Duo helps restore N.C. town caught in 'pocket of time'

LEWISTON-WOODVILLE, N.C. 

Vicki Paton first saw Woodville nearly 40 years ago.

She was visiting the western Bertie County hometown of her friend, Molly Urquhart, and was stunned by the beautiful landscape.

Cotton fields surrounded historic homes, one dating as far back as 1750. Church steeples reached into the sky over small cemeteries filled with the town's ancestors.

Signs of decay were the only marks of years passing.

"I told her, 'You don't know what you have here,' " Paton said. "It was like a little pocket of time."

In 1997, the Raleigh residents returned to rehabilitate a building at Urquhart's family home. That single project turned into more than a decade's worth of work to protect and preserve the town's history.

Urquhart's father offered them "The Office."

"He said if we could clean it out, we could keep it," Paton said.

"The Office" once served as the business center for the plantation village, built in the 1840s, where Urquhart grew up. They decided to try to put the property on the National Register of Historic Places.

With the help of Reid Thomas, a restoration specialist with the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office, they learned it would be more effective to create a rural historic district and protect several structures.

In 1998, they formed Historic Woodville Inc. That same year, the National Register of Historic Places designated Woodville a rural historic district.

Thomas suggested their first project: St. Frances Methodist Church, built in 1845. The church's membership diminished in the early 1990s, and its last remaining member, Elizabeth Steinhardt-Widmer, now 101, continued to maintain the closed church. But it was in need of a lot more work.

Thomas suggested moving it to its original location in the church's cemetery. It had been moved by a mule team in 1896 to Lewiston to be closer to its congregation.

Using public and private donations, the church was returned to the cemetery in 2000.

Bruce Lassiter, a local restoration contractor, then went to work restoring the church to its former glory. The restoration was completed in 2004.

A plaque was placed at the front entrance for Steinhardt-Widmer, calling her the guiding light of St. Frances.

"She kept it up until 1998 when we started renovating," Urquhart said, patting her hand.

Steinhardt-Widmer wrinkled her nose and waved off the compliments during a visit to the church Wednesday. But Urquhart said that, without her, the church would not have been preserved.

Margaret Griffin, Urquhart's cousin, has also been a great supporter. Griffin deeded a house to the women that had caught Paton's attention during her first visit to Woodville.

"It was a complete mess," she said.

The Bazemore House, believed to have been built in the 1750s, is the oldest house in town. The coastal cottage was crumbling, and its last known occupants were in the mid-1960s.

Lassiter began work on the house in 2003.

From the outside, it now appears complete. But inside, there's still a lot of work to be done. Wooden floors are unfinished, and the back of the house is missing its interior walls and most of its fixtures.

Since donations have dwindled, Paton and Urquhart hope to sell it to someone who could finish the renovation.

Historic Woodville Inc. also was given the former Woodville Supply Company, an old brick general store and market from the early 1900s. It was outside the rural historic district, but the original interior was in good shape and they didn't want to see it demolished.

When they went to visit one rainy day, however, they found a serious leak in the roof that endangered the structure's integrity. A new roof was installed, draining their reserves for several years.

Mike Scalpi purchased the building last year and has been filling the 10,000-square-foot building - from floor to ceiling - with his personal collection of "nothing in particular." He hopes to put his collection on display to the public.

Despite the long list of work they'd like to complete, the two women are proud of their accomplishments, particularly since they had no prior experience.

They both still live and work in Raleigh. Paton is a semi-retired interior designer and Urquhart is a neuromuscular therapist.

Each said they were delighted to see improvements being made to some privately owned homes in the district and have plans for others as funding and the buildings are made available.

For now, they are focused on maintenance. St. Frances, for example, has peeling paint and a woodpecker knocking holes into the steeple.

"If we can maintain what we have now, we'll be good," Paton said.

Lauren King, (252) 338-2413, lauren.king@pilotonline.com