Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 6, 1994 TAG: 9402070242
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By BECKY HEPLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NEWPORT LENGTH: Long
These days, you still won't find the ladies out on a Saturday night. You won't find the men, either, unless the fair or some other community event is taking place.
Life has calmed down considerably.
Today a quiet charm is what attracts people to this little village. But in its heyday, Newport was quite the happening place, a major transportation, industrial and commercial center in Southwest Virginia as well as a rowdy place to spend the weekend.
It is for this historical significance and some wonderful old architecture, if not for its nightlife, that the Newport Historic District was recognized by the Department of Historic Resources and added to the Virginia Landmarks Register last December.
A similar application is being made to the review board of the National Landmarks Register.
The 35 acres in the center of town include 53 buildings of note, which amounts to 80 percent of the town's buildings. One-third are commercial, the rest are residential.
``Newport is a favorite place of mine,'' said architectural historian Leslie Giles. ``It's what you think of when you think of towns of the past.'' Giles works in the Roanoke Regional Preservation Office within the Department of Historic Resources, and was part of the team that prepared the report for the State Review Board.
The report cited the town's location at the crossroads of two major turnpikes, the Courthouse Turnpike between Christiansburg and Pearisburg, and the Cumberland Gap Turnpike, as a significant part of its historic development.
While pioneers came through this area as early as 1750 and settlers were farming the Sinking Creek and Spruce Run area by the 1780s, it took the building of the Cumberland Gap road in the 1830s to get Newport on the map.
Businessmen recognized that the crossing of these two roads could create plenty of opportunities, so they bought up land in the area and opened shops and stores. Newport got a name in 1836 and a post office in 1837.
The legend is that the town was named for Captain Newport, a contemporary of Captain John Smith's who also plied the seas between England and the new world. Local legend also says the city of Newport News took the town to court over the use of the name, but lost its case because the Giles County town had been established first.
Agriculture was the primary industry, so many businesses thrived by processing farm products. Sinking Creek and its tributary, Greenbrier Branch, were dotted with mills that ground grain, pressed linseed oil, sawed wood and processed wool.
One of the woolen mills, built in 1872, is still standing and was cited in the landmark registration report. Empty now, the building was home to several industries, including cabinet making, carpentry and shoe making. Paul Walker, 93, who lives just up the street, said his father had a blacksmith shop there in the early 1900s and he and his brother enlarged the franchise by opening a vehicle repair shop, first working on wagons, then cars.
Some people processed grain into liquor, and the area had several distilleries as well as a few taverns to use up the bounty and contribute to Newport's reputation.
Native Doug Martin recalled a story told him by a Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets historian that the cadets, under the guise of going to inspect engineering phenomena, frequented the town because it was one place they could get a drink.
The atmosphere on Saturday nights changed drastically when the town exercised a local option and voted to go dry in the early 1900s, according to historian Miller's book, ``A Story of Newport and Its People.''
Even as the rowdiness died down, community spirit remained strong. Miller spun tales of town picnics, dances, progressive parties with an international theme and baseball games in the summer.
Martin's research turned up the fact that the VPI baseball team played its first game against the town team. ``I would, however, question the validity of the score listed in the yearbook,`` he said, not believing his town's team would lose 18-8 to a bunch of college boys.
The good times didn't stop when the warm weather ended. Mildred Walker, Paul's wife, remembered ice skating parties that occupied lots of the winter social scene. Her father owned and operated Zell's Mill on Sinking Creek at the location of the former Newport House. The millpond there was a great place to slice the ice.
This community spirit was strong enough to survive the fire of 1902, a blaze that destroyed nearly the entire town. No cause was ever officially established, but it is suspected that coals from a kitchen fire emptied outside were whipped up by a brisk April wind into flames that moved quickly through the mostly wooden structures. In the picture taken the day after the fire, the ashes look like snow, and the chimneys like soldiers standing in formation.
Without blinking twice, the community rebuilt itself immediately, replacing the obliterated hotels, stores and businesses.
One of those rebuilt structures was the Miller Brothers store. Today, it houses the Village Emporium, one of the four nonresidential concerns in the village (the other three being the Post Office, the Appalachian Trail Conference office and a woodworking shop). The Emporium is a consigment shop that sells antiques and the work of more than 100 artisans.
Mary Taylor works in the store and is glad to see the building being used again after standing vacant for years. She and her husband, Harry, ran a grocery store there back in the 1960s-70s, complete with a wood stove, rocking chairs and a group of neighbors sitting around telling stories.
``It was the unofficial community center in those days,`` she said. ``On Election Day, the treasurer would set up a table here and people could pay their taxes and vote in one trip. The women's club would serve lunch and people would come and make a day of it, waiting for the returns.''
John Kern, historian from the preservation office, wrote that the Newport of 1910 wasn't significantly different from Newport before the fire. The village reached its peak around 1925, when its population was 225 and it boasted a blacksmith shop and garage, a bank, a hotel, two general stores and a high school.
But, if you live by the sword, you die by the sword.
Transportation sparked Newport's creation and later signaled its decline. One hundred years after Newport's establishment, U.S. 460 was blacktopped for the first time, making it easy for people to travel to larger towns to shop or find work. Businesses declined and even the schools left town, the high school in 1951 and the elementary school in the 1980s.
When U.S. 460 was made into a four-lane highway, it completely bypassed Newport. This further decreased the village's traffic, but preserved its old-fashioned look from the excesses of the auto age. There is no car exhaust to stain the old buildings, nor have trees been cut down to make large parking lots.
Most importantly, the sense of community continues to bloom like the flower garden maintained by the Women's Club near the entrance of town. ``The times may have changed, but the people haven't,'' said Mildred Walker.
The Ruritan Club spearheaded the registration project but the entire town eagerly participated in the process and took great pleasure in the results.
``We were so proud that our community was chosen for this honor,'' Mary Taylor, the former grocery store owner, said about the registration process. ``This community is special and it needs to be recognized.''
Keywords:
PROFILE
by CNB