Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 16, 1995 TAG: 9504170019
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-20 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KENNETH SINGLETARY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Long
But alumni of Southwest Virginia's only high school for blacks, which graduated its last class in 1966, remember the close friends and good times they had there. Their memories and pride are as sharp and defined as the moves of the school's famous, high-stepping marching bands; as strong as the dominating football teams the institute once fielded.
Today, people at Virginia Tech are taking a fresh look at the institute, and they see what may be a reincarnation for the building, the ghostly remnants of a campus that once featured more than 12 structures, a working farm and almost 200 acres. Their plan may give the institute's heritage a new lease on life.
The Virginia Tech faculty and administrators, and local institute alumni, are organizing to bring computers, the Internet, performances, classrooms and offices to the two-story, brick building. As they see it, the facility will be a place where students from kindergarten through high school can come to use high-tech equipment, where Tech students can act as tutors, where business people can attend seminars, where performances and other events could form a cultural center.
It would be a place that "could help change the futures of economically disadvantaged people in the area," said Lucinda Roy, a dean at Virginia Tech, who is taking a prominent role in the effort.
"If we can find a way to continue the heritage and what it stood for ... it will be a light for anyone to hold high," said Jacqueline Eaves, an institute alumna and Virginia Tech employee. "While it has its legacy, it also has its future. It will be a place for people to gather."
For 100 years, the school attracted black students not just from the New River Valley, but from all over the country. Booker T. Washington visited, lending his imprimatur to the school in 1895.
Eventually, integration in Virginia in the 1960s shut the institute's doors.
Since then the remaining major building - most of the rest have been torn down - has been vacant. Inside, its large rooms are piled with old furniture and equipment. The building has been owned by a string of people and banks since 1966. The current owner is Jack Via, a Town Council and Planning Commission member, who is supportive of the effort to turn it into a learning center.
But the project, currently just an idea, will require a lot of money, perhaps as much as seven figures. Where the funding will come from is unclear. The building is sturdy but will require extensive renovations. Computers and other equipment also will be costly.
Roy knows the job ahead will be daunting. "The odds are substantial," she says, but in the same breath, she adds that she is steadfast when people tell her something can't be done.
"We're going to have to be really ingenious" in finding money, she says. Organizers are hoping for funds from the Virginia Tech Foundation and other sources.
Institute alumni are hoping for the best. They have donated $1,000 to the restoration, and alumni officials have sent out almost 1,000 invitations to a reunion scheduled for this summer.
"I just hate to see it sitting here like this. This school was a very positive point for the black community, and not only the black community, the whole community," said Ann Turner, a former student and Christiansburg resident. "I think Christiansburg Institute meant so much to those who went there because the teachers did so much for the students. You don't find that today.
"To reinvigorate it and do anything is wonderful to me," she said.
"I think that this is the most fascinating story in Montgomery County, and nobody knows about it, or knows much about it," said Detine Bowers, a Virginia Tech professor, who became intrigued with the idea of rehabilitating the building when she first heard about it.
The project kicks off this weekend, with two days of events, including speeches by Margaret Washington Clifford, granddaughter of Booker T. Washington, and Tech President Paul Torgersen. Panel discussions will focus on topics such as "Oral Histories," and "Racism and Affirmative Action." Participants will visit the remaining building, where alumni and volunteers have been busy cleaning and polishing.
"This will be a way to raise the consciousness of the community that there were blacks in Appalachia," said Joyce Williams-Green, coordinator of Virginia Tech's Black Studies program. "This facility will help us broaden our outreach to the people in the community, black and white."
"It looks like it's a long way down the road, but I sure hope it materializes. I've been praying for its success," said Cora Pack, an alumnus and Christiansburg resident who is the school's unofficial historian.
by CNB