Historic Charlottesville House Needs Good Home

A historic Charlottesville resource is in danger of being demolished. It’s a house. The owner of the house is making a good-faith effort to sell it rather than demolishing it. The property is adjacent to and faces the former Under the Roof building.

110 10 ½ Street NW is a contributing building in the West Main Street Architectural Design Control District (ADCD). Historically known as the Moon-Henderson House the property was constructed circa 1883-1893; a 2-story, 3-bay simple vernacular Virginia I-house. The house is currently vacant.

The Realtor^© is Brian Roy at:

Chapman-Roy Investment Company; 308 E Main Street, Charlottesville, VA, 22902; Phone: (434) 295-4477

Email: Brian@chapmanroy.com

The listing is on Loopnet with postal code of 22903. The asking price is $162,600.

Richard Moe, Director of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, confirmed as Preservation Week’s keynote speaker

Courtesy of Preservation Piedmont’s Preservation Week Committee:

 

Preservation Week 2009 will commence with a lecture, an exhibition, and an opening reception at the Charlottesville Community Design Center on Friday, April 3, 2009. Following the opening reception, historic house tours, a bus tour of work by Milton Grigg, and neighborhood walking tours will be offered over the weekend. The keynote speaker, Richard Moe, Director of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, will speak on Monday, April 6th about the convergence of historic preservation and sustainability.  The remainder of the week will be dedicated to educational sessions including: how to make your historic house more energy efficient, how to research your historic house, and how to preserve your house using tax credits.

Preservation Week is an opportunity for local and regional organizations and citizens interested in historic preservation, history, sustainable community development, and green design to come together to encourage public dialogue about local preservation and to promote our region’s historic resources as defining elements integral to our community’s current well-being and future development.

The University of Virgina Hosts PAPA Fall Meeting

On September 18th, Architect of the University David Neuman, FAIA, hosted the annual Piedmont Area Preservation Alliance Fall Meeting. This year’s meeting sets the stage for the first PAPA Preservation Week, scheduled to begin on April 3rd, 2009. Each participant organization previewed its contribution to the April celebration, which will be coordinated by Preservation Piedmont. Eryn Brennan, president of Preservation Piedmont, gave an overview of event planning. Among those elected officials attending were David Norris of the City of Charlottesville and Sally Thomas of the County of Albemarle.

23rd Annual APVA Preservation Virginia Conference

The 23rd Annual APVA Preservation Virginia Historic Preservation Conference will be held October 5th through the 7th.  The conference, held in Richmond this year, is the commonwealth’s largest gathering of preservationists. The event is designed to school members of local boards of architectural review, preservation planners, and general historic preservationists in preservation opportunities, pitfalls, and techniques.  Preservation Piedmont Board Members Alec Cargile (Lithic Construction) and Brian Broadus (Train & Partners Architects) will conduct a conference session on “Greening an Historic Structure.” The session will both justify and question sustainable building according to an historic preservation ethic, describe how older buildings are already fitted to the immediate surroundings, and describe how new “green” technologies and techniques can properly be used in today’s historic renovations. Alec will draw examples from his successful renovation of Charlottesville’s Nimmo House, last year’s APVA winner for best residential restoration, and Brian will illustrate his portion of the session with his work on the University of Virginia’s Varsity Hall and on the Lexington Presbyterian Church. Brian is also coordinating the “Sustainability/Green Design” conference track, along with Bryan Green of Richmond’s Commonwealth Architects.

Request for ‘Preservation Week’ sessions

This September the Piedmont Area Preservation Alliance will hold a press conference to announce the date for its first annual ‘Preservation Week.’  The goal for Preservation Week is to more-effectively publicize, celebrate, and educate about our collective preservation and conservation missions and accomplishments while also examining our missed opportunities.  In a region internationally-recognized for its blend of history, natural landscape, and architecture- from United Nations World Heritage Sites to threatened urban and rural structures- we have a duty to study, protect, and disseminate information about the wide range of cultural assets located right here in our own backyard. 

 

Preservation Piedmont, a PAPA member, has formed a special Preservation Week Committee (PWC) that has agreed to serve as the organizing body for the week’s series of events.  Working in concert with the Board of Preservation Piedmont and the PAPA Steering Committee, the PWC will:

 

• Develop the overall schedule and framework for Preservation Week (see the tentative schedule included below)
• Create an exhibition with the Charlottesville Community Design Center (CCDC) exploring the intersection of preservation with green building/sustainability by highlighting local preservation successes and failures
• Solicit and refine session proposals from other organizations for additional Preservation Week events
• Facilitate coordination of site logistics for house and walking tours, speakers, and workshops submitted by participating organizations

 

For Preservation Week, we invite organizations or individuals to contribute a program, a tour, a lecture, or other preservation-related event to be held between Friday, April 3 and Saturday, April 11, 2009. Each organization will be responsible for planning and implementing its own event with logistical help from the PWC.  We encourage you to organize events that are specific to the goals and mission statements of your particular group.  Feel free to post or discuss session ideas here or contact the PWC with questions.

 

Session proposals are due to the PWC by August 29; groups will then be asked to give a brief presentation (3-5 minutes) about their projects at the PAPA fall event on September 18.  We look forward to your participation in what we envision as an educational, eye-opening, and dynamic preservation tradition in Central Virginia.

 

-The Preservation Week Committee (On behalf of Preservation Piedmont and the Piedmont Area Preservation Alliance)

Charlottesville Architectural Review Board Recommends Ten New Individually-Protected Properties

On April 29th, the City of Charlottesville Board of Architectural Review recommended that ten historic properties be added to the city’s roster of those protected by the city’s zoning ordinances. Two other properties were deferred: Designation of the Zion Union Baptist Church at 1015 Preston Avenue was put on hold pending City consultation with the congregation and another review of the church’s history, while McIntire Park (245-365 Route 250 Bypass) was deferred more or less because the BAR couldn’t quite agree on how it should be designated. The Virginia Department of Historic Resources has already, as part of the process that triggered a Section 106 review of the new highway interchange and Meadowcreek Parkway plan, determined that the Park is “register-eligible”. So, some historical research and administrative classification has been done on the Park, already.

The properties currently recommended to the City Council, each one including a full land area parcel or a partial one, for designation are:

• Former Coca Cola Bottling Works (134 10th Street NW)
• Holy Temple Church of God in Christ (212 Rosser Avenue_
• Martha Jefferson Hospital (Patterson Wing, 459 Locust Avenue
• Former Belmont Hall/Independent Order of Good Templars (603 Dale Avenue)
• Coca Cola Bottling Company (722 Preston Avenue)
• Wachovia Bank (Former National Bank & Trust branch, 901 Emmet Street)
• Former Monticello Dairy Building (946 Grady Avenue)
• The Coal Tower (133-155 Carlton Road)
• Fry’s Spring Service Station (2115 Jefferson Park Avenue)
• Fry’s Spring Beach Club (2512 Jefferson Avenue)

Monticello Names New President

From 5/15/08 Press Release:

Leslie Greene Bowman, director of Winterthur Museum & Country Estate in Delaware, was today named the next president and chief executive of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, the private, nonprofit corporation that owns and operates Monticello.

Bowman, 51, will succeed Daniel P. Jordan, Monticello’s chief executive since 1985, who announced last year that he would step down in November.

“Leslie is joining Monticello at an inflection point,” said Alice W. Handy, chair of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees. “The most important education initiative undertaken since the Foundation acquired Monticello in 1923 is about to be launched. She’s the perfect person to take our exciting plans forward.”

Handy referred to the $55 million Thomas Jefferson Visitor Center and Smith Education Center. More than five years in the making, the project is scheduled to open in November. The ambitious new, 42,000-square-foot facility at Monticello will remind visitors of Jefferson’s role in the founding of the American republic and how the “self-evident” truths of liberty he expressed continue to change the modern world.

“The stewardship of this world heritage site is an immense responsibility,” Bowman said. “I’m thrilled and honored to be entrusted with leading the Foundation in its mission to preserve Jefferson’s home and advance his ideas around the world.”

 

Bowman also launched Winterthur’s first traveling exhibitions, helping to increase national awareness of the museum’s exceptional collections. Winterthur’s exhibitions, such as the highly acclaimed “American Vision,” have been displayed at venues across the United States, including the National Gallery of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the St. Louis Art Museum, and many others.

Bowman serves, by presidential appointment, on the Committee for the Preservation of the White House. She is also on the boards of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Historic St. Mary’s City in Maryland. She served five years on the Accreditation Commission of the American Association of Museums and recently rotated off the board of the Association of Art Museum Directors. Before joining Winterthur, Bowman was the director of the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson Hole, Wyo. From 1980 to 1997, she served in the decorative arts department of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, rising to become head curator of decorative arts and assistant director of exhibitions.

Bowman succeeds Jordan whose 24 years as president of the Foundation realized many significant accomplishments.

“Dan’s tenure is a case study in transformational leadership,” said Chairman Handy. “Over the last quarter century, the Foundation realized numerous achievements measured by the ‘illimitable freedom of the human mind.’”

Bowman will begin her new role on November 1. She received her bachelor’s degree from Miami University in her home state of Ohio where she studied American history and art history. She earned her master of arts degree in early American culture from the Winterthur Museum Program at the University of Delaware.

The Thomas Jefferson Foundation owns and operates Monticello, the mountaintop home of Thomas Jefferson. As a private, nonprofit organization, the Foundation receives no regular federal or state budget support for its twofold mission of preservation and education. About a half million people visit Monticello each year.

County of Albemarle Historic Preservation Committee Seeks Applicants

The County Board of Supervisors advertisement describes the Committee and the Position as follows:

The committee implements the County’s Historic Preservation Plan, which is a part of the Comprehensive Plan. The committee aids County Planning staff in identifying local historic properties; working with new owners of historic properties, promoting and encouraging preservation by making available information regarding designation procedures, tax credits, and restoration resources; implementing community events to recognize historic resources; and pursuing other voluntary and incentive measures. Persons with expertise in the following areas are encouraged to apply: archaeology, database technology, education, public relations, preservation planning and financial incentives. A background in Albemarle County history is required for all positions as is the willingness to work on implementing projects. Need not be a County resident to apply.

To apply online or to find out how to apply by mail or fax, follow this link.

Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area Created

Thursday, May 8th, the President signed legislation (principally sponsored by Senator John Warner and Representative Frank Wolf) creating the Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area. The area’s northern terminus is the Gettysburg battlefield, while its southern end is Monticello. It generally follows Route 15.* It’s 175 miles long, holds some 73 districts listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and offers different “heritage themes” for exploration.

*Nigh-useless trivia: Much of Route 15 was called “The Carolina Road,” and one small part of this route, a short stretch in the Buckland Historic District, is the first place macadam paving was used in the United States.

G. Earth Explains Rural Preservation to Albemarle County

The six photos above are all taken at, according to Google’s handy altimeter, roughly 27,000 feet (8230 meters) above mean sea level. Thus, each shows approximately the same number of acres or hectares of the planet surface, the differences in land surface elevation being a trivial component of the view. Five of the six photographs show the homes, working places, and treasured historical sites of well over one million people, each. (Keen viewers of the five photos will be able to pick out the walls of the ancient cities at the core of each of these modern metropolises–the Beijing wall-and-moat system is especially prominent.) The other photo shows the same components figuring in the lives of 40, 437 people, plus a few thousand of their neighbors caught unawares.

Do the citizens of Charlottesville want their city to be as densely populated as is Islamic Cairo? Probably not, although the citizens of old Misr-al-Kahira seem to be surviving well enough. Isn’t urban density and community size limited by resources other than land? Yes. Each of these cities, with the possible exception of Cairo, has had to (as did New York City) reach out and seize distant sources of potable water. As Charlottesville and Albemarle County are planning to do, presently. Haven’t these cities shipped many of their social problems to the city perimeter? Well, Cairo and Paris certainly have. Rising literacy rates in developing world have encouraged women in those rural lands to leave the limitations of farming or herding life behind and aim for a richer future in squatter settlements around the Egyptian capital and grim ghettos of (illegal or officially marginalized) immigrants around the French one. In each of the five cities, there are internal “squats” as well, once-vacant buildings now illegally sheltering the formerly homeless.

But, what the photos do is put the lie to the possibility that an increase in population density is entirely undesirable in Charlottesville, and thus that despoiling rural Albemarle to accommodate Central Virginia’s population growth is a necessity. One of the cities pictured is Paris, after all, the most visited municipality in the world and the greatest artistic achievement of the 19th century, during which the town was dramatically reconfigured at enormous expense, and entirely by choice. (It remains the only European, perhaps capital, city rebuilt without having suffered a catastrophe beforehand.) There were those in the French legislature who continually complained, at the time, about the cost. Yet, how many times in the past 130 years has Paris recovered those costs? To make investment in urban infrastructure that permits, and to legislate building regulation that demands, stronger buildings of consistent design (the kind of buildings that are more readily reused) and greater population density in Charlottesville could be the wisest decision that Central Virginians could make.