ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, December 12, 1996 TAG: 9612120032
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: RADFORD
SOURCE: LESLIE HAGER-SMITH STAFF WRITER
The family members who lived within Glencoe's stately walls and its nine grand rooms once led privileged lives. Today, the house's 12-foot ceilings and 10-foot doors still convey a sense of security.
The manse that was home to the Wharton family will soon become home to a museum for Radford's history - once the city completes the building's renovation.
The keys to Glencoe were officially presented to Mayor Tom Starnes by Mark Petty, president of Kollmorgen Motion Technologies Group U.S., at a ceremony Sunday.
The house's history has been intertwined with the city's since Confederate Brig. Gen. Gabriel Wharton built the house in 1870. It stands on land from his father-in-law, Dr. John Blair Radford, for whom the city was named. The brick home sits above the New River, atop a knoll adjacent to Kollmorgen's Inland Motor Division on First Street.
The nonprofit Radford Heritage Foundation will undertake the renovation along with the city. The home's uses could include a welcome center and offices for the Chamber of Commerce and the Heritage Foundation.
The building might even help the city's chronic space crunch, said City Manager Bob Asbury, by serving as the site of its office of economic development, which is crowded along with other city offices in the Municipal Building.
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Gabriel Colvin Wharton, who graduated second in his class from Virginia Military Institute, interrupted his military activities on May 4, 1863, to wed Anne Rebecca Radford, known as Nannie. She was 21 and he was nearly 40, a colonel in the Confederate infantry. A grainy photograph shows Gabriel in uniform with a dense beard, impressively long even by the standards of the day. Within two months of his marriage, he was promoted to brigadier general.
Nannie accompanied "The General," as his family called him, while he saw service in Tazewell, soon after their wedding. He was awarded temporary command of the Valley District and moved with Gen. Longstreet to East Tennessee in the winter and spring of 1863-64. The couple's only child, William Radford Wharton, was born in June 1864.
"The General" brought as much vigor to civilian life as he had to military service, serving several terms as state senator. He championed economic development of all types. A land developer and entrepreneur who owned a general store, a grist and lumber mill, and several farms, Wharton literally shaped the city of Radford as well as the landscape surrounding it. He died in 1906 and is buried in the family cemetery between Walker Street and the Radford High School football stadium.
William Radford Wharton grew up attended by servants within the manse his father built. At the turn of the century, its many shuttered windows commanded a wide view of the river below; of the railroad line the general helped to build; and of the burgeoning community of New River Depot.
Wharton married Sue Heth in 1890. (Belle Heth Elementary and Heth Hall on Radford University's campus are named for her family, which donated land for them.) The couple had three children: Heth, Anne and William "Bill" Radford Jr. It was Bill, a contemporary of many present-day residents, who sold the family home and surrounding lands to Kollmorgen in 1983.
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The Glencoe project was initiated by Starnes, who returned from a vacation in the Southwest inspired by local museums he visited in small cities. When Radford sold property in Pulaski and Montgomery counties last October, Starnes persuaded City Council to set aside the $265,000 in proceeds for an eventual museum.
Kollmorgen had recognized Glencoe's historic value since it acquired the home and surrounding lands while expanding its Inland Motor facility.
"We had considered several uses over the years - a bed and breakfast, an inn, a conference center," said Petty. "When Mayor Starnes approached me with the idea of a museum, we knew we had the perfect solution."
Wintry cold failed to chill the spirits of the 150 or so people at Sunday's ceremony.
Many remarked at how well preserved the tarnished but intact architectural gem remains. "We have to be very, very careful, in our haste to get it open and available, that we don't lose some of what's here," said Sandra Daniels, a member of the Radford Heritage Foundation.
Bud Jeffries, president of the foundation, confirmed that roof repairs and a security system are urgent priorities.
Visitors overlooked puddling water in the former dining room to admire its massive doors and their elaborate "graining," an intricate painting technique from the 18th century used to mimic the elegance of fine wood.
Historic preservation architect Gibson Worsham pointed to fragments of early wallpapers, porcelain doorknobs and pins for hanging artwork, and original woodwork surrounding the home's eight fireplaces. Elaborate plaster ceiling medallions surrounding the chandeliers were molded on site, and remain in fine condition. Twin chimneys with decorative brickwork also stand as unshaken sentinels from the past.
One person who could not make it to Sunday's ceremony was "The General's" great-granddaughter, Sally Wharton Van Solkema of Florida.
She remembers sliding down the long banister in the front foyer in the 1930s when the family lived at Glencoe with their grandmother, Sue. The kitchen consisted of a sink, an icebox and a kerosene stove in an unfinished room attached to the back of the house; that room has since been razed.
Van Solkema also remembered that when she was 4, she confessed to an aunt her fear of ghosts. Her aunt's prompt reply was that if there were any ghosts, they were sure to be friendly ones.
"I always loved living there," Van Solkema recalled, "even though it was inconvenient in many ways. I always considered it home."
LENGTH: Long : 106 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Alan Kim. 1. The Wharton House sits on a grassy knollby CNBadjoining the Kollmorgen plant in Radford. color. 2. Gabriel Colvin
Wharton.