
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, April 1, 1990                   TAG: 9004020423
SECTION: HOMES                    PAGE: D1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY HOMES EDITOR
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

HABITAT TO BUILD IN ROANOKE

When Judy Caldwell and her son, Travis, accepted the front door hardware for their new house from the president of the Roanoke Regional Home Builders Friday, they became the first family to benefit from a new program by the home builders. They also will receive the first houses that will be built by Habitat for Humanity in Roanoke's Southeast area.

The Caldwells will buy their house at cost from Habitat for Humanity. The house will be built by the home builders by volunteer labor from donated materials.

Olivia LaMotte, chairperson of the Habitat group in the Roanoke Valley, said the Caldwell house is the first of 10 to be constructed on lots in the Miami Street area in Southeast Roanoke. Habitat has built eight houses in Northwest Roanoke in the past three years.

LaMotte said families who are selected to purchase the homes must put in 300 hours of labor on the project. Judy Caldwell, a single parent of two sons, works as a domestic and lives with her family in a two-room apartment.

The Habitat program is aimed at providing housing for persons whose income does not qualify them for home purchase through the usual routes.

A Downtown Revitalization Conference will be held in Lynchburg April 8-10 and will include sessions on how to recruit and retain downtown retailers and revitalization techniques. The conference, sponsored by the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development, the Virginia Downtown Development Association and Central Lynchburg Inc., cost $110. Registration can be done through the Department of Housing and Community Development, 804-786-4966.

A weekend workshop, "Living With Your Old House," is scheduled April 20-21 at Mountain Lake Hotel. Topics will include retrofitting new systems, modern technology, lead paint primer and climate control.

Workshop leaders will be Jeanette Bowker, head of Virginia Tech's department of housing, interior design and resource management; Bill Crosby, architect with the Virginia Department of Historic Resources; James B. Krakoff, Jerico Rock Works of Ruckersville; Joseph Loferski, Tech's department of forest products; Hugh C. Miller, director of the state historic resources department, and Humberto Rodriguez-Camilloni of Tech's Center for Preservation and Rehabilitation Technology.

The workshop, sponsored by the New River Valley Preservation League and the Center for Preservation Technology, will include tours of The Grove, the restored president's house on the Tech campus and of Solitude, an early 19th century log house. Cost for the weekend is $55, which includes a Friday evening reception and a lunch buffet Saturday.

For further information, contact Gibson Worsham, Route 2, Box 431, Christiansburg, Va. 24073, or 703-552-4730.

Poplar Forest, Thomas Jefferson's summer home in Forest near Lynchburg opens to the public today and will be open Wednesdays through Sundays and major holidays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. through October. Later in the spring, visitors will be able to see archaeologists at work on the grounds and beginning in May, there will be special in-depth tours of archaeological sites on the first Saturday of each month.

The entrance to Popular Forest is on Virginia 661, one miles from U.S. 221 in Forest in Bedford County. Admission is $5 for adults; $4 for senior citizens, $2 for students 19 and over and $1 for ages 6-18. Grounds-only fees are $2.

The restoration of Popular Forest, built in 1806, is being done by the Corporation for Jefferson's Poplar Forest through donations. The corporation has raised $2.4 million toward its $5.5 million goal.

Lynn A. Beebe is executive director for the corporation and Andrew L. Ladygo recently was appointed as architectgural conservator at the home. Ladago has worked the past 20 years for the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities. He is the third member of a restoration team that includes archaeologist William M. Kelso and architectural historian Travis C. McDonald Jr.

The Virginia Asbestos Council will hold a exhibition and information convention April 27-29 at Holiday Inn-Midtown in Richmond. The council, a non-profit corporation, was organized to promote professionalism and generate and disseminate information to building owners, professionals and the public about asbestos in buildings.

Information on the event can be obtained from Rick Vogel of Norfolk at 804-627-0400.

by CNB