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

DATE: FRIDAY, June 1, 1990                   TAG: 9006010785
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: By Associated Press
DATELINE:    HAMPDEN-SYDNEY                                LENGTH: Medium

TRUSTEES HALT DEMOLITION OF `ALAMO'

Public outcry has prompted Hampden-Sydney College to halt the demolition of its oldest building, the Alamo, which has been declared unsafe.

"Because of the public confusion about the reasons for the board of trustees' decision to dismantle the Alamo, work on the project has been suspended," Sydnor Settle, chairman of the trustees, said in a statement Thursday.

Later in the day, officials accepted an offer by the Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission to examine the building and give an opinion about whether it could be saved.

"I think decisions of this kind should be made with the most information possible," said Calder Loth, senior architectural historian for the commission.

Structural engineers hired by the college have said it will cost more than $650,000 to restore the building.

"I frequently disagree with engineers when they start talking about how much it would cost to put a building in shape," Loh said. "Often the question is, what kind of condition are they trying to buy?"

Hampden-Sydney said it planned to send a letter to alumni, students and other interested parties to explain the factors that went into the trustees' decision.

The oldest part of the Alamo was built in 1817, making it the fourth-oldest college building in Virginia, predated only by three at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg.

Founded in 1776 by local Presbyterian churches, Hampden-Sydney is the 10th-oldest college in the nation. It claims to be the second-oldest in Virginia, a claim disputed by Washington and Lee University, which descended from Augusta Academy, a high school founded in 1749.

The Alamo is on the state and national registers of historic places.

"They may have very good reasons for coming to the conclusion they have," Loth said of the Hampden-Sydney board. "I feel that we have an obligation to look at it and satisfy ourselves whether a building that is a resource to the entire state can or cannot be saved.

"There is a great history of the Presbyterian contribution to education. Hampden-Sydney and its older buildings are an important part of that history."

by CNB