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Dan Kegley/While work is progressing toward finding the best use for the 1908 school building, some fear the structure may deteriorate beyond salvaging before renovation can begin.

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Workshop seeks public’s ideas for 1908 schoolhouse

By DAN KEGLEY/Staff

Marion officials continue moving stepwise toward some yet to be identified best use for the controversial 1908 school house on Strother Street, and the next step comes Tuesday.
The town and K.W. Poore Associates will host a public information workshop on May 13 at 7 p.m. in the town hall’s council chamber.
According to Ken Heath, Marion Downtown Revitalization Association’s executive director, the meeting has two purposes. One is to provide an opportunity for people interested in possessing the building to present their ideas and preliminary plans to a management team that formed during the winter.
The second is to hear the public’s wishes for the ultimate use of the building.
“We want anybody who has ideas or an interest in the building to come,” Heath said Monday.
As late as last fall, the county’s first high school seemed fated for demolition to make room for courthouse parking mandated by the Virginia Supreme Court. But a parking deck agreed to in principle by Smyth County and the town of Marion late last year spared the old building, and now the localities have a Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development planning grant to use in studying the building’s future.
The move away from demolishing the building began in earnest with Marion architect Bill Huber’s idea for its preservation.
Huber proposed last fall a three-level parking deck between Court and Strother streets where sloping terrain lends itself to a multi-level building without internal ramps between levels. Access would be available from both streets and a ramp from Strother leading to the middle level.
The three decks would accommodate 186 cars, fulfilling much of the Virginia Supreme Court’s demand for almost 250 parking spaces within a short distance of the courthouse one of several requirements for courthouse renovation that arose from security concerns in the wake of 9/11 and courthouse violence in other communities.
Last month, the Smyth County Historical Society moved its collections out of the school building space it had leased from the county for $1 per year, and into “safe storage,” said a letter from the society thanking the town for “three days of labor, eight men and two trucks” that “were invaluable assets” for the move.”
Last September, it appeared the society would move out earlier when it received from the county a notice of eviction effective Jan. 1 in preparation for the building’s destruction to make room for parking.
Signs at entrances to the building said special exhibits will open this summer at the society’s headquarters in the Staley Collins House at 109 Strother Street.
The management team overseeing the planning for the school’s reuse has received one proposal, Heath said Monday. Agape Outreach, operating after-school and summer enrichment programs free to students ages 3 to 19 under Mt. Zion Temple’s non-profit status, wants to operate its programs there.
“The facility we use for our programs, the fellowship hall of Mt. Zion Temple, is too small and hampers effective service to our community,” the proposal said.
The program offered through Agape Outreach “provides a safe and exciting place for youth…” offering “recreational activities, meals, a homework center, music, drama, technology, character building, field trips, art projects, board games and other fun activities,” the proposal said.  “Statistically, these programs reduce juvenile crime and experimentation with drugs, alcohol, cigarettes and sex.  In addition, teens involved will be less likely to skip classes in school or drop out of school completely.  Students involved in these types of programs are also more likely to continue their education after high school.  These programs also help reduce the amount of time that parents miss work in order to solve after school and summer issues involving their children, which assists them in keeping their jobs.”
Since 2001, the Agape Summer Enrichment Program has served more than 3,000 meals and served over 80 at-risk students, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture USDA “has twice nominated our program as an exemplary Summer Feeding Program 2004 and 2007,” the proposal said. “Having another facility will provide for a more dynamic and inclusive program.”
K.W. Poore and Associates Inc. was organized 30 years ago and “specializes in comprehensive planning, zoning, urban design, preservation, community and economic development, downtown revitalization and housing projects” in the Mid-Atlantic region, its Web site said.