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

DATE: TUESDAY, April 16, 1991                   TAG: 9104160166
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: KIM SUNDERLAND/ NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

READY FOR A FACE LIFT/ HISTORIC SCHOOL IS OUT OF HARM'S WAY, BUT ITS NEW OWNE

Town Councilman Jack Via, who owns the building, recently moved the old shop to preserve what's left of the institute, which was the first private school for black citizens in Southwest Virginia.

"History is a favorite subject of mine," said Via, 65, a businessman and developer in Christiansburg. "And these buildings have grown to be a part of me."

Over the years, Via - who did not attend the institute - said he has been storing junk in the shop building, originally used to train students in such skills as woodwork, blacksmithing and repair.

"That shop building is the first building I had my first training lesson in," said Christiansburg Institute Alumni Association president Archie Rollins, a production specialist at Hercules, who graduated from the school in 1953. "There are a lot of memories in these buildings for me."

"Just the fact that the building is being moved shows that someone else is interested in the history of the institute," Rollins said.

But just what will become of the building now that it's moved is still unknown right now.

Via said he does not have the money to renovate the building, but he is hoping someone will take an interest in helping to make it compatible with the surrounding buildings.

The building now sits between the Smokehouse Museum, which houses artifacts from the institute and is run by the school's alumni association, and the other original institute structure, the Edgar A. Long building, a school house named for a former principal.

Via also owns the Long building, which marked the center of campus during the institute's prime.

Options Via had for the shop were to leave it west of the Long building - which was too close to the road - move it or tear it down. He decided to move it to the east side of the Long building next to the museum and form a cluster of the three buildings.

"I don't anticipate that this building will be used for a museum, but I hope it will be compatible," Via said. He has no plans for the structure, which has possibilities as a restaurant, studio, office or retail space.

The buildings are more than 90 years old. The institute was established in 1866 by Capt. Charles S. Schaeffer, a Union Army officer who wanted to help blacks improve their education, self-discipline and industrial and farming skills.

Booker T. Washington, who bought some of the campus land in 1895, expanded the curriculum to include agricultural, industrial and vocational training.

During the 1930s and into the '60s, the Montgomery County School Board operated a regional high school at the institute. It accepted students from 19 counties and four cities in Southwest Virginia and from two other states.

The high school closed in 1966 with the onset of integration. Then Via and his brother, George, bought the land and buildings on the south side of Scattergood Drive at a public auction. The brothers' Vistavia development is northwest of Scattergood Drive, near Christiansburg High School.

Several New River Valley residents who attended the institute consider Via's preservation efforts of the buildings worthwhile.

"This will improve the area," said Odell W. Palmer, a 1941 graduate who worked for Hercules for 33 years.

Palmer, 72, lives at the corner of Scattergood and South Franklin, so the museum and two buildings are practically in his backyard.

"I don't like it so close to my house, but it's there now, and it's all that's left," Palmer said. "It used to be a nice school down there when they had it. I think it's a pity they had to tear it all down, but times change."

Via is putting the building on a new foundation and intends to paint it, but he says he can't afford to remodel the shop. He's hoping someone will come forward with a plan.

Members of the CII Alumni Association would like to see the buildings renovated and used by the community, if nothing else.

"We don't have a meeting place, so maybe it could be used for that," said Rollins, who is currently planning the association's annual July 6 picnic, awards ceremony and dance at a Blacksburg location.

"The challenge will be to decide the best way that the building can be renovated," Via said. "I hope it will be rehabilitated in such a way as to be valuable to the community."