Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 27, 1992 TAG: 9201270115
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SCHUYLER LENGTH: Medium
TOWN LOOKS TO WALTONS FOR HOPE
Residents are hoping that a museum honoring a fictional family will solve the real problems of this small Nelson County town.Community boosters got $30,000 from the state for the project, which would honor John-Boy Walton and the rest of the family featured in the television show "The Waltons." It also would pay tribute to the show's creator, Earl Hamner Jr., who grew up here Hamner and used his family's experiences in Schuyler for the show, which ran from 1972-81.
"The biggest plus Schuyler has, after the soapstone plant, is Earl Hamner," said Bill Luhrs, one of the residents heading the museum effort. "Even now busloads of tourists come down here."
Schuyler used to be a bustling place, with 2,000 people employed at the soapstone plant, with trains bringing in workers and hauling out stone. Today, the town is composed of aging homes and the struggling plant.
Woody Greenberg, a journalism professor at Lynchburg College and a member of the county's Board of Supervisors, devised the museum idea to resuscitate the dying town.
"We feel tourism is our best shot," he said. "We hope to create some jobs."
Greenberg flew to Studio City, Calif., where the 69-year-old Hamner lives, and proposed the Walton museum idea. Hamner liked the idea, and offered memorabilia from the show, including all 300 scripts.
Greenberg also videotaped conversations with cast members of the large television family. The tapes will become part of the museum's exhibit.
The museum will be housed in the old Schuyler Elementary School, which closed last year when enrollment fell, and has been renamed the Schuyler Community Center.
The center will donate $4,000 to the museum, which is scheduled to open sometime in the spring. The county government will pitch in $5,000 and Lynchburg College is donating $1,000.
Greenberg and Luhrs applied for a grant from the Center on Rural Development, a $350,000 program created by Gov. Douglas Wilder's administration to boost rural economies. The Walton museum supporters were one of 19 out of 94 groups that were granted money.
"We went for the grant under the rubric of innovation," said Greenberg, who was told Friday that the museum would get the $30,000.
Shelton said the project could fuel the development of a tourist base in Nelson County.
The museum will replicate some of the Depression-era sets on "The Waltons," including John-Boy's room and Ike Godsey's store, which would sell groceries for locals and souvenirs and local crafts for tourists.
Funds raised by the museum would go to operate the community center, which has become the new center of the old town.