ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 7, 1996 TAG: 9604050127
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
The discovery of a child's doodling pad that could be 200 years old has both invigorated and complicated Explore Park's foray into historical building reconstruction.
A U.S. Forest Service employee found the artifact stuck to a board at the park late last year. The board was among a pile of timbers salvaged from the Brugh Tavern, which stood for 200 years in Botetourt County.
Archeologists were thrilled by the discovery, as it reveals details about the schooling of children in the tavern, a stop on the Great Wagon Road through the Valley of Virginia.
Archeologist Charles Seawell found the piece while running an errand to Explore Park. "I was looking at the wood grain and joints on the logs ... and there it was," Seawell said.
Scraps of a business letter and another paper bearing a Brugh family member's signature were folded into a 20-page booklet and bound with string. Someone with ornate cursive handwriting inscribed the alphabet in upper- and lowercase on a blank page, presumably so a child could practice handwriting on other blank pages. The child also drew stick figures.
The paper in the booklet dates back to the late 1700s or early 1800s, said Ginny Barnett, an historian retained by Explore Park. The letter's author ``uses the word `saith.' That's pretty old,'' Barnett said.
That a bystander to the project found the piece after the dismantling - and after the boards were hauled by truck halfway across the Roanoke Valley and drenched by a storm - is among a list of concerns for one archeologist who has criticized Explore Park's handling of the tavern.
Michael Barber, chief archeologist at the Forest Service's Roanoke office, and Seawell's boss, said the park leadership deserves credit for taking charge of an important building that would have wasted away to nothing.
He also said, however, that the dismantling was not performed to the most exacting standards of archeology. If it had been, the booklet probably would have been found before the timber was moved, or soon thereafter.
"The dismantling process was carried out in a quick, demolition fashion where cultural nuances were of little concern," said Barber, who is a principal in an archeological consulting firm.
Chet Simmons, general manager of Explore Park, said the good condition of the booklet shows the careful handling the building received. He said park officials oversaw a good deal of archeological study before moving the building, which was donated by the Warren Stevens family. The $60,000 to $80,000 in more extensive work that Barber's firm proposed would have been too much for the park to pay, he said.
Barber envisioned a detailed study that would have included such steps as unearthing any animal bones in hopes Explore Park could re-create the tavern's original menu when the Brugh Tavern reopens as a restaurant in 1997. He instead volunteered some time to the project, extracted pottery shards from a second-story fireplace, among other tasks, and is free to further probe the land until the site is reseeded this year.
The Horace Fralin Charitable Trust gave $750,000 and the Beirne Carter Foundation gave $250,000 to the reconstruction of the tavern, but didn't earmark funds for archeological services. The money was used to retain Henry J. Brown of Brown, Eichmann, Dalgliesh, Gilpin, Paxton architects of Charlottesville and contractor Menno Kinsinger of Stuart's Draft, both of whom have experience with historic buildings, Simmons said.
Joyce Waugh, president of the Roanoke Valley Preservation Foundation, said she could not give the foundation's opinion of Explore Park's treatment of historic resources. She did say that she believes park leaders do as much as they can with the money they have.
"The general feeling is that with limited resources, Explore Park has done a pretty good job," Waugh said. "They try to do the right thing."
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. Stick figures and ABCs (above) in a doodling padby CNBfound last fall at Explore Park are believed to have been drawn by a
child of about 5 in the early 1800s. The pad was among the timbers
of Brugh Tavern, a Botetourt County landmark that is being
reconstructed at the park; it will be displayed in the tavern when
it opens as a public restaurant next year. 2. The pad was made from
correspondence folded into a small booklet (below) and bound with
string so that a child could practice the alphabet and draw. color.