties List in 2012. Arthurdale was the first homestead community created under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal program. Eleanor Roosevelt had a major influence in the development of the community and the Arthurdale campus. She donated books, money, and supplies to the school. From 1934-1936, Elsie Ripley Clapp served as administrator of the Arthurdale School. A student of John Dewey, Clapp saw the school in Arthurdale as a great opportunity to create a community school. Students learned through hands-on activities rather than theoretical learning and undertook projects related to agriculture and construction. Elsie Clapp helped design the school campus, which opened in the fall of 1935 and featured a high school, cafeteria, gymnasium/auditorium, elementary school, primary school, and nursery school. WBOY Channel 12 featured the Arthurdale School buildings as part of a 12-week series about West Virginia’s Endangered Properties. Get a glimpse inside the school in this video. Learn more about the school buildings at Arthurdale Heritage, Inc.’s website.
Lynn Stasick is the statewide field services representative for Preservation Alliance of West Virginia. Lynn’s primary job is to work with stewards of sites listed on the WV Endangered Properties List. Lynn’s position is maintained through membership donations. This position originated from a Partners in the Field grant made possible by the National Trust’s for Historic Preservation, but this grant ended in 2012. If you are interested in becoming a member and donating to this program, you can do so at our PayPal page. The old Pratt Truss Bridge spans 265 feet across the Kanawha River. In 1884, the Gilmer County Commission purchased steel components from the Canton Iron Works in Canton, OH. The construction of the bridge greatly enhanced the development of the city of Glenville and Glenville State College. The bridge is decommissioned from use, and in 2010, a major snowstorm caused part of the bridge to collapse. Learn about some of the struggles associated with restoring this bridge in the WBOY Channel 12 video. The West Virginia Northern Railroad Water Tower was added to the West Virginia Endangered Properties List in 2012. It is a unique structure to the list – and the only water tower, so far. The Friends of the Cheat are working to revitalize the entire brownfield area, including the water tower, as a rail trail. The goal is to preserve the water tower and have it serve as the trail head. Learn more about the project and about what makes this water tower historic in the WBOY Channel 12 video. The Mannington Train Depot was added to the WV Endangered Properties List in 2011. The depot is located in Mannington, Marion County, WV. Mannington Main Street is working to re-use this historic building. Learn more about the re-use project for this building in the WBOY Channel 12 video. |
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