Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 30, 1993 TAG: 9304300261
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
They announced a six-figure donation for construction.
The $250,000 contribution from the Richmond-based Beirne Carter Foundation will pay for reassembling an early 19th-century barn that will serve as the temporary education center and exhibit hall for the living-history state park.
It's the single biggest donation Explore has ever received, and was the first time a group other than the park's founders has made a major grant toward construction.
"This is the day we've been waiting for," declared park leader Rupert Cutler, who called the donation "a very welcome vote of confidence from the private sector" that he hoped to duplicate in the months ahead. "I believe we have momentum now."
The donation couldn't come at a better time for beleaguered park planners, who have been scrambling in recent weeks to persuade city, county and state governments to kick in cash.
But some government officials have expressed skepticism that the park - which now consists of a reconstructed frontier farmhouse and barn - will ever amount to much.
The River Foundation - the nonprofit group of Roanoke Valley business leaders that conceived the project - hasn't had much success in raising construction money from outside sources.
Instead, the two buildings that have been reassembled were paid for by the River Foundation itself, which scraped together $290,000 it had raised over the years - much of that money from foundation board members themselves.
However, as Cutler made the rounds of local governments this week to plead for operating funds, he has repeatedly hinted that he was close to reeling in his first "major" contribution for construction.
Thursday, the Beirne Carter Foundation delivered.
Carter was the chairman of the Salem-based Carter Machinery Inc., one of the largest Caterpillar tractor dealers in the United States. Before his death in 1989, Carter set up the charitable foundation to make donations for projects related to health, education, local history, nature, ecology and youth.
Carter foundation officials could not be reached Thursday, but Cutler said the members of the foundation's board of directors had toured Explore in January and "obviously they liked what they saw."
The barn the Carter foundation has agreed to pay to reassemble was built about 1800 by Christian Houts, a German immigrant who settled along Mason Creek in what is now Salem.
In 1988, Salem officials offered the barn to Explore to make way for construction of the Salem Industrial Park; crews took the building apart and it's been in storage since.
Explore preservationist Gary Winkler said the barn was architecturally unusual because of its heavy "Germanic influence," which makes it a good example of how early frontier families brought their Old World building styles with them.
Project engineer Richard Burrow said he hopes reassembly will begin next month and finish by January, in time for a modest version of the park to open in May 1994.
At first, Cutler said, Explore hopes to use the barn as a place to offer classes to visiting school groups, sell crafts and set up exhibits on history and the environment.
As other buildings are added, Cutler said, those activities will be moved and the barn will be turned into a performing arts center "similar to the barns at Wolf Trap" in Northern Virginia.
by CNB