Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 19, 1995 TAG: 9510210010
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHARLES STEBBINS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It was a second home, almost, an extension of school, a place of rest and relaxation and a place of learning. And it was always open.
"I spent a lot of time there with my friends," Lumsden said of the Buena Vista Recreation Center at Penmar Avenue and Ninth Street Southeast. It's known as the Big House because when Col. George P. Tayloe built it in 1833, it was the largest plantation house in the area.
The city of Roanoke, owner of the house since 1937, turned it into a recreation center about 1940.
"There was a jukebox there, and they had dances on Friday and Saturday nights," remembered Lumsden, the retired owner of a Roanoke County surveying and engineering business.
Games and other activities as well as a boxing room on the second floor also kept youngsters busy.
And, although he was a regular at the Buena Vista center for only the three years he attended Jackson Junior High School, Lumsden said, "I have a lot of warm memories of the Big House."
"The Big House was a extension of Jackson Park," he said. "This was a recreation place for boys and girls and for everybody in the whole area."
The Big House "was the place to go. It provided good, clean fun," recalled Herbert "Fubby" Overstreet, one of Lumsden's buddies. The normal routine, he said, was to play in Jackson Park during the day and go to the Big House at night.
"The girls were there at night," he recalled.
"The Big House meant a lot to many people," Overstreet said. "Kids from other sections of the city went there, too."
Because of his fondness for the Big House, Lumsden is putting his retirement hobby - watercolor painting - to work to benefit the center.
Lumsden will sell 14-by-22-inch prints of a watercolor he painted of the Big House and will donate the proceeds to the Roanoke Department of Parks and Recreation for the building's care.
"This is a way for me to give something back to a place that meant so much to me when I was growing up," said Lumsden, who began painting six years ago at the age of 60.
Overstreet said he thinks having a print will help preserve the history of Buena Vista, which was named after a battle in the war between the United States and Mexico in 1846.
Steven Warren, information specialist with the Parks and Recreation Department, said this type of donation is a first for the department but there are many projects the money could be used for.
Among them are new materials for recreation programs, new furniture and decorations, and general repairs. John Kern, director of the Roanoke regional historic preservation office house in the center, suggested the proceeds could be used to restore the building's interior to its original color scheme.
Lumsden says any use would suit him.
His goal is to get the prints ready early enough so people can give them as Christmas gifts.
Lumsden says it will cost nearly $1,000 to make the proof of the painting and about 250 copies. He expects to recover only about three-fourths of the printing costs and donate the rest to the Big House.
Lumsden decided to paint the center and sell prints after completing a similar project for his wife' family reunion. Lumsden painted her family's homeplace in Alleghany County, and relatives bought nearly 50 prints. The profits went into a fund to help finance the next reunion.
Since he's started the project, Lumsden said, he's discovered considerable interest among his friends in a new painting of the center.
"Everybody I talked to wanted a copy," said Lumsden, who "always wanted to paint but never had the time."
After retirement, he took lessons from Vera Dickerson, a Roanoke artist and teacher, and George Shumate, a wildlife artist, even though "I could draw pretty well and had been drawing since I was a small child."
Lumsden has painted many buildings and landscapes, including several scenes of the state Capitol. One, painted at the request of Del. Richard Cranwell D-Roanoke County, now hangs in Cranwell's Richmond office. Lumsden also has painted the Hofauger House at Explore Park.
Prints of Lumsden's painting will be available about Nov. 15 at his office, 4664 Brambleton Ave. S.W., Roanoke 24018, or by calling 774-4411. The cost is $30 per print if picked up in person or $35 by mail. Prints will be on display, but not for sale, at the Roanoke Department of Parks and Recreation, 210 Reserve Ave. S.W. and at the Buena Vista Center.
Memo: NOTE: Also ran in October 24, 1995 Current.