Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 29, 1990 TAG: 9005260166
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
That was last week.
"Right now, I feel like I've been pounded on the head," said the 72-year-old Blacksburg native. "It's one of those things that just blows my mind."
The "X" means that Cofer's house, built in 1939, would be demolished if any three of five alternative plans for extending Patrick Henry Drive are approved by the Virginia Department of Transportation.
Though fairly new, the house is one of an important collection of 135 houses that compose the largest and most complete suburb with varied styles of early 20th century architecture in Montgomery County.
Her sister's house next door, on the corner of South Main Street and Airport Road, is even older and is similarly marked with an "X" on four of the plans.
"I was totally, absolutely shocked," Anne Holberton, 68, said.
The plans call for a major intersection where Graves Avenue and Airport Road meet at South Main Street, taking at least four houses and, in one case, five. And that corner falls inside the Miller-Southside Residential Historic District, which has been classified as eligible for national historic status.
Whichever route is chosen, the neighborhood - the first planned community in Blacksburg - will be destroyed, Holberton said.
Her house was built in 1924 and has been the foundation of four generations. The two sisters grew up there, their mother died there, and Holberton raised her family there.
Now her daughter, Cherie Hassall, and granddaughter live next door on Airport Road. Although the project would not take that house, it would come so close that the family likely would move.
Other historic houses in jeopardy are:
The Dehart House, 106 Airport Road, which was bought from Sears and Roebuck, arrived in Blacksburg on the old Huckleberry Line, and built around 1915.
The Graves House, 1001 South Main Street, which was built by its original owner in 1910.
And that's just the proposed intersection. The project also includes three alternatives to extend Patrick Henry Drive from Harding Avenue to South Main Street, each of which would take several houses along Graves Avenue or Reynolds Street.
Preliminary plans do not show any houses taken along the northern extension, from Harding Avenue to Toms Creek Road.
The highway department has scheduled a public information meeting on the project Wednesday from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Blacksburg Community Center.
"The whole doggone thing is controversial," said Dan Brugh, the department's resident engineer in Christiansburg.
Last week, Holberton, Cofer and about 50 other citizens met to discuss the proposed road project.
"They wanted to know why, they wanted to know who, they wanted to know how," said Holberton, who was on the town's Planning Commission from 1981 to 1987.
Holberton also wants answers, especially how the town could proceed with the project when the draft of its 1990 Comprehensive Plan is full of references, all of which she has highlighted, to saving the integrity of established neighborhoods.
She said the group plans to meet again after the meeting and discuss how they will fight the project, which they see as unnecessary.
But town officials as far back as 1953, when the project was listed in the comprehensive plan, said the so-called "loop" was an important part of the town's overall transportation system.
"Main Street is congested now and it's going to get worse, and something needs to be done to get people around downtown," Brugh said. Department figures show that between 17,000 and 23,000 vehicles travel downtown each day, and that is expected to increase 30 percent in the next 20 years, pushing some stretches of the road beyond capacity.
The $9.8 million extension of Patrick Henry Drive would include two-laning the southern stretch and four-laning the northern stretch. Curb and gutter, a 4-foot bikeway and a 4-foot sidewalk would be included.
Town Council recently put a semi-hold on the $9.8 million project, asking the highway department to continue design and right-of-way acquisition over the next several years.
Construction would not take place for about 15 years, until three other road projects are under way, including an east/west connector from Hubbard Street that would cross Virginia Tech property and intersect with the U.S. 460 bypass, said council member Frances Parsons.
"The town is not going to go in and buy these houses and kick these people out now," Parsons said, adding that the town is just defining where the right of way would go and is not ready to buy any land yet.
by CNB