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

DATE: TUESDAY, November 29, 1994                   TAG: 9411290076
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI                                 LENGTH: Medium

PULASKI COURTHOUSE EXHIBITS DEDICATED

It was a dream that took three years and involved a large number of volunteers from the county and beyond. The courthouse's reconstruction in downtown Pulaski followed a 1989 fire that left the building a burned-out hulk.

The exhibits throughout the stone courthouse, coordinated by Martinsville consultant Jonathan Jager, use visual tools from fossils to photographs to recreate the history of Pulaski County from prehistoric times to the present.

Some of those who helped bring about the museum-like interior were not present for its dedication. Alan Groseclose, chairman of the committee overseeing the revamping of the county's two courthouses, asked for a moment of silence to remember Bob Love Sr., Sylvia Raines Killen, Lorna Raines Crockett, Marvin D. ``Bud'' Webb and Chauncey D. Harmon, all of whom died in recent years but whose contributions were remembered.

T. Rodman Layman, chairman of a citizens' committee that had urged restoration of the stone courthouse, recalled the passage in 1991 of a $2.9 million bond issue to restore the building and expand the adjacent brick courthouse. That second project is still under way.

Work in front of the stone courthouse is also proceeding on a war memorial, as drawn up by another committee headed by retired U.S. Army Col. Dallas L. Cox.

``We accept the exhibits that have been worked on so hard and so long by so many people,'' said county Board of Supervisors Chairman Jerry White. ``As much as this old courthouse is a real treasure, it has certainly been enhanced by the work that these people have done.''

Over 100 people served on Native American, early settlers, geology and other teams, including those preparing exhibits on Claytor Lake State Park and Dam, New River Trail State Park, and fossil exhibits along the courthouse walls.

White singled out Graham, who headed the displays subcommittee of the citizens' courthouses committee, as one whose work was vital.

``Anyone who wasn't a believer to start with, they talked to Ricky one time and they became a believer,'' he said of Graham.

Financing for the displays is being supplemented by sale of courthouse prints at the Fine Arts Center of the New River Valley, and by Native American art on sale at the Casimir Co., both located across from the courthouse. Courthouse Christmas ornaments are also on sale at the Fine Arts Center.