Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 17, 1994 TAG: 9407130042
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Philip Chidester bought the second brick.
Chidester? What's his connection?
Easy to explain. He works at Precision Acura and handled the financing for Kim Carico's new car. Carico, an employee of the Hotel Roanoke Commission, which is overseeing the renovation of the hotel and the construction of an adjacent conference center, told Chidester about the brick sale.
He said, "I want to buy one."
And that's exactly the reaction the commission hopes to get 5,698 times between now and the end of August.
For $50, you can buy a brick and get it engraved - two lines of 10 characters - and someday soon, you can walk over to the Wells Avenue Northwest entrance to the facility and look down at your legacy.
The engraved bricks will be worked into the design of the 13,000-brick plaza and walkway.
Can relatives or co-workers get adjoining bricks?
Commission officials doubt they can guarantee placement; but buy enough brick, and who knows how many shots you can call?
The brick project was announced with ceremony at the site Wednesday morning. The Harrison Museum and Chidester bricks were on display, already engraved.
The $50 price is tax deductible, said Brian Wishneff, acting director of the commission.
Project owners - Virginia Tech and Roanoke - are paying for the brick, the engraving and the laying of the brick, but a little more than half of the $50 is profit. It should add up to about $168,000 if all the bricks are sold, and that will be used to purchase high-tech communication equipment for the conference center, Wishneff said.
The hotel brick sale is the second buy-a-brick event in the area.
The Virginia Museum of Transportation, housed a few blocks from the hotel, recently announced it will sell name bricks for its patio at $30 apiece.
Why the $20 difference? The Transportation Museum got the bricks free and got them laid free, so the $30 is just about pure profit. It could end up making more than the hotel.
Besides, said Bev James of the hotel commission staff, "The hotel brick will have more expensive engraving."
Old Virginia Brick Co. confirms that. Chris Moore, vice president of sales at Old Virginia, said the engraving on the hotel brick will be done with sandblasting, as is done on tombstones. Names for the Transportation brick will be set in metal type, and the clay will be molded around the type to get the engraving.
The hotel brick names will have "cleaner lines," he said.
by CNB