ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, October 28, 1996 TAG: 9610280122
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
TAKING a tip from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, publicizer each year of a list of the 10 most endangered historic sites in America, the Roanoke Valley Preservation Foundation has identified the 10 most endangered sites locally.
The foundation's work is commendable. No less valuable than the dissemination of the list is the process of compiling it.
Taking an inventory of the valley's historic sites is an essential step toward averting preservation battles before they arise, which is the best way to win them, and toward avoiding the unwitting destruction of historic sites through neglect or ignorance. The foundation has inventoried more than 50 sites, and should be encouraged to continue the task.
The process also involves setting priorities - to choose, in this instance, the 10 sites of the 50 that merit most-endangered listing. This is important, too, because it is a prerequisite for focusing resources where they'll do the most good.
The yardsticks include not only the urgency of the perceived threat but also the relative importance of the site. For example, the Norfolk & Western office buildings in downtown Roanoke are not on the list because they're in imminent danger of collapse. Indeed, the foundation praised Norfolk Southern Corp.'s custodial stewardship of them. But the buildings are central to Roanoke's history, skyline and - it is hoped - future, and that future remains in doubt so long as they are unused.
Of course, informing the general public remains a central purpose of such lists.
Perhaps the most obvious lesson from the Roanoke Valley list is that the concept of historic preservation has moved far beyond the old notion of saving an important public building, or an old mansion or two, from the wrecking ball. That's still part of it - the NW buildings are on the list, as is an 1875-era plantation house in Northwest County - but there's much more.
The generally working-class neighborhoods of Southeast Roanoke, which have not been given the same historic-preservation attention as Old Southwest or Gainsboro, are on the list. So is the old city cemetery on Tazewell Avenue Southeast.
Nor is historic preservation limited to the built environment. The foundation cited the scenic mountain ridgetops throughout the Roanoke Valley, and also the Roanoke River headwaters in nearby Montgomery County.
Sometimes pressures for development are the source of danger - not long ago, citing such pressures, the National Trust put the entire state of Vermont on its list - but that's far from always the case. Many of the sites on the Roanoke list are threatened not by economic forces but by passivity or lack of knowledge.
Finally, a consideration of the sites on the foundation's list suggest the importance of historic preservation in enabling places to maintain their own identities, to find their own niches in a fast-changing, homogenizing world. The list provides a glimpse into what makes the Roanoke Valley different, into what makes the valley what it is.
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