Virginia Beach on quest to save 1793 farmhouse

VIRGINIA BEACH

History lost ground in Virginia Beach this year.

The city had to bring down the deteriorating 1925 Roland Court Theater on 17th Street near the Oceanfront. Walgreens razed the old Oceanfront post office for a pharmacy. And the family who owned the pre-Civil War Gresham Ives House in the Blackwater section decided to tear it down.

Now, Virginia Beach's preservationists worry that the Whitehurst/Buffington House, a 1793 farmhouse across from the municipal center, could be the next to go.

"To me, it's the last of the really old stuff here," said Barbara Vaughan, who lives a few blocks from the house and formed a group to help restore the structure.

The city is spending $2,500 on a second attempt to get the house on the state's historic registry, a critical step because it would allow the house to qualify for tax credits that could aid in its restoration.

The Beach's history buffs are also having a raucous debate over how best to preserve the building.

Some, like Vaughan, want to turn the house into a museum that celebrates Princess Anne County's history, much of which has been forgotten since its merger with the city of Virginia Beach in 1963.

But a committee of the city's Historic Preservation Commission is recommending that the city, which owns the house, sell or lease it out for commercial use, in the hopes that new owners would renovate it.

"The building needs a resolution," said Mark Reed, the city's historic resources coordinator.

For years, the house, tucked at the end of a dirt path and shielded by trees, has been overlooked.

It had been privately owned by the Whitehurst and Buffington families until 1987, when the city acquired the house as part of its purchase of the surrounding land. The city rented out the home. Then in 2004, when Beach officials realized it would cost $150,000 to restore the house into a residence and almost double that amount to update it for commercial uses, crews boarded up the home.

Shuttering the house has le d to its slow deterioration, said Councilwoman Barbara Henley, the Princess Anne district representative.

"That's the worst thing you could do," Henley said.

Inside, paint chips are flaking off and the wood is rotting away. The roofs of two outbuildings collapsed during a snowstorm last winter.

But unlike Virginia Beach's other historic properties - such as the Francis Land House and the Adam Thoroughgood House, which are surrounded by modern businesses and subdivisions - the Whitehurst/Buffington House retains its rural setting. It would be the perfect location to teach residents and visitors about the city's agricultural heritage or serve as a launching point of a nearby city park, Henley said.

But Mac Rawls, chairman of the city's Historic Preservation Commission, said that in the current tight budget climate, Virginia Beach is unlikely to dedicate the money needed to restore the Whitehurst/Buffington House.

The house needs work because over the years, previous owners have built additions, like a sunken kitchen, that detracts from its historical character, he said.

Some Northern Virginia businesspeople have expressed interest in turning the house and property into a farmhouse winery.

That kind of light commercial use, with restrictions to preserve some of the structure's history, may be the best hope, Rawls said.

"I think that this use of it will be a way of kind of going back and telling about Princess Anne County," Rawls said. "It won't be as formal as a museum."

But Henley worries that the public will have limited access to the house if it's leased or sold. It also sets the wrong example, Henley said: If the city can't restore a historic home it owns, how can Beach officials ask private owners to maintain and preserve their historic properties,

"It's symbolic of how the city perceives historic properties," Henley said.

"We say it's too expensive. Maybe it's too expensive for the Roland Court Theater owner or the post office building owner."

The City Council will decide the fate of this house, probably later this year when it reviews the recommendation of the Historic Preservation Commission.

Deirdre Fernandes, (757) 222-5121, deirdre.fernandes@pilotonline.com