Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 26, 1990 TAG: 9004260548
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But just as we have to accept Busch Gardens and the lightweight movie for what they are, we must also, sadly, realize that Explore's Blue Ridge Village, both in concept and details, lives in their same never-never land of entertainment.
There is, of course, nothing wrong with entertainment so long as it is not presented as education. The idea of local schoolchildren drinking in Explore's notion of the heritage of the Blue Ridge is disheartening. A commercialized cartoon version of our ways will not enhance the intellectual life of our community nor the setting of our wonderful parkway. Explore's Blue Ridge Village would be an educational step above Dolly Parton's Pigeon Forge, but it would not be in a different category.
Some think that Explore is performing a valuable service by preserving old buildings that would otherwise be torn down. There is a touch of truth in this.
However, unless a reasonable amount of care is taken in their demolition, storage and reconstruction, new-old buildings tend to be peculiar things - looking a little bit like someone in a bad wig. And research (which doesn't have to cost $40,000 a building) is a vital part of recreating history. Then too, buildings that might have managed to molder along and then been fixed up in their own settings, tend to be whisked away to recreated sites amidst the proud proclamations of their supposed saviors.
There is no pleasure in criticizing Explore. Almost everyone associated with it is pursuing this project with good will and in the firm belief that it would benefit our area and indeed all of Virginia. Would that this were true. ANNE C. LEE Architectural Historian ROCKY MOUNT
by CNB