ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, June 20, 1996 TAG: 9606200064
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on June 21, 1996.
This weekend's historic home tour sponsored by the Jubal Early
Preservation Trust is its first major effort to raise $200,000 to
restore Early's childhood home in Franklin County. Some trust members
interviewed for a story Thursday said the group believed it faced an
uphill battle because of another fund-raising project in the county.
After publication, however, other trust members said they won't know
exactly how hard it will be to raise money until after the home tour.
Also, there are 11 sites on the tour, not 14 as the story reported.
When it comes to fund raising, the Franklin County YMCA is as formidable as the Union Army that Confederate Gen. Jubal Early fought in the Civil War.
Just ask a preservation trust that's scrambling to raise more than $200,000 to restore Early's childhood home in Franklin County.
The trust now holds the deed on the home - located in the Red Valley section of the county near Windy Gap Mountain.
If the project isn't completed by the fall of 1997, ownership of the house will revert to the family that agreed to donate the property to the trust last year.
The trust kicked off its drive last summer with a shindig at the home, complete with Civil War re-enactors and stories about Early, a feisty and headstrong man who led General Robert E. Lee's most important independent army.
But the fund-raiser quickly ran into a problem: The competing YMCA effort has sucked dry Franklin County's donor pool.
As a result, the preservation trust has raised hardly a dime, said Gerald Via, president of the trust's board of directors.
With a number of influential people on the trust's board - including state Sen. Virgil Goode, D-Rocky Mount, and James I. "Bud" Robertson, endowed professor of history at Virginia Tech and one of the nation's leading Civil War historians - the $200,000 appeared attainable.
However, the YMCA is going after big bucks - $5 million to build Franklin County's first Y facility.
So far, the YMCA has raised more than $3 million in a rural county with 40,000 people, the most money ever raised privately for a capital project here.
But the Y's success doesn't mean that the Early Preservation Trust has given up.
The trust is sponsoring a tour of historic Franklin County homes this weekend that members hope will have a regionwide appeal.
The tour, which includes 14 sites, will start Saturday at 9 a.m. and run until 5 p.m.; it will go from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday.
Six sites are in the county near Early's homeplace, which is on the tour, and eight are in Rocky Mount.
Other tour stops include:
nWaverly - a Greek revival home built in 1858 on land once owned by Early's grandmother. It is on Virginia 122 near Smith Mountain Lake.
nWashington Iron Works - located in the middle of Rocky Mount, the original blast furnace served as Franklin County's first industry. Here, the daughter of John Donelson, the man who established the ironworks, married Andrew Jackson, who later became the seventh president of the United States.
nThe Grove - another Greek revival home built in Rocky Mount in 1854 by John S. "Pad" Hale, a wealthy tobacco entrepreneur, and Early's friend and brother-in-law.
Virginia Williams, a member of the trust, said several of the houses have never been opened to the public and probably won't be again.
If the trust's $200,000 goal is reached, plans call for a complete renovation of Early's childhood home, including the creation of a museum exhibit to show off authentic Early memorabilia.
A two-day ticket for the tour is $25, a ticket for Sunday afternoon is $15, and a single-site admission is $5. Tickets will be available at each site and at marked information stations on the days of the tour.
For more information, call the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce at (540)483-9542, or the Smith Mountain Lake Welcome Center at (540)721-1203.
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: File 1995 Confederate Gen. Jubal Early's birthplace.by CNBcolor.