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

DATE: SATURDAY, May 1, 1993                   TAG: 9305010210
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ATHENS, GA.                                LENGTH: Short

PROFESSOR: PARKWAY BELONGS ON REGISTER

The Blue Ridge Parkway should be added to the National Register of Historic Places to protect it from development, a University of Georgia environmental design professor said.

"If we forget the original intent of the parkway's planners in the '30s, we can change its entire character," said Ian Firth.

Firth recently completed a three-year study of the 470-mile road, which links the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina with the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.

The National Park Service, which asked the University of Georgia to evaluate if the parkway was eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, will study Firth's report and then determine whether to proceed with the nomination.

Being on the register would protect the road from development or changes inconsistent with its established historical character.

Work began on the road in 1933.

It was nearly two-thirds complete by 1942, when work was stopped because of World War II.

Almost all of the road was complete by 1967, but the final section was opened only a few years ago.

"This is really one of the great monuments to the New Deal," Firth said.

The parkway encompasses more than 90,000 acres and more than 23 million people travel it each year.

by CNB